Copy question from quiz to question bank

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

Sometimes when you are writing a quiz question, you might decide this is a good question to save into a specific question bank.   Even if the question is from a question bank, you might notice a mistake in a question and you want to save the corrected version to the original question bank.

 

Right now, the only way to do this right now is to copy and paste it all the questions and answers.  This is tedious -- especially for multiple choice questions.  It would be much easier if there was a save to question bank option.

32 Comments
ejackson
Community Champion

I completely agree with your point #4. In our previous LMS (Angel) when you revised a question in a quiz, there was an option to update "all instances" of the question. Choosing that option meant that the question would be updated wherever it was located, including the question bank. If the question had been used in more that one quiz (for example, a chapter quiz and a Final exam) it would be corrected in both, as well as in the question bank. You didn't have to find all instances of the question and correct them individually. It was quite a time-saver, and I really miss having that option!!

cxy11
Community Novice

Renee,

So have you or will you bring my suggestions to the attention of whatever group decides on what changes will be made to Canvas next?

I understand that Canvas is a complicated program so I am really focusing on things that should be simple to program but I think would make Canvas much less frustrating.


Thank you,

Chuck

don_bryn
Community Champion

I'll need to do some checking when I get home, but aren't new questions in a quiz added to a default question bank of unfiled questions?   Once questions are in banks it simpler to copy questions.   If I'm doing a lot of question editing I create a bank that will be pinned to the top of the list (Start with "*") and call it my moving bank.   If you want multiple copies of a question you copy it to the moving bank and then copy it back as many times as you need it.   Then you can edit each question as needed.   Come to think of it, you could just keep editing the question in the moving bank and then copy it back to your original bank each time.

However, we really DO need a much simpler and more flexible way of reusing all type of content.    Soon I'll have to revive an old idea of a central repository for question banks, but this time include all type of content that can be stored in a place relative to each designer or instructor.

cxy11
Community Novice

It took me a little while to realize that there was an "Unfiled question bank".  However, it would be much better if it Canvas asks what bank one would like to save the question to and also to whether to overwrite a question in a bank.  For example, if I find an error in a question, I would like to fix it in the quiz and then update it in the question bank.   This is much more efficient then finding a mistake on a quiz, going to the question bank, finding the question in the question bank, updating the question and then copying back to the quiz.

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

 @cxy11 ‌, the new Quizzes LTI (currently in limited beta testing) gives instructors the ability to create a question (item) in a quiz and save it to a specified bank at the same time. Please refer to How do I create a Multiple Choice question in the Quizzes LTI?  in the Quizzes LTI User Group; I picked the Multiple Choice lesson, but the process of adding the question to an item bank is the same for any question type. If you'd like to start testing the new quiz tool, please contact your school's Canvas admin to request inclusion in the beta, and in the meantime, you can join the group to participate in the discussions among active testers currently taking place there.

cxy11
Community Novice

Sounds good.  Thanks. Do you know if it gives you the option of overriding a previous existing question in the bank?  (In case you find a mistake in the question.)

don_bryn
Community Champion

I don't think there's a way to copy over the original question, but you just have to remember to delete the original question.   

Similarly, when you import question banks from qti files, they are supposed to overwrite banks with the same ID, but I've never found that to be true.  The import always creates duplicate question banks. 

corinna_guenthe
Community Novice

please make this possible! I am frustrated by migrating my quizzes from blackboard in to Canvas, but not being able to move questions from one quiz to another, and that the quizzes are basically static unless I decide to copy and paste all day. It is no problem to move around questions from the publisher content, because the come in 'banks' already, but since I didnt create my quizzes like that in the first place, I am at a major disadvantage. 

kona
Community Champion

 @corinna_guenthe ‌, I’ve voted for this as well because I think it would be a useful feature to have, but for now there is a work around that might help save you some time - https://community.canvaslms.com/message/26891 

Hope this helps!

corinna_guenthe
Community Novice

Thanks, this is similar to what I ended up doing. I went back into my blackboard account, put my quiz questions into a vast 'pool' and imported that separately. Canvas recognized the 'pool' as a 'bank' and I can now select questions from there.