[New Quizzes] Create Item Banks from MSWord

It would be useful that when you create a question [item] bank at the account level being able to upload a huge number of questions once by using a word document. Now, the only way to do this is to create them one by one.

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Rosalie

170 Comments
costarec
Community Novice

I agree it is best to keep it away from a requirement of another proprietary software package format, but Word format is fine as long as it's not the latest and greatest. Windows users can use WordPad and anyone can use Google Docs to create. Word users can use that if they already have it.

cjeffcott
Community Novice

This would be helpful, but the ability to import from an Excel or CSV file would be much more useful, as our quiz workflow involves the use of Excel sheets.

fellerd
Community Novice

I like both of these ideas.

Keep in mind that many of us use publisher test banks. In my experience, these are sometimes available in Word or Rich Text Format. I have never seen one in a spreadsheet format (comma separated values) although I definitely see some possibilities here. In either case, make sure that the process allows putting graphical images into the RTF/TXT/CSV file that can be directly imported. 

I currently use the third-party application Respondus to create all of my tests, partly because it is easy to use and partly because I teach at multiple institutions with multiple learning management systems and a third-party tool is best for me for consistency and peace of mind.

curtain
Community Participant

Completely agree with  @fellerd ​.  I am pushing for CSV because of a specific need for us AND because I am considering Word format the leading format for them to select.  If they do nothing else, they should start with Word.  And it MUST support images as you said. There is not a good way to do that for the ordinary instructor at all right now.

fellerd
Community Novice

I'm an ordinary instructor - just an online adjunct. Though I adjunct at several colleges. : )

Personal licenses for Respondus were less than $100 the last time I checked. I'd pay this on my own if necessary. It's easier to build tests in Respondus than any LMS I have used.

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

Thank you for checking back!  We do not have an update at this time, but we'll check back in a couple months.  We encourage you to follow the Modern Quizzing Engine project!

galyenk
Community Contributor

Have you ever used Respondus? Faculty can actually create quizzes and it talks to canvas and imports them.

galyenk
Community Contributor

When we migrated into Canvas, we actually used Respondus to import between 2000 - 3000 assessments in a couple months! Very handy.

millerjm
Community Champion

What I have noticed is that many of my faculty have their collection of tests that they have created over the years and they are in Word format.  And then they decide that they want to bring them into the LMS.  OR the publisher only provides the test bank in Word files.  That is always fun because they go crazy with formatting and don't always follow the simple formatting needed to import into anything!

These are usually *almost* in the right format for respondus/sakai/angel and can be easily brought into notepad to take out the formatting, and allow them to simply add the asterisks for the correct answers.  It usually doesn't require much massaging - sometimes just a find and replace to change 1) to 1. for the numbering or something like that. 

Respondus has always been awesome at bringing in tests in various formats.  It would be great to see the ability to copy-paste a simple text-based set of questions from a word/text file since so much legacy and publisher data already exists in these formats. 

alistair_kwan
Community Novice

I would encourage support for importing GIFT files written in a text editor.

I wouldn't bother with Word myself (I don't normally use Word at all, in fact) but do see advantages in using Excel — importing TDF sounds like a good idea.