D2L to Canvas migration, issues with quizzes

dave-long
Community Participant
12
4733

Hi All,

With moving from D2L to Canvas, we've seen some issues with quizzes moving from D2L to Canvas. 

Has anyone tried running the quizzes through Respondus 4.0 (or other exam software) and then uploading them to Canvas?

Thanks!

-Dave

12 Comments
soxford
Community Contributor

Hello Dave,  we have not tried that but have had problems with moving quizzes from D2L to Canvas that have randomized questions.  We end up having to re-create the quiz with the quiz banks.  What issues have you had with quizzes?

ejackson
Community Champion

One issue I always seem to run into with using Respondus and Canvas is with images. When we migrated from Angel to Canvas, we used Respondus a lot to bring quizzes and question banks over, sometimes the images would come over, and sometimes they wouldn't. So I would definitely check any of your quiz questions that have images in them, and you may have to re-add the images manually.

It is a known issue with Canvas and Respondus with images in quiz questions. I have been in contact with both Respondus and Canvas about it - - NUMEROUS times - - about the issue, but it's still a problem. I'm hoping the big Quiz overhaul Canvas is working on will address it.

fbidwell
Community Contributor

Aside from the problem with randomization, the three big issues I've found with D2L quizzes migrating into Canvas are:

  • Questions that are not in the Question Library in D2L import as being worth 1 pt, regardless of the point value in D2L. This happens when an instructor creates questions for a quiz from within the quiz setup page using "Add/Edit Questions", instead of creating the questions in the Question Library and then adding them to quiz. If the questions are in the Question Library, they import as being worth the correct point value.
  • The "Introduction" and "Description" fields in D2L quiz setup do not import into Canvas.
  • True/False questions import as Multiple Choice.  The question still effectively works the same, but it should really import as a True/False question (the correct type).
rake_9
Community Champion

We had noted that questions import from D2L to Canvas as 1 point. We had not noticed any distinction related to where the question was originally created.  Our best practice recommendation has always been to create questions in the Library and leave them at 1 point, and then to set the point value in the quiz itself.  We know people don't follow that recommendation all that time, but it definitely didn't occur to us to look for that variation.

As a rule, we are recommending that people import only their question libraries into Canvas and rebuild their actual quizzes.  The set up is so different, it seems wiser to just set expectations about rebuilding quizzes.  Our other recommendation is that people go in to D2L and make sure their quiz libraries and file manager are tidy, not too deeply nested, and everything is well-named before attempting an import.

We did find that if a quiz has questions with point values greater than 1 AND information items, the information items acquire a hidden point value when they are imported into Canvas.  To clarify, imagine a quiz with an information item and 5 questions, each worth 2 points; the quiz is worth 10 points.  Import it into Canvas: each question is worth 1 point, but the quiz is worth 6 points.  The extra point is nowhere visible, but if you delete the information item, the quiz is now worth 5 points as expected.  To confirm the behavior, image the same quiz in D2L, but set the 5 questions to 1 point each; the quiz is worth 5 points.  Import it into Canvas; each question is worth 1 point and the quiz is worth 5 points.

fbidwell
Community Contributor

Great info!  Thanks Valerie.  I like the recommendation to have people import only question libraries and just rebuild the quizzes.  We may end up doing that for more complex quizzes. 

Thanks also for the info about information items.  I'm working on a migrated course right now with that very problem and I had been trying to figure out where the extra point was coming from.  In this case, however, the questions are worth less than 1 pt and the information item is still adding an extra hidden point. So, the problem seems to affect quizzes with non-1pt questions.  Good to know!

soxford
Community Contributor

Hello Elizabeth,  We have figured out one of the issue with the images with D2L and Respondus Quizzes.  I  wonder if it is the same with yours.  When the image has an alt text ( which all should) the image does not transfer over to the quiz.  Instead with a D2L quiz,  the alt text is the only thing that transfers.   If the image does not have an alt text the image transfers into the quiz we then still need to edit the image and add the alt text. 

ejackson
Community Champion

That is something I will need to check into. It happens to me all the time when using Respondus to publish quizzes or question banks to Canvas; any images do not publish and need to be added manually. This includes test banks from publisher's Websites as well as ones we manually format. I can see the publisher's test bank's images having alt+text, but the quizzes I receive from our faculty (in Word format) may not have. Either way, the images don't publish over. Smiley Sad

When I contacted Respondus they blamed Canvas; when I contacted Canvas they blamed Respondus. So I just keep adding images manually after publishing a question bank. A little annoying, but doable.

fbidwell
Community Contributor

The three issues I mentioned above appear to have been fixed.

  • Questions that are not in the Question Library in D2L now import with the correct point value.
  • The D2L "Description" field imports as Quiz Instructions in Canvas.
  • The D2L "Introduction" field imports as a "Text (No Question)" type at the top of the quiz.
  • True/False questions now import as True/False.
dave-long
Community Participant
Author

Hi Sharron,

To circle back around to this thread, see Valerie Rake's comment below for some specifics of what issues we've seen with moving quizzes from D2L to Canvas.  http://its.uiowa.edu/support/article/104687​ has some broad detail, and http://its.uiowa.edu/files/its.uiowa.edu/files/wysiwyg_uploads/MappingQuestions-D2LtoCanvas.pdf​ has some more specific details (such as True/False questions from D2L coming in as Multiple Choice questions in Canvas, etc).

We've also run into the issue with randomized questions you mentioned.

Thanks!

-Dave

fbidwell
Community Contributor

Hi David,

I've sent detailed reports to Canvas on some of the same quiz issues, and several have been fixed. True/False should now import correctly.  Questions should now be coming over with the correct point value (at least in my testing they do.)

On a side note concerning D2L Content pages, they are now importing as linked to Modules with the editable Pages version, not the Files version.  This does cause a problem with file packages that use an HTML file to tie everything together (e.g. Adobe Presenter) because the "Pages" version of the HTML file is used instead of the "Files" version. The Files version retains the proper linking, so it's just a matter of linking the "Files" version to Modules instead of the "Pages" version.

fbidwell
Community Contributor

I discovered another problem with D2L quizzes importing to Canvas.

If there is an image embedded in the Quiz Introduction in D2L, the entire import will Fail in Canvas.

kenneth_rogers
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

Hi there,  @dave-long !

I wanted to follow up on your question and see how things were going. Were you able to come to a solution? Or are you still seeking assistance? Because this question is from over one year ago, I'm going to go ahead and mark it as "Assumed Answered." Don't worry, this won't prevent people from continuing the dialogue in the event the discussion needs to continue Smiley Happy