Item Bank Edits Are Not Preserved with Canvas Exports

[ampearce]

I have many items banks that I use for quizzes and exams. I have noticed that when I export, save, and then import my Canvas courses from one semester to the next, that many of my edits on the questions within the banks are not preserved. This is very frustrating as I now have many courses with separate item banks for Multiple Choice, Matching, Images, True/False, etc. For instance, an item bank for Multiple Choice questions only may contain T/F, open response that I previously moved to a separate bank before the export and import process.

I have also noticed that certain questions are duplicated within the same item bank.

How do I preserve those edits from one semester to the next and use those item banks that contain the edited questions in future courses?

How do I prevent duplication of questions within the same item bank?

[james_whalley]

@ampearce While I have no insight into what is occurring to your banks as part of your process, I was wondering why you export and import the banks rather than doing a course copy. Does bringing the banks over through the course copy create the same problem?

[ampearce]

Thanks, I have tried this in the past but noticed that it seems to result in duplication of my item banks. I end up having item banks with the same questions and the same names but only 1 is linked to existing quizzes and then I cannot tell which is linked without going through them individually and renaming the item banks.

Am I am missing a simple solution to the new problem copying creates?

[james_whalley]

@ampearce As I think about this again, aren't your Item Banks available to you from every course? We are talking about New Quizzes Item Banks and not Classic Quizzes Question Banks, correct? I just tested building a bank and creating a new course and my test user had access to that bank in both courses. I linked it to a New Quiz and copied the content from course to course and it seems to keep a single copy and updates to it are seen in all courses. 

I also tested having a student take a New Quiz that had an Item Bank in it and then editing the Item Bank. The Item Bank made a new copy of the question and that new copy is the visible question in the bank with no duplication of the bank.

What process are you using to copy to content from course to course? I went into the new course and used Import Existing Content and then chose Copy a Canvas Course.

[kroeninm]

Hi @ampearce No sure this helps as I haven't used New Quizzes extensively with students so may be missing something on the edit issue you note.  But:

• If you export and import a New Quiz as a QTI or a course as an .imscc, the Item Banks are duplicated instead of linked to the global copy of the banks.  So depending on what you are wanting to do, you might compare copying a course versus exporting/importing it if you haven't already.
• I haven't used New Quizzes extensively so there may be something missing but I haven't seen issues with edited questions yet.  However, there is an issue with deleted questions.  If you delete a question it magically reappears if you use an export/import method of copying.

Here's a few details on how the New Quiz copy/export options seem to work - https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/New-Quizzes-Discussion/Copy-Share-Export-Import-Expected-behavior...

Melanie