New Quizzes - Lag/unresponsiveness when building/editing/creating a quiz

[HayleyWood]

Struggling with the amount of lag and unresponsiveness experienced when in the "Build" function of New Quizzes. Simple actions such as scrolling the page, clicking inside a question or answer box, editing text inside said boxes, and saving the edits are causing the page to become unresponsive, at times to the point where an error message appears ("Page Unresponsive" in Google Chrome). We wait up to 5 seconds between keystrokes for the page to catch up with our actions.

This is highly frustrating, given that build mode is for building the exam, which it seemingly cannot handle. This issue does not occur in Classic Quizzes, which we have continued to use due to the time wasted tackling quiz creation with New Quizzes. I am surprised to find only one other post in the community regarding this, so perhaps this is an issue on our end. Either way, some insight or troubleshooting assistance would be welcomed. We are eager to use New Quizzes as the formatting options available would greatly benefit our students, but we can't currently.

[KatieBertel]

Chiming in to say that we have received similar reports from instructors using New Quizzes--long lag time, slow page loading, and pages crashing. Performing relatively simple and mundane things such as copying text/images or moving stimulus questions turns into a frustrating and time-consuming process. Not sure if this is a browser-specific issue (Chrome) or a more widespread problem. 

We have a small subset of instructors using New Quizzes at our institution so it's concerning that the few who are using it are running into these kinds of performance issues.

[ColtonSwapp]

Hello @HayleyWood 

Thanks for posting this in the Canvas Community! 

I am sorry you are running into this issue! I personally have NOT seen any laggy behaviors on my end with the Build page in New Quizzes. 

How large are the quizzes when you run into this laggy behavior? Is there a large amount of questions tied to the quiz? Do the questions have images that the browser is trying to load all at once?

As far as troubleshooting, you could rule out some super basic things like:

1. Clearing cache on browsers experiencing the behavior. Recommended option would be to clear cache for 'All Time'  (MAC guide) (PC guide)
2. Ensuring impacted browsers are completely up to date. 
3. Ensuring the network is not bogged down/throttled (Speedtest) Recommended to have a minimum Internet speed of 512kbps
4. Testing in Incognito/Private browser windows. 
5. Ensure Cookies and Javascript are enabled and not blocked on the impacted browser. 
6. Disabling any extensions that could be impacting the browser that the behavior is experienced on. 
7. Testing to see if the behavior is replicated using another browser. 

The Instructure Status page do have an option for you to view the uptime for your instance also.  

let us know what you find out! 

-Colton 

[HayleyWood]

Hello Colton,

We have a variety of final exams. Two have only 2 questions and no images, the rest average 60 questions and 0-5 images.

As far as troubleshooting:

1. Cache has been cleared, no change

2. Browsers are up to date

3. Internet speed is great

4. Incognito/Private browsers have the same issue

5. Cookies and Java are enabled

6. Extensions are off

7. We've tried Chrome, Edge, and Firefox. It's the same issue regardless

I struggle to believe this is an end user issue. The experiences listed in this thread highlight that New Quizzes doesn't seem to have the capacity to meet the needs of institutions at present. I hope this issue can be investigated and resolved as we want to use New Quizzes!

[soumyasbh]

clearing Cache does not help - tried & tested

using most up to date browsers - yet not much help

internet speed is way more than 512 kbps - yet lagging happens

cookies are enabled - Javascript no longer compatible with Chrome - unless there are pictures, will this matter?

what kind of extensions could be affecting the browser?

yet to try another browser as institution IT recommends using Chrome

[PatriciaHeltman]

I have this same problem and after reaching out to tier 1 support I was told that 88 questions and 16 images are too much. This is a final. I don't understand why this software can't keep up with that. 

[andrew_ippolito]

I found this thread looking for a solution to this same problem.  I have been using New Quizzes for the first time this semester and have up to this point loved it.  However, like @PatriciaHeltman mentioned above, I am creating a cumulative final exam that has far more than 88 questions; not sure how many images.

In addition to the incredible lag, I have found that I am unable to use my Chrome browser's basic search functionality when looking for a keyword (e.g. I wanted to edit a question that had the word "exergonic" in it.  I could not immediately find the question because I could not use the search feature).

Ultimately this is going to push people away from an otherwise great improvement over the Classic Quizzes.  

There is no current workaround other than removing questions, which of course I will not be doing.

I hope a solution is found soon.  I see it's been 3 months and nothing.

EDIT:  One workaround I came up with was to edit the questions in the Item Bank that is created upon import.  

And I realized, those item banks have a limited number of questions show up per page... and you have to click through the page numbers to find questions.

Perhaps this is a temporary solution to our problem here -- @ColtonSwapp perhaps the devs can instate a pagination workaround while they come up with something better.  

[ElizabethMonagh]

I am trying to build a comprehensive review for my students 200 questions it is taking hours the lag time between questions seems for ever, then the edit tab will show up frustrated

[KatiePenman]

Due to some of our students not being able to access LockDown Browser in the Classic quizzes anymore due to a handshake issue that neither Canvas nor LockDown Browser seem interested in solving, I am being forced into migrating all my quizzes to New quizzes.

I agree that the the 'Build'  feature is laggy and unresponsive. It is very difficult to use. It leaps about on the screen as soon as you click in a box to edit the question and I am constantly scrolling back and forth just to find out where I am. It is anxiety inducing to say the least.

Also, the Text Box - No Question feature has been removed! Why?

Finally, a lot of us are employees who have no control over the internet speed provided by our employer. In Australia the internet is incredibly slow anyway and having to use a program that appears to rely on fast internet is frustrating.

I use Chrome and I did try it on Firefox but the lag was the same.

[j-vanwagner]

Katie, what LockDown Browser are you using? I am looking at potentially switching companies this upcoming spring and I would like to avoid that issue given it would be a new testing system for our faculty.

[jthomps4]

I have an instructor who is also having issues with this.  This quiz is only 15 questions in length, and has a couple of very small images (less than 1 mg), and it's still getting several seconds lag time when adding questions. I tried copying the quiz and it took about 12 seconds just to duplicate (where with other quizzes it is almost instant).  

Going to be hard to get buy-in if this is an issue, which is a shame because there are so many great features in New Quizzes.

[c_lapan]

I also have this issue. Any time you click on a text box to type it has a long lag and the screen even moves a bit. It happens to enter questions text as well as every box. You have to click and then pause for a minute. This is an even bigger annoyance for me when I'm grading open ended quizzes! It does the same when I click the box to type in their numeric grade for the essay question. It is beyond frustrating. It is also consistent and happens every single time I've been using it for 2 semesters now. I find it hard to believe that that is any kind of individual issue (e.g., device, browser, cache clearing etc.)

[wmorgan1]

The lag is still a huge issue. Every click causes a 5-10 second delay. 

Also, "ctrl" "f" (using the browser's search feature) does not work. VERY frustrating. 

Finally, oftentimes students get stuck on the Loading screen. They can click Return and try to start again. However, the timer starts counting down as soon as they start the quiz. They can lose 2-3 minutes waiting on the loading screen to finish. 

[soumyasbh]

It's not that nobody has faced this issue. Like other 100o issues that Canvas has, people are just jaded with every issue that come up. 

But yes, I have faced this ussue as well. No amount of negative wording can adequately describe the feeling.