Pictures in new quizzes not showing up.

[MollieRhodes]

I have tried searching for the answer to this, and I know I have seen this question a few times, but I can find the post related to what I am looking for. 

I have banked all of my test/quiz questions in new quizzes in individual banks for the past couple of years. Everything worked fine last semester but all of a sudden questions do not have the pictures that I embed into them when students go to take the quiz. I can see the pictures but they cannot. I do have the banks shared with my current course and still have this issue. 

Thanks for your help. 

[mzimmerman]

Hi @MollieRhodes 

Whenever someone says "I can see the pictures but my students cannot", my first thought is that there is a problem with the image links in the test, and the image links are actually pointing copies of image files that are stored in a previous course (which you have access to, but the students in your current course do not).

You should at least try running the Link Validation tool ( https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-validate-links-in-a-course/ta-p/1001 ), though I'm not 100% sure that it works with New Quizzes and item banks.  It should at least tell you if it's able to spot a problem with the image link permissions.

[HeatherDavis1]

I decided to convert to new quizzes this semester and I have similar issues with the pictures. My students are using Lockdown browser. I am at a loss on how to fix this since for some students all the pictures are showing up, for some only a few are showing up and again for others no pictures are showing up. 

This makes me think that it is an issue on the student end but I am not sure how to fix this problem. I have looked at the link validation and they are all good in the course. Any help would be great!

[mzimmerman]

Hi @HeatherDavis1 

If you have converted existing quizzes to New Quizzes, and are having problems with the images showing up with LockDown Browser, I believe it's best to contact Respondus Support to see if there is a workaround.

[DanaGullo]

This is what Respondus suggested to us in this same situation: "Because re-embedding all the images is quite tedious, other instructors might be interested in this workaround, which happily allowed me to bypass that unnecessary extra work:
 
When I grouped into a single Classic Exam the Classic Quizzes and banks that I wanted to migrate into a New Quiz bank, downloaded that exam as a QTI file, uploaded that QTI file as a New Quiz bank, and created a New Quiz based on that bank, then the images loaded correctly in Lockdown Browser."

I hope this helps,

Dana

[leward]

I have been investigating this problem.  I can explain why it is happening and I would call it a bug.  In NQ, when you add a question to an item bank and add links or images to the question, the resulting URL points to the course in which the question was created.   For example:

<p><img src="/courses/2227273/files/170623712/preview" alt="0.png" /></p>

As a result, only the students in that one course can view these items, which is very unfortunate because banks are supposed to work in any course.  When new questions with links to course files are added to a bank, there's a warning about this before you save the question, but the warning is not at all helpful.

As you may recall, in Classic Quizzes, it is possible to reuse question banks in any course without this problem.  The links work in classic quizzes because all files referenced in the question are copied to a hidden file store and the links are updated when the question is saved.  The links for these files are not course specific and students are allowed to view them whereever the bank is used.  Here's a sample link from a question in a classic question bank:

<img id="170619151" src="/assessment_questions/140076810/files/170621199/download?verifier=Wn2oXab5eNwbyrJQZY1g2M4prrsBUwb9kPLbRvaf" alt="ascending.png" />

It's not clear to me why a similar approach was not implemented in NQ Item banks.  One the bright side, when legacy banks are migrated to New Quizzes, the links continue to work because they do not reference a specific course.  

I am going to submit a bug report to hopefully draw more attention to this issue.  At minimum, the current limitations should be documented in  the Canvas Guide, How do I add content to an item bank in New Quizzes? 

[leward]

Just did some additional digging.  The broken images seem to be a recent problem.  I found examples of embedded images in questions in older banks. The URL for this images include a verifier parameter that is not present when I embed an image in a new bank question.  So, I think this may be a relatively recent regression.  I reported a bug and willl get back to this group when I hear back from Instructure.

[JustinDavidson]

I have been going crazy trying to figure out why this just recently happened. All of the images from the banks I created a few weeks ago are still working, but they have a verifier part where the others don't.

\<p>&nbsp;<img src="/courses/148714/files/9732986/preview?verifier=yVV4FkXvKTmJYaoXyfKTrciQYwtW6Y8DF8fCuuQ4" alt="image.png" /></p>

Things without the verifier part don't work. I've run the link verification tool, and it doesn't fix the problem. Did Canvas update recently?

[kunz_b]

This is an issue for my institution as well. It is not an issue for all courses, however, and as @leward pointed-out, it seems to be a recent problem.

I too see that some images have a verifier parameter, these are the images that work. However, now when uploading an image, or using a course image in an Item Bank question, there is no verifier parameter.

This is a very frustrating issue. Images in Item Banks should not be associated with a course, they should be able to be used in any course. One of the workarounds is to link to images from a public course or website, but surely Canvas can make this work without a workaround.

[jwillin]

Hi,

I reported the issue to Respondus Support and they got back to me with a workaround that appears to be working for us. 

Upload your images to your own User Files area and then embed them from there. It worked when I tested it. 

Thanks!

John Willingham

Emory University

[leward]

Yes, uploading to Personal Files does work, but it's not the default workflow for the Canvas RCE, it requires more steps than just uploading images while authoring questions, and faculty who are unaware of this bug will continue uploading to course Files without realizing the links and images won't work in other classes.  Hopefully, Instructure will acknowledge and fix this bug very quickly. 

[JaneWilliams]

Here is what Respondus said:

Hello Jane,
 
Thank you for contacting Respondus Support.
 
This is a known issue that we reported to Canvas. You'll want to contact Canvas Support to inquire as to a timeline on their fix. You can reference Canvas Case 10188336 when you email them.

It seems to occur when a classic quiz is migrated to "new quizzes" format. But a similar issue can also occur for a brand new "new quizzes" exam, depending on how the image was embedded and what file space the image resides in.

Until Canvas can provide a long term fix for this bug, they have supplied the following workaround:

1) Upload the images first to the user's user file space (not the course file space.) I presume they mean the instructor's user file space.

2) Then, embed the images into the question from that user file space (not the course file space.)

3) After doing this, the images should display when using LockDown Browser.

In our testing, this method does work, displaying the images successfully both for a brand new "new quizzes" exam, as well as a "classic" exam that has been migrated into "new quizzes" format.

Regards,
 
Bob

[e06735]

We are having the issue with images not displaying when using Respondus Lockdown browser.  I contacted Respondus support and they emailed back: 

If this is a New Quizzes type exam, this is a known issue that we reported to Canvas. You'll want to contact Canvas Support to inquire as to a timeline on their fix. You can reference Canvas Case 10188336 when you email them.

It seems to occur when a classic quiz is migrated to "new quizzes" format. But a similar issue can also occur for a brand new "new quizzes" exam, depending on how the image was embedded and what file space the image resides in.

Canvas Support has supplied the following workaround:

1) Upload the images first to the user's user file space (not the course file space.) I presume they mean the instructor's user file space.

2) Then, embed the images into the question from that user file space (not the course file space.)

3) After doing this, the images should display when using LockDown Browser.

In our testing, this method does work, displaying the images successfully both for a brand new "new quizzes" exam, as well as a "classic" exam that has been migrated into "new quizzes" format.

Our teachers are not very happy having to use the workaround as they use a lot of images in the quizzes and all the extra steps.

[matosp]

This is not possible when the New Quiz is in a Blueprint course used by several teachers and all questions are in item banks.

[JaneWilliams]

Does anyone have an update on this? Giving an exam this week and my last exam, pictures didn't show up!

Thank you,

Jane

[leward]

@JaneWilliams 
Instructure has confirmed that this is a bug, but has provided no indication as to when they expect it to be fixed. 

If you are using your banks this week, you may want to use the suggested workaround of uploading the image to your personal files rather than course Files. 

[JaneWilliams]

Hi,

Thank you for your quick response. When I gave my exam last week, older pictures showed up and these files are in the course in an Item Bank. Going forward, do you know if the older photos that came with the course migration will show up in the future New Quiz? Curious of what is the difference. Also, I'm using Respondus. 

Thank you,

Jane

[leward]

@JaneWilliams 
When I last tested, images in migrated quizzes and banks were working.  The only images that were not working were those added to banks after this bug started occurring some time in mid Feb or early March. 

If you enter student view and take the quiz, you should see what students see and do not see. 

[JaneWilliams]

Hi,

I checked my exam from student view and preview before the exam and the pictures were there. However, I will check this out again before our next exam as I'd like to populate new pictures and hot spot questions with pictures. 

Thank you,

Jane

[JaneWilliams]

Hello,

Is there any updates on this problem?

Jane

[DanaGullo]

Not at this point. 

Cheers,

Dana

[leward]

Our CSM is tracking this bug.  No news as of yet.  I have prepared the following documentation about it for our faculty.  Feel free to all or parts of it, if you find it useful:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mk9yk2IArSYoysDJLq-QO0mKtDUVl2u0a1DATVNV6Is/edit

[wadempsay]

Thank you for compiling this page.  I am going to share it with my fellow faculty resource specialists.  🙂

[JaneWilliams]

Yes, thank you! I put a ticket in with Respondus today for an update and will let you all know if I learn anything. The work around is cumbersome but glad you figured it out and made this wonderful doc!

Jane

[NatalieGamble]

Hello all. One change that worked for us is changing the visibility for the image file in files. 

[leward]

Hello, @NatalieGamble.   Yes, this does seem to work.  It's unfortunate that the files are not automatically set to public when the image is uploaded to a bank question.  But it's definitely easier than uploading the images to user files and redoing the links.

[pjonas1]

Interesting. I tried the same solution, setting visibility to public, and it did not seem to work for me. But this was also a few weeks ago when the problem was newer. You never do quite know what Instructure is changing behind the scenes.

I ended up having to go into the item bank editor, download the images, and reupload them into the questions.

I hope this bug gets fixed soon!

[leward]

@pjonas1 .  My first attempt failed too.  Then I realized the the course I was using for my test was not published. Once I published the course, the images were visible by students in other courses.

[pjonas1]

This was for a set of currently active winter courses. This lovely bug threw a grenade into my courses during midterms. 🙂 

[wadempsay]

Oughf!  I work with instructors who had the same experience in their fall courses.  Sorry to hear you got to live it too @pjonas1. 🤕

[leward]

Instructure has finally owned up to this problem publicly in the New Quizzes End of Quarter Update for Q1 2024 (see the section Q2 2024 Objectives) and I have posted a very lengthy reply.  If this bug has been a major painpoint for your or your institutions, please consider adding a comment to this post.