Questions in Item Banks - Why can't I order them by name or any other method

[sbailey]

I type questions into the item banks.  I would like them in a certain order so that I can find them more quickly.  Additionally, this would keep them in a certain order when I bring them into a quiz.

Even if I go back and retype all the questions (in opposite order - so the first question would show up first - which is just stupid to have to do it this way)... I can't add a new question to that item bank in the location it would be most appropriate.  I know that when I create a quiz, I can scroll up and down the list in the item bank to put in the order I want, but isn't that just stupid.  This is so ridiculous, I MUST be the stupid one, and there is an easy way to organize the questions in an item bank.

PLEASE HELP with what I'm missing on how to organize the item bank questions (I've tried naming the question in alphabetical order/numbering... then refreshing.  This does not work like it has in classic quizzes).

Thanks for the suggestions - this is driving me crazy!

[james_whalley · Accepted solution]

@sbailey You are not crazy - that really is just poor design. I would put in a feature idea to add a sorting function within Item Banks. I wish there were some workaround.

[kroeninm]

Feel free to reply, not sure I captured the issue/solution requests.  https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Ideas/Default-Sort-Questions-within-Item-Banks-in-alphabet... 

Melanie

[smurphy12]

Banking is for randomizing quiz questions to different users and pulling multiple questions from different quizzes into one test for say a mid term or final. If you want to reuse the same questions in the same order every year, just create the quiz and export the quiz and import it every term. Or if you retain access to previous terms like we do, you can just import the previous semester into the new semester and make adjustments as needed. You have never been able to order the quiz questions in the banks regardless of classic or new. You can use the Find command with key words to search for a question, to pull into a quiz, but if you want to put them in a specific order, you will have to pull the questions in individually. It was that way in classic quizzes as well. We use Banks quite a bit both before and after converting to new quizzes. The banks are functioning as designed and as they always have and better than other LMS's on the market. 

[sbailey]

You are incorrect.  I've used classic question banks for years.... I can organize the classic question banks and/or the queations within the banks (i actually organize both), by  naming the question with a numerical number, to make them appear in a certain order. I teach over 600 students every semester, in 4 different courses, across 6 different course topics depending on the semester.  I have thousands of questions built and organized into question banks (by course, topic, and numerical order.... yes, even with this ordering, Canvas is still awful with organization).

I was considering changing to new quizzes, but the item banks with new quizzes will not in any way reasonable allow you to organize the questions in the question banks.

It is ridiculous that Canvas can't create a simple file system for question banks and questions.

[whitman_11]

I agree. I've just been learning how to use new quizzes in order to create about 30 listening quizzes for English as a second/foreign language students. Each quiz will pull from at least 3 question banks, and each bank consists of the same set of items (as few as 5 and as many as 25), but with a different voice speaking the items. So let's talk about the set of item banks consisting of 25 items each. For the Voice 1 bank, I edited each item, embedding the Voice 1 recording of the spoken phrase. Now I go to create the matching bank for Voice 2, which I had already duplicated before adding the audio clips. But the items are presented in seemingly random order (though I now know they're ordered by time of creation), which means that for each item, I have to search through the Carmen file folder with the Voice 2 audio clips, which adds (conservatively) 5 seconds per item edited. And then I'll need to do the same for the Voice 3 bank, and hopefully eventually a Voice 4 and a Voice 5 for a diverse set of voices. And then I'll need to do all this again for the other 20-some quizzes.

Up to now, I'd been asking myself, "Wow! Why didn't I switch to new quizzes sooner? I can finally duplicate quizzes!" But now that I find that item bank creation has lost this one piece of functionality that the legacy quizzes had, it's very disappointing.

[whitman_11]

In trying to work within this constraint, I have discovered that editing a question counts as creating it. So even if I carefully create my numbered questions in reverse order to create an item bank template, if I modify a question (for example, by adding details specific to that question in one of the banks created from this master), that question then gets put at the top. 

[smurphy12]

Yes if you use a number it will order them. You didn't indicate you had used a number to order the questions. My apologies. In new banks you cannot order them. But you can use the find command to quickly find the test and coy them over. It might be worth breaking the questions into smaller banks by a sub topic then for easier access. Just a friendly idea. 

[A-E-SSC]

Agreed. In Classic Quizzes we have named them such that they show up in a particular order. That way when we add new ones, they show up near the questions we want them grouped with, and we can just renumber things to reorder them rather than needing to remember the order when pulling for a student quiz.