Stimulus prompt doesn't display images in New Quizzes

[AllenOlson]

I have the same issue as posted under "Known issues" tagged with QUIZ-14975 except that it is for Stimulus items that are not pulled from an item bank. (Images embedded on a Stimulus pulled from an item bank display broken)

When I place an image from the course files in a Stimulus prompt, the image does not display in Preview mode, though it displays correctly in the Build mode. The alt text field displays instead of the image.

The same image file displays correctly in both Build and Preview mode if it is in a multiple choice or other type of question.

Quizzes that were created in the past which use the same structure of placing images in a Stimulus prompt are currently still working correctly.

[chriscas]

Hi @AllenOlson,

Do you happen to be using Firefox as your browser?  We have run into similar issues with quizzes (both classic and new) showing alt-text instead of images when in preview/student mode, but displaying fine in the build/teacher mode.  I don't know when the issue started, but we noticed it before out final exam period in December and posted a notice to students telling them to use a different browser to take quizzes.  If this is the issue, it seems to stem from Firefox's more aggressive blocking of third-party content.  Even though the files are in Canvas, the URL for files is different from the URL of the main Canvas site, and therefore Firefox seems to treat the content as third-party.  I honestly don't know if Instructure is to blame or if Firefox is, but everything worked correctly for us in Chrome, Edge, and Safari.  There is an option to disable some of Firefox's protection, but I generally don't like to advise students or teachers to change settings, so we just went with the "use another browser" route.

If you're not using Firefox, I apologize for the slightly long-winded paragraph above, but your description sounds exactly like what we ran in to, so I figured it was worth mentioning

-Chris

[AllenOlson]

I do use Firefox, but I just tested it in Safari and the issue remained the same. Safari doesn't even show the alt text field, it just shows a broken image.

And it doesn't seem like it can be a browser issue because the same code embedding the same image file works fine in other questions on the same quiz (in both Firefox and Safari). It is something specific to the Stimulus item.

And to re-iterate, the same structure of embedding images in Stimulus items in quizzes that I created last year and copied forward into a Canvas site I am using this quarter are still working fine. It is only new questions I am trying to create for next quarter's Canvas site that are not working.

[dbrace]

@AllenOlson,

If the problem is also happening in Safari, it might be related to cross-site tracking. Would you be willing to give these (see below) directions from Apple a try and let us know if that solves the problem?

"Prevent cross-site tracking in Safari on Mac"
https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/prevent-cross-site-tracking-sfri40732/mac

-Doug

[AllenOlson]

I tried it in both Safari 15.6.1 and 17.6. Unchecking the "Prevent cross-site tracking" option had no effect. The image in the Stimulus item was still broken while the same image in multiple choice and essay questions displayed correctly.

[dbrace]

Thank you for giving that a try @AllenOlson.

This sounds like something that might need to be reported to either your institution's Canvas team or directly to Canvas Support.

If they are able to give an explanation and resolution, please consider sharing the information with everyone.

-Doug

[deregnid]

Was this ever resolved. I am having the same issue.    THanks

[dbrace]

Hi @deregnid,

Unless @AllenOlson provides an update, we have no way of knowing if it was ever resolved.

I would recommend that you reach out directly to your institution's Canvas team or (if your institution subscribes to it) contact Canvas Support directly by using the options that are available from within the "Help" area of your institution's Canvas.

-Doug

[AllenOlson]

I entered an update as a reply to my original post. Hopefully you received notification of that. The issue is currently in Instructure's hands.

[dbrace]

I did get the update! Thanks!

-Doug

[AllenOlson]

As of 16 January 2025, this issue is still unresolved. I referred it to my campus Canvas team on 4 Jan. After a little back and forth, the most recent response I have from them on 10 Jan. was, "After further investigation, Instructure has found that this issue occurs when using Stimuli with Rich Content (images, videos, documents, etc.) that are in the same section as banked quiz questions, which seems to be the case for your reported quiz. Their engineers are currently looking into this and working on a fix. We will update you when we hear more from the vendor's engineers."

What the part in the middle means is that this is not an issue for all Stimulus items. It only occurs when one or more of the "attached" questions to that Stimulus item are pulled in from item banks. I have verified that this is the case. If I put the same image into a second Stimulus item in the same quiz and attach a question that is not pulled from an item bank, the image displays correctly.

At this point, I have used two work-arounds.

(1) I placed the image file on a cloud server (Google Drive) and set the permissions to be accessible to anyone with the link and then put the link to that file in the Stimulus item as part of a note that says essentially, "There is supposed to be an image here. If it is not visible, you should be able to see it at this link."

(2) I created a fake question (worth 0 points) just before the Stimulus item which has the image I want the students to see and then put a note in the Stimulus item that says something like "See image above." But this has disadvantages: it doesn't keep the image onscreen as the student scrolls through the attached questions, and you can't have the quiz set to "Shuffle questions" because then the fake question won't always be just before the Stimulus item and associated "attached" questions.

[dbrace]

Thank you for sharing this update, @AllenOlson, and details; including the workarounds that you have used.

-Doug

[deregnid]

Thanks so much for the help.

[RobDitto]

@AllenOlson, we had the same problem.  Did the fix rolled out 1/28/2025 help you?

[deregnid]

I switched the question type for the quiz, but will go back and see if it's been corrected.  Thanks for the reminder!

[AllenOlson]

I just re-tried "previewing" one of my quizzes that has this issue, and it is still displaying the same behavior. I don't know how to tell what version of Canvas my institution is using, so I don't know if there is anything that has been changed. I just know that as of 31 January 2025, it's still an issue for me.

[AllenOlson · Accepted solution]

On Valentine's Day, I received a message from my campus IT folks that this issue had been resolved by the Instructure engineers.

I finally found time today to go test my quizzes which have images in stimulus items, and they do appear to be working properly.

Yay!

[RobDitto]

Fantastic, thank you @AllenOlson . We are seeing the same, but it's great to have confirmation from another user with this edge case.

[CNCBRR]

I am having this error occur also. However, I am noticing that it is only happening with larger sized files. I was able to replicate this in a new quiz stimulus. (A 256kb file size does not appear, but one with 31kb does appear). This explains why on some of my quizzes that use smaller images, it works, but larger file sizes do not.

[jbielecki]

I'm not sure if this is the same problem, but I've found that the stimulus column is much too narrow even for text when the items appear to the right. Could this mean that a large image doesn't have room to appear? 

I've resorted to putting the items below the stimulus, but the design of the window doesn't make it clear how many items are below the stimulus. I'm afraid that students will think there's only one item attached, not realizing that they have to scroll down. I realize the items are numbered, but students may not be paying attention to item numbers. Isn't there any way to adjust the width of the stimulus column? If not, how about making the default width a little wider?