How to prevent students from seeing images from a quiz?

[c_mironiuc]

Hello!

I have created a quiz. For some of the questions, I want to manually add a picture to the question from my laptop. More specifically, when I edit the quiz, I go to the "Questions" section and manually edit the questions for which I want to include a picture.

I was wondering if there is a way to include a picture without uploading it to the course content. Just like copy-pasting it to the relevant question, without any uploading; copy-pasting it to me did not work.

Alternatively, if a picture needs to first be manually uploaded to Canvas before including it in one question: if the picture is uploaded in the "Course files" section, and the "Files" section is not available for students to see, they should not be able to see the picture, would this be correct? Is there a folder that is surely hidden from students where pictures can reliably be uploaded and used in Quizzes for which the instructor would know for sure that the students do not have access to? 

Just to clarify matters, what I mean by not having access to is not being able to access the image outside of actually taking the Quiz.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance!

[James · Accepted solution]

 @c_mironiuc  

At this point, copy/pasting of images is not supported, you will either need to upload it to Canvas or host it on an external site.

I upload mine to Canvas because it's easier and hosted on the cloud so has better availability -- if they can't get to Canvas, they can't take the quiz anyway -- and better tracking.

As for the security on quiz questions, what I do is to put all of my images for quizzes into a folder and then make the folder only available to students with link.

That doesn't mean that you have to give the link directly to students, including the question in a quiz does that. The person with the link does have to be enrolled in the course to view it, so there is an extra level of protection there.

The other thing I would do is to make sure that Files is not active in the course navigation.

[rmurchshafer · Accepted solution]

Hi Codrin,

First, it's not possible to copy/paste images into Canvas.  I believe you are correct that if you have the Files tab not visible to students they won't see the images, but I have another option that I use which is a little more secure.  Files and Folder in the files area have "extra" availability settings other than just publish.  I like to create a folder and name it either Secure, or Quiz Images.  Then click the publish button for that folder and you'll see an option for "Only available to students with a link".  This also means if embedded.  Any files you add to this folder will only be visible to students if you link it or embed it. 

Here are some additional details https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12771-415241391 

Rick

[James · Accepted solution]

 @c_mironiuc  

At this point, copy/pasting of images is not supported, you will either need to upload it to Canvas or host it on an external site.

I upload mine to Canvas because it's easier and hosted on the cloud so has better availability -- if they can't get to Canvas, they can't take the quiz anyway -- and better tracking.

As for the security on quiz questions, what I do is to put all of my images for quizzes into a folder and then make the folder only available to students with link.

That doesn't mean that you have to give the link directly to students, including the question in a quiz does that. The person with the link does have to be enrolled in the course to view it, so there is an extra level of protection there.

The other thing I would do is to make sure that Files is not active in the course navigation.

[rmurchshafer · Accepted solution]

Hi Codrin,

First, it's not possible to copy/paste images into Canvas.  I believe you are correct that if you have the Files tab not visible to students they won't see the images, but I have another option that I use which is a little more secure.  Files and Folder in the files area have "extra" availability settings other than just publish.  I like to create a folder and name it either Secure, or Quiz Images.  Then click the publish button for that folder and you'll see an option for "Only available to students with a link".  This also means if embedded.  Any files you add to this folder will only be visible to students if you link it or embed it. 

Here are some additional details https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12771-415241391 

Rick

[lalee24601]

As a sideline comment, I bumped into this thread while checking quiz security as a newbie.

We're transferring quiz questions from Jupiter grades for next year as our first in Canvas - and those graphics seem to copy and paste just fine into a Canvas quiz question. I can't seem to find them in my Files for the course, so I have no idea where they're living. Nor do I know why those worked as a straight copy/paste. In general, I've found, as Rick said, that it doesn't work.

On the other hand, the .zip import by way of ExamView doesn't bring in the pictures. At that point I did have to manually upload pictures. The pictures I uploaded wound up in the Imported media folder defaulting to the setting Rick said to use. 

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Something else to be aware of is that students might receive notifications when a new file is uploaded, and those notifications include the link to the file.  Even if you quickly change the file permission to "students with link" instead of "published", they will be able to click the link in the notification and access the image.

We encourage instructors here to create a folder (call it something like "quiz files"), then change that folder permission to "students with link".  From then on, upload any images or other content into that folder.  Since the folder itself isn't "published", students don't get notifications about any new files placed inside, and your images/content will be less likely to be accesses ahead of the quiz.

-Chris