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Yes, the Import function for exams can be VERY destructive.   Due to the campus lockdown and loss of some class sessions last spring, I gave a final that combined what is normally two separate exams.    This semester, I separated them again, and created Exam 3 by importing last semester's final and editing it.   The students took the exam, everything was fine.   UNTIL I imported the final exam again, to now create the Exam 4.   With no warning, Canvas combined the final with Exam 3 that students had already taken.   It didn't add the new exam neatly at the end, either.   It was a huge mess, with all the questions mixed up with no rhyme or reason.   It took forever to undo the godawful mess.    It's unconscionable that they allow this to happen. ... View more

I'm one of those new teachers reluctantly teaching everything remotely on Canvas.   I had been using Canvas for sharing course documents with students for years, though, and had received instructions on how to copy a Canvas course from one semester to another.   There was nothing in the instructions telling me that I cannot copy exams, but this was a non-issue until now, because I never gave online exams.  Long story short, I spent the better of a day yesterday undoing the mess I inadvertently created in an exam that students had already taken, when I uploaded the same exam twice.    Why there is no warning, as Nancy has suggested above, is beyond me.   Heck, a warning shows up anytime we even try to make minor edits to a homework assignment if students have already submitted them.   But Canvas will overwrite an exam that students have already taken, even if the exam has a different name?   It's nuts. ... View more