How to Migrate Quiz Content to the New Quiz Tool

Canvas Tutorials How to Migrate Quiz Content to the New Quiz Tool

Instructor Creating Content Module

What is the New Quiz Tool?

 Important Information

Quiz migrations are on hold for the time being. Canvas developers are working on an easier method of migration. As more information is shared, this page will be updated.  If you wish to use the new quiz tool now, you can use one of the methods below to migrate your content. 

 The new quiz tool is the new quizzing engine that will eventually replace the current quiz tool. Please review the following pages for details on features comparisons and how to use the new quiz tool.

Please note you must migrate quiz content from the current quiz tool to the new quiz tool. When you are ready to migrate content, please review this page carefully. If you have questions or need help with the migration process, please contact Information Systems & Services. 

Important Migration Notes

Please note the following about the migration process. 

  • New quizzes is currently a course level feature option and must be enabled in the course settings. See New Quiz Tool Overview for the latest updates for the new quiz tool. 
  • It is important to note that currently, the new quiz tool can only accept imports from newer QTI standard (QTI 1.2 and 2.x).  If you have publisher content that uses the older QTI standard (QTI 1.1), you must import the content into the current quiz tool. Then you can choose one of the migration options. See Importing Quiz Questions into Canvas. 
  • None of the migration options listed below will work with a quiz that uses question groups with linked question banks! If this is how your quizzes are setup, please review other tabbed sections of this page for guidance. 
  • In the new quiz tool, question banks are called items banks and the banks are tied to person and not the course. This means that the person who migrated content is the only person that has access to the item banks regardless if there are other people in the course in the teacher role. Item banks can be shared with other people in the teacher role after the August 17, 2019 release Links to an external site..  It is important to note when you share an item bank, the person you are sharing the item bank with will have the same read/write permissions. 
  • When you view item banks in new quiz tool you will see ALL item banks from ALL courses. It is important to give item banks descriptive names so you can quickly pick an item bank to view. It may be useful to use the course name as part of the naming scheme for item banks.
    • Example: Ch01 becomes BIO-100 Ch01 
  • It is important to note that none of the quiz settings will migrate. Be sure to reapply your desired settings for the quiz once the quiz  has been migrated to the new quiz tool. 
  • Please note the following question types will not migrate to new quiz tool. These question types must be manually recreated in the new quiz tool.
  • Please note the following question types will migrate as different question types. These questions must edited as the question type they migrate as or be recreated as the desired question type in the new quiz tool. 

Review Content in Current Quiz Tool

It is important to review your current quiz content before you migrate. This can help you determine how you have structured your quizzes in the current quiz tool. If you are not sure how your quizzes are structured, edit a quiz and review the numbered items below. After reviewing the structure of your quizzes, you may want to create new quizzes just for the purpose of migrating content as desired. Edit a quiz and switch over to the questions tab. Review the numbered items below and then review the migration options listed in the next section of this page. Choose the option that will work best for how your quizzes are setup. 

Question edit screen in current quiz tool

  1. At the bottom of the page are the ways to add questions. Please note when you use New Question option, the questions are stored in question bank called "unfiled questions" (see the question bank sub-heading below). If you need to recreate your quizzes to prepare for migration, be sure to use the Find Question option to locate your questions in the question banks. 
  2. If you use a question group with link to a question bank, it is important to understand that the questions WILL NOT migrate to the new quiz tool! None of the options listed below will work. Create a new quiz and add ALL questions directly to the quiz. Then you can use any of migration options listed below.
  3. If you use a question group with questions added directly to the group, use option 1 or 2 to migrate the content (see next section). Please note if using option 2 the questions will be added to the quiz as group set and an item bank for each question group will be created. 
  4. Questions added directly to the quiz will migrate using any of the options listed below. Please note if using option 2 or 3, the questions will only exist in the migrated quiz. If you wish to add questions to an item bank, each question must be edited to be able to add the question to an item bank. There is no bulk add option.

Review and Organize Question Banks

If you have used the new question option to create your quiz questions or were using linked banks in question groups, you may want to review your question bank content in the current quiz tool so you can organize questions in an orderly manner so it will be easier to create your migration quizzes. You can access the question banks from the quiz index page. Click the options menu () and select Manage Question Banks. 

Quiz index page

On the question bank screen be sure to review the content in the unfiled question bank. Click the title to view.

question bank screen

Use the options to move the questions into other banks. Once you are done organizing content in the question banks you will be ready to create quizzes based on your question bank organization. 

question bank screen

Related Canvas Guides

Overview of Quiz Migration Options

The new quiz tool is integrated with Canvas; however, quizzes in the current quiz tool must be migrated to the new quiz tool. There are three different ways to migrate content from the current quiz tool to new quiz tool. There are pros and cons for each option. Please review the notes for each migration option carefully before migrating any content. Click an item to view or use the expand all option to see all items in the list.

Option 1: Create Export Package/Import Directly in an Item Bank

This is the recommended method of migration especially if question randomization is important to you!

In this process, you will complete the following steps.

  1. In the course menu click Settings.
  2. On the course settings page click Export Course Content in the right sidebar menu.
  3. On the export screen select Quizzes and deselect the option next to all quizzes. Select the desired quiz and click Export. Once the export is finished, the export package will be linked at the top page. 
  4. Click the link to download each quiz export file. Please review the important notes listed below.
    • The default name of the export package will only include the name of the course. You may wish to edit the name when saving to include the quiz name.
    • In most  browsers the default download behavior is to automatically begin the file download to the downloads folder on the computer. The downloads folder is located on the C drive of your computer. You can change your browser settings so you can choose the location of where to save the file. This will allow you to change the name of the file as you are saving it. See Web Browser Troubleshooting Tips for help on changing your browser download options. 
    • You can complete steps 1 - 4 for all quizzes first or as you export quizzes individually and continue with steps 5 - 12 for each quiz. Do what works best for you. 
  5. In the course menu click Assignments. Note: After the December 21, 2019 release Links to an external site., quizzes will be created from the quiz index page. 
  6. On the assignment index page click +Quiz/Test OR click an existing new quiz tool quiz title to view. With this option is doesn't matter if you use a new or existing quiz since you will be importing directly in an item bank. Please note if you do not see the +Quiz/Test button at the top of the page, you have not enabled Quizzes.Next in course settings.  See New Quiz Tool Overview page for details on how to enable the new quiz tool.  
  7. On the quiz edit screen click the options menu () and select Manage Item Banks.
  8. On the Item bank screen create +Bank to create a new item bank. 
  9. Click the title of the bank to view the bank. 
  10. On the bank screen click the options menu () and select Import Content. 
  11. In the dialog box that appears click Browse and locate an export package for the quiz.
  12. Click Import. This will begin the import process. Please note the name of the item bank will change to name of the quiz you exported. Continue this process for each quiz you exported. 
  13. Once you have imported the item banks, you can create quizzes with randomized group sets from the item banks. Review the guides listed below. 

This option will require the most steps of all options listed on this page but will be worth it since all questions will reside in the items banks and be organized as you desire. Review the guides listed below for more detailed instructions on how to  export and import question data. Please note each quiz will need to be exported individually. 

Option 2: Create Export Package/Import as Quiz

This option is similar to the option 1 but requires less steps to complete for each quiz. The QTI zip file is imported directly in the quiz. This option will have different results depending on how the quiz is setup in the current quiz tool. Please review the steps and notes below. 

  1. In the course menu click Settings.
  2. On the course settings page click Export Course Content in the right sidebar menu.
  3. On the export screen select Quizzes and deselect the option next to all quizzes. Select the desired quiz and click Export. Once the export is finished, the export package will be linked at the top page. 
  4. Download each quiz export file. Please review the important notes listed below.
    • The default name of the export package will only include the name of the course. You may wish to edit the name when saving to include the quiz name. 
    • You can change your browser settings so you can choose the location of where to save the file. This will allow you to change the name of the file as you are saving it. See Web Browser Troubleshooting Tips for help on changing your browser download options. 
    • You can complete steps 1 - 4 for all quizzes first or as you export quizzes individually and continue with steps 5-10 for each quiz. Do what works best for you. 
  5. In the course menu click Assignments. Note: After the December 21, 2019 release Links to an external site., quizzes will be created from the quiz index page. 
  6. On the assignment index page click +Quiz/Test. Please note with this option you can only import into new blank quiz. Please note if you do not see the +Quiz/Test button at the top of the assignment page, you have not enabled the new quiz tool in course settings. See New Quiz Tool Overview page for details on how to enable the new quiz tool.  
  7. On the quiz edit screen click the options menu () and select Import Content.
  8. In the dialog box that appears click Browse and locate an export package for the quiz.
  9. Click Import. This will begin the import process. Continue this process for each quiz you exported. 
  10. (Optional) If you wish to add questions to an item bank, edit each question and select Item banking to add the question to new or existing item bank.  

Note: If questions in the current quiz tool were organized in question groups, a group set and item bank will be created. If the questions in the current quiz tool were added directly the quiz, the questions will only exist in the quiz in the new quiz tool but can added to an item bank individually. Please review the following guides. 

Option 3: Migration from Quiz Index Page

While this option is the easiest to complete, there are several disadvantages to using this option. 

  • If Quizzes in current quiz tool have questions organized in question groups, the questions will  not migrate at all. Use option 1 or 2. 
  • The migrated questions will only exist in the newly created quiz. Since the questions only exist in the quiz they cannot be reused or added as randomized group set to the quiz unless you add questions to an item bank. To add questions to an item bank, each question must be edited individually to manually add the question to an item bank. This is tedious process that can be avoided by using option 1 instead. 

This option allows you migrate quiz content from the current quiz tool index page. Review the steps below.

  1. In the course menu select Quizzes.
  2. On the quiz index page click the options menu () next to the quiz you wish to migrate. In the menu select Migrate Quiz. Please note if you do not see the Migrate Quiz option in the menu, you have not enabled the new quiz tool in course settings. See New Quiz Tool Overview page for details on how to enable the new quiz tool.
  3. In the course menu select Assignments.
  4. On the assignment index page scroll down to the bottom of the page. A new assignment group called Migrated Quizzes will display with the migrated quiz. Click the quiz title to view the new quiz tool screen OR click the options menu () to edit quiz points or due dates.
  5. (Optional) If you wish to add questions to an item bank, edit each question and select Item banking to add the question to new or existing item bank. If you wish to use this option, review the following guides.