New RCE in New Quizzes

[TamasBalogh]

A lot of you are interested or worried about the RCE in New Quizzes, because there’s no audio or video recording option, insert Canvas content, HTML editing option, etc. We are aware that the current RCE in New Quizzes doesn’t give the best experience neither for teachers nor students and that prevents some of you transitioning to New Quizzes. 

What

We are working on integrating the same RCE you use across Canvas to New Quizzes. Once we are done, you’ll have the exact thing with all the functionalities.

New RCE with math equation

Why

Meanwhile this seems a straightforward and easy task, in the background there are some difficulties to solve. New Quizzes team needs to cooperate with other teams to make this possible. We need to solve all the blockers to have the integration ready.

When

As always I can’t commit to a time in advance, but you can expect the RCE integrated to New Quizzes sometime in the phase 2 of the sunsetting timeline. 

[MattHanes]

@TamasBalogh , is there any way that we can get an intermediary step of incorporating a media recording feature in the existing editor? That's by far the biggest hurdle for our elementary users making the transition to New Quizzes. We had a good Chrome extension that we recommended for doing recordings, but it was recently removed from the Chrome Webstore and we haven't found one that we like as much as that one.

For bonus points, a huge win for New Quizzes would be to add audio recordings as an accommodation the way extended time works. Something that a teacher can add to every question but we can set an accommodation for each student that is remembered across different quizzes that determines whether or not that audio recording will show up.

[Hildi_Pardo]

This is super helpful - thanks for the update. Phase 2 looks like between March and July 2022.

Also, I second Matt's suggestion of adding audio recording for accommodations -- that would be sooo cool.  But I'm also happy just with the new RCE to start (sooner rather than later, or we won't have many elementary or EL teachers interested to start).

Also -- a HUGE request for Surveys (graded and non graded) to be added back.  @kona presented a session once on how she uses surveys to get feedback back from students.  We want to keep our students inside Canvas as much as possible (not an external tool).

[audra_agnelly]

I'm sooo glad this is coming. It has caused a lot of anxiety for our teachers, especially in elementary and special ed who heavily used the media recorder to read their questions aloud for students. With the RCE update, will media recordings in existing Classic Quizzes now be included during the migration process? Right now that audio is lost.

[ckeigher]

@Hildi_Pardo I think Phase 2 might be interpreted as running through the end of Dec. 2022.. OR possibly Phase 2 ends when Phase 3 begins which looks like sometime in 2023.  More clarity on this would really be helpful.

[TamasBalogh]

@MattHanes unfortunately, adding media recording to the existing editor would require a huge amount of work, it's faster to integrate the new RCE. I like the idea to enable media recording based on settings for individuals. We will evaluate the idea.

@Hildi_Pardo, @ckeigher I apologize I wasn't clear enough. You can expect RCE to be integrated before Classic Quiz creation is prevented. 

@audra_agnelly, currently the team has an ongoing investigation and work on the migration process.

[kroeninm]

@TamasBalogh ❤️to see this update, thank you!  Crossing fingers the Math Editors are in sync as this upgrade is made as part of this.  STEM courses (with larger question banks and complex question types) are going to be trickier than most to migrate to new quizzes and it would really help out.

I'm crossing my fingers that that current timeline dates of 07/2022 prevention of new classic quizzes gets pushed back to October 1st / Fall term start or December 1st if that is possible (not that you have control of this) to ensure a longer opt-time timeframe for New Quizzes.  But if the RCE is in place that would be one of my #1 priorities and it sounds like this may happen!

Melanie

[karen_harris1]

This is fantastic news!!!  The RCE offers functionality that is critical for how everyone designs and delivers assessments.  And considering Canvas instructors are becoming comfortable using the RCE (which is itself relatively new), its consistent presence delivers a lot of value as they adapt to implementing New Quizzes.

[bryan_tayman]

Thank you  to @TamasBalogh and your team for working on to make the standard RCE the content editor in New Quizzes!   

The teachers of South Western School District are big fans of Canvas Studio and we hope this will allow them to incorporate Studio videos and screencasts into their New Quizzes instructions.  : )   

[Kelvin_Dean]

If you want to create a survey, you can just simply turn off the points from Restrict Student Result View. Even though we run multiple previews to test this out, the correct points behavior is shown to the students but not to the instructors.

[ANDREC1]

I'm going to add into this that as a world languages instructor, being able to record into a quiz AND for students to be able to record for responses is huge for us. Hiding it as an "essay" question then having to find the media button for students is very cumbersome. However, if we could at least do it like we have been able to in classic quizzes, at least we would have something. This has become a big frustration in our department because we rely heavily on audio and recording speaking in our courses. 

[knoxd]

Thank you for this information on the updates to the RCE and the continuous work that is done to listen to the users.  I look forward to watching this change evolve. 

I second what @ANDREC1 mentioned about world language teachers.  That is a huge hangup for our teachers as well. 

[JoshuaHarper]

I am looking forward to this (hopefuly) being the last semester without a fully integrated RCE in New Quizzes. That could is potentially very exciting!

[ANDREC1]

@Kelvin_Dean but will it still auto-award points like the graded surveys in classic quizzes? I use this for journals as an example. I do read them but they get credit for just writing them as they aren't the same as say a writing exam. It saves me time and since it's a formative grade, it's the practice more than the content that matters to me on those assignments. 

[BethCrook]

I, too, am curious about how grading will work with RCE questions.  For example, if I'm using multiple fill-in-the-blanks via RCE, will there be a way to have it auto grade?  And will partial credit be allowed for RCE question type?  Given that it could be used for essay, math problems, etc, I would hope that partial credit can be given for this question type.   Thank you for considering and for ALL of your HARD work!  I know we don't help make things any easier, but we are trying to help (continue to) make it the best product out there 🙂

[isabel_anievas]

I am really looking forward to being able to use the same RCE that we currently use across Canvas in New Quizzes.

As a language teacher, the ability to record audio and video is s a deal breaker for me. I will not be able to transition to New Quizzes without it. So, I am really excited to hear that you are working on this. 

A little off topic, and definitely not as essential, but will we be able to use Design Tools in Canvas Quizzes once the new RCE is implemented?

Thanks for keeping us posted on this process! it is really appreciated!

[TamasBalogh]

Hi @BethCrook, I'm not sure if I understand what you are saying. Typing your question text with RCE won't affect how your question is graded. It basically allow you to format the question on the fly or add media, tables, etc, it's not a question type. RCE is available for almost all input fields right now. This change is only about having the latest RCE version. 

Please get back to me if I misunderstood your comment! 🙂 Thank you all for your feedback and questions. You are helping us to build the best product! 😉

[JPMorgan1178]

Will this be included on fill-in the blank questions? I work for two colleges one of them won't even authorize use of new quizzes because it is so buggy, and one of the most used question types, fill-in the blank, cannot be formatted. I've found some work arounds but frankly even they suck, so if the RCE will allow us to make things like tables in the fill-in the blank like we can with classic quizzes, that would be awesome.

Right now it sounds as if it will only be available for essay type questions.

[TamasBalogh]

Hi @JPMorgan1178, 

Thank you for the feedback. This initiative is about replacing the old RCE with the new one, everywhere it is currently exists in NQ. I'll investigate the reason why RCE is not there for FITB question types and see if that is something we'll consider to do in the near future.

[greg_marten1]

Many people probably already know this, but it's worth restating here without needing to follow a link:

According to the post by @SuSorensen regarding the Classic Quiz Sunset Timeline, "The option to use Classic Quizzes has been extended until June 30, 2024."

This date relieves a number of teachers at my school. 😉

[isabel_anievas]

That is great news! Thanks for sharing!

[cindy_bell]

I look forward to adding RCE to quizzes ASAP... please let us know as soon as possible.  I am a sign language teacher and rely heavily on video, .gifs and pictures of signs.  With the new quizzes I am unable to use matching as there is not an input for picture. 

[TamasBalogh]

@cindy_bell this initiative is to upgrade our current RCE version to the newest one to have the same experience as in other part of Canvas. This won't affect where you can use RCE within NQ. Altough RCE is present for matching question type's question stem, you can't use it for the question-answer pair's input. 

[greg_marten1]

@cindy_bell regarding pictures in matching questions, would it be too confusing for students if you were to add numbered images in a question stem in a 1x4 table? In the example below, students would then match letters with a numbered image.

[LauraRO_TEIDE]

When working with other languages, this rich content editor for fill in the blank quizzes, doesn´t work with specific language caracteristics, such as Umlaut or ß, could it be fixed? Is a great disadvantage. Thanks.

[Jen_Presley]

@TamasBalogh Great news, thanks! Will RCE be available for teacher feedback for assignments as well? Or only New Quizzes?

[TamasBalogh]

@Jen_Presley This only affects the places where RCE is already present. The RCE version will be changed in New Quizzes.

[TamasBalogh]

@LauraRO_TEIDE Are you talking about New Quizzes or Classic? Is it working anywhere else? Can you please provide some details?

[LauraRO_TEIDE]

Hello, 

I´m talking about new quizzes. I work with several languages, and specific language characters or other characters, such as: ü, ß, commas, questions marks, accents, like in spanish: ón, or ça don´t work. When surrounding a word with backticks to indicate where a student will fill in the answer, it doesn´t appear as an answer. Thanks.

[MARISSASCHRADER]

@LauraRO_TEIDE 

@TamasBalogh 

I also have instructors in world language having the same issue with specific language characters, accents, etc. in New Quizzes. When they surround the word with backticks to show where a student will fill in the answer, it doesn't work correctly (doesn't recognize the word). Please help. Thanks! 

[audra_agnelly]

@TamasBalogh I have a math teacher reporting a similar issue as the foreign language teachers. This teacher had previously created Canvas Quizzes with mathematical expressions as the answer and now those are not recognized as a blank. In testing I could create answers that are a combination of letters and numbers, but any special characters: (, ^, +, etc break the questions. She can't use the equation editor to input her equation since students don't have access to that when they input their answer. Here's the screenshot from my teacher.

[audra_agnelly]

I just want to add that we have 2 weeks of school and teachers using Canvas for last assessments and high school final exams.

[TamasBalogh]

@LauraRO_TEIDE, @MARISSASCHRADER, @audra_agnelly 

Thanks for your feedback. We are working on a solution to fix this and release it.

[ndeatherage]

@TamasBalogh 
I teach physics and am having the same problem with drop-down / fill-in-the blank questions and it is currently driving me nuts. Including any symbols in the correct answer (subscripts, subscripts, inequalities, etc.) means that it is no longer recognized as a blank. For drop-down options, it seems to accept symbols as distractors, but not as part of the correct answer. I am also slightly frustrated by the fact that the blank has to be defined as the correct answer. I appreciated being able in classic quizzes to define a blank using shorthand (say `vunit') and then put answer choices such as m/s, m, m/s². By forcing the blank to be defined by the correct answer, it is sometimes difficult to keep track of which answer sets correspond to which part of the question, especially if several answers have the same options.

In addition, when using word banks, is there a way to add distractors are attached to all the choices not to one in particular? I can't use the correct answer for one of the other blanks as a distractor since it shows up twice in the word bank although only one of those answers (even though they look) identical is marked correct in Canvas. If there are multiple blanks, and students choose an option from one of the answers associated with a different blank, that option doesn't disappear from the word bank like it does if choosing one of the options associated with that blank. Astute students could use this to help narrow down options. It would be great if there could be one general word bank that all blanks in a particular question pull from. Many times I have similar or identical choices for various blanks, so at the moment I need to use drop-down menus to avoid duplication and being able to grab the ''wrong'' right answer.

[LauraRO_TEIDE]

Hello,

When migrating an old quizz (fill in the blank ones) into New Quizzes, as correct answer appears the reference word typed surrounded by brackets, i.e. "Roses are [color1], violets are [color2]", not the actual answer.

Could it be fixed? It implies wasting time entering the answers again. Thanks.

[MPioRoda]

HI LauraRO_TEIDE!

For Fill in the Blank questions in Classic Quizzes, the word surrounded by brackets is treated as a place holder, in your example [color1] shows where the blank is located and the correct answers would be listed within the question edit screen for possible answers. 

For FITB in New Quizzes, the word surrounded by the backticks represents one of the correct answers.  When migrated over, the answers will migrate the same and the way the student enters the answer will be the same. The question functions as expected.

For example, while the question statement right after migrating to a New Quiz will still show [color1] within the backticks, the correct answers appear as expected. The placeholder is not considered a correct answer. If you want to get rid of the placeholder within that question statement on the Build screen, you could re-enter the correct answer in one of the answer fields which will reset the question statement to show the correct answer within the backticks; however, that is not necessary for the question to work as expected.

[Hildi_Pardo]

@TamasBalogh -- is there an update on the new RCE for NQ and when, specifically, will media recorder be available?  Thank you!  We have too many teachers not using NQ until this is available for compliance with IEPs and 504s.

thanks!

[TamasBalogh]

Hi all, you should check the status update post on RCE. 

[sweet2]

Have we made any progress towards this? I was able to record media into the quizzes for my ASL students, and then when I went back in to new quizzes, it was gone again. 

[TamasBalogh]

Hi @sweet2, unfortunately we found a bug and had to turn off the new RCE until we fix it. You can read more here.