The Many Adventures of Test Bank Installation, pt. 1 - Importing .QTI Files

Beginning this week, the FaCIT Update blog will share a series of posts on the topic of inserting test banks into Canvas courses. Each post in this series will illustrate another method to install a test bank in Canvas based on the type of test bank provided by the publisher.

As Canvas gains market share in Higher Education, more publishers are providing test banks formatted for the Canvas LMS. Canvas test bank files have the .QTI extension.  Should you be so fortunate as to have access to a test bank formatted for the Canvas LMS, importing it to your course will be easy. Follow the steps below to successfully import your Canvas test bank.

1. Download the test bank from the Publisher's website.

a. Locate the instructor resources on the publisher's website.

b. Select the link to the test banks.

c. Accept the license agreement.

d. Download the test bank files.

2. Once you have obtained the file, right click on the resulting .zip file and select Extract all.
A small window will appear where you will select a location on your computer for the files. Select Extract.

e. Extract files.

3. Open the extracted file folder; notice that there is a .zip file for each chapter.

f. Folder with extracted files.

g. Notice that each chapter has a .zip file; these should remain zipped for the next step.

4. Open the Canvas course.

5. Navigate to Settings.

h. Course settings

6. Select Import Content into This Course from the right side of your screen. (note: on some smaller computer monitors, the content normally on the right side may display on the bottom of the screen when you scroll down.)

i. Import Content into this course link at the right of the screen.

7. Select .QTI zip file from the drop down menu.

j. .QTI file.

8. Browse for, and select, the .zip file for the chapter you need. (See video below step 10)

9. Enter a name for the test bank; FaCIT advises including the author's name and edition of the book or the semester and year in the name in order to identify the bank for deletion when a new edition is adopted in the future. (See video below step 10)

10. Select Import, and wait for the file to load. (See video below)

Click here to view video

11. Repeat for each chapter.