Exporting CheckIt banks to LMS

In this section

• Automatic generation of LaTeX source for assessments using randomly selected CheckIt problems from selected outcomes
• Export of large CheckIt question banks for use with LMS including Moodle, D2L, and Canvas

How to generate LaTeX source

Instructors can use CheckIt to generate new assessments, such as in-class quizzes, from existing learning outcomes. From the bank home page, make sure the "Show Instructor Features" box is checked, and select "Assessment Builder".

In the CheckIt Assessment Builder, use the dropdown menu to add the learning outcomes appropriate to your assessment. When you have added all your desired outcomes, click the "Generate" button. Very quickly, you should see (part of) the source code for your assessment in the left pane and a preview of the generated assesssment in the right pane. A new dropdown menu labeled "Export:" also appears. This dropdown will allow you to further edit and customize the assessment source code in Overleaf or simply copy it directly to clipboard with one click.

How to use CheckIt banks in your LMS

Instructors can use CheckIt to generate question banks for use with learning management systems (LMS) from existing learning outcomes. This guide will explain how to get your banks into Canvas LMS, with a full walk-through of generating a Canvas Quiz aligned to the outcomes. This involves three separate steps:

1. Export CheckIt bank questions to QTI .zip file or files
2. Create CSV of outcomes for ingestion by Canvas
3. Import QTI files created in step 1 into Canvas

Once these steps are done a single time, the instructor can create Canvas quizzes containing CheckIt questions aligned to the learning outcomes.

Exporting CheckIt bank questions as QTI .zip files

From the bank home page, make sure the "Show Instructor Features" box is checked, and select "LMS Export".

At the present time a caution appears, warning the user to use the Chrome browser and not to export too many outcomes at once. Before you export, you should consider the structure of the assessment you want to generate. Each zip file needs to correspond to a Canvas Question Bank. It's easier to export them one by one from CheckIt than it is to take the zip files apart. So, if you want questions that correspond to outcomes in a 1-1 way, you will need a different Question Bank for each outcome. Using TeamBasedInquiryLearning's Linear Algebra 2024 as an example, we would need to export 25 zip files, one for each of the 25 outcomes.

Creating CSV to populate Canvas Outcomes

An instructor might wish to align CheckIt questions in a Question Bank (on a quiz or other Canvas assessment) to Canvas Outcomes. This allows the use of a grading rubric inherent in the Outcome. Creating Outcomes in Canvas is easier if done in bulk using the CSV import format (example here (alternatively at Google Drive) for outcomes corresponding to Linear Algebra 2024).

The first column's entries need to be unique across your institution's Canvas installation (so using the same outcomes in a different course means new IDs are necessary).

The format of the CSV describes the function of the fields left blank in the example and how to use the last column group ratings to accomplish different grading schemata.

Importing the QTI files to create Question Banks

This step needs to be performed once for each Question Bank you are creating. Each Question Bank corresponds to a single zip file (you generated these in the first part of this walkthrough). In the Canvas Settings page for your course, find the Import Course Content button. Select the "QTI .zip file" option from the dropdown menu and browse to the zip file you wish to upload. Select "-- Create new question bank --" from the dropdown that appears. Do not check the "Import existing quizzes as New Quizzes" box. Check the "Overwrite assessment content with matching IDs" box in the rare case that it is appropriate. Click Import. A progress bar will appear. The process takes some time. When it is finished the Question Bank will be available to use in quizzes. If you have created Outcomes according to the previous section, you can align them using the Manage Question Banks page, which you will find in the triple-dot menu in the Quizzes page.