New Quizzes Hot Spot Questions Not Displaying Pictures For Students

Last semester I created a number of hot spot quizzes for practice for my anatomy students. All of these quizzes pull from a bank so each time students take the quiz they get different questions in a different order. The quizzes worked great and I felt they were helpful for my students.

This semester when students attempted these quizzes the picture was broken. I spent about an hour recreating a bank for my students thinking that it had something to do with pulling a question bank from a different class. It made no difference. Students still saw the broken picture icon.

When I preview the quiz in student mode I can see the picture fine.

I'm really frustrated because I spent several hours creating these banks last semester and now I'm spending hours trying to find an answer to this question.

Additionally, in some other New Quizzes question types (MC) students were also seeing broken images. I was able to fix this by saving the images in my files and then posting a link in the quiz rather than embedding an image. Still a pain in the butt and time consuming.

My students are NOT using Respondus. This issue appears to be new since last semester I had no problems at all. Canvas help told me they can't recreate the issue, feels like I'm being gaslit.

Is anyone else having this issue?

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Accepted answers

astone2

We figured out the problem. By selecting all of my files and making the public students are now able to see the images.

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geospyder

YES!!! I've been having the same issue. Some students have no problem, while others can't see them. I even recreated the hotspot questions too in a new bank.

jeremyfw

Hi @astone2,

My suspicion is that the file-permission architecture is the culprit.

Likely one of the following gremlins:

Image lives in another course’s Files
1. If the image was originally uploaded in Course A last semester and the question bank was reused in Course B this semester, the question may still point to Course A’s file URL. Teachers usually have access to both courses. Students only have access to Course B. So students hit a permissions wall and see a broken link.
The image file is unpublished or restricted
1. If the file is unpublished or has restricted visibility, students cannot fetch it, but teachers can.
The image URL is absolute, not course-relative
1. Sometimes when content is copied or banks are migrated, the image reference remains a hard-coded URL tied to the original course ID. If that course concluded or student access was removed, the link silently dies for students.
Bank storage context mismatch in New Quizzes
1. New Quizzes question banks (item banks) can exist at different levels - Course, Account, Shared bank
2. If the image is stored in the original course’s file system but the bank is now used from a different course context, students don’t inherit file access. New Quizzes doesn’t always automatically duplicate file assets when banks are reused.

A suggestion:

Download all images locally.
Re-upload them into the current course’s Files.
Reinsert them into the quiz question editor from the current course file picker (not copy/paste from another course).
Ensure the Files folder is published and not restricted.

Yes, it’s annoying. But it guarantees students have permission. Hope that works for you.

Now, zooming out.

This is actually one of the deeper structural weaknesses of Canvas when it comes to reusable question banks. Images are tied to course-level file storage. Question banks are portable. File permissions are not. That mismatch is what causes these invisible breakpoints.

This is exactly why a platform architecture shift helps.

Instead of storing images inside Canvas course Files and letting Canvas own the source of truth, you can treat Canvas as a delivery layer only.

That’s where something like the Canvas Question Bank Platform becomes powerful.

In that model:

Your questions live in one centralized system
Images (and other media) are stored in a stable external repository
Banks are version-controlled
Canvas simply receives exported content (QTI or API push)
Files aren’t tied to a single course instance

You eliminate cross-course file permissions entirely.

Canvas becomes the display engine. The external platform becomes the source of truth.

No more semester rollover surprises.
No more “why does preview work but students can’t see it?”
No more hidden file ownership traps.

If you’re building large reusable banks - especially hotspot items with images - this architectural separation prevents exactly this kind of pain.

Right now the issue feels like a technical glitch. But really it’s a structural design limitation in how Canvas handles file scope versus item banks.

Once you see that pattern, it stops feeling random and starts feeling solvable.

And once you control the asset layer yourself, Canvas stops being a fragile storage system and becomes what it’s best at: delivery.

That shift alone can save you hours every semester.

Cheers,
J
"Rethinking How We Build and Reuse Question Banks in Canvas - A better way"

astone2

We figured out the problem. By selecting all of my files and making the public students are now able to see the images.

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