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Export Issue

MariaVita02941038

I had a FREE teacher account. Today was the first time I had access to my account since May. I did not receive a notice about the window in late May for teachers to export. Now that I was able to log-in, I tried following the directions to export quizzes. When I was finally able to export them after the glitch this morning, I cannot open the xml files. They do not show any information in word and they do not show any information in excel. I am unable to download whatever extenstion is being recommended. Is there a workaround?

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Accepted answers

dbrace

Hello @MariaVita02941038,

Thank you for the screenshots and updates on this.

In order to resolve this as quickly as possible because of the time constraints for Canvas FFT, please send me a message in the Canvas Community and include the full/original ZIP file that you downloaded.

https://community.instructure.com/en/kb/articles/663127-how-do-i-send-a-private-message-in-the-instructure-community

I will then try to get you something that is readable and usable.

-Doug

dbrace

Hi @MariaVita02941038!

Thank you for sending me the Community message and email.

I replied back to you as a Community message with something that you should be able to use.

Please le me know how it goes.

-Doug

All comments

Noah

Hello @MariaVita02941038 !

I just tried to export my quizzes and import them into excel and I had success. Would you please clarify what you mean by "information"? Do you mean the quiz questions? If so, please let me know, I can provide you with the steps I took to see if that will help you!

MariaVita02941038

I cannot see any of the questions in my quizzes. I am attaching two images: One where I open the xml file in word and one where I open the xml file in Microsoft Excel. As you can see, I do not have any questions appearing

Noah

Whenever you downloaded the quiz file and extracted it, did you see a folder that basically just had lots of letters and numbers? If so, whenever you opened that folder, did you see one file named assessment_meta and another one that matches the name of the folder with all the random letters and numbers? If not, I recommend trying to import that specific file (the one with all the random letters and numbers) and see if the questions appear that way. I had to go into microsoft excel, go to data > get data > from file > XML > select that specific file (it's a microsoft edge HTML file), then only click on the assessment table (don't click the URL one as well) then click transform data. After that I went to the header labeled section.item and clicked in, then clicked on the word table directly beneath it and a table appeared with the data (you'll need to use the expand tool to actually see the questions!) and then I clicked close and load and it went directly into excel.

What I exported was a survey (it only had open ended questions), however they're still set up in a classic quiz with questions. I'll attach a link to what my excel sheet looks like after importing that one specific file.

Let me know if that helps you in some way or if you need clarification!

MariaVita02941038

Do I import as CSV HTML or Text file? I am still not seeing anything but I did get the folders you speak of -one with assessment_meta and a paired one with random numbers and letters

MariaVita02941038

This is what I see when I import CSV or Text

Noah

Ah! You're not on windows, my bad! You'll want to do the CSV HTML option.

I think I see what is happening, you had the URL table selected whenever you transferred your data. Did you see a second table called assessment? That would be the only one you want to click on. Whenever you open excel and go to add data, does the Power Query Editor appear?

MariaVita02941038

I have a mac laptop that belongs to my school. I can only do CSV or HTML or Text, not both CSV HTML. I tried to "Import" as you said. I don't know what you mean by "you had the URL table selected whenever you transferred your data." When you say "table" do you mean tab? I also do not know what you mean by the Power Query Editor.

Thanks for trying to help me

dbrace

Hello @MariaVita02941038,

After generating the quiz export and downloading the file, what is it that you are trying to do? Are you trying to open the file in another program or are you trying to reuse the quiz in another LMS?

If you are trying to open (not edit) the file in another program, the easieset way to do that on a Mac is probably to use Safari.

After you extract the ZIP file, you will see something like what is below when you go into the folder.

Each of the folders with the random string of letters and numbers is a folder dedicated to a specific quiz. If you go into one of the folders, you will see two files like what is below.

You can right/control click on the XML file with the random string of letters and numbers, go to "Open With" and select Safari.

You can then scroll through the code. The first portion will be for quiz settings and then that will be followed by each question. How each question will be displayed/formatted will vary depending on the type of question it is.

Another option is to open the XML file with TextEdit (it will appear in the "Open With" menu).

If you would like to open in it a table view, that can be more complicated but it is possible to do with the Mac version of Excel. Do an internet search for "how to open an XML file in the mac version of excel" (do not include quotes) and you will get results like a YouTube video or question on the Microsoft Learn webpage.

If you are trying to import the QTI ZIP file into another LMS, you would need to do an internet search for something like: "how to import QTI ZIP file into insert name of LMS". Canvas has a guide called How do I import quizzes from QTI packages?.

I hope this helps.

-Doug

Noah

No worries, I'm happy to help! So, since the windows devices use HTML for the Excel import, I'd try using the HTML file found on the mac laptop as well. In your image, in row 2, there's a w3.org url. While that is part of the export of your course, that's not what you'd use to get access to your questions. It probably just populated in there whenever you exported it, you didn't do anything wrong!

The Power Query Editor is the application that automatically opens by default whenever you go to import an HTML file into Excel. However, it seems to only appear on windows devices, and since it's not native to an apple device it probably won't just load for you, however I'm not too sure about that as I am more familiar with exporting on a windows device than I am on my macbook. I'd recommend following Doug's advice from his message as he seems to have clearer insight into using a mac with course exports than I do.

MariaVita02941038

I don't have another LMS to use the exported files in. I thought I would at least have access to the questions in the quizzes, not the code. Is the export feature just providing us with code? I want the actual quiz questions (and ideally answers) to appear so I could reuse them in some other way, which may not necessarily be in another LMS. I tried to right click on the random string of letters document and say "open with" safari, but I got nothing. Then I tried "open with" TextEdit and I got the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><questestinterop xmlns="http://www.imsglobal.org/xsd/ims_qtiasiv1p2" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.imsglobal.org/xsd/ims_qtiasiv1p2 http://www.imsglobal.org/xsd/ims_qtiasiv1p2p1.xsd">
<assessment ident="g0a51aaa60acfa5a023a30782e1274707" title="Research Methods Quiz">
<qtimetadata>
<qtimetadatafield>
<fieldlabel>cc_maxattempts</fieldlabel>
<fieldentry>1</fieldentry>
</qtimetadatafield>
</qtimetadata>
<section ident="root_section">
</section>
</assessment>
</questestinterop>

Is it only code that we have exported or the actual work?

I still am not seeing the quiz questions that were part of the quizzes I exported.

MariaVita02941038

I also tried to use the table view you suggested by following steps on the Internet and here is what I get

Screenshot 2026-07-28 at 11.10.47 PM.png

dbrace

Hello @MariaVita02941038,

Thank you for the screenshots and updates on this.

https://community.instructure.com/en/kb/articles/663127-how-do-i-send-a-private-message-in-the-instructure-community

I will then try to get you something that is readable and usable.

-Doug

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