Canvas, Blackboard and Moodle quiz files
Upload the lecture PDF, the Word study guide or the slide deck, up to 10 files at once. PDFQuiz writes the questions, the answer key and the explanations, then hands you a QTI zip that Canvas imports as a finished quiz. No template to format and no question typed twice.
Upload your Word or PDF file and generate the quiz
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PDF, DOCX, PPTX, TXT, JPG, JPEG, PNG, HEIC, ODP, ODT, BMP, or TIFF
Up to 10 files at once, 50 MB each, merged into one quiz within the demo page limit
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The short answer
Most QTI converters only reformat questions you already wrote, and they reject anything that breaks their template. PDFQuiz starts one step earlier. It reads your Word file or PDF, writes multiple choice, true or false and multiple answer questions from it, and exports a Canvas QTI 1.2 zip or a QTI 2.1 package. In Canvas you import it under Settings, Import Course Content, QTI .zip file, and the quiz arrives with every correct answer already keyed.
PDFQuiz is an independent tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Instructure, Anthology or Moodle. QTI export is included in the Pro and Elite plans.
A QTI file is a zip with a manifest and an XML file that describes every question, its answer options, which option is correct and what feedback to show. Canvas reads the manifest first, so the zip has to stay zipped when you upload it.
The PDFQuiz Canvas export follows the QTI 1.2 layout Canvas uses for its own quiz exports. Each question carries a Canvas question type, one point and the explanation from your quiz as feedback.
imsmanifest.xml
pdfquiz_assessment/pdfquiz_assessment.xml
<item title="Question 1">
question_type multiple_choice_question
points_possible 1.0
mattext Which organelle makes most of the cell's ATP?
choice A Ribosome
choice B Mitochondrion correct, score 100
choice C Golgi apparatus
choice D Lysosome
feedback Cellular respiration in the mitochondrion produces most ATP.
</item>
Simplified view. The real file is standard QTI XML that you never have to open or edit.
One generated quiz downloads in several formats from the same menu, so a department that runs Canvas for one program and Moodle for another does not have to build the test twice.
Canvas, QTI 2.1 and GIFT downloads are part of the Pro and Elite plans. PDF and Word export start on Plus. Current prices are on the pricing page.
The handout already holds the test. What eats the evening is turning forty paragraphs into forty questions with plausible wrong answers and then clicking each one into Canvas. The first part is what PDFQuiz writes, and the QTI zip removes the clicking.
QTI 1.2
In the layout Canvas uses for its own quiz exports
QTI 2.1
A second package for Blackboard and other platforms
10 files
Read in one upload, PDF, Word or PowerPoint, up to 50 MB each
The right tool depends on one question. Are the test questions already written? If they are, a free formatter may be all you need. If all you have is the reading, the slides or last year's notes, the writing is the real job.
We will say it plainly. If your forty questions already sit in a Word file with the answers marked, a free converter gets them into Canvas and you do not need us for that step. Where PDFQuiz earns its plan is the term you have a new textbook chapter, a rewritten module or a certification manual and no question bank at all. Then the questions, the distractors and the explanations come from the material itself, and the QTI file is the last click instead of a separate project.
The other reason instructors pay for it is versions. Generate a second set from the same chapter for the makeup exam or for another section, export it, and import it next to the first. If you also run quizzes outside the learning platform, the same set exports as a printable test with an answer key.
Drop in the Word file, the PDF chapter and the slides together. Turn on OCR for a scanned PDF.
Pick multiple choice, multiple answer and true or false. Read the set and edit or delete any item you would not grade.
Open the download menu on the quiz list and choose Canvas (QTI). Keep the zip as it is, do not unzip it.
Settings, Import Course Content, QTI .zip file. Tick New Quizzes if you want one, import, then check and publish.
Canvas names the imported quiz after your PDFQuiz quiz and leaves it unpublished. Set the due date, time limit and attempts in Canvas, the same way you would for a quiz you built there.
PDFQuiz writes six question types. The QTI packages carry the three that a learning platform can score automatically from a list of options. GIFT, the Moodle text format, carries all six.
So generate choice questions when the destination is Canvas or Blackboard, and keep fill in the blank and essay items for the printed version. Course builders who keep a pool per unit can grow it with the question bank generator, and the platform walkthroughs for Canvas quizzes, Blackboard tests and Moodle quizzes cover the settings on each side.
Weekly reading quizzes written from the assigned chapter, imported in minutes, with the explanations students see after they submit.
Knowledge checks for a new online course built from the faculty slides and handouts, delivered to the shell as QTI instead of hand entry.
Assessments generated from the policy manual or the certification guide and loaded into a learning platform that reads QTI.
Upload the Word file to PDFQuiz, generate multiple choice, true or false and multiple answer questions from it, review them, then open the download menu on the quiz list and pick Canvas (QTI) or the QTI 2.1 package. You get a .zip file ready to import. Nothing in the Word file has to follow a special template, because the questions are written from the content itself.
Upload the PDF, turn on OCR if it is a scanned copy, and generate the questions. After you review and edit the set, choose Canvas (QTI) in the download menu. The zip uses QTI 1.2 in the same layout Canvas uses for its own quiz exports, so it imports as a quiz with the correct answers and feedback already set.
In your course open Settings, then Import Course Content. Set Content Type to QTI .zip file, choose the zip without unzipping it, and decide whether to tick Import existing quizzes as New Quizzes. Click Import and wait for the job to show Completed. The quiz then appears under Quizzes, unpublished, so you can check it before students see it.
Canvas documentation lists both QTI 1.2 and QTI 2.1 as supported import formats, but packages in the QTI 1.2 layout that Canvas itself exports are the ones that import most reliably. That is why the PDFQuiz Canvas export uses QTI 1.2, while the separate QTI 2.1 package is aimed at Blackboard and other learning platforms.
Yes. On the Import Course Content page, tick Import existing quizzes as New Quizzes before you start the import, and Canvas builds a New Quiz from the package. Leave the box empty to get a Classic Quiz instead. If your school has turned off the option, import as Classic and migrate the quiz to New Quizzes afterward.
Yes, for questions you have already written. text2qti is a free open source command line tool that turns a plain text file in its own markup into a QTI zip, and several universities host Word to QTI converters that need a strict template. They format questions, they do not write them. PDFQuiz writes the questions from your source file, and its QTI export is part of the Pro plan.
The PDFQuiz QTI packages carry multiple choice, true or false and multiple answer questions, each worth one point, with the explanation attached as feedback. Fill in the blank, matching and open ended questions are left out of the QTI files. If you need those in a learning platform, the Moodle GIFT export keeps all six question types.
Use the QTI 2.1 package for Blackboard and other platforms that read QTI 2.1, and the Canvas QTI 1.2 zip where a platform asks for the Canvas layout. D2L Brightspace and Schoology both accept QTI packages, but every school configures imports differently, so import one short quiz first and check the answers before you move a whole test bank.
Starting from a Word file in particular? The Word to quiz generator page covers .docx study guides and handouts in more detail.
Canvas Quiz Generator
Quiz settings, question groups and New Quizzes.
Blackboard Test Generator
Tests for Blackboard Learn and Ultra courses.
Moodle Quiz Generator
GIFT import into the Moodle question bank.
D2L Quiz Generator
Brightspace quizzes from your course files.
Word to Quiz
Questions written from a .docx study guide.
Quiz Export Tool
Every export format and the plan it needs.
Upload the Word file or PDF, review the questions and their explanations, and import one QTI zip instead of typing every item into the quiz editor.