Can Teachers On Canvas Detect Switching Tabs, Phones, Copy-Paste
Online education has given schools, teachers, and students a wider degree of convenience when accessing educational resources. However, this rise also comes with new challenges, such as ensuring academic integrity!
Without teachers or invigilators physically present, the temptation of committing academic dishonesty might prove too irresistible.
Fortunately, learning management systems (LMS) have made the shift a lot easier. Many monitoring tools are now available, each with varying supervisory capabilities.
As these tools have become standard, students may question the extent of surveillance within LMS like Canvas.
Can teachers notice students opening new tabs, switching to other browsers, splitting screens, viewing messages from other students, or even starting attempts using phones? Let’s take a look!
Understanding Canvas’s Monitoring Abilities
Canvas, developed by Instructure, stands out as a comprehensive Learning Management System (LMS) designed for supervising online education.
Canvas has become a popular choice for educational institutions seeking an effective platform to create, manage, and conduct course assessments in a virtual environment!
Depending on the proctoring tools implemented, Canvas can monitor various forms of student activity.
Canvas offers many analytic tools to track student engagement, interaction, and participation during assessment.
In this section, we’ll outline Canvas’s inherent monitoring capabilities without these tools.
Canvas’ quiz log shows any interactions that students have on the quiz page itself, along with the timeframe of the interaction. This includes viewing and answering the quiz questions on the Canvas page itself.
Navigation inside and outside the Canvas quiz page is also logged, including timestamps of when the student exits and re-enters the Canvas platform.
Canvas itself however cannot detect new tabs. It cannot inherently identify activity on any outside applications.
Canvas tests that are instead proctored with the integrated analytic tools (like Respondus Monitor and Proctorio, which will be discussed further down) can prevent and detect much external activity — such as switching to new tabs.
These proctoring tools can disable functions like screen-share, copy-paste, zoom, and screenshot, as well as record microphone and web camera activity.
Can Canvas Detect New Tabs
No, while Canvas cannot detect new tabs or track activities inside other applications during non-proctored tests, Canvas’ quiz log records any triggered events during tests including navigation inside and outside the Canvas quiz page. Quizzes or tests proctored with tools like Respondus Monitor and Proctorio can prevent and detect new tabs.
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That said, Canvas is unable to identify any specific pages that a student visits outside the Canvas application. It is only able to log that the student left the quiz-taking page at a specific time and the time they returned to the quiz page.
The image above shows the recorded event logs from a quiz event by a student on Canvas. As you can see, it logs every activity including reading and answering questions, and shows the time the student left the quiz page and the time they returned.
In the case of proctored tests, Canvas leverages tools like Proctorio and Respondus Monitor to restrict computer activities and monitor the student environment during tests. These proctoring tools leverage the student’s computer webcam and microphones to record the student and any activities in their testing environment.
Can Canvas Detect Switching Tabs
While Canvas cannot identify specific actions like switching tabs in non-proctored tests, it can detect and log events including navigation from the Canvas quiz page.
That said, Canvas leverages proctoring solutions like Respondus Monitor and Proctorio during proctored tests to disable and limit computer activities including switching tabs and leverages the computer webcam and microphone to record the student’s testing environment.
In non-proctored tests, Canvas can log activities including reading and answering questions as well as leaving and returning to the test page. Attempts to copy are also logged for review by the instructor after the tests.
Additionally, any attempts to view other pages inside Canvas during ongoing tests are logged for instructor review.
In the case of proctored tests, Canvas leverages proctoring solutions like Proctorio and Respondus Monitor to deter students from cheating. Respondus Monitor which includes the LockDown Browser can restrict computer activities including copy-pasting, minimizing or maximizing, opening and switching tabs, and also leverages the computer’s webcam and microphone to record the student in their testing environment.
Respondus Monitor is also able to record the computer screen while restricting the launch of any other application on the computer including the use of shortcut keys.
Can Canvas Detect Screen Sharing
No, Canvas cannot detect screen sharing during non-proctored tests. That said, proctoring solutions like Respondus Monitor and Proctorio can easily detect, restrict and disable screen sharing during proctored tests.
Proctoring tools like Respondus Monitor go the distance to ensure that students can’t only cheat using their computers but they also can’t even at the convenience of their homes during tests.
Respondus Monitor which includes the LockDown Browser restricts computer activities including running other applications, screenshotting, shortcut keys, and virtual machines, and leverages the computer’s webcam and microphone to record the student’s environment and flags any suspicious activities for instructor review.
Can Canvas Detect Screenshots
Canvas cannot detect screenshots on students’ computers during non-proctored tests. That said, proctoring tools like Respondus Monitor and Proctorio can easily detect, restrict and disable screenshots during proctored tests.
It’s worth noting that a proctoring tool like Respondus Monitor disables any shortcut keys and third-party screenshotting applications on the student’s computer during proctored tests.
It also records the student’s computer screen and the testing environment through the computer’s webcam and microphone and logs any events for further review by instructors.
Can Canvas Detect Split Screen
No, Canvas cannot detect split screens unless the student clicks off the active Canvas test page during non-proctored tests. That said, Canvas can easily detect, log and even restrict split screens during tests proctored with tools like Respondus Monitor and Proctorio.
Respondus Monitor is built on top of the LockDown Browser which locks the students’ test environment on the computer preventing them from running other applications, using shortcut keys, using virtual machines, screenshotting, or even using split screens.
Additionally, it leverages the student’s computer webcam and microphone to record them and flag any suspicious activities while also recording the computer screen.
Can Canvas Detect Copy Paste
Like most modern learning management systems (LMS), Canvas has integration for some of the most popular plagiarism checkers like UniCheck and Turnitin which compares copy-pasted content with their database, ProQuest, Google’s Index, and various other databases to identify plagiarized content.
That said, content paraphrased with tools like QuillBot cannot be easily identified by most premium plagiarism checkers. These tools are unable to detect QuillBot as it leverages state-of-the-art artificial intelligence to change phrase and sentence sequences.
On the other hand, plagiarism checkers simply check comparable phrases and sentence patterns making it difficult to detect sentences restructured by QuillBot. It’s worth noting that not all paraphrasing tools produce the best results as some simply replace a few words with their synonyms.
It’s therefore advisable to verify any paraphrased content before submission to avoid getting flagged for plagiarism.
Canvas Quiz Log Copy And Paste
No, Canvas quiz log does not detect and log copy-pasted content. That said, it’s able to log other activities including leaving and returning to the quiz page. Proctoring tools like Respondus Monitor however restrict system functionalities including copying and pasting.
Can Canvas Detect Phone Activity
No, Canvas cannot detect phone activity during non-proctored tests. That said, proctoring solutions like Respondus Monitor that leverage computer webcam and microphone to record students in their testing environment can capture and flag the use of phones during proctored tests.
What Can Professors See On Canvas During Quizzes
Canvas’ quiz log shows Professors any student interactions on the quiz page and its timeframe including viewing and answering questions, leaving and returning to the quiz page. That said, professors can see every student interaction both on their computers and in their home testing environment during proctored tests that use Respondus Monitor.
Canvas cannot determine pages students visit outside the Canvas learning management system during the non-proctored test but it simply logs the time students left the quiz page and the time they returned.
The detailed log simply shows any activities students undertook during tests on the platform but can provide specifics on pages students might have visited outside the learning management system.
In the case of proctored tests, professors would be able to see every activity students undertook on their computers and ongoing events in the student’s testing environment through the computer’s webcam and microphone.
Conclusion
Canvas is a leading Learning Management System (LMS) that addresses the challenge of maintaining integrity in online examinations.
Instructors can monitor student activities, including tab switching and other instances of cheating, ensuring a fair and secure testing environment.
Understanding Canvas’s capabilities is crucial for both students and educators to navigate the online learning world effectively.
For educators, familiarity with Canvas features and proctoring tools enables them to conduct assessments that will ensure academic honesty!
For Students, understanding the extent of surveillance occurring in their online assessments.
Although Canvas has limited inherent monitoring capabilities, it offers a wealth of integrated tools to detect the various forms of academic dishonesty.
