[Admin Tools] Allow teachers to temporarily block access to their Canvas site during exams

[ColinMurtaugh]

Some of our faculty wish to block access to their Canvas sites during the administration of exams. Currently our solution is to have them manually adjust the start/end dates of the course and block student access outside of those dates. Once the exam is over, they need to go back in and remove the dates and restrictions.  This approach is error-prone and is further complicated by the fact that our SIS feed may overwrite the manually-set dates unexpectedly. 

A better solution would be for Canvas to let the teaching staff specify temporary blackout periods during which students would not be allowed to access the site (using either a computer or mobile device).  Ideally the person configuring the block would be able to include a custom message to be displayed.  

The ability for teachers to use this feature could be controlled by an account-level setting, similar to the "Don't let teachers modify course availability dates" setting. 

[chriscas]

I'm wondering from a pedagogy viewpoint, what purpose would blocking access to a Canvas course during an exam serve?

If the concern is about cheating/looking up answers, students could still easily google things or get answers other ways.  If courses use modules, the relevant modules could also be pretty easily unpublished temporarily without removing access to the entire site.

Blocking access to an entire Canvas site really seems like something that would open up quite a few potential issues for students, and unfortunately I don't think it's something I can support (at least initially without more information).  I'd definitely be interested in hearing more about the problem teachers are trying to solve, as perhaps there would be some other effective solutions available.

-Chris

[Stef_retired]

@ColinMurtaugh  The Canvas solution to this is Respondus Lockdown Browser in both Classic and New Quizzes. The Lockdown browser prevents students from leaving the quiz until they've submitted it. Are your teachers using LDB for their quizzes?

[faith]

I believe that this can be accomplished using the Settings -> Participation within a course shell.  Change from Term to Course and adjust the start end dates/times.  When done with the blackout period, switch back to Term.  We have prepared a knowledge base article on this process, though not specifically for instructors to create blackout periods.

https://kb.ucdavis.edu/?id=6155

[ColinMurtaugh]

@Stef_retired 

I'd appreciate it if you could un-archive this. Respondus Lockdown Browser is not relevant here; the exams in question might not be administered electronically at all.  

The idea here is to remove the possibility that a student might visit a Canvas site during specific time period when an exam is being administered. While I agree that students might be able to find answers elsewhere, we do have faculty who do want to block access to their sites in this way. 

Thanks,

Colin

[ColinMurtaugh]

@faith -- 

Yes, that's how our users are doing it now, but it's weird and error-prone.  Multiple block periods can't be scheduled in advance, and they can't be scheduled for specific timeframes (i.e. from 1pm-3pm on the specific day that the exam is being given). 

--Colin

[Stef_retired]

@ColinMurtaugh Thanks for specifying that the request is to block students' access to their Canvas course altogether during a specified period while they are performing activities outside of Canvas—in this case, exams. Inasmuch as there is potential for this feature to create considerable difficulties for students, please rewrite the idea so that it is centered around how such a feature would provide a benefit to student learning.

[ColinMurtaugh]

@Stef_retired --

Sorry; I'm afraid I'm confused. How could this possibly cause any difficulty for a student who should not be accessing the site during the exam? 

--Colin

[Stef_retired]

@ColinMurtaugh  The original idea requests the ability to block Canvas "during the administration of exams." This can be read as one hour, one day, or 10 days (if that's the final exam period for a school). In addition, the request is for the teacher role. I can see considerable difficulties created for students should a teacher decide to use the feature to block students' access to a course during the entire final exam period. 

At my school, we managed this by requiring students to take their on-paper final exams at proctoring sites where they were not allowed to access electronic devices. I appreciate that this isn't a solution at a time when onsite learning isn't always possible, but if the students taking on-paper exams aren't proctored, they will still have unlimited access to resources outside of Canvas.

We'd appreciate it if you would rewrite the idea with these concerns in mind.

Thanks.

[ColinMurtaugh]

@Stef_retired I've added the suggestion that the availability of this feature could be controlled via an account-level setting. That way, schools that cannot trust their teaching staff to use the feature in a sensible way can just turn it off. 

[Stef_retired]

@ColinMurtaugh  My admittedly personal opinion is that such a feature should be entirely under the admin's control—in other words, the teacher would need to request the temporary block from the Canvas admin, who would consider those requests on a case-by-case basis. That said, we're grateful for the chance to talk this out, and we've moved the idea forward for broader discussion.

Thanks.