When submitting a photo of an assignment to the Canvas app, is it possible a copy of that photo is saved anywhere on the device?

[hmacdermott]

A student says they submitted a photo of their assignment through the Canvas Student app and got the confirmation BUT the professor never saw a submission. There is no copy of the photo in the student's user files (Account> Files > Submissions > COURSE NAME) which makes me think the submission was never made (either because it failed or it was never attempted).

I tested submitting a photo to an assignment through the Canvas Student app using an iPad. I got a confirmation and I checked my user files and saw the photo. The photo did NOT save to the Camera Roll. Is it possible the photo saved elsewhere like in Internal Storage>Pictures>Canvas? 

Thanks for reading.

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @hmacdermott,

I think this may be something that could vary based on the device the student used.  I'm fairly confident that iOS devices work as you described (photo not saved in camera roll or anywhere else device-side).  I don't have an android device to test, but I know there are a lot of variants and customizations done by manufacturers, so it may not be as consistent as iOS.

I'm an admin for my institution, and generally in cases like this we'll ask the student for details about when they tried to do the submission, what they saw, etc.  I'll then go into the users pageview history to see if they even visited the assignment anywhere near the time they said they did (and for last-minute submissions, I'll see if they visited a few minutes past the accept until time).  I report that back to the teacher/instructor and then let them figure out how they want to handle the situation.  If you're a teacher, I'd suggest connecting with your school's Canvas admin. If you are an admin, I could suggest this approach to at least begin with.  It's easy enough to take a photo with an altered date/time, so I almost feel like it might not be worth going down that direction (but I know it could help paired with other evidence as well).

Hope this helps a bit!

-Chris