Accused of Accessing Canvas During Exam

[conhieh]

I just took a two-hour in-person exam, on paper, and in the middle of the test, my professor comes up to me and asks if I'm cheating. She proceeded to ask if I had my phone on me which I then replied no and took my backpack from under the desk, unzipped it, and rummaged through a pile of study snacks and stationery to retrieve my phone. She then tells me to stay after class which is when she proceeds to say that she noticed an activity on my Canvas. I immediately realized that it was likely because when I put my PC to sleep, it would randomly wake up after X hours. I told her that was likely the case and she found it hard to believe. I have no reason to cheat as it is my senior year in college and I would rather retake the course than commit academic dishonesty. She said that I must write up a report on why there could have been an activity on my Canvas so that she can forward it to the IT at my school. What can I say? Is there any way they could track my IP or the device on which the activity was reported? The only time I accessed Canvas on my phone was one minute before the exam to check my seating assignment but after that, I did not access it again. I'm stressed out here and I still have two other exams to take but I cannot focus because I'm being accused of cheating when I'm not. Will IT understand my circumstances and is there any way to prove my innocence? I just need some type of answer, some form of help. 

[Gabriel33 · Accepted solution]

IT (and some professors) can likely check the user agent of the device accessing it (which tells you the operating system and browser used), so they could know whether it was a phone that accessed it or a laptop. I have used it myself, and caught a student accessing his Canvas exam on his phone (while he left the exam room).

Alternatively, both IT and professors can check what you did on the activity history, whether your laptop accessed only the main course page, or if it accessed a specific file.

These can be used as proof against you but, if you really did nothing, it can also help exonerate you. I don't know what the IT policy in your school is, whether they are willing to share that information with you before you write the report (to tell the truth, I don't know what my University's policy on that is, either), but you might consider checking?

[Gabriel33 · Accepted solution]

IT (and some professors) can likely check the user agent of the device accessing it (which tells you the operating system and browser used), so they could know whether it was a phone that accessed it or a laptop. I have used it myself, and caught a student accessing his Canvas exam on his phone (while he left the exam room).

Alternatively, both IT and professors can check what you did on the activity history, whether your laptop accessed only the main course page, or if it accessed a specific file.

These can be used as proof against you but, if you really did nothing, it can also help exonerate you. I don't know what the IT policy in your school is, whether they are willing to share that information with you before you write the report (to tell the truth, I don't know what my University's policy on that is, either), but you might consider checking?

[sendres · Accepted solution]

Hi @conhieh,

Canvas institutional admin here. You're in luck; every page view by every user is logged in Canvas. the logs include the IP address and user agent used to make each request.

Here's what I would suggest: Go to your IT department, instructional technology team, or whomever administers Canvas at your school. Give them the date of the exam and ask them to:

1. Look up your user profile in Canvas,
2. Scroll to the Page Views section.
3. Filter by the date of the exam.
4. Download the page_views.csv file and give it to you. Be sure to get the CSV file since that provides greater detail than a screenshot of the graphical user interface.

Here's the relevant page from the Canvas Admin Guide with more information about looking up page views. I'm not a legal scholar, but these logs record your course activity and participation and are arguably educational records you have the right to under FERPA. Good luck!