[ARCHIVED] Students masking/hacking around tracking?

[Adrienne_J_Gaut]

Has anyone heard of or found a clever technique that students can use to view/Preview course files (linked in a Page/etc. or from Files or /files) that will mask the fact that they did view/download the file? I've done things every which way from Sunday and can't see a way around the click/view/preview being logged.

Thanks all for any info or 'rumors' you've come across.

Thanks!

[tsowers]

Adrienne,

We have had a couple instances where clicks on content items were seemingly not recorded in the student activity log and the best that I can tell from our investigation is that if the student accessed the content from a mobile device, the action may not be recorded.  I don't have definitive evidence but rather what seems to be indicated by the evidence.

Tom

[Adrienne_J_Gaut]

Thanks Thomas - I did find that in some of our testing (mobile tracking issues), but there is this 'rumor' or belief from students that if they access a file a certain way it's not recorded at all, ever. I can't figure it out. I think how they are thinking is NOT correct. It's been described as using 'Preview' and describes what it looks like when it's the "Lightbox" like view when you Preview from within /files or if the students have access to course files. I've hacked URLs, tried incognito windows, tried "tracking cookie blockers" to no avail to find a way it doesn't record the access/view/download.

Anyone else hear of anything like this?

Of course, I can't get a hold of the students who are saying this...though I am trying.

My goal is to put the professors who asking at ease.

[RobDitto]

Logging of mobile page views is planned for improvement, according to . I don't know for sure that this future change will also affect tools like a student's Access Report, but most reporting and analytics tools in Canvas draw from the same data sources.

[Robbie_Grant]

 @Adrienne_J_Gaut ,

We are giving the Canvas Admins area a little bit of love (especially questions that are really, really old) and just want to check in with you.  This will also bring this question new attention. 

Were you able to find an answer to your question? I am going to go ahead and mark this question as answered because there hasn't been any more activity in a while so I assume that you have the information that you need. If you still have a question about this or if you have information that you would like to share with the community, by all means, please do come back and leave a comment.  Also, if this question has been answered by one of the previous replies, please feel free to mark that answer as correct.

Robbie