Access Logs Beyond Page Views for Sub-Account Admins

[J_Kurosaki]

Hello,
Thank you for always helping us out.

I work in user support for Canvas LMS and serve as a sub-account administrator.

We often receive inquiries from students saying, “I thought I submitted my assignment, but it turns out I didn’t.”

When we receive such questions, the first thing we do is check the student’s page views in the Admin panel. We look at which device they used to access Canvas and whether any “participated” events are recorded.
After that, we usually escalate the issue to a higher-level admin to request a more detailed log investigation.

In the following post, I noticed the sentence:
“For academic integrity or security use cases, we recommend combining pageviews with other data sources or workflows to ensure completeness.”

- Page Views Changes to Improve Accessibility and Data Management
https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/The-Product-Blog/Page-Views-Changes-to-Improve-Accessibility-and-...

As a sub-account admin, is there any way I can investigate student access records other than using page views?
And for root-level administrators, are there any methods to investigate access records beyond page views?
If so, could you let me know what options are available?

Thank you in advance for your help and guidance.

[oneilllj · Accepted solution]

Hi @J_Kurosaki 

I would follow a similar process to what you have just described. Occasionally through this process I have found students have submitted the assignment to the incorrect course.

Perhaps another method for verifying access and log in details is to check in with your IT department, they might have a method of confirming if Canvas was accessed through IP addresses? 

A couple of other options include running reports such as:

• Students with no submissions or
• Last User Access

Let me know how you go.

Thanks

Jen

[J_Kurosaki]

Hello,

Thank you for your reply.
You're absolutely right — students often submit an assignment to the incorrect course and think they’ve submitted it correctly.
I actually made a feature request to Instructure, asking if it's possible to have a confirmation email automatically sent to students when they submit an assignment.

Also, I'm currently looking for ways to review student access logs as a sub-account admin.
Our IT department is quite busy and sometimes it takes a while to get a response, so I'm hoping to find what I can do on my own in the meantime.
Of course, in the end, we’ll still rely on IT for a more detailed investigation when needed.

I will try the report you mentioned.

Course Analytics - Missing Assignments
Course Analytics - Course Activity

Thanks a lot. 🙂