Can Canvas Do Anything about the AI extension Canvas Quiz Solver?

[KirstenThomson]

Someone asked a question about the Chrome extension Canvas Quiz Solver already (https://canvasquiz.com/) but the reply from Canvas was not very helpful.

Is Canvas itself doing anything about this? Can Canvas make it so extensions don't work while in the LMS, for example? Is Canvas suing for use of their copyrighted name in the Canvas Quiz Solver website? It's very disheartening for this all to be on the back of instructors. My University won't allow me to do proctored, in-person exams for asynchronous online classes for one thing. I have been trying to use Respondus Lockdown Browser but there have been glitches and they have terrible customer service so far, so I haven't been able to make it work for my situation. I know students can cheat in other ways, but this extension is so ridiculously easy to cheat with that I feel like I can't even use assessments in Canvas anymore if something isn't done to combat it. Canvas doesn't seem like it is even addressing academic integrity and AI except to throw it back to us. I would like to see some more information about Canvas doing something.

[KCTesterman]

Hello @KirstenThomson I'm going to take a look at this further. I did test it out and saw that our New Quizzes does NOT work with this extension if that helps for now. 

[KirstenThomson]

That does help for now, thanks! If that's really the case, I can migrate my quizzes to New Quizzes and see what happens. 

[KirstenThomson]

My University Canvas support also confirmed that this particular extension would not work with New Quizzes, so good news! I don't know if that will be the case with all the different companies creating these extensions...and I assume that they will be working on adapting so it might be a temporary solution, but I am glad to use it as a stopgap for now. Thanks very much!

[Renee_Carney · Accepted solution]

@KirstenThomson 
Thank you so much for raising this concern and bringing it to the Community’s attention.

@KCTesterman  made sure our internal teams looked into this extension. While we can’t take direct action on the extension itself, we did want to confirm [for you and others] that Canvas has not been compromised. The team verified that the extension doesn’t have access to Canvas quiz data; instead, it pulls visible content from the page and performs a quick web search to suggest an answer based on what’s commonly found online.

To be sure, our engineers reviewed the extension’s behavior and tested it by creating a quiz question like “What is your favorite color?” with the correct answer set to “persimmon.” The extension suggested “blue” based on internet results, highlighting that it's simply using surface-level search logic rather than accessing any Canvas answer keys or protected data. In short: it’s essentially an automated copy-paste into a search engine or AI tool.

Switching to New Quizzes can help prevent this specific extension from functioning, though it’s always possible new tools may emerge. This is another great reminder of the value of authentic assessment strategies to help minimize opportunities for academic dishonesty.

Thanks again for being part of this important conversation!

[KirstenThomson]

Thanks for your response. I didn't think the extension was compromising the Quiz's integrity by accessing the correct answer. It doesn't need to, to work. It will get things wrong, as AI can be wrong obviously, but it uses AI to answer questions that have correct answers., Your example obviously doesn't have a correct answer that AI can access. You may want to test it out with traditional quiz questions that have correct answers and see what it can do. Maybe you can figure something else out to do. For now it appears Canvas Quiz Solver doesn't work for New Quizzes, but ones like aceify can also use screenshots to answer the questions even if the button is disabled in a New Quiz and New Quizzes wouldn't be resistant to that. I would think Canvas would be interested at least in protecting the use of its name by an outside company. I remain hopeful that Canvas will continue to work on these issues. In the meantime I am going to have to stop using quizzes in Canvas, in the same way I have been, for the near future.

[ANDREWJONES208]

@Renee_Carney Thank you for this response and clarification. In teaching a summer school course it is clear that the AI extensions are doing the majority of the course completion. Students who are copying and pasting from an AI generator like ChatGPT are behind the curve. A variety of extensions are available and some very articulate. 

Your point about authentic assessment is key! If there is anyone who has further information on how online instruction in Canvas can be counted on for competency that would be much appreciated. I think the temptation can be to abandon online course instruction because even authentic assessments are not beyond AI hacks. If Canvas and Parchment have a way to verify competency it could be a real win even in an online context, but I am not sure this is possible. I welcome further conversation from the community.