I submitted my Canvas assignment, but it ended up never going through. Why?

[OJOSHGAZMER]

So for my AP Human Geography class, we had an assignment that was just our Unit 1 Study Guide. I had the assignment done already, and I submitted then called my friend afterwards to ask if he needed help on it. However, I got an F on the assignment because it never went through. I do not know why, but this is the second time this has happened in this school year. How do I prove I submitted it? If this grade goes in, I will have a B in the class for a while, and it will be hard to raise my grades. I also showed my teacher the version history (it was on a Google Doc) as well as my call with my friend, but he said I need to show him where I submitted it. His belief is that there was absolutely no way Canvas could fail, and that I submitted elsewhere; however, I know I submitted. How do I prove I submitted it, and is there any way to prevent this from happening on Canvas again?

[Gabriel33 · Accepted solution]

Software and internet connections do fail sometimes, it's one reason why I usually allow for some of the lowest grades to be dropped, to cover situations like the one you are describing (besides having a cold, busy with life, etc).

If you have the rough time of when you tried to submit them, you might consider asking your University's Canvas IT support for a record of what you were doing at the time. See this guide for an example of what a Canvas admin can see, and note that it should show you "participated" in the assignment, if you submitted something: How do I view the page views for a user in an acco... - Instructure Community - 93.

Still, if your internet connection suffered some type of hiccup at the time, or if you tried to submit a file in the wrong format or perhaps too large, then maybe it will show as if you did not participate, even if you did try to submit something.

In the future, I recommend checking whether the assignment shows up as completed.

[OJOSHGAZMER]

If the Canvas admins don't really let me see that sort of stuff, then what should I try to do? Is there no hope for me to recover this grade?

[Gabriel33]

If you have access to the Canvas API (some universities block that from students) then you may be able to look into part of it yourself, but that will require some coding knowledge. The activity stream may be useful, you can access it by adding /api/v1/users/self/activity_stream to the end of your main Canvas URL (not a specific course). Check if that works for you, or if you get some permission denied response.

About Canvas admins sharing that data, I don't know what your University's policy is on that either, but Sendres suggested in this other post earlier this week that (if you are in the US) this may be a right you have under FERPA (note neither of us are legal scholars).

[dbrace]

Hi @OJOSHGAZMER,

Your school probably has a way to formally file a complaint with an ombudsman (what is an ombudsman) so that an investigation can be done.  You would need to look into how to do that at your school.

This would require you, your school's Canvas support team, other administrators (such as a Dean), and your instructor to provide a story and research (such as your page views, what @Gabriel33 referenced). As much as possible, everyone would come together to resolve the situation (such as, provide you with the ability to submit again).

I hope this information helps you.

-Doug

[chriscas]

Hi @OJOSHGAZMER,

As a Canvas admin at my institution, I would agree with the basic approach @dbrace laid out (you may not have an ombudsman, but possible a principal or other school leader you could bring this up to.

It's very hard to rule out technical glitches with absolute certainty, but at the same time I really haven't ever seen a case where the student side would show a successful submission but the teacher wouldn't see it.  In my mind, the most likely scenario here, which I have seen a few times, is that you went through the process to select your google doc as part of the assignment, but then didn't hit the submit button after doing that (assuming your school uses assignment enhancements, which I think most do at this point).

Realistically, though people here in the community can offer all kinds of advice on this, the only people who will be able to actually change your grade would be at your school, which is why we're suggesting you go that route.  You may not get immediate satisfaction, but if you're persistent and present the facts, you may be able to get a result in your favor (though we can't ever guarantee that).

Hope this helps a bit.

-Chris