Lost work and access log shows no activity

[EmmaQuigley]

I had three summer classes that I took online.  All of my submissions for one of the classes are gone.  The activity log shows no activity from June-August, this cannot be true.  The professor never reached out to me to let me know there was an issue.  Long story short, the professor failed me and I am appealing the grade.

I took the course at home (Eastern time), the school/professor is Central Time.  The school pulled my access report and it shows not activity for that time period, so they are standing behind the professor.  On the top of the report it states "There appears to be a problem with one of your contact methods. Please check your Settings Page."  I don't know what that means.

I took the course and submitted my assignments when they were due.  My work was not autosaved, so I have no proof.

Can anything be saved?  Can the "real" activity log be saved?

Thanks in advance!

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @EmmaQuigley,

The one thing we can probably help with here in the community is the contact methods.  The  How do I add contact methods to receive Canvas not... - Instructure Community - 516  guide shows how you can add/edit contact methods, and also shows a warning icon which would show if one of your contact methods is having an issue.

Aside from that, this really is going to be an issue to continue to speak with your school/institution and teacher about.  There are very few scenarios where Canvas would not have any record of submissions.  If you have anything saved locally (like a Word document for an assignment), that might help prove your case.  The Instructure Community here is made up primarily of Canvas admins, teachers, and students from around the world, so none of us will be able to access your specific course or Canvas instance to look into anything at all.  Even if we could, your school/institution likely has policies and procedures they have to follow for a situation like this, so advice from others online probably would not help your case at all.

I apologize that I don't have better news for you, but hopefully you're able to come up with a workable solution with your school/institution and teacher.

-Chris

[JeffCampbell · Accepted solution]

@chriscas gave some solid info as to the limits we have on our end. A few thoughts crossed my mind.

If you are still enrolled, but it is past term, click on Courses on the far left menu and then select All Courses. Scroll down to Past Enrollments and see if the course in question is listed there. If it is, open and go to your Grades page. That should show your submission dates/times. If it does, THAT is the page you want to show when appealing your grade. You might even get lucky and be able to open the submissions from there. If that list does NOT show any submissions, then that could be a problem

[paul_fynn · Accepted solution]

Hi @EmmaQuigley sorry to hear that you are having problems, and @JeffCampbell and @chriscas has given you some good solid feedback.

Just one small thing for you to try, which is to check your profile > Files > Submissions to see if your original work is there.

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @EmmaQuigley,

The one thing we can probably help with here in the community is the contact methods.  The  How do I add contact methods to receive Canvas not... - Instructure Community - 516  guide shows how you can add/edit contact methods, and also shows a warning icon which would show if one of your contact methods is having an issue.

Aside from that, this really is going to be an issue to continue to speak with your school/institution and teacher about.  There are very few scenarios where Canvas would not have any record of submissions.  If you have anything saved locally (like a Word document for an assignment), that might help prove your case.  The Instructure Community here is made up primarily of Canvas admins, teachers, and students from around the world, so none of us will be able to access your specific course or Canvas instance to look into anything at all.  Even if we could, your school/institution likely has policies and procedures they have to follow for a situation like this, so advice from others online probably would not help your case at all.

I apologize that I don't have better news for you, but hopefully you're able to come up with a workable solution with your school/institution and teacher.

-Chris

[EmmaQuigley]

Chris,

Who would I contact in the IT department at the school?  The University is saying that because the log shows no activity for that time period that I did not do any of the work during that period - which is not true.  They also state that I didn't log into McGraw-Hill to take the quizzes - again, not true.  I did, but that also shows no record for me.  Could I have another log-in credential that I don't know about?   Can't someone log into my laptop and see that what I am saying is true?  

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @EmmaQuigley,

Unfortunately, I don't know exactly who you would contact.  every school/institution handles support for Canvas differently.  If you were a student at my institution, you'd end up speaking with me about something like this, but at some schools it may just be the teacher or others it could be an advisor or just general help desk staff.  Reaching out to your general help desk by phone or email would be the best first step to take.  if you aren't satisfied with their answer you could ask for the issue to be escalated, but that would be up to your school/institution to decide to take action or not.

-Chris

[JeffCampbell · Accepted solution]

@chriscas gave some solid info as to the limits we have on our end. A few thoughts crossed my mind.

If you are still enrolled, but it is past term, click on Courses on the far left menu and then select All Courses. Scroll down to Past Enrollments and see if the course in question is listed there. If it is, open and go to your Grades page. That should show your submission dates/times. If it does, THAT is the page you want to show when appealing your grade. You might even get lucky and be able to open the submissions from there. If that list does NOT show any submissions, then that could be a problem

[EmmaQuigley]

There is no Past Enrollments option for me.   Thank you for input.  Can the Helpdesk/IT be able to pull up my old courses?

[JeffCampbell]

That does raise one question, sorry to ask. Are you signed into the correct account? If you see any current courses, then you likely are.

I only ask because normally (unless your institution changed something), a course goes into past enrollments when the term for the course ends. Your institution may have restricted your ability to see past enrollments. Personally, situations like this are one reason to not restrict them. I would suggest talking with your institutions Canvas admin/IT. See if they will let you come in and SHOW you that you have not submissions. Specifically, you want them to go to Grades, then click on your name. A menu will pop up on the right that includes an option to view just your grades. THAT should be a view similar to what you would see as a student when clicking on Grades. If it shows no submissions, then there are no submissions. Teachers cannot delete the submissions. But if it does show submissions, than that raises more questions.

BTW, I have less familiarity with using access reports, but I have occasionally heard of situations that imply that solely using the access report as proof of student activity is not foolproof 100% of the time. Hence why it would be useful to have someone show your grades page.

That might be about the extent of my thoughts. Chris has much more familiarity with the admin side and is correct that your institutions IT is better equipped to support.

[paul_fynn · Accepted solution]

Hi @EmmaQuigley sorry to hear that you are having problems, and @JeffCampbell and @chriscas has given you some good solid feedback.

Just one small thing for you to try, which is to check your profile > Files > Submissions to see if your original work is there.