Student missing assignment but saying they say the confetti

[Mcr0182]

Hello all,

In a bit of a pickle, I have a student saying that they submitted an assignment right before the due date and saw the “confetti” pop up. However, on my end it showed that there was nothing submitted, so naturally I assigned a zero for missing work. The student is obviously upset and is saying that there must be an error on canvas and swears that they knew it was submitted because of the confetti. They then resubmitted the assignment and is now claiming that this second submission must have overrode the first one.

I typically have them submit this assignment on paper but wanted to test out the Turnitin feature on Canvas so I’m not super familiar with common submission issues. 

1. Has any had an error like this actually occur? Would the confetti pop up if a submission does not go through? 

2. As mentioned, I had the Turnitin feature set for this assignment. If they did in fact submit it the first time, would it flag the second submission for plagiarism?

3. Any tips on how to verify if the student is correct and they did submit the assignment? 

[chriscas]

Hi @Mcr0182,

That is definitely a pickle, and Turnitin adds even a few more variables into the technology mix...  I've been a Canvas admin at a small/mid-size campus for about 12 years now, and I can pretty confidently say we've never had a case where Canvas "ate someone's homework" (for lack of a better term).  Now with that said, I always hesitate to say something is impossible, but I'm certain it would be extremely rare.

The most common thing that I *have* seen that is in this realm is with file uploads where   a student uploads their file, but forgets to hit the submit button after that.  It's not really a Canvas problem, more of user error (even if the user/student doesn't perceive it that way).  I can somewhat eliminate this situation based on the student comment about confetti though, as confetti should only show after hitting the submit button.

As I mentioned earlier, Turnitin could add a wrinkle, depending on what kind of Turnitin integration your school/institution has.  Some integrations have the submission go to Turnitin first, then back to Canvas, which another has Canvas receive the submission first then send it to Turnitin.  The confetti bit by the student would indicate to me that you have the integration where Canvas receives the submission first, as I don't think the other one would have confetti show.  This would then be the same situation as above, where the confetti should only show after a successful submission

Finally, A second submission should not overwrite the first on your end (SpeedGrader would show a dropdown list of the submissions), though I suppose the type of Turnitin integration could affect that if the assumption above is incorrect.

If none of the above are true (based on what the student said), then that really does get into the very unlikely realm of a tech glitch.  It'll be very hard to prove anything, but you could ask your school/institution Canvas admin (usually in the eLearning / IT / Digital Education areas) to check the student page views log to see if there was any activity on the assignment around when they ay they submitted.  That wouldn't necessarily be proof of them submitting, but just looking at the assignment.  It may give you at least some insight though, especially if the logs show no activity at all...

This is just my two cents of advice, knowledge, and experience, but others may have had opposite experiences, so I encourage more responses here if anyone disagrees with anything I have said.

-Chris

[dbrace]

Hi @Mcr0182,

Have you reviewed the student's access report as described in the How do I view the course access report for an individual user? - Instructure Community - 754  support article?

Another option (as described in the How do I view the page views for a user in an account? - Instructure Community - 93  support article) would require consulting with your Canvas team (or, if available to you, Canvas Support directly) and ask them to review the student's "Page Views" for the approximate time that the student says they submitted the first time. If the student submitted the first time, it would appear with a "checkmark" under "Participated".

-Doug