Hi @saustin,

I think this is going to be a pretty hard question to answer definitively, unless someone from Instructure actually chimes in.  I'll give my opinion at least...

1. Does ?type=video&embedded=true mean that the video has actually been embedded?

I would take that to indicate that a video was likely successfully recorded/uploaded to the media server.  This would basically be the first thing that would need to happen for a video post.

2. Is an "embed" considered an act of "submission" when it comes to Video recordings?

I believe the "embedded" part is just indicating to the video system what kind of url to give back to the discussion/assignment.  In the case of embedded being true, I think it's going to deliver some type of iframe.

3. If Canvas asks for an embed, is there anything further a student can do on their end to ensure a submission?  

My guess is that the student recorded the video, but didn't actually hit the post button after that to add their reply to the discussion.  It may be a good idea for teachers to clarify the process for students in the discussion instructions.  With that being said, a vast majority of students do seem to have mo problem figuring this out on their own.

4. On Canvas's end, if there is no "https://xxxxx.instructure.com/api/graphql"  in the URL history, does that mean that the record of the video never got up to Canvas cloud to be recorded?

I would say that url may be more related to the discussion than the video, but I could be wrong.  I think that url appears as part of the discussion post process, but not the video part.  With this being said, the graphql endpoint can be used for numerous API calls, just one of which would be discussions.

I hope this helps a bit!

-Chris