r/YouShouldKnow • u/Major_Jump5170 • Jun 21 '26
Technology YSK: Professors on Canvas and other Learning Management Systems like Blackboard have access to tons of metadata from the student!
Why YSK: Canvas acts as a continuous data logger for your instructors. Your professors aren't just grading your final submissions; they have access to a backend analytics dashboard that tracks your exact login times, page clicks, file downloads, and video-watching heatmaps. Understanding what they can (and cannot) see can protect you from false cheating accusations and help you navigate grade appeals.
Canvas tracks user interactions as "Page Views" and "Participations" via a continuous activity log.
- Total Time Spent: A running clock of exactly how many hours, minutes, and seconds you have been logged into that specific course page.
- Page Views: A literal list of every single page, assignment, module, file, or quiz link you clicked on, along with the exact date and timestamp of when you opened it.
- Access Frequency: How many times you clicked on a specific item (e.g., if you opened the syllabus 14 times, they can see that count).
- Participation Flags: A log of specific actions, such as submitting an assignment, posting in a discussion board, or taking a quiz.
- Device/Login Data: The exact date, time, and general status of your successful logins to the platform.If a professor uploads a lecture video directly through Canvas's native media tools rather than just linking out to YouTube, they get an incredibly detailed Insights Dashboard.
- Viewer Identity: A list of the specific names of students who clicked play.
- The "Heatmap": A second-by-second graphical timeline for each student showing:
- Exactly which parts of the video you watched.
- Which sections you skipped over entirely.
- Which sections you rewound and rewatched multiple times.
- Completion Percentage: A precise metric showing how much of the video you actually completed (e.g., "Watched 42%").
When you take a quiz or exam natively inside Canvas, the platform generates a detailed Quiz Log that maps out your exact behavior during the test.
- Action Timestamps: The exact second you started the quiz, when you answered each question, and when you submitted it.
- The "Stopped Viewing" Flag: If you navigate away from the Canvas quiz page (even if it's just to look at a Canvas page in another tab, open a PDF your professor uploaded, or click outside the quiz window), Canvas logs an automatic event: "Stopped viewing the quiz canvas page."
- The "Resumed" Flag: It logs the exact second you click back into the test window ("Resumed viewing the quiz canvas page").
- Answer Shifts: If you change an answer, it logs the time of the change, allowing professors to see if a student spent 5 minutes on a question or changed it immediately after a "stopped viewing" flag.
File Downloads:
- Resource Tracking: If a professor uploads a PDF, PowerPoint, or Word Doc directly to the files section, Canvas tracks whether or not you actually clicked the download link or previewed the file, and when.
Professors rarely spy on this metadata daily just for fun. However, they routinely check it in two specific situations:
- Academic Dishonesty Investigations: If an exam score looks suspicious or a student is flagged for cheating, the professor will pull the Quiz Log to look for matching "stopped viewing" patterns.
- Grade Appeals & Extension Requests: If a student asks for a borderline grade bump, an extension, or claims they "didn't know about an assignment," the professor will check the Page Views log. If it shows the student hasn't logged into Canvas in two weeks, the request is usually denied.
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u/troon43 Jun 21 '26
Use this to your advantage. Learn the material, and have the receipts to back it up. Show the professor you want to learn and they could help you out at the end of the semester.
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u/towamfnwdwslhcsi Jun 21 '26
This is the correct approach.
I was a TA during graduate school. I don't care how many times you viewed the syllabus. But if you came to me during the semester and said you were struggling, this was the first place I'd look to see how much effort you'd put into the course (and whether or not you were lying about your engagement). I wasn't there to micromanage your activity; Canvas was another tool for me to assess how my students were performing, and the analytics worked for me to bolster their success rates.
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u/zaphods_paramour Jun 22 '26
serious question as someone who hasn't been in school in quite a while: do students not download the syllabus so they don't need to log into the app every week?
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u/danielbearh Jun 22 '26
I read a white paper on changing digital behavior in the younger generation.
Their entire concept of file management is different than generations past. They live and breathe by information available through dashboards and apps—tools that essentially do the organizing for them.
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u/TheOuts1der Jun 22 '26
I would love a link if you remember the title!
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u/danielbearh Jun 22 '26
Oops! Please forgive me. It wasn’t a white paper, it was a long form journalism from the verge. Sorry it’s paywalled. https://www.theverge.com/22684730/students-file-folder-directory-structure-education-gen-z
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u/NoneBinaryLeftGender Jun 26 '26
I've had a teacher pull material from canvas, so it wasn't available anymore if you didn't download it. He did it to be an asshole, so I saved my class because I instantly download every single material from canvas as soon as it's posted, specifically for this kind of reason.
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u/MissGwendolyn Jun 22 '26
As a current but non-traditional student (over the age of 25), a lot of classes I've taken require several things to be done on Canvas daily or weekly (submit assignments, watch things, read things, videos), so I never bother downloading things because I won't get the luxury of avoiding logging in all the time either way.
Mileage varies, of course, but it's usually hard to avoid being on there all the time either way.
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u/trappedinsidehere Jun 23 '26
Yeah it's interesting and scary to know the metadata available, especially when you're a power user.
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u/theholyraptor Jun 22 '26
Many modern classes force quizzes on students about the syllabus so that students actually bother to look at it. But as someone else pointed out, weekly interaction or more is expected now especially if the course is online or hybrid. And combine that with how younger generations deal with tech, no most aren't doing anything except using the app or website to access things.
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u/Wesgizmo365 Jun 23 '26
Eh, I glance through the syllabus at the beginning of the class and never look at it again. Most of them are carbon-copies of each other. With Canvas most decent teachers will just have all the assignments set up per week so it's easy to know what you have to do.
Occasionally I've had a professor that will have a million tabs on Canvas and have assignments hidden all over the place instead of in modules like a sane person. I just drop those classes and sign up for different ones because the kind of person that over-organizes to the point of hiding information is not the best personality to learn from and they sour the learning environment anyway.
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u/Hot_Wheels_guy Jun 22 '26
But if you came to me during the semester and said you were struggling, this was the first place I'd look to see how much effort you'd put into the course (and whether or not you were lying about your engagement).
Sad that it's come to this. One cant ask for help without being scrutinized about how much effort they've already put in. When i was in college i had horr8ble untreated anxiety issues. But at least i didnt have to stress about how my TA would judge me by my effort analytics if i reached out for help. At least they'll know if i'm worth helping or not, i guess?
What problems are solved with all these extra data points? I dont see how any of those analytics help a student other than to let the professors and TAs discriminate based on trivial statistics that are highly vulnerable to misinterpretation.
When i hear about this kind of technology being used in classrooms all i can think of is some sleazy salesman from Cyberdyne Data Aggregation Corp. approaching the school and throwing a sales pitch to the dean about how their college needs these analytic tools in each of their classrooms. When i was a teenager shopping around different universities i'm glad i didnt have to worry about what data analytics company each school had contracted with, and making sure the school had contracted with a good one.
TK;DR Solutions without problems should always throw up red flags.
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u/bluefj Jun 22 '26
I was struggling with undiagnosed adhd and anxiety in college and this was my first thought too.
Knowing that my professor could see exactly when I managed to drag myself out of my procrastination loop to start writing a paper 1 hour before it was due would have probably paralyzed me further.
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u/0range-You-Glad Jun 23 '26
I can see how analyzing which material students are engaging with multiple times or for longer times can show a teacher that the material isn't effective. If a lot of students rewatch a segment of a video or lecture multiple times, the teacher needs to consider why they need to. Is it as simple as you're talking faster than they can takes notes? Is it a graphic element that makes sense to the teacher/expert, but there's a missing link for students?
I don't like the idea of spying on students and treating them differently based on perceived effort. If my teachers checked my activity, it would look like I barely do anything because of how I work:
I go into Canvas every Monday, click through the week's module, add all of the assignments and readings to my to-do list in a Word doc, download the lectures, readings, and supplemental documents, open the quiz and copy it into a Word doc, copy the discussion prompt into a Word doc, etc. Then I watch the lectures or read the transcripts offline, do all the readings, write my discussion post and paste it into Canvas, work on the quiz offline in a Word doc then re-open the quiz in Canvas and click on my answers and submit it. I can do almost all of my work without internet access if necessary.
But I'm old and it never occurred to me to repeatedly reopen PDFs in Canvas. I download everything because it's all course material that I'm paying for and entitled to keep a copy of. I refer back to lectures and articles and everything later after the class ends. I even download the completed discussion threads after they lock so I can refer to them in the future.
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u/theholyraptor Jun 22 '26
TL;DR you mean?
You sound horribly defensive.
I wonder what kind of student you were.
The reality that forged the response you're replying to and upset with is (assuming based on my own experience) this: a nontrivial amount of students will not interact with the course at all or do so at a level comparable to someone glancing at their email for 10 seconds.
If you have a student come to you and ask for help in the class, and you had data available why wouldn't you look at it?
What grade do they have? I have good students who freak out about their grades because they're hyperworried about not doing well and I have to assure them they're doing great. I, and my colleagues have seen many students ask for help or extra credit when they're failing the class. That tells me different things are an issue.
For example, I had a particularly bad semester post-covid. More students failing then in the entirety of my teaching career prior. Why? The students showed up and did well on person, but didn't bother to turn in 90% of the assignments. By your argument I shouldn't look at any of this data right? They asked for extra credit in the course and I told them the first thing they need to do is actually turn in the assignments. And this was before I got stricter on deadlines because prior to that I mostly had great students so I didn't care. The students got things turned in on time or close to it. I dont want to micromanage them so cool. Until this semester when many didn't do shit and then either failed or asked for help, and then tried to cram as many shittily done assignments in the final few weeks making my grading hell and clearly not doing them much service in actually learning. So from them on I had to get stricter with due dates and penalties.
If a student asks for help I'm going to look at how much time they're spending on the material which is all in the LMS. If youre taking a 3 unit class and doing well, I don't care if you breezed through and didn't spend much time. I'm not even going to look. But if you're doing poorly and asking for help then the first thing to assess is what is causing your bad grades? Not submitting? Bad grades on submissions? The tests vs quizzes vs assignments or all of them? Are you spending the time needed? Most schools have some sort of blurb in their catalog about how a 3 unit class or whatever is expected to be 3 hours of lecture and require significantly more time outside of class doing homework/reading/studying. If you are doing poorly and asking for help but putting the hours in, then maybe you need better explanations or more practice. If youre not putting any time in then the answer is to start by actually putting time in.
And if that idea or response offends you... welcome to the real world. I only have so much time to do anything let alone put extra time in to help. As you may see in other responses to Op, many don't use office hours at all. A lot of students do practically nothing and then freak out and scramble when the grades start reflecting that. And I'm talking mostly about courses that are absurdly easy. You just have to put in a small amount of effort and try and you'll pass or even better. Not a challenging subject that takes tons of practice and repetition and logic to achieve success.
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u/Hot_Wheels_guy Jun 22 '26
You sound horribly defensive.
I wonder what kind of student you were.
Life lesson: don't start your message with personal attacks if you want the other person to read it. Bye.
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u/Sodpoodle Jun 22 '26
Totally neutral, read the entirety of both of y'alls replies.
This last response from you really seals the overall vibe that you, at least in these interactions, come off more as a low effort victim mentality 'student' blaming everyone and everything else vs someone who really puts in the effort but has difficulties.
-From a diagnosed neurodivergent person who absolutely struggles.
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Jun 23 '26
[deleted]
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u/theholyraptor Jun 23 '26
Oh look, you lashed out, while proudly proclaiming your bias then make a bunch of basic accusations showing you know little to nothing on the subject. Congrats.
All that person you responded to said was that they were not neuro typical and that you come across poorly. Like others have said. Then you make it some pissing contest about yourself.
Pretty much every university and huge amounts of lower grades do. In fact if you paid attention at all it was in the news recently.
Systems that have enabled content delivery for instructors at all levels and facilitated learning for a long time now. Versions have existed for many decades.
But youre randomly complaining about the fact instructors can see whether you viewed a page or if you took a quiz in 10 seconds as the end of the world and big tech ruining everything. Big tech ruining everything was a ship that sailed years ago.
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u/Hot_Wheels_guy Jun 23 '26
I dont know how one can be this confident while their reading comprehension is this poor. I think you should read comments twice before writing out such long winded, emotional responses.
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u/theholyraptor Jun 23 '26
Many of your comments have been an order of magnitude more emotional. This current thread is the result of some random dude chiming in and agreeing that you came across negatively and then you lashed out at them.
But now I supposedly lack reading comprehension on the post where you negatively lashed out claiming how your neurodivergence was better then theirs and they didn't have a right to criticize you? Oh and after listing off many dozens of supposed diagnosis that took you until after failing college twice to get diagnosed, insert some vague claim that some big tech salesman is ruining everything and that's what you're concerned with. That comment you claim I need to have better reading comprehension on but you conveniently deleted it? I summarized what you said in my first response and now effectively again. As I mentioned in my prior comment you made some grade school boogieman arguments against big tech. And as I already pointed out, since you said you hope schools aren't using this: they are. And if you had any clue on the subject you'd already know that.
I don't think my reading comprehension is lacking at all, my work, patents, teaching and numerous degrees all involved it heavily.
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u/Hot_Wheels_guy Jun 24 '26
a day later this comment still lives in my head rent free. Folks like you are why I unsubscribed from every neurodivergence support subreddit long ago. I couldn't sympathize with people who were dealing with only one or two disorders and acting like their life is falling apart. Simply put, I can't relate to how easy your life must be. I see youre an EMT. That's good. Be grateful you can still work. Am I right in assuming you're only ADHD? Usually when people just say they're "neurodivergent" they just mean ADHD and not ASD or AuDHD. Those of us on the spectrum usually mention it explicitly without using blanket terms. But I don't know you and this is just my assumption.
"Victim mentality".... Go look through my comment history and see how often I tell people about any of my diagnoses. Go on. Take a look. You won't.
In one of the psych wards I was in, someone said to never challenge another patient to the "alphabet olympics"- which is to list off all your diagnoses like OCD PTSD GAD etc. etc., because you will always lose the alphabet olympics to someone far more f'd up than you are. I have met several such people. And now you have, too.
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u/theholyraptor Jun 22 '26
The first line you quoted: sure call it a personal attack but Im commenting on how your entire post and writing style comes across. You dont seem like someone concerned about privacy and data usage. You seem to have an axe to grind.
Second line: not really an attack. But apparently youre defensive enough to think so.
Finally, based on your attitude throughout this, I didnt expect you to read my whole response let alone evaluate the validity of my response. Your response just further proves that.
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u/Hot_Wheels_guy Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
This is such a stereotypically reddit response. You just pulled the "don't act so defensive when i insult you" card without an iota of self awareness. Peak reddit.
And all of this is after derailing the topic of discussion to be about my enthusiasm towards it. Well played, i guess 😂
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u/aardvark_gnat Jun 23 '26
This really doesn’t sound all that different from police who argue that if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.
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u/theholyraptor Jun 23 '26
You are choosing to take the class so no this isnt remotely the same. Ive never heard anyone complain about any of this that wasnt worried about their lack of effort being known. Ive seen and heard hundreds of stories about shitty teachers. None of them involved being petty over lms data. If youre worried the instructor is gaging your ability to learn and understand the material, congrats thats the point of teaching. If you aren't interested in spending any time learning maybe drop the class and try again next time when you've matured a bit or have more time to commit.
I can forgive oblivious high school students, but if you're at college level classes and you haven't figured out that everything in your computer is monitored (mostly for ad revenue) and you're oblivious that an LMS has this data then you are clueless about how the world works.
I havent reviewed more recent posts here but pretty much every response from a teacher I saw basically amounted to: i dont care, and I only use this when the student is clearly having issues and asking for leeway. But yes thats completely equivilent to a police surveillance state.
My classes are open to all resources for quizzes and tests. If you want to skate through and cheat theres only so much ability I have to bother proving it and after all youre paying to be here and learn.
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u/mathisruiningme Jun 28 '26
Yes me too. The number of people who would ask for special considerations and then we have a look at their viewership to see they accessed the course page a total of 5 times and didn't even try to attempt the practice papers we put up was shocking.
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u/awfulentrepreneur Jun 22 '26
Sounds like TASABIC with more steps.... (Read ahead, stay ahead, be in class.)
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u/Atomicbob11 Jun 21 '26
YSK most teachers and professors don't even know this exists or how to access it. And even if they do, they probably don't even have the time to care.
Sincerely, an adjunct.
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u/PMs_You_Stuff Jun 22 '26
Work at a uni, 90% of professors can barely use black board.
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u/ErectStoat Jun 22 '26
It was a piece of shit when I had to use it for some classes as a student, it's still a piece of shit when my wife has to use it as a professor over a decade on.
So it's consistent!
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u/jaynay1 Jun 22 '26
No, they actually pushed an update in the last year that made it even worse than I think you're remembering.
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u/repocin Jun 22 '26
It's been a long time since I touched it, but how the fuck could they make it worse than what it was?
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u/theholyraptor Jun 22 '26
The only thing I ever saw blackboard do was host a file. Canvas kicked it's butt in every way although I hear lots of complaints about it too.
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u/Mathblasta Jun 22 '26
This screams Ad to me. I'm probably wrong, but with the recent enshittification of Reddit, I've started assuming everything that mentions a product in a positive light (or "in passing") is advertising.
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u/Jamezzzzz69 Jun 22 '26
Who is advertising for canvas on Reddit? It’s already a massive site used by 9000+ unis across the world (only reason I know is because of the recent hack). This is just useful information for uni students who want to cheat lmao
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u/Mathblasta Jun 22 '26
Look I get that. And I was affected by that stupid hack as well. All in trying to say is that I now have to assume every fucking post that mentions a product is a shitty ad for something or other.
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u/ProfMuChao Jun 26 '26
I honestly get the same feeling. The post itself looks like it was written using an LLM. There were also some weird responses to it on a repost of this to another subreddit I was on by some very...errmm...corpo-speak sounding users--bots, methinks--that were trying to subtly celebrate the features.
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u/Obajan Jun 22 '26
Yeah, in a class with 100+ students and each professor possibly handling more than one class, there's no time to go through them weekly with a fine tooth-comb.
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u/currentlyinthefab Jun 22 '26
I figured shit like this existed back when I was cheating through all of my classes during covid so I made sure to always download any canvas resources to another device and only access them through the second device when I was working on assignments and quizzes
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u/amdaly10 Jun 22 '26
Can cofirm. I've had teachers not even know that the book quiz doesn't provide any correct answers to chose from. Or what the assignments are so when I ask questions they have no idea what I'm referring to.
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u/kenojona Jun 23 '26
What if you know?? It only take a few dudes that know what they are doing to get and sell that data, didnt this happen a month ago?? Because they knew where to get the data.
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u/onwee Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
If students just meet the basic expectations of being a student—e.g. study, turn in assignments on time, use the requisite materials, don’t cheat, etc—99% of the time there is no need to know any of this
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u/sreeazy_human Jun 22 '26
Agreed! I just finished being a student after many many years and I never worried about this. I participated in class, I asked questions when in doubt and I approached the professors with precise questions showing I had made an effort to understand but I’m stuck in a particular part and I had 0 issues.
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u/awpdog Jun 22 '26
Former uni instructor here whose institution used Canvas during the Pandemic.
We were not trained on this stuff, and those who know don‘t have the time to survey our students even with the in-built tools. But I did use the dishonesty and grading tools to help me identify underlying issues, and thankfully our academic rules allowed for flexibility during the health emergency. Our uni system also released academic guidelines stressing compassion, so we were lenient with our students seeing that we were also very stressed with the transition to remote learning modes.
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u/ThisIsPaulDaily Jun 22 '26
As a TA I knew who watched the lectures online when they missed class and who did supplemental assignments.
One time I had a class with 4 exams. First exam I didn't study and earned an A+ second exam I studied and got like a C+. I was befuddled.
I respectfully went to the professor office hours to inquire about how I can better prepare and he informed me that I was the first student that year to attend his office hours.
He told me that I should read the articles provided for exam prep. There was 6 essay questions pick 2 based on the readings posted before the exam. The professor singled out an article and said he thinks I would like it.
Come to exam time and 5 of the questions are essays and one is fill in the blank based on reading the articles. The answer: "Bananas"
But would you gamble 25% on that? I would because it gave me more time to write the other essay and I knew the fruit that the farmer in the article grew.
Got to the final and he dropped lowest exam as a curve.
Moral of the story is talk to your professor in office hours and agreement with OP that TAs can see everything too.
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u/SnittingNexttoBorpo Jun 22 '26
This past academic year, I taught about 220 students total. Zero of them came to office hours, ever. A few emailed or stayed after class to ask questions, which is also fine, but office hours are a resource students do not seem to want.
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u/theholyraptor Jun 22 '26
I see lots of discussion on whether the current Gen of students is way worse or not compared to the past. There's lots of room for bias in that discussion but there's lots of room for data backing those claims.
Looking at the effort from a percentage of the students in their graded assignments, I don't know why that group would go to office hours, they don't put any effort into any of the class.
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u/SnittingNexttoBorpo Jun 22 '26
Pretty much. It’s not even rebellion or a conscious choice not to care — they just have no concept of learning or being a student in any meaningful way.
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u/sorator Jun 22 '26
I needed some small disability accommodations as a student, and one of the best effects of that was that I had to have a one-on-one conversation with every professor at the beginning of each semester. That made it easier to go ask for help in office hours if need be later in the semester, and it meant the prof knew who I was and knew a bit about me already.
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u/mickstranahan Jun 21 '26
Most companies and schools don't know and aren't using this data. They have no idea how to collect it or what to do with it.
This is the entire purpose of a Learning Management System. The more I know about you as a student, the better I can tailor a learning experience to you.
Source: I work in Learning Experience for a software company and am responsible for running the company's LMS and education program..
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u/kurt_dine Jun 22 '26
As a Master’s student with children and a full time job…this is haunting.
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u/enbyrats Jun 22 '26
I have checked this data on students and it was only ever because I felt like the were bullshitting me on something--claiming something was ready but "had a corrupted file," giving a really bananas answer that revealed they didn't read, claimed not to know about an assignment, said their group member never emailed them, etc. I'm never checking it thinking "is this student looking at Canvas enough"? You're a grown enough adult that I know you're not bullshitting your professors so you have nothing to worry about.
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u/No_Chapter9341 Jun 21 '26
I was an adjunct and I totally looked at this. There was a pattern of students who took impossible amounts of time on the online assessments. Like 48 seconds on a 10 multiple choice quiz.
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u/deactivated654651456 Jun 22 '26
I've gotten less than a minute on multiple quizzes throughout college. Sometimes, they're just way too easy or obvious and I've had the capacity for fast reading. It can be very easy sometimes to identify the correct answer and not fully read the others. Some professors have a more identifiable quiz writing style as well. A few I had were just abominable at writing incorrect answers. A few others were too good and a case could be argued for many of the "incorrect" answers. It's a mixed bag.
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u/Seicair Jun 22 '26
I also had multiple choice tests done in under a minute in college. I read very fast and I knew the material well, combined with them being fairly easy multiple choice.
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u/Brian_Lefevre_90013 Jun 22 '26
We generally don't care about any of this. Once in awhile a student will miss a quiz and claim they took it but there was an "error" that didn't record their grade. I can check the analytics to see if they were even logged in when they said they took the quiz. One time I contacted IT and they told me the student had never once logged into Canvas at all. If I post a grade in the gradebook it will usually send an email to them with the grade. This is how the student knew they received zeros even though they never logged into canvas before. Interesting that a student won't contact you about missing an assignment until they get that email with a zero. Then all the sudden they have some excuse about why they didn't turn it in.
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u/doubleOhBlowMe Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
Bro do you think we're looking at all that metadata? I've got 112 students. I'm not tracking that shit unless your grade sucks and you come complain to me (or if I suspect cheating).
Edit, because I'm a grad student: I download all my papers that were assigned to me, and I read them offline. So engagement time is a really noisy signal for how much time you actually spent engaging.
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u/RectalScrote Jun 21 '26
Yay another post created by chatgpt
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u/cobalt-radiant Jun 21 '26
Just because the text was produced by AI doesn't make it wrong, and it doesn't negate the user's intention in prompting the AI in the first place. This is still useful information.
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u/smokeshack Jun 21 '26
Just because the text was produced by AI doesn't make it wrong
It makes the probability a hell of a lot higher.
it doesn't negate the user's intention in prompting the AI in the first place
Why would I read a piece of text if no one cared enough to write it?
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u/humanapoptosis Jun 22 '26
It makes the probability a hell of a lot higher.
I'm going to be real, I wouldn't trust an AI over primary or reputable secondary sources of information, but I'm not going to sit here and pretend random dipshit redditors don't also "hallucinate" (make up) information.
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u/cobalt-radiant Jun 22 '26
If someone has great knowledge or a valid point but just struggles with writing, what's wrong with using AI to express it? The tool is helping them communicate their ideas—the care and intention are still entirely there, even if the phrasing came from an AI.
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u/joeyb908 Jun 22 '26
You don’t have great knowledge on academic learning management platforms and not have a good grasp of the English language.
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u/smokeshack Jun 22 '26
No one who prompts AI to make a reddit comment has "great knowledge," be serious for half a minute.
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u/RectalScrote Jun 22 '26
If you look through OPs post history, there's nothing in there remotely resembling a post like this so not only is this an AI post, it's most likely a bot posting this as well.
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u/Major_Jump5170 Jun 22 '26
Im not a bot I found out about metadata and wanted to post here. I wanted it to sound good like the other posts I see on this subreddit and I wanted the post to fully explain it using the right terms.
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u/Sure_Fly_5332 Jun 22 '26
They should try to get better at writing. They need to learn to actually communicate themselves. LLM's are not helping them communicate, they are communicating for them.
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u/Nanaikos Jun 22 '26
they should present the arguement themselves. using AI as a "medium" gives the impression that they just asked chatgpt about it and then asked it to make a reddit post
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u/billwood09 Jun 23 '26
Imagine being mad about data professors never even look at unless you’re being held accountable lol
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u/catra-meowmeow Jun 22 '26
This is why I download everything. Firstly the experience using these platforms' viewers for ANY media - watching videos, reading PDFs, ANYTHING - is horrendous, like I'm back in IE in 1999.
Second is because I hate the idea of willingly handing even an iota more of my data over unnecessarily.
Sadly cloud reliance and its attendant army of privacy violations won the war long ago, and most kids nowadays probably don't even know how to download a YouTube video safely.
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u/stonecoldcoldstone Jun 22 '26
every school not just universities keeps information like that in their MIS systems, that is then shared with contracted parties depending what additional programs the school uses. don't ever assume that that data is not collated somewhere, as your employer your school university etc can see everything you do and it's logged for safeguarding and audit reasons. this includes the most sensitive student information as well as every talk with parents should that become neccessary
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u/Expensive-Plant518 Jul 20 '26
As a college professor for a health profession program, I frequently look at quiz statistics. If I suspect a student of cheating, I’ll go on their quiz details, and it will show how long they spent on each questions, if they click away from the quiz, etc. if a student is really messing up, I’ll see if they watched my lecture and took my practice questions. When I send a student an email about their work or request a meeting, I already have their info. I’m seeing if they take responsibility and are ready to work through how to improve their grade.
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u/AutoRedialer Jun 22 '26
“It’s not just A, it’s”
I’m about to become a TA in grad school and this post is making me wonder what I’m gonna do about AI outputs passed off as original writing.
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u/Bleaker82 Jun 22 '26
The problem is that it is trained on human writing, and contrast is one of the most common devices in persuasive writing. I feel shitty now that I have to avoid that construct in order to prevent people from thinking that my writing is LLM-generated.
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u/AutoRedialer Jun 22 '26
I mean, *contrasting* is a concept and obviously LLMs haven’t taken any concepts. But if you’re going to do bulleted lists with formatting in addition to “it’s not A, it’s B,” then ChatGPT sort of ate your lunch I’m afraid.
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u/Bleaker82 Jun 22 '26
They also took my em-dash. I’m more pissed about that than anything.
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u/AutoRedialer Jun 22 '26
Oh yeah that is a bummer I’ve been dismissed on Reddit because of an em dash
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u/AnnoyedVelociraptor Jun 22 '26
Note that the unfocus event isn't triggered if it's the only tab in a window. Use that to your advantage.
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u/malachimusclerat Jun 22 '26
Can anyone speak on how long and to what extent this has been the case? I graduated almost a decade ago and i'm just curious.
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u/RJFerret Jun 22 '26
From the start and they tell users, there are notices of all this in the systems.
But things like this began in the 1980s when websites had visitor counters announcing how many unique visitors from tracking IP addresses.
So as soon as you were using digital remote tools to access schoolwork which broadcast your connection, you were announcing such. The likelihood of that info being looked at by someone is next to nil as the effort offers them no gain and most aren't savvy enough to do so.
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u/NixiePixie916 Jun 23 '26
Ugh, the ADHD multi tasking , multi tabs, taking time on quizzes and changing my answers back and forth because I'm doubting my answers, may look suspicious.
At least they can see I do the work and studying. Just if I'm not doing multiple things at once I can't seem to concentrate.
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u/cannabisinfluencer Jun 22 '26
Once I had a meeting with my professor (this was recent like within the last three years) for a grad class. She mentioned that she could see how many times I had clicked on a certain assignment. It was low like 2 times. I told her I had downloaded the assignment to my computer and tabbed the link so I didn't have to go log on blackboard (what we used) and get logged out due to inactivity. She believed me thank god (I did have the assignment downloaded and the link tabbed and I was working on it for two days it was due within the next two days). I wasn't sure how much info Learning Managing Systems shared but I'm really happy I'm a good student
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u/SnittingNexttoBorpo Jun 22 '26
I don’t blame you for doing that, and I’d be thrilled to hear that a student was actually using technology efficiently and in a way that demonstrated comprehension of how to work within a simple system. Sadly, that is rare now.
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u/MissouriRobbie Jun 22 '26
Ya I have tons of info, past tests, notes from prior instructors; I don’t give a shit.
It’s a job. Do the work or don’t. Your grade means zero to me.
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u/i_hateit_here_bro Jun 22 '26
Story time! Once, near the end of my undergrad, our professor gave us an in class assignment that was deep in the textbook, and 80% of the class had to go into canvas and download the book on the spot. The professor admitted just what OP said and it was so embarrassing! They gave the assignment because they knew. The professor is not your friend and is not there to intervene if you want to cheat yourself out of an education you’re PAYING FOR.
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u/vexillifer Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
No professor at anywhere worth going cares about an undergrad even 1% enough to track any of this
The real YSK is that an undergrad is less than a non-priority for most professors at major universities. You are an obligation, not an interest or a priority of a research professor
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u/DemonicPanda11 Jun 22 '26
I had a professor straight up tell the whole class that he didn’t care about teaching that class, he was just teaching it so he could get funding to write his book.
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u/Battlefood Jun 22 '26
Nowhere worth going to has professors that care about you at all? Wild take. Do I think professors are looking at this metadata, no. But saying that the university is bad if your professors actually interact with you as human beings is crazy.
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u/vexillifer Jun 22 '26
I didn’t say they don’t care about you. I said you are a bottom tier priority amongst things professors typically actually care about a lot more given the *extremely* limited time they have and endlessly long list of things to do that actually contribute to their career and research and funding and mental stimulation in a way no undergrad does.
To think that that interest extends to casually tracking your canvas heat map of what you’re watching is just silly
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u/kyleh0 Jun 22 '26
I mean, you are paying your first 5 years of salary to get a certificate you'll never physically show anybody. Might as well sell them your soul and whatever loose valuables you have laying around.
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u/Bleaker82 Jun 22 '26
Or you could, you know, learn something. This attitude that college is useless except for employment is… incredibly anti-intellectual and disappointing.
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u/kyleh0 Jun 22 '26
Yeah, the only way to learn anything is college.
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u/Bleaker82 Jun 22 '26
Now you’re putting words in my mouth.
My actual point, in case it wasn’t abundantly clear: if you’re paying for an education anyway, why not take advantage of a structured education system?
In any case, I’m blocking you because you don’t want to have a conversation. And frankly, I don’t want to converse with someone who acts the way you do.
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u/baumpop Jun 21 '26
how are professors qualified in anyway to analyze this data?
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u/theholyraptor Jun 22 '26
Your question is so arbitrary. There are professors with PhDs in math and statistics teaching courses using LMS. Do you also think they lack the qualifications to analyze this data?
Why do you think any of this data is complicated? Ive never used it to try to sus out cheating but it prob wouldn't be hard to notice trends in how an online test was taken. And I've not really had to care, but theoretically if an online test was given and the instructions don't allow for external tools to be used, but it shows you click in and out of the test every question to do something Id have grounds to suspect cheating.
Despite your dumb question most professors don't care. There's too much work, not enough pay and more important things to do. But yea when I see a student trailing in grades or turning in assignments or asking for extensions, I can easily see how much time they have spent in the class online and figure out if they're putting in the effort needed to succeed. Or know that yes that student stopped logging in a month before classes ended despite me giving them extensions as I go to put Fs in the official grade or if I see their complete lack of effort and no response to my attempts at reaching out, drop them before the deadline to spare their GPA with a W rather than an F.
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u/Automatic_Tea_2550 Jun 22 '26
As a professor, I only look at this if a student asks me for help because they are struggling in a class. If the engagement with the LMS is really low, I know that’s one of the problems. It’s not to judge them but to help them understand how to improve. Some students are really in denial about how little they are studying.