Viewing a Quiz Log in ISU Canvas

Summary

Instructors can utilize quiz logs in ISU Canvas to investigate problems that a student may have in the quiz and gain insight into quiz questions.

Body

Description

This article provides instructions on how to enable quiz log auditing and view a quiz log in ISU Canvas at Idaho State University (ISU). Quiz Log Auditing enables the tracking of events for a quiz submission, and the ability to view a log of those events once a submission is made. Note: Auditing must be turned on before a quiz is taken.

Warning: Quiz logs are not intended to validate academic integrity or identify cheating for a quiz.

Guide Navigation

Enabling Quiz Log Auditing

Quiz Log Auditing is currently a course opt-in feature. To enable the option to view quiz logs:

  1. In Course Navigation, select the Settings link.
  2. Select the Feature Options tab.
  3. From the Feature Options list, select Quiz Log Auditing. 
  4. Click on the X to toggle the feature on.
  5. You may navigate away from the feature options and your change will be automatically saved.

Viewing a Quiz Log for a Student

  1. In Course Navigation, select the Quizzes link and select the name of the quiz you wish to view.
  2. Select the Options menu (3 dots in right corner) and choose the Show Student Quiz Results option. 
  3. Select the name of the student who's log you wish to view.
  4. Select the View Log link. You will be able to view the session information and action log for the quiz, including the start date and time for the attempt.
  5. The action log for the specified attempt will display a status and a timestamp for each quiz question.
  6. To refresh the quiz log, select the Reload button in top right corner of the session information window.
  7. Each item in the action log contains a status. Possible action log statuses include:
    1. Viewed (and possibly read) a question displays when a student is active on the quiz page, but has not answered the question.
    2. Answered a question displays when a student has answered the question. If questions are shown being answered multiple times, the student either changed their answer(s), or the answer was generated by the quiz autosave feature.
    3. Stopped viewing the Canvas quiz-taking page displays when a student navigates away from the quiz (closes the browser tab, opens a new browser tab, or navigates to a different program.
    4. Resumed displays when the student has returned to the quiz.
  8. To view responses to a question, select the link to the quiz question number. You can view the number of times the question was answered, as well as each specific attempt answering the question.
  9. To view answers for another quiz question, select the question umber. 
  10. To return to the log, select the Back to log link. 

Note: The quiz starts the log when students begin the quiz, so some logs may show that the quiz is in progress. If the student has more than one quiz attempt, the log always shows the most recent attempt by default. Prior attempts can be viewed by selecting the number of the attempt.

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Viewing Autosave Answers

If a student clicks to answer another question, the quiz may autosave supported question types and display them in the quiz log as answered. For fill-in-multiple blanks, matching, multiple answers, and multiple dropdown questions, autosaved entries may appear earlier in the quiz log than the order in which the student intentionally answered the questions. These log entries are system-generated autosave events and may not reflect the actual sequence of student responses. 

When viewing the question answers in the log, the question will show a null or no answer response for the autosaved answer attempt.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I turn on Quiz Log Auditing after a quiz has been taken?

  • Quiz log auditing cannot be retroactively applied to quiz attempts that have already been submitted.

Can the Quiz Log be used to detect cheating and/or academic integrity concerns?

  • Quiz logs should not be used to identify occurrences of cheating or validate academic integrity. For assistance with handling misconduct matters, please consult the ISU Academic Integrity Council.

How long are quiz logs retained?

  • Quiz logs are retained for six months.

What types of questions will the quiz log identify?

  • The quiz log may show fill-in-multiple-blanks, matching, multiple answers, and multiple dropdown questions as being answered at the beginning of the quiz. This action is generated by the autosave component within Canvas quizzes. If a student clicks to answer another question, the quiz will autosave all the questions and show them as being answered. Because of the autosave behavior, the quiz log may not include an accurate log for these types of questions.

Additional Resources

ITRC Resources

Details

Details

Article ID: 170945
Created
Thu 10/15/26 1:25 PM
Modified
Mon 11/9/26 3:40 PM