Canvas Quiz Log: What Professors See in Classic & New Quizzes

The Canvas quiz log shows your instructor a timestamped list of what happened during each attempt: when the attempt started, which questions you viewed and answered (and re-answered), and every time the quiz page lost focus ("Stopped viewing the Canvas quiz-taking page") and regained it ("Resumed"). Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes both keep a log, but they show it in different places and with different detail. Outside the quiz, Canvas also keeps page-view and access data for the whole course. This guide goes through each one, using Instructure's own documentation and the public Canvas source code.

Last verified: October 12, 2026 against the official documentation linked below.

The short version: what professors can see on Canvas

If you only need the overview, an instructor in a standard Canvas course can usually see the following about a quiz attempt:

• Start time, submission time and total time taken for each attempt.
• Every answer you submitted, the score per question, and every attempt if more than one was allowed.
• In the quiz log: a sequence of events such as "Viewed (and possibly read) a question", "Answered a question", "Stopped viewing the Canvas quiz-taking page" and "Resumed", each with a timestamp.
• In New Quizzes: expandable event details that may include information about your computer, and (with the right permission) the client IP address.
• Outside the quiz: the course Access Report and Course Analytics, which show which course pages you opened, how often, and when.

What the log does not contain is a picture of your screen, the address of other tabs you opened, or what you did on another device. Those require separate proctoring software, covered further down. Our companion article Does Canvas track tab switching? goes deeper into the focus events specifically.

Classic Quizzes: how the View Log page works

In Classic Quizzes, the instructor opens the quiz, clicks the Options menu, chooses Show Student Quiz Results, clicks a student's name and then clicks View Log at the top of that student's results page. That path comes straight from the Instructure guide "How do I view a quiz log for a student?". The log has two parts: session information (the start date and time of the attempt) and an action log that lists a status and a timestamp for each action.

A few practical details from the same guide matter when you read a log:

• Quiz Log Auditing is a course feature option. The View Log link only appears when the feature is turned on for the course. Many institutions enable it everywhere, so do not assume it is off.
• Logs are kept for six months. After that, Instructure says the log is no longer retained.
• Every attempt has its own log. The log opens on the most recent attempt; earlier attempts are one click away.
• The instructor can open each question from the log to see how many times it was answered and the content of each answer submission.

What each Classic Quizzes log entry means

Instructure lists four action statuses. Here is what each one means in plain terms, together with how the Canvas code actually produces it. The event trackers are open source in the canvas-lms repository on GitHub.

Two caveats are worth knowing. First, Instructure warns that Fill-in-Multiple-Blanks, Matching, Multiple Answers and Multiple Dropdown questions can appear as "answered" at the very start of the log because of autosave, so the order of those entries is not reliable. Second, the "Stopped viewing" entry records that the page lost focus and when, not why or where the focus went. A system notification, a click on the browser's address bar, or switching to a calculator app can all produce the same entry as opening a search engine. Instructors see the timestamps and the gap between "Stopped viewing" and "Resumed".

New Quizzes: the Moderate page and its log

New Quizzes keeps its results in a different place. According to the Instructure guide for the Moderate page, the instructor opens the quiz's Build page and clicks the Moderate tab. That page lists every student, their attempts, the score and time for each attempt, attempt logs, and any accommodations (extra time, time multipliers, Reduced Answer Choices).

Clicking View Log for an attempt shows when the student began and completed the quiz, each event that occurred during the attempt, the time elapsed during each event, and basic event details. Expanding an event can show "details about the student's computer or an answer they selected", and the log "includes moments of stopping and resuming the quiz". Instructure adds two notes that students rarely hear about:

• Only admins and instructors with the View the Client IP address permission can see the IP address in the log.
• The completion time on the log can differ by a few seconds from the Moderate page; the Moderate page is the reference for timed quizzes.

For a long time the New Quizzes log was thinner than the Classic one and did not show when a student left the page. That changed in October 2024: Newcastle University's learning technology team summarised the release as "Instructors can now track when students leave the New Quiz page, whether they navigate to another Canvas page or switch browsers, and when they return to resume the quiz" (Newcastle University, Canvas October 2024 updates). If you read older forum threads saying "New Quizzes doesn't log tab changes", they predate that update.

Detect Multiple Sessions and IP filtering

New Quizzes has two settings that feed extra data into the log. The New Quizzes settings guide describes Detect Multiple Sessions: when it is on, a student who tries to continue an attempt in a different browser or on a different device gets a notification, and all multi-session activity is recorded for admins in the Activity Log and Moderate page (instructors need the "View multi-session information" permission to see it). Filter IP Addresses limits the quiz to specific IP ranges, typically a testing centre or computer lab. Classic Quizzes offers the same IP filter and an access code under Quiz Restrictions, according to Instructure's Classic Quizzes options guide. For a walkthrough of every setting, see Canvas quiz settings explained.

Classic vs New Quizzes log: side by side

If you are not sure which engine your course uses, our Classic vs New Quizzes comparison explains how to tell them apart from the student side.

Beyond the quiz: page views, the Access Report and Course Analytics

Many students search "what can professors see on Canvas" meaning the whole course, not just a quiz. Two tools cover that.

The Access Report. From the People page, an instructor can open a student's User Details and click Access Report. The Instructure guide to the course access report says it shows the content the user viewed, the number of times they viewed it (a view is counted each time the user navigates to the URL or downloads an attachment), the number of times they participated (for example posting to a discussion or submitting an assignment) and the last time they viewed it. In practice this means an instructor can see that you opened the lecture slides file twenty minutes before the quiz, or never opened the module at all.

Course Analytics. The student view of Course Analytics shows a student's course grade, weekly online activity (page views and participations) and communication. Instructure notes that the data refreshes every 24 hours and that page view data should not be used to assess academic integrity, because mobile page views in particular can be recorded at a different time from when they happened.

Quiz Statistics and Student Analysis. For Classic Quizzes, the quiz statistics guide describes class-wide statistics (average, high, low, standard deviation, per-question breakdowns) plus a downloadable Student Analysis CSV with each student's responses. This is where an instructor typically notices that two submissions share the same unusual wrong answers, or that one attempt took a fraction of the class median time.

What instructors see vs what they do not see

The right-hand column describes Canvas on its own. It changes completely when the course adds a proctoring tool such as Respondus LockDown Browser, Honorlock or Proctorio. Those tools can record your screen, webcam and visited sites, restrict other tabs, and in some configurations block or flag browser extensions. We cover that in Does Canvas detect Chrome extensions? and Can professors see your Chrome extensions?. Also keep in mind that a web page can observe more than the log displays: the last row says "documented" on purpose, because a page can sometimes infer that an extension is present from changes it makes to the page.

How instructors actually use the quiz log

Instructure is explicit about the limits of this tool. Its quiz log guide says the feature "is designed to help you investigate problems that a student may have in the quiz and gain insight into your quiz questions", that quiz logs "are not intended to validate academic integrity", and it recommends that instructors with integrity concerns first work with the office at their institution that handles academic misconduct.

In day-to-day teaching, that translates into a few common uses:

• Technical problems. A student says the quiz froze or submitted early. The log shows when the last answer was saved and whether the page lost focus, which helps the instructor decide whether to reopen the attempt from the Moderate page or the Classic "Moderate This Quiz" screen.
• Question quality. If most students spend a long time on question 7 and change their answer repeatedly, the question may be ambiguous.
• Context for an integrity review. When an instructor already has a reason to look (identical unusual answers, a very short completion time compared with the class), the log adds a timeline. It is one piece of evidence, read together with statistics, the Access Report and the course rules, and it is interpreted under your institution's process.

Because the log cannot tell a notification from a search, frequent "Stopped viewing" entries do not prove anything by themselves. They do mean you may be asked to explain them. If an instructor allows notes, a calculator app or a reference page, it is worth confirming in writing before the quiz, so the log has an obvious explanation.

What this means for you as a student

• Read the quiz instructions and the syllabus. Whether outside resources, notes or AI tools are allowed is a course-level decision, and it varies a lot between open-book homework quizzes and closed-book exams.
• If something goes wrong, tell your instructor right away. A crash or a Wi-Fi drop leaves a trace in the log; reporting it immediately, with a screenshot, is the easiest way to get an attempt reopened.
• Close notification-heavy apps before a graded quiz. Pop-ups that grab focus can create "Stopped viewing" entries you then have to explain.
• Use practice quizzes to study. Many instructors publish ungraded practice quizzes precisely so students can review with any resource they like. Our guide on studying with AI tools covers ways to use them that build understanding.

Sources

• Instructure: How do I view a quiz log for a student? (Classic Quizzes)
• Instructure: How do I use the Moderate page in New Quizzes?
• Instructure: How do I manage settings for a quiz in New Quizzes?
• Instructure: What options can I set in a quiz? (Classic Quizzes)
• Instructure: How do I view the course access report for an individual user?
• Instructure: How do I view Course Analytics for a student in a course?
• Instructure: What kinds of quiz statistics are available?
• canvas-lms source code: quiz log event trackers (GitHub)
• Newcastle University: Canvas October 2024 updates (New Quizzes attempt log)

FAQ

Can my professor see if I leave the Canvas quiz page?

Yes, if the quiz log is enabled. Classic Quizzes logs "Stopped viewing the Canvas quiz-taking page" and "Resumed" with timestamps, and New Quizzes has logged stopping and resuming since October 2024. The log shows when focus left the page, not where it went.

Does the Canvas quiz log show what I searched or which tab I opened?

No. The standard log has no record of other tabs' addresses or your search history. Proctoring tools are different: Honorlock, for example, says it can log the websites you visit in Chrome during an exam when your school enables it.

How long does Canvas keep quiz logs?

Instructure states that Classic Quizzes logs are retained for six months. The Moderate page guide for New Quizzes does not give a retention period. Grades, submissions and the Access Report are kept with the course.

Can teachers see your IP address on Canvas quizzes?

In New Quizzes, admins and instructors with the "View the Client IP address" permission can see it in the log. Both quiz engines can also restrict a quiz to certain IP ranges with the Filter IP Addresses setting.

Why does my quiz log show questions answered at the start?

Instructure explains that autosave can record Fill-in-Multiple-Blanks, Matching, Multiple Answers and Multiple Dropdown questions as answered early in the log, with a null answer. Those entries are system-generated and do not reflect the real order you answered in.

Why can't my instructor find the View Log link?

In Classic Quizzes, Quiz Log Auditing is a course feature option; if it is off, the link does not appear. In New Quizzes, the log is on the Moderate tab rather than the results page.