What Does Canvas Track? A Complete List of Tracked Events

If you are a student using Canvas LMS, you have probably wondered: what does Canvas track? Whether you are taking a timed quiz, browsing course materials at midnight, or just submitting an assignment, Canvas is quietly recording more data about your activity than most students realize.

Here is the short answer: Canvas tracks page views, quiz start and end times, tab switches during quizzes, time per question (in New Quizzes), submission timestamps, answer changes, and login history. However, Canvas does not track your screen, webcam, browsing history, or activity outside the Canvas website.

That distinction matters. There is a massive gap between what students fear Canvas can see and what it actually records. In this guide, we will walk through every tracked event in detail, explain the differences between Classic and New Quizzes, show you exactly what your instructors can view on their analytics dashboard, and give you practical steps to reduce your tracking footprint.

Complete List of Events Canvas Tracks

Canvas LMS collects a range of data points as you interact with the platform. Here is a comprehensive list of every event type Canvas records natively, without any third-party tools installed:

• Page views — Every page you visit within Canvas is logged with a timestamp, including course pages, modules, assignments, and discussions.
• Login and logout timestamps — Canvas records when you sign in and sign out, along with the IP address and browser user agent used for each session.
• Quiz start time — The exact moment you click "Begin Quiz" or "Take the Quiz" is logged.
• Quiz submission time — When you submit your quiz, either manually or via auto-submit when time expires.
• Tab switch / focus loss events — When you leave the Canvas quiz tab (switch to another tab, open a new window, or minimize the browser), Canvas logs this as a "stopped viewing" event in the quiz log. Canvas Ninja blocks these events from ever being recorded.
• Answer selection and change events — Each time you select, change, or deselect an answer on a quiz, Canvas records the action with a timestamp.
• Time per question (New Quizzes only) — In New Quizzes, Canvas tracks how long you spend on each individual question before moving to the next one.
• Assignment submission timestamps — When you submit any assignment, discussion post, or file upload, Canvas logs the exact time.
• File access logs — If your instructor has uploaded files to the course, Canvas can record when you access or download them.
• Discussion participation — Posts, replies, and edits in discussion boards are all timestamped and attributed to your account.
• IP address — Your IP address is recorded with login events and can appear in quiz logs, giving a rough indication of your geographic area.

For a broader overview of how Canvas monitoring works across the entire platform, see our complete Canvas tracking guide.

What Canvas Tracks During Quizzes

Quizzes are where Canvas tracking is most intensive. When you start a quiz, Canvas begins generating a quiz log — a detailed, timestamped record of everything you do from the moment you begin until the moment you submit. Understanding this log is critical for any student who wants to know what their instructor can see.

The quiz log captures the following events in real time:

• Quiz started — Timestamp of when you opened the quiz attempt.
• Page viewed — Each time a quiz page loads or you navigate to a new page within the quiz.
• Answer selected / changed — Every answer choice you select, along with any changes you make. If you switch from option A to option C, both events are recorded.
• Stopped viewing the Canvas quiz page — This is the tab-switch event. Canvas uses the browser's Page Visibility API to detect when the quiz tab loses focus. The log records the exact timestamp and duration.
• Resumed viewing the Canvas quiz page — When you return to the quiz tab, this event is logged as well.
• Quiz submitted — The final submission event, whether triggered manually or by the time limit expiring.

It is important to understand that Canvas does not record what you did during a tab switch. The quiz log simply shows that you left the page and came back. Your instructor sees "stopped viewing" with a timestamp and duration — nothing more. They cannot see which website you visited, what app you opened, or what you did on your device while away.

For a deep dive into quiz log entries and how instructors read them, check out our Canvas quiz logs explained article.

Tracking in Classic Quizzes vs New Quizzes

Canvas currently supports two quiz engines, and they differ significantly in what they track. Understanding which one your course uses is essential for knowing your exposure level.

Classic Quizzes

Classic Quizzes is the original quiz engine that has been part of Canvas for over a decade. It generates a quiz log that includes start time, submission time, page views, answer events, and tab-switch events (stopped/resumed viewing). However, Classic Quizzes does not track time spent on individual questions. The log shows events in chronological order, but instructors need to manually calculate time gaps between events to estimate how long you spent on a particular question.

Classic Quizzes also presents all questions on one or multiple pages depending on instructor settings. If all questions are on a single page, the log is simpler because there are fewer page navigation events.

New Quizzes

New Quizzes is the modern replacement that Instructure has been rolling out across institutions. It includes all the tracking capabilities of Classic Quizzes plus several additions:

• Per-question time tracking — New Quizzes records exactly how many seconds you spend on each question. This data is visible to instructors in the moderation panel.
• Item-level analytics — Instructors can see statistics for each question, including average time spent, discrimination index, and point distribution.
• More granular event logging — New Quizzes tends to capture more detailed interaction events compared to Classic Quizzes.

If your course uses New Quizzes, your instructor has significantly more insight into your quiz-taking behavior. They can see not just that you answered question five, but that you spent 47 seconds on it before moving on to question six and then returned to question five 12 minutes later to change your answer.

What Canvas Tracks Outside Quizzes

Canvas tracking does not stop when you finish a quiz. The platform continuously records your interactions across the entire learning management system, though the level of detail is much less intense than during quizzes.

Page views and participation: Every page you visit within Canvas is logged. This includes course homepages, module pages, assignment descriptions, file previews, announcement pages, and syllabus pages. Canvas timestamps each visit and can calculate time spent on a page by measuring the gap between consecutive page views.

Assignment submissions: Canvas records the timestamp of every submission, including late submissions. If your instructor allows multiple attempts, each submission is logged separately. Canvas also tracks file uploads, text entries, and URL submissions with their respective timestamps.

Discussion boards: Your posts, replies, and edits are all logged with timestamps. Canvas records when you view discussion threads and when you create or modify your contributions.

Login history: Canvas maintains a login history that includes the date and time of each login, the IP address used, and the browser or device information. Administrators can access this log, and in some cases instructors can view limited login data through the analytics tools.

Course interaction data: Canvas aggregates your activity into participation metrics that instructors can view through the analytics dashboard. This includes total page views, participation scores, and time-on-task estimates across the entire course.

For a full breakdown of what Canvas records outside of quiz contexts, see our guide on Canvas activity logs.

What Canvas Does NOT Track

This is arguably the most important section of this article. There is a lot of misinformation about Canvas tracking capabilities, and many students live in unnecessary fear. Here is what Canvas absolutely cannot do on its own:

• Canvas cannot see your screen. There is no screen recording or screen capture capability built into Canvas. It cannot take screenshots of your desktop or monitor what applications you have open.
• Canvas cannot access your webcam or microphone. Without a third-party proctoring tool like Respondus LockDown Browser, Proctorio, or Honorlock, Canvas has zero access to your camera or microphone.
• Canvas cannot see your browsing history. Canvas does not know what other websites you visit, whether you use Google, ChatGPT, Chegg, or any other site during a quiz. It only knows you left the Canvas tab.
• Canvas cannot track activity outside its own website. Canvas is a web application. Its tracking is limited to interactions within the Canvas domain. It has no ability to monitor your desktop, file system, or other applications.
• Canvas cannot detect copy-paste. While some third-party proctoring tools claim to detect clipboard activity, Canvas itself does not monitor whether you copy or paste text.
• Canvas cannot see other browser tabs. The Page Visibility API only tells Canvas whether its own tab is active or not. It cannot enumerate your open tabs or read their contents.
• Canvas cannot track your exact location. While it logs IP addresses, this only provides a rough geographic area (city level at best). Canvas does not use GPS or any precise location tracking.
• Canvas cannot detect multiple monitors. Canvas has no native ability to determine whether you are using a second screen to display other content.

The bottom line is that Canvas is a web application with the same limitations as any other website. It can only track what happens within its own pages. The fear and anxiety many students feel about Canvas surveillance is often based on myths rather than technical reality.

The Canvas Analytics Dashboard (What Teachers See)

Understanding what Canvas tracks is only half the picture. The other half is knowing how that data is presented to your instructors. Canvas provides several analytics views that aggregate your activity data into easy-to-read dashboards.

Course Analytics

Instructors can access course-level analytics that show overall class activity patterns. This view includes charts displaying page views and participation over time for the entire class. While this view is typically used for aggregate data, instructors can drill down to individual student profiles.

Student Analytics

When an instructor clicks on an individual student, they see a detailed profile that includes your total page views, participation score, assignment submission timeline (including whether each assignment was on time, late, or missing), and current grade. The participation timeline shows daily activity bars that indicate how active you were on each day of the course.

New Analytics

Canvas has been rolling out a redesigned analytics tool called New Analytics (not to be confused with New Quizzes). This tool gives instructors a more modern interface for viewing student engagement data. It includes average page views and participation for each student compared to the class average, weekly activity breakdowns, and resource access reports showing which course materials each student has viewed.

Quiz Statistics and Moderation

For quizzes specifically, instructors have access to quiz statistics that show average scores, question-level performance data, and individual attempt details. The moderation view for New Quizzes provides per-question time data and detailed event logs. In Classic Quizzes, instructors can access the quiz log through the moderation page, which shows every event (page view, answer change, tab switch) in chronological order.

The key takeaway is that while the raw data Canvas collects might seem overwhelming, instructors typically only review detailed logs when they suspect something unusual. Most instructors look at high-level metrics like grades, submission times, and overall participation rather than scrutinizing individual quiz logs for every student.

Tracking with Third-Party Proctoring Tools

Everything discussed so far covers Canvas's native tracking capabilities. When your institution adds a third-party proctoring tool, the tracking landscape changes dramatically. These tools operate outside Canvas's built-in systems and introduce capabilities that Canvas itself does not have.

Respondus LockDown Browser

LockDown Browser locks your computer into a restricted browsing environment. It prevents you from opening other applications, switching tabs, taking screenshots, or accessing other websites. When paired with Respondus Monitor, it also records video through your webcam and flags suspicious behaviors like looking away from the screen or having another person visible in the frame.

Proctorio

Proctorio is a Chrome extension that can record your screen, webcam, microphone, and browsing activity during an exam. It uses AI to flag "suspicious" behaviors and generates a report for instructors. Proctorio operates at a system level and has access to far more data than Canvas alone.

Honorlock

Honorlock combines AI proctoring with live proctor intervention. It monitors your webcam, screen, and can detect phone usage through ambient audio analysis. Honorlock also searches the web for exam content being shared in real time.

The critical distinction is this: these tools are not Canvas. If your exam does not require a proctoring tool, none of these additional tracking capabilities apply. Canvas on its own is far more limited than many students believe. Always check your exam instructions to know whether a proctoring tool is required before assuming the worst about what is being tracked.

How to Minimize Your Tracking Footprint

If you want to reduce the amount of data Canvas collects about your quiz-taking behavior, there are several practical strategies you can use.

Stay on the quiz tab. The simplest way to avoid tab-switch flags in your quiz log is to never leave the Canvas tab during a quiz. If you need to reference notes, use a separate physical device or printed materials rather than switching tabs on the same computer.

Use a separate device for research. If you need to look something up during an open-note exam, use your phone or a second computer rather than switching tabs on the device running Canvas. Canvas cannot track what happens on other devices.

Be mindful of answer changes. Every time you change an answer, Canvas logs it. While changing answers is perfectly normal and expected, an excessive number of rapid changes late in the exam might attract attention in a quiz log review.

Use Canvas Ninja. Canvas Ninja is a Chrome extension built specifically to give students control over their Canvas tracking data. It intercepts quiz log events before they reach Canvas servers, effectively blocking tab-switch detection and other tracking events from being recorded. With Canvas Ninja installed, your quiz log appears clean even if you switch tabs during an exam. The extension works silently in the background and requires no configuration beyond installation.

Understand your exam rules. Before taking any quiz, review the instructions carefully. Know whether the exam is open-book, whether a proctoring tool is required, and what your instructor has communicated about monitoring. This helps you make informed decisions about your approach.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Canvas track everything you do?

No. Canvas tracks activity within its platform (page views, quiz events, submissions) but cannot track your activity outside Canvas, on other websites, or on your device.

Can Canvas track you on your phone?

Canvas tracks the same events on mobile as on desktop — page views, quiz activity, and submissions. It cannot access your phone's camera, microphone, or other apps.

Does Canvas track time spent on each page?

Yes, Canvas records timestamps for page views and can calculate how long you spent on each page or quiz question, especially in New Quizzes.

Can Canvas track your location?

Canvas does not track GPS location. It may log your IP address, which can provide a general geographic area, but this is not precise location tracking.

Conclusion

So, what does Canvas track? The answer is nuanced. Canvas records a meaningful amount of data about your activity within the platform — page views, quiz events, submission timestamps, login history, and tab-switch events during quizzes. In New Quizzes, the tracking extends to per-question timing data that gives instructors granular insight into your quiz-taking behavior.

However, Canvas's tracking has clear boundaries. It cannot see your screen, access your webcam, monitor your browsing history, track your location precisely, or observe anything you do outside the Canvas website. The only scenario where those additional capabilities come into play is when your institution deploys a third-party proctoring tool like Respondus, Proctorio, or Honorlock.

For most students, the practical takeaway is straightforward: Canvas knows when you start and finish quizzes, when you switch tabs, and when you change answers. If those events concern you, tools like Canvas Ninja can intercept and block them before they are recorded. Understanding exactly what Canvas tracks — and what it does not — puts you in a position to make informed decisions about your privacy and your approach to online exams.