6 min read

Can Canvas Detect Cheating Without LockDown Browser?

Without LockDown Browser or a proctoring tool, Canvas can only log page focus, timing and your answers. That is less than students fear, but it is not nothing, and 'no LockDown Browser' does not always mean 'no proctoring'. Here is how to tell what your quiz actually runs, and what each setup can see.

Short answer. On its own, without LockDown Browser or a proctoring service, Canvas can see three things: when the quiz page loses focus, how long you spent on each question, and what you answered. It cannot see your screen, your webcam, your other tabs or your other devices. Most cheating cases on unproctored Canvas quizzes come from patterns in those three things, not from surveillance.

The catch is that "no LockDown Browser" is not the same as "no proctoring". Several proctoring tools run inside your normal Chrome. So the first job is to work out what your quiz is really running.

How to tell what your quiz is running

Look at the quiz before you start it. Each setup leaves clues:

What you see What it means
Quiz says it requires Respondus LockDown Browser and will not open in Chrome LockDown Browser. Other apps and tabs are blocked
Asked to enable your webcam, or a "Respondus Monitor" step LockDown Browser with webcam recording
Asked to install or enable a Chrome extension (Honorlock, Proctorio) Browser-based proctoring. Can record screen and webcam inside normal Chrome
ID check, room scan, or a live proctor joins Live or recorded proctoring (ProctorU, Honorlock live)
Instructions mention a Zoom link with cameras on A human watching via video call
Quiz opens in normal Chrome with none of the above Canvas alone

If you are in the last row, everything below applies. If you are in any other row, see ProctorU, Respondus and Honorlock: How Detection Actually Works and Does LockDown Browser Record You?

What Canvas alone can see

Focus changes

Canvas logs "stopped viewing the Canvas quiz-taking page" every time the quiz is hidden or loses focus, and "resumed" when you come back. Switching tabs, clicking another app or window, and some pop-ups all trigger it. It never records where you went. Full detail in Canvas Stopped Viewing Flag Explained.

Timing

The quiz log records when each question was viewed and answered, and when answers changed. Your instructor sees your total time alongside everyone else's.

Your answers, compared to everyone else's

Canvas shows instructors item analysis and every student's responses. This is where a lot of cases actually start, because it does not require any surveillance at all.

Account and session basics

Your login, your IP address and your browser type, the same things any website sees. More in Canvas Privacy Myths.

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What Canvas alone cannot see

How professors catch cheating on unproctored quizzes

Without proctoring, professors work from patterns. These are the ones that come up most:

  • Shared wrong answers. Several students choosing the same unusual wrong option, especially one an AI chatbot tends to give.
  • Page exits lined up with correct answers. Leave, come back, answer correctly, repeated.
  • Impossible times. A perfect score far faster than the questions could be read.
  • Score shape. Hard questions right, easy questions wrong.
  • Answers that match each other in time. Two students answering the same questions within seconds of each other, from the same IP address.

Instructors also design around unproctored quizzes: question banks so everyone gets different questions, shuffled answer order, one question at a time with no going back, and short time limits. None of this detects cheating, it just makes outside help slower.

Is an unproctored quiz actually lower risk?

Much lower than a proctored one, because nobody is watching you. But the log and the answer data still exist and can be reviewed after the fact, sometimes weeks later. We compared the two directly in Unproctored vs. Proctored Online Exams: The Real Risk Difference.

The honest summary: on an unproctored Canvas quiz, the risk is almost entirely in the log you create and in the answers you share with other people.

The quiz type where help actually works

Unproctored quizzes in normal Chrome are the only setting where browser tools can run at all. Lockdown browsers do not load Chrome extensions, and proctoring tools record whatever is on screen. That makes knowing which kind of quiz you are taking the single most useful thing you can check before you start.

On an unproctored quiz, the remaining risk is the stopped viewing pattern, and the way to avoid it is to never leave the page. How to Answer Canvas Quizzes Without Switching Tabs ranks every method by what it leaves in the log.

Answer on the quiz page itself

ExamClutch reads each question and its options from the Canvas page, gets the answer, and applies it on that same page with a double-click. The browser never leaves the quiz, so there are no stopped viewing pairs for the log to line up with your answers.

It works on Canvas Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes, plus Blackboard, Brightspace, Moodle, Schoology, McGraw Hill and Google Forms, and handles multiple choice, multi-select, dropdown and fill-in-the-blank. It never submits for you. It does not run inside LockDown Browser, and no extension does.

FAQ

Can Canvas see my screen without LockDown Browser? No. Canvas alone cannot see your screen. Browser-based proctoring extensions like Honorlock and Proctorio can, which is why it matters what you were asked to install.

Does Canvas know if I am using LockDown Browser or not? If the quiz requires it, Canvas will not let you open the quiz in a normal browser. If the quiz does not require it, it makes no difference which browser you use.

Can Canvas detect a second device without proctoring? No. A phone or tablet next to your laptop is invisible to Canvas. A webcam would see it, but only if the quiz is proctored.

Can my professor check the quiz log after grades are posted? Yes. The log stays available to the instructor after the quiz closes. Reviews sometimes happen well after the fact.

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