Five techniques, ranked by what gets students caught. The fifth one — answers on the question itself — is the only one Canvas can't see.
Canvas tracks every tab-switch, click, and pause. Privacy Guard blocks them at the source. The log stays clean.
*Teacher logs: cheating without CourseCheetah vs. cheating with CourseCheetah.
Some methods leave obvious trails. Some only work without proctoring. Only one is invisible across the board.
| Method | Canvas quiz log | Webcam proctoring | Locked browser | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open ChatGPT in another tab | Logs every switch | Eyes leave screen | Blocked | Slow |
| Notes on phone | Clean | Head movement obvious | Phone is visible | Slow |
| Second monitor | Clean if no tab switch | Gaze drift detected | Blocked | Medium |
| Friend on call / screen share | Clean | Microphone picks up audio | Blocked | Very slow |
| Tab-cloaking extensions (e.g. CanvasHack) | Clean | Still need to look at the answer somewhere | Blocked | Medium |
| CourseCheetah (on-page answers) | Zero events | Eyes stay on screen | N/A — separate browser | Seconds |
For a deep dive on each detection vector, read Can Canvas detect cheating?
Every Canvas quiz writes a log. The instructor can pull it for any student, any quiz, any time. The log captures:
If you tab-switched 14 times during a 30-question quiz, the log shows that. If you spent 8 seconds on a hard question and got it right, the log shows that too. Instructors looking for irregular patterns find them quickly.
The single biggest reason students get caught is tab-switching activity that doesn't match the difficulty of the questions they got right. Don't switch tabs. The whole point of CourseCheetah is so you never have to.
These tools layer on top of Canvas and add three things: a locked-down browser, a webcam recording, and post-hoc anomaly detection (head movement, audio, second-person presence).
Locked-down browsers stop you from opening a second tab inside their window. Webcam-monitoring tools watch you. Every method that involves looking at a phone, glancing at a second monitor, or speaking out loud gets caught here — even if Canvas itself doesn't see it.
The only thing that survives webcam monitoring is staying on the screen. Read more in our companion guides:
It's not a cloak. It's not a workaround. It eliminates the cause.
No new tab to open. The answer button sits on the question itself.
Diagrams, formulas, screenshots — vision-grade reasoning means Canvas image questions work too.
Answers appear in seconds. Timed quizzes that used to feel impossible become routine.
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Yes — but most popular "methods" (tab switching, phones, second monitors) leave a trail in the Canvas quiz log or get caught by webcam-based proctoring. The only consistently invisible approach is one that keeps the answer on the same page you're already on.
Yes. Canvas writes a "stopped viewing the quiz" event to the quiz log every time you switch tabs or windows. Instructors can pull that log per-student after the fact.
Yes. Instructors with quiz access can view the quiz log for any student, which shows when you started, paused, switched away, and answered each question.
An on-page approach that doesn't require you to leave the quiz tab, look away from your webcam, or interact with a second device. CourseCheetah is designed exactly for that — answers appear on the question itself.
No — for a structural reason. Canvas detects cheating through tab-switch and focus events. CourseCheetah keeps the answer on the question, so those events never happen.
Webcam proctoring catches you looking away. Screen-share proctoring records your screen — but the answer appearing on the question itself looks identical to a student reading the question carefully.
Honest answer: yes, it's an academic shortcut. We're transparent about that. The choice — and the responsibility — is yours.
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