Good afternoon Community,
Is there a way for copy and paste to be disabled for students
Thank you
Hi @SaskiaHendriks,
As said by @NoahBoswell, without additional context, this is something that cannot be done without using a third-party integration like a virtual proctoring solution similar to Respondus LockDown Browser.
However, in theory, you could inject JavaScript into your Canvas instance but it would (unless using additional adjustments to have it only apply to certain roles or specific courses/terms/(sub)accounts) would disable right/context clicking for everyone and everywhere in the LMS or it would need to be added to every specific/desired type of content in Canvas (unless using some sort of template).
-Doug
Greetings @SaskiaHendriks ,
Thank you for posting on the Instructure Community!
I was wondering if you'd be able to provide a little bit more context to as what or where in Canvas you're trying to prohibit students from copying and pasting. If it's something such as an assignment submission, then no, there isn't really a setting that you can just check off to prevent students from copying and pasting. However, when it comes to Quizzes, there might be a third party application out there that you can use to prevent students from doing so, but there isn't really a setting there by default that allows you to simply prevent students from copying and pasting. You may also be able to use custom JavaScript or CSS to accomplish this, too.
I hope this information helps you!
All the best,Noah
I do not intend to hijack Saskia's thread, but I had this question, too, and found this recent post. In my case, I would want to disable the use of copy/paste in Assignment activities when the submission type was set to Online-Text Entry, as well as in all Discussion activities. Nevertheless, based on the responses above by Noah and Doug, this type of restriction does not seem to be natively available in Canvas at the moment. Is that correct?
Can Canvas add a function to discussion boards so faculty can opt to enable or disable copy/paste? This would force students to type the response rather than paste and would make it more difficult to plagiarize.
@NoahBoswell and @dbrace…
Faculty around the country are getting hammered by students using AI to answer questions posed to them in an online forum. Whether it be a discussion or an exam ("quiz"), we are dealing with copy-paste submissions. And have been for years.
Respondus is better than it was, but can be evaded in some cases. Even if it reports an issue, that requires us to investigate each issue— a time-consuming, often fruitless endeavor. We basically need to "prove" they did violate whatever rule we put out there by catching them with the proverbial "smoking gun"— impossible now with more than 30 AIs.
Going after those inappropriately using AI is additionally problematic because policies are weak or non-existent and have not been legally tested (and I am not sure what higher ed institution would want to be the pioneer there).
We rely on technology to help us facilitate learning. Few of us want to be chasing people down and filing reams of paperwork. Even fewer of us have the capability to twiddle with JavaScript or some kind of programming fiddle-fuss. We need Instructure (which has digital engineers and the capacity to address the needs of clients at a large scale) to manage that for us.
Having the option to disable copy-paste within a Canvas space or within a particular format, particularly for quizzes and discussions, is increasingly critical. Top 10% of issues critical. It is not a nicety, but a necessity, at this point.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Matt
With the new SpeedGrader UI, we are seeing student names appear in the page title even when the “Hide student names” setting is enabled. When using Classic Quizzes, there is no option within the quiz settings to enable anonymous grading, so we rely on instructors using the hide student names setting in SpeedGrader to…
Has anyone had a chance to try this with a Canvas quiz? Seems it may have a similar effect as ChatGPT Atlas able to provide all the answers to an open Quiz. https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/05/microsoft_adds_a_sidepane_for/
When you are creating a quiz and/or also reviewing a quiz in Canvas after the class has taken it, the questions aren't numbered so after you get past the first few questions, there is no way to even tell what number you are on. Can someone change that?
Speedgrader chaning file name when being downloaded. Speedgrader: When downloading a submitted assignment, the file name is being changed to an unrecognizable name — (Student's actual name was part of the file name — changed for privacy.) Ideas???
We are all familiar with the standard Course Calendar, where assignment due dates are automatically added. However, at my institution, we structure our assignments as Challenges that develop over a period of time, rather than just a single deadline. Currently, the calendar only highlights the "end point." It would be a…