Canvas’s temporary malfunction effected students and college campuses around the state.
After being down for a total of 105 minutes, students using Canvas state-wide had the ability to look up scores and change grades just as a professor could on Sept. 11.
Jared Johnson, Director of IT instructional support services said Canvas was doing an update that malfunctioned, which allowed this type of access.
Out of the 278 students in Utah who were logged on to Canvas, 39 of them made changes to grades.
“Fourteen students from Dixie were granted access,” Johnson said. “No scores were altered, though.”
Hanna Condie, a general education major from West Valley, was unsure of what to do if she was in a situation to change her grades.
“I think I would be really tempted if given the option to raise my grade, but in reality I think I might be too afraid to get caught,” Condie said.
But Kaden Foremaster, a communications major from Enterprise, felt differently.
“I just think it would be really dishonest,” Foremaster said. “I would feel too guilty to go to such measures just for a grade.”
Austin Farnsworth, a general education major from West Valley, didn’t know how something like Canvas allowing student access could happen.
“I really don’t understand how this could happen,” Farnsworth said. “It doesn’t make sense why they wouldn’t tell us students why this would happen.”
Even teachers were unaware of the problem. Lecia Langston, an adjunct business professor from Hurricane said that she had no idea that Canvas had made a mistake and it concerned her after she was informed about the extended access.
“I use Canvas for most of my assignments, so the fact that students would be able to see everything is a little bit frightening,” Langston said.
Johnson said they have a log showing all the activity of Dixie State College students during the time that Canvas was down.
He said one DSC student saw he had had more options and extended access and reported it to his professor right away.
Most students that had expanded access just saw more options than they usually see in Canvas and ignored them.The Canvas engineering team addressed the issue and applied a fix.
Johnson said the odds of this happening again were very slim and Canvas technicians would not and could not let something like this happen again.
