"Stopped viewing the canvas quiz-taking page" meaning?
Hello everyone,
I need your advice on the Canvas quiz log and the meaning of "Stopped viewing the Canvas quiz-taking page."
Firstly, I want to mention that this is my first Reddit post, so please excuse any weirdness in my post.
Secondly, I am very bad when it comes to the technical side of things, such as laptops.
So, for context, I was recently found guilty of cheating in an exam I took in January 2026. I started university in the summer of 2025. The university requires us to use both Canvas and Respondus LockDown Browser for digital exams.
During my second digital exam, Economics, I had a weird "glitch." While I was taking notes on a sheet of paper, I rested my hand on my laptop, which somehow caused my screen to access the background tabs that were open, without being blocked by Respondus LockDown Browser.
I immediately notified the exam supervisor, who came up to me and also saw that I had tabs open. He asked me if I could return to Canvas, which I did by fumbling around on my laptop. I could then continue answering the questions in the exam without any further issues. I didn't need to log in again, which apparantly is usually the case.
After the exam, they told me that the incident would be investigated further.
The tabs I had open were a summary I used for studying, ChatGPT, and another AI learning app called Brian.
The investigations that followed revealed that there was a security gap in LockDown Browser that could only be accessed on Microsoft Surface devices, which was the laptop I was using at the time. By doing a three-finger gesture, I could switch between Respondus LockDown Browser and the background without triggering an alarm from the system.
Even though the system did not trigger an alarm, it apparently recorded it in the Canvas quiz log.
This is where my problem starts, though. Even though this happened only once, the system recorded 33 different instances where I apparently left the quiz page, with the message "Stopped viewing the Canvas quiz-taking page." Some of them lasted "0" seconds.
Furthermore, they also investigated the quiz log from my first digital exam, Accountancy, which had another 10 "Stopped viewing the Canvas quiz-taking page" messages.
I have shared the photos of the economics quiz logs.
Based on that information, they took disciplinary action against me.
I finally had my disciplinary hearing this week. During the hearing, they discussed my quiz log. The university's quiz log expert, who was also a witness against me, said that every time "Stopped viewing the Canvas quiz-taking page" appears, it means that I accessed tabs in the background.
When I asked him whether the message only appears if the quiz-taking page is actually left, he said yes, although he also said it could possibly happen because of connection issues.
His explanation for the 0-second messages was that, on a Surface, you can access the background using the three-finger gesture without completely switching away from the page.
I also asked whether it could be caused by hardware issues, and he said he couldn't know, because even if I did give him my laptop, too much time has passed and there has been to many updates in their system.
At the end of the hearing, I was acquitted of the cheating allegations regarding my first digital exam. However, I was not acquitted regarding the second exam because they insist that I had been repeatedly switching between tabs, based on what was recorded in the quiz log.
So my question is: what does "Stopped viewing the Canvas quiz-taking page" actually mean?
What can cause this message to appear? Does it necessarily mean that someone switched to another tab or application? How likely is it that it could be caused by something else, such as connection issues, hardware issues, gestures, notifications, or other technical behaviour? What do the time stamps mean?
Any explanations would be very helpful.
Thank you for reading.
Edit: added pictures
