• computer science,  internal transfer,  UTM,  UTSC

    ThEy WiLL nOt Be AcCePtEd As EquiVALeNts

    June 2, 2020

    Hello there,I was wondering if I could transfer from UTSC CS to UTM. However, the POSt requirements for CS at UTM it says “Note that only CSC148H5, taken at the UTM campus, will be accepted. Please do not take CSC148H1(UTSG) or CSCA48H3(UTSC); they will not be accepted as equivalent for the purposes of program enrolment. “According to that, Can I still transfer?TNX

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    it sounds like you’d be able to transfer to the UTM campus, but possibly not directly into UTM’s compsci program. if you’re determined to be a UTM kiddo, you could probably try doing your internal transfer first, taking CSC148H5, and then applying to the compsci POSt at UTM. that’s what the situation seems like to me, anyway.

    to be 100% sure, i’d check this over with your registrar, or with someone at the UTM compsci department. maybe both. i’m sure they’ve seen this situation before. good luck!

    be Boundless,

    aska

     

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  • academic offense,  online courses

    they’re watching you

    May 27, 2020

    Hi, I recently had a Quercus online test, it was not open book. For one multiple choice question I checked my answer on lecture slides in a different tab, I know this was wrong and this would be my first offense. I was planning on dropping the course anyway and already have, and my test hasn’t been graded yet, but I’m scared I’ll be charged with academic dishonesty and I feel terrible. I don’t know if they will grade my test, but do I email the prof? Do I tell them or will I not even be graded?

    ——————————————

    hello there,

    i feel like i should have gotten to a question like this quicker, so sorry about the wait!

    i dunno if your situation has changed at all since a few days ago, but i’m not sure how helpful i can be anyway. i’m not sure whether your test will be graded if you’ve dropped the course (maybe not?? probably not??) and whether or not you come clean to your prof is your call. obviously, it would be the most honest thing to do, but i can’t really predict what the consequences will be. i don’t know what the academic integrity procedures are for courses that have already been dropped, which makes it kind of hard for me to navigate this for you.

    comedy central blake henderson GIF by Workaholics

    if you want some better guidance on this, i would really encourage you to get in touch with your registrar’s office. i don’t believe anything you say to an academic advisor can be used against you in an academic integrity case given that they’re not even part of the process, but i’d check that over with whoever you speak to just to be 100% sure. regardless, they’d be the best place to go to for advice in a situation like this.

    anyway, in case you’re not aware (but you might already be), your profs can see your Quercus activity. regardless of what you choose to do and what ends up happening, the most important thing you take away from this is to not make the same mistake again in the future.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • first year,  FLC,  one programs

    tfti to first year courses :(

    May 27, 2020

    Hello, I hope whoever reads this is doing well! I will be joining Physical and Mathematical sciences at UofT this fall, and I wanted to ask about the One’s program vs. FLC! I heard FLC was pretty suitable for those doing LifeSci, so I don’t know if the same would apply to someone not doing LifeSci. So, my question is: which one is better? And, can I do both? Also, is there a cost to the One’s program? How many times do they meet up? Thank you!

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    congrats on accepting your offer of admission, that’s some pretty cool stuff. let’s unravel your question:

    Cat Fumbling GIF by Originals

    are FLCs suitable for people who aren’t in lifesci?

    yes! i suspect you may have heard that they’re good for lifesci students because there’s lifesci first year learning community (FLC) group at every college, making lifesci the most common FLC. but the thing is that there are all sorts of FLC groups to match a range of interests. you can join a humanities group, or a social sciences group, if that’s the kind of thing you’re into. want to hang out with a bunch of actuarial science, compsci, math, psych, or econ kids? apparently there are enough of them that those programs get their own FLCs.

    Matt Leblanc Wow GIF by Friends

    in short, if your interests line up with one of the FLC groups offered, whether lifesci or otherwise, joining an FLC in your first year is at least worth considering. since you mentioned that you’re going into the physical and mathematical sciences, you can probably look into the mathematics FLC.

    which one is better? can i do both?

    which one is “better” honestly depends on what you’re interested in, experience- and outcome-wise. i think FLCs may be better for meeting other first years with similar academic interests to you, and growing a sense of community in that way. you also get some pretty solid guidance if you’re part of an FLC, since you have access to senior-year student mentors as well as staff/faculty advisors. however, with FLCs you’re bound to a specific set of courses for your first year, which can feel a little restrictive. it’s great if those courses serve as prereqs for programs you’re interested in anyway, as i assume is probably true for FLCs with a more specific focus. however, if you were registered in a humanities FLC but planed to take a super niche humanities program with different prereqs, i can’t imagine that would line up very well. it may also be important to you that FLCs offer CCR recognition, while ‘ones’ and first-year foundations seminars (FYS) do not.

    the ‘ones’ program, though, lends you quite a lot of flexibility in terms of subject matter depending on which course you choose. registering in a ‘one’ won’t take up more than a single slot in your timetable, and there’s no extra meeting on top of the courses, unlike with an FLC. it’s true that you’re less likely to meet first years with similar interests because all sorts of first years tend to register in ‘ones,’ but they’re still great places to make friends! in my first year, i chose the ‘ones’ program over a FLC for its flexibility, and ended up meeting some of the people i’m now closest to at u of t. plus… honestly, in terms of how cool the subject matter is, i would rank ‘ones’ above FLCs, and FYS courses over both of them.

    can you take both? i know that there are exclusions for FYS courses and the ‘ones’ program, but i’ve never run into any exclusions for FLCs and ‘ones.’ i’m relatively certain that you can do both, but if you wanna be 100% certain i’d check it over with your registrar. 

    is there a cost to the ones program?

    jerry maguire money GIF

    not unless you take a course with a travel component, like this seminar that involves a trip to california. i think the only ‘ones’ with a travel component are the SMC ones, though– if there’s a fun, expensive field trip involved, usually you’ll know just by looking at the course page. and anyway… who even knows if those field trips are gonna be able to run for this upcoming school year?

    how many times do they meet up?

    not sure which one you’re referring to here. generally, outside of regular classes, FLCs meet up 13 times over the academic year. on the other hand, ones operate like regular classes (you meet for the designated class time every week for either one semester or the full year).

    anyway, hope this was helpful and you have a great first year! good luck making a decision.

    be Boundless,

    aska

    Read More
  • art,  career choice,  suspension

    a stable job? oh boy

    May 13, 2020

    Hi, I currently graduated with a 2.53 gpa. I was suspended for one year and managed to graduate! I realized school is not a thing for me in long term. My major was in art history, but jobs like museum curating require you to have a masters degree. I aspire to become a writer one day, but want a stable job to support that. What career would you recommend that is close to my major and requires no grad school and no social media?

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    buddy, i know next to nothing about art history. but i wear many hats around here, apparently, so lemme put on my career advising cap and see if anything changes.

    all right, all right, let’s see. stable jobs, hmm.

    oh, what’s that? no such thing as a stable job in this economy? cool cool cool cool cool, okay.

    in all seriousness, i can’t tell you much more than a simple google search will be able to. i would recommend that you contact career advising for one of their lovely advising appointments, which you should still be able to take advantage of as a recent grad. they even seem to have revamped their website and offerings to continue to support students virtually, which is cool. kudos to them. last time i linked to them, they didn’t even have a phone number listed and it felt like a dead end. you’re in luck, i guess. go for it! go talk to them! pursue your writer dreams while bagging that stable income! but good luck dodging social media lol, i’ve had no luck so far (exhibit one: i run this website and all its attached accounts).

    good luck!!

    be Boundless,

    aska

     

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  • enrollment,  enrolment,  keeners,  timetable

    keener alert

    May 13, 2020

    hi! do you know when the timetable for courses is going to update? i’ve been wanting to plan out my classes for next year but i know the timetable isn’t going to be 100% accurate until it updates.

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    to my understanding, there’s not really one comprehensive update for the timetable. u of t has too many departments and divisions that like to change things around at the last minute. they’ve probably already begun revamping the timetable for next year, but until it reads ‘2020-2021 fall & winter session timetable” instead of 2019-2020, i’d assume it’s fully unusable. especially with covid, we don’t necessarily know if classes are going to look the same next year. even in regular years, class times and offerings tend to change year to year.

    my guess is that by june-ish (late june??) that heading will update. perhaps it will update later this year if covid changes the way u of t will operate. regardless, it’s important to note that the heading update only indicates that the timetable is mostly accurate, not 100% solid. like i said, there might still be smaller updates after that. i wanna say that around…. mid july (?) is typically the best time to do course planning, because it’s when the timetable starts to settle down.

    right before my first year, i think i got on top of course planning several weeks before enrollment began. i also remember having to revise my course schedule several times, because a couple of things shifted and messed with the whole thing i had going on.

    happy season 7 GIF by MasterChef Junior

    i understand the desire to plan your courses out (it’s exciting!!) but i would advise against doing it too early, unless you’re willing to spend extra time revising your timetable should your course info change.

    i’d say the safest time to plan out your courses is just several days before your enrollment date, even though that might seem a bit tight. and then check over your course details one more time the morning of your enrollment day, to be super super sure nothing has changed.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • late registration,  summer

    i added a new category named ‘late regstration’ just for u and now i can’t delete it

    May 13, 2020

    i’m financially cancelled for the summer session, because i thought i didn’t want to enrol. but now i don’t have anything to do, so i might be changing my mind. is there a way to un-cancel myself so i can enrol in summer courses, or is it too late?

    ——————————————
    hey there,

    technically, yes, it is past the deadline to enrol in summer courses.

    correct futurama GIF

    however, if you get in touch with your friendly local registrar, they should be able to process you as a late registration. i’m not super familiar with what the process looks like for the summer semester (especially with the registrar’s office having gone virtual), but i can’t imagine it would be that different from normal? basically a doing a late reg means is that you’ll get un-cancelled (lol, twitter would never) and be able to enrol in courses. it’ll cost you a sweet little sum (i can’t remember how much? i think around $45???? ask your registrar). but yeah, like most things in our capitalist economy, many disallowed things are possible if you’re willing to pay the price.

    capitalism GIF

    too bad i’m too poor to get away with stunt driving. too bad i’m too poor to even know how to drive. the bus be my horse,

    horse GIF

    be Boundless,

    aska

    Read More
  • covid-19,  grad school,  profs

    going the distance to bag those references

    May 6, 2020

    hello! i am looking for reference letters for graduate school and i was thinking of asking a professor during summer courses. any advice on getting to know my profs this summer when courses are online?

    ——————————————

    hello hello,

    good afternoon to everyone except profs who are still assigning textbooks that cost over a hundred dollars, even during an economic downturn.

    grad school! an exciting endeavour.

    excited despicable me GIF

    online summer courses! a mediocre endeavour at best.

    seth meyers ok GIF by Late Night with Seth Meyers< so i took a solid chunk of time and thought this out, because initially it seemed highly unlikely to me that you'd be able to successfully get to know a prof who's teaching remotely. even before this pandemic, i'd taken a few online courses and found that each time without fail, the instructor remained a nameless faceless entity. do online instructors even exist? confused demarcus cousins GIF by Bleacher Report

    i hate feeling useless, though, so here are the suggestions i scraped together for ya:< number one: online office hours

    as far as i’m aware, most instructors are still holding office hours using platforms like zoom or whatnot. these office hours are gonna be your best bet to get to know your profs. show up, have good questions, make it clear you’ve engaged with their material so that you make a good impression.

    brag chris redd GIF by Saturday Night Live

    bonus points for knowing what their area of research is and being able to talk to them about it– but only after you’ve spoken to them at least a few times.

    number two: engage with your prof via email

    it’s a second-rate strat, but if you’re unable for any reason to talk to your prof face to face over some kind of video call, sending them emails will at least let them know you exist. make sure these emails are polite, professional, and make you sound smart without trying too hard lol. respond quickly (which i suck at, rip me) and once again, ask good questions and express an interest in the class material! some form of communication is better than none.

    number three: make yourself stand out if you have class discussions

    now, i know this isn’t the case for many classes this summer, but some smaller upper-year seminars will still be holding live lectures with a participation or discussion component. if you’re planning to apply to grad school soon, my hope is that you’re an upper year able to take a small advanced class like this. participating is a good way to get noticed by your profs. the ones i’ve had have always appreciated quality participation, and if you do really well they’ll notice you and you won’t even need to try. it’ll then be easier on you when you reach out and want to talk about grad school later down the road.

    diana ross ease on down GIF

    number four: do well in the class, or make yourself stand out through assignments

    it goes without saying that sometimes these things are out of your control.

    Help Me Omg GIF

    if we all could do well in our classes we would. but in my experience talking to profs about grad school, they’ve been pretty transparent about how, if you want a solid letter, you should get an A in their course or have something academically noteworthy about you that they can discuss. if you can manage to do really, really well, or turn in a creative or surprising assignment, this will definitely get your profs to notice you as well as hand them material for whatever letters they may write you later on.

    hope this was helpful! good luck with your summer courses and grad school applications.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • enrollment,  enrolment

    you just got FINCA’d

    May 4, 2020

    hi! my status on acorn for summer says financially cancelled, but i never enrolled for summer classes in the first place. is this normal?

    ——————————————

    hello hello,

    yes, this is normal! how the ACORN system operates is this:

    1. you’re invited to register in a session (ie. fall/winter or summer, in your case summer 2020)
    2. you enroll in courses
    3. you pay the minimum payment to register by the stated deadline, which has now passed
    4. you’re registered!

    or, like a choose-your-own-adventure, you can branch off at the first step and not enroll in courses. since you obviously don’t pay if you don’t enroll, you don’t get to make it to step 4. what happens at this point is you get FINCA’d. financially cancelled.

    this is not the same thing as getting cancelled on twitter. it does not mean that you are in trouble. all it means is that ACORN has acknowledged that you have not paid on time for a given session, and so you do not show up in the system as a current student. which is what you want if you didn’t intend to enroll for a session in the first place.

    for future references, two things to note about getting FINCA’d:

    • when this status shows up on your ACORN, it also means you’ve been booted from any classes you might have been enrolled in
    • if you didn’t intend to get FINCA’d, ie. you meant to register but didn’t pay by the deadline, what you need to do is get in contact with your registrar. they’ll be able to process a late registration for you, which is usually accompanied by a small fee.

    hope this helps!

    be Boundless,

    aska

    Read More
  • Uncategorized

    is a gpa really forever?

    May 4, 2020

    Hello! I’ve been struggling with severe anxiety all my life, and it really reflects in my grades. I was wondering if there was anyway at all to get my past grades deleted from my GPA, if there is such a thing. I don’t want to ask the registrars office in the (highly likely) chance that I could be wrong. If I could get my psychologist to give proof that I’m dealing with anxiety, or if there’s anything I can do. I came off suspension and I’m doing so much better in terms of my grades but my GPA.

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    my first instinct upon reading this question was to tell you that there is no known avenue for removing past grades from your GPA. which is generally true. but then i gave your situation a good amount of thought and realized there was one way you might be able to achieve this, although i’m not ACTUALLY sure if it’s viable. wow. we love delivering news like that. i just don’t wanna get your hopes up by making it seem like cupcakes and sprinkles, yknow?

    Hell Yeah Yes GIF by Bounce

    so. if any avenue would work to remove past grades from your GPA, it would be the petitions process. if you’re unfamiliar, petitions are basically how u of t students beg the big ol’ bureaucracy for an exception to the extensive list of laws that govern our lives, also known as the rules and regulations.

    at a first glance, none of the common petitions fit your circumstances. one relatively common petition people send in is for a late withdrawal without academic penalty, which would technically have those courses removed from your GPA. the caveat is that those courses would need to be from this fall/winter term. u of t also notes that if you passed the course, late withdrawal without academic penalty is not appropriate. but if you meet the conditions, it might be an option for you. based on the information you gave me, i’m not sure that you do? but putting it out there in case my understanding of things is not accurate.

    if want to know whether it’s possible to petition for any other forms of grade removal, you will need to contact your registrar. they’d be the best people to tell you what’s possible and what’s not possible, because they have a lot of experience with petitions. they’ve probably also encountered this question before, so don’t be afraid to ask. i’m pretty sure the answer is usually a no re: removing past grades, but i’m not sure if medical documentation may change that. it’s best to just ask. even if the answer is no, your registrar’s office will be able to connect you with other resources that might help you move forward, or advise other solutions.

    for future references, the system tends to be more forgiving when you address academic issues right away. whether that’s petitioning for term work extensions or even just talking to your professor to see what they can do, there are provisions in place for supporting students who might be dealing with medical issues. the thing is that most of them are only allowed to be enacted until a certain date after a course is completed. i know it can be incredibly difficult to deal with these kinds of things when you’re working through severe bouts of mental illness, but i wanted you to know that if you’re able to act fast in the future, it may make things easier on you.

    in any case, i’m glad you’re doing better now. i hope this was at least a little bit helpful and that you’re staying safe and healthy wherever you are.

    Good Day Reaction GIF by moodman

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • GPA,  grades,  non degree

    back to school you go?

    April 29, 2020

    Hey Aska, so I am thinking about the possibility of upgrading my GPA as a non-degree student. Since I didn’t think my GPA for my last two years was competitive (mid B range), I decided to take a year off to work, but now that I’ve lost that job opportunity due to Covid-19, I considered doing 2 or 3 courses at UTM. The problem is even with getting a 4.0 in those 2-3 courses, the most my GPA for the last two years will increase too is a high B+. I’ve been debating if the money & time is worth it.

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    hope you’re holding up all right and sorry about your job! i know these are tough times all around.

    bad day i give up GIF by America's Funniest Home Videos

    even under normal circumstances, it sucks to have plans upended. i hope that other, even better opportunities are in your future and that you have enough to stay on your feet right now.

    anyhow, if you’re asking me whether or not i think it’s worth it for you to go back to school to raise your gpa, well… that depends, doesn’t it? if you’re not going to use your GPA for anything (ie. grad school or something else??) then i’d say the answer is probably no.

    sometimes people go back to school to work on their GPA just cause it bothers them so much, or because they’re worried about how their GPA will look on a resume. which, if it’s the latter, i wouldn’t worry… i’ve been told by a peer career advisor that it doesn’t even really matter whether or not your GPA is on a resume, in terms of employment. and if it’s the former reason… i dunno. i just don’t think it’s worth the resources, yknow?

    anyway, you didn’t specify what your motivation was, but my guess is that it’s neither of those (included them to cover my bases in case i’m wrong lol). i think you were intending on going to grad school, given that you mentioned you took “a year off” to work. a year off from education, i’m presuming?

    if i am indeed the ultimate detective slash genius that i think i am, and you are indeed thinking of doing this for grad school purposes, here are a few things i think you should note as you weigh your decision:

    • grad schools will be able to see that you raised your GPA by completing courses as a non-degree student, and will take this into account
    • like you mentioned, doing well in two or three courses won’t work miracles for a GPA that took several years to take shape.
    • it would be best if you check in with the grad school programs you’re considering and see how they feel about this avenue of GPA-raising, as well as whether they think it would be a good idea / give you an edge / detract from the way they consider your GPA. it’s hard for me to speak for them, given i have literally zero experience in grad school admissions.
    • it might be useful to contact your registrar and see what they think, as well. if you graduated recently, they should still have your info on file and may be able to provide guidance as to whether or not taking more courses is worth it.

    also, just so you know, online school (so far) has actually really sucked. that might be useful to take into account if you’re planning to complete those two or three courses this summer. it’s hard to focus on your schoolwork when you’re staring at a screen for so long, many profs have no frickin’ clue what they’re doing, some online exams are truly designed to screw you over… man. if i could dodge online school without interfering so much with these glorious (read: so terribly mundane) plans i have for my life, i would.

    cant GIF

    anyway, ball’s in your court. good luck making the decision.

    be Boundless,
    aska
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  • co-requisites

    coreq yourself before you wreck yourself

    April 27, 2020

    if i meet the prerequisites and not the corerequisite of a course i enrolled in, will i get removed from it?

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    makin’ an entrance to let you know: the short answer is that if someone checks your status in the course, you will be removed from it without warning. a corequisite to a course, as you probably know, usually contains material that’s relevant to the first course in question. for that reason, departments do tend to check that you’re registered in corequisites pretty early on in the semester and will give you the boot if they find you’ve snuck in without a coreq.

    if you’re having issues getting into the coreq for any reason, i’d recommend that you contact your friendly ol’ registrar and book a phone appointment with them to get that sorted.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • breadth requirements,  courses

    did someone call for a knockout?

    April 27, 2020

    Breadth requirements advice? I’m going to be a first year student at UofT next year and I kinda wanna get all the breadth requirements out of the way in my first year. i’ve got .5 in BR 5, .5 in BR 4 and 1.0 in BR 3 worth of transfer creds so i still need to knock out 1.0 in BR 1 and 2. any suggestions on what to take or if i should even do all of them in one year? I’d like something easy/interesting. Thanks for the help!

    ——————————————

    hey there,

    congrats!! super excited that you’ve chosen u of t for university.

    Stephen Colbert GIF

    it’s great to see you’re trying to get ahead of the curve by tackling your breadth requirements early. i always recommend that people do this, so that you don’t need to worry about them later on. plus, i actually think you have some of the best breadth options as a first year.

    let’s see what we got here. so as an incoming first year, you have access to the first year foundations seminars as well as the ones programs. these are essentially both academic programs designed to ease the transition from high school to university: they tend to have lighter coursework, very small class sizes, fantastic instructors, and really interesting content. they’re also restricted to first years, so they’re a great place to make friends. i took several of these classes as a first year and wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

    action bronson & friends watch ancient aliens eating GIF by #ActionAliens

    i don’t think the first year foundations listings for next year have been finalized yet– this will probably happen halfway through the summer. here are the listings for last year— you’ll see that many of the topics are really interesting. man,,,, i wish i could take some of these. but alas. i am too old. past my prime.

    Season 10 Friends GIF

    old betty white GIF

    other than that, you can start looking into the offerings from the ones program if you’d like, since they don’t tend to change too much year by year. if you’re looking to fulfill BR 1 and 2, you might be interested in these courses:

    breadth 1

    breadth 2

    two things to note: first, you may want to note is that a lot of people will use some of their 2.0 FCEs of credit/no credits to fulfill breadth requirements, since it means you only need to pass a course to get credit. if this is something that appeals to you, you should know that you can’t use CR/NCR designations for first year foundations or ones.

    second, there’s a limit on how many of these first-year exclusive courses you can take. you’re always limited to just one selection from the ones programs (ie. innis one, or a stream of trin one), and a lot of the time you won’t be able to take both ones AND first year foundations. as in, you gotta pick either or. to be certain that this is the case, you’ll need to check the exclusions on specific courses when you put together your timetable. but it’s good to know that this is the general situation ahead of time, so you don’t run into any fun surprises.

    door dancing GIF by Cheezburger

    so in terms of easy breadth courses beyond what FYF and the ones can offer, here are a few options i’ve heard are solid. not all of them are breadth 1 or 2– i also included a common course taken for breadth 5, since you could technically use it to fill your breadth requirements.

    you can also just browse through the calendar’s breadth requirement filter and look for course titles that look interesting to you. there’s a trick to this: look for the ‘printer-friendly version’ button at the bottom right of the screen and click it, so you can see all the course descriptions at once.

    i always recommend taking a course that intrigues you over one that you’ve heard is easy. the learning experience will be so much more rewarding, and it’s easier to do well if you care about the material.

    one last thing that might also be useful to know (maybe you know this already???) is that your program courses can count towards breadth requirements as well. as in, you don’t need to take courses just to get breadth requirements. sometimes you can fulfill them as a side effect of fulfilling program requirements, especially if you’re in an interdisciplinary program.

    the only way you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of this is if you anticipate that every single one of your mandatory courses throughout your degree will be breadth 3. i guess it can happen. figured i’d mention this anyway, since it’s always best not to make assumptions about what incoming students know.

    Zach Galifianakis Thumbs Up GIF

    best of luck with course selection, and remember not to hammer anything down before u of t finalizes the timetable! learned that the hard way when i was an incoming student– had to start over like, three times. psh. keener.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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  • academic offense,  covid-19,  no one asked,  profs,  tests

    quercus test PSA

    April 23, 2020

    hey hey hey there online schoolin’ students, and a good evening to everyone except profs who give closed book exams during a pandemic,

    this is just a friendly neighbourhood announcement that when you’re taking exams on quercus, your profs can actually see a log of your activity.

    some of yall might be aware of this already, but for those of you who weren’t, figured i’d put it up on the site. i know finals season is pretty much done but this might be applicable to anyone taking summer school. share to save a life, or whatever.

    so for backstory, quercus is basically the same thing as canvas, just renamed to fit u of t’s pretentious tree theme.

    canvas’s official support webpage is pretty transparent about the fact that, when a quiz or test is taken on its platform, it retains a ‘quiz log’ for up to six months. what can your profs see on this log, you might wonder?

    Suspicious Zach Galifianakis GIF by BasketsFX

    well, funny that you ask. they can actually see a second-by-second ‘action log’ of when you view, answer, and skip questions. they can see every attempt you take at a question (previous answers don’t actually get overwritten) and every attempt you take at a quiz overall, as well as how long you spent taking the quiz.

    most importantly, they can see when you click away to a different tab or window. this shows up as “stopped viewing the canvas quiz-taking page.” you can see why a high recurrence of these alerts might look suspicious, especially if your mark jumps quite a lot after the assessment in question.

    suspicious disney GIF

    i’ve also heard (but don’t know where on the canvas support site to confirm this) that profs can see what course materials have been opened/are currently open/have been downloaded on your computer. because we don’t love making empty allegations, this article from the OTHER U of T, the university of texas, seems to serve as confirmation. the article also lets us know that once again, canvas/quercus does its job WAY too well and provides a briefing of how long those tabs have been open as well. which is a bit embarrassing for me, given that i never close those tabs even when i’m done with them. my profs probably think i’m obsessed with their material.

    obviously, canvas/quercus activity reports will generally not be an issue if your tests are open book, or if your profs have made other provisions to prevent students from cheating. but make sure you’re clear on what’s allowed and not allowed before taking an exam on quercus, just to be safe. dodging academic integrity issues is always cool. we like that.

    be Boundless,

    aska

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