Students can upload files as part of an assignment comment. If a student is unfamiliar with the assignment submission process, they may upload their assignment submission as an assignment comment.

When you view the assignment in Speedgrader, you can view the submission details [1] as well as any assignment comments [2].

You can also view a student's activity in your course, including submission details, from the student's Course Access Report. To view a student's access report, click the People link in Course Navigation [1]. In the People page, locate and click the student’s name [2]. In the student’s context card, click the student’s name [3].

On the student's details page, click the Access Report button. 

When reviewing the access report, you can verify whether the student may have made an alternative submission around the time they reported, especially for similarly named assignments.

Note: The access report is part of a course permission. If you cannot see some of the columns in the report, you do not have access to view them.

Students may upload a file to their course or user files in Canvas as part of a submission but fail to complete the assignment submission. 

Contact the student and ask them to navigate to their user files to confirm that the submission file is in the course folder.

You may want to request they send a screenshot or demonstrate in person to confirm.

In cases of missing quiz submissions, you may want to review student attempts. 

In the quiz details page, click the Moderate This Quiz button [1]. The Moderate Quiz page displays a list of students in your course. Locate the student and view their attempts in the Attempts column [2]. Canvas registers an attempt when a student clicks the Start the Quiz button.