Identifying pasted content in an answer to an essay question on a Canvas quiz

Question

Does the presence of unexpected HTML in a Canvas quiz essay question answer indicate content was pasted - meaning plagiarized?

This can be seen using a browser inspectors

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Common_questions/Tools_and_setup/What_are_browser_dev...
• https://developer.chrome.com/docs/devtools/
• https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge/learning-center/how-to-inspect-elements?form=MA13I2
• https://developer.apple.com/safari/tools/

Some HTML is expected, for example using Canvas to organize or emphasize text and pasting content from an IDE used in the course.

However, in many cases, content is pasted and edited.

Indications that an answer includes pasted content:

• Font differences - size, font family, weight, color
• Background colors
• Gaps and awkward spacing - for example

 "this    is some   editedtext"

Answer 1

The answer is the presence of HTML in an answer means either the student knows HTML and chose to use it to enhance their answer or they copy/pasted.

Some HTML is expected - but it should result in a polished display. If the answer is difficult to read or poorly formatted, the most likely explanation is that the student copy/pasted.