Yes, 100% of this workflow can be completely automated with a simple script.
For an overloaded or tech-savvy student, setting this up takes less than an hour, and once it is running, it allows them to complete an entire quarter’s worth of discussion posts and assignments in a single click without ever opening Canvas or Google Docs manually.
An automated AI pipeline to execute exactly what this student is doing operates through a straightforward multi-step process:
1. Scraping the Assignments (The WikiEducator Source)
Because all the instructions live on a single public WikiEducator URL, the student doesn’t even need to log into Canvas to find out what to do.
- A simple script uses a python tool (like
BeautifulSouporrequests) to scrape the text of that WikiEducator page. - The script isolates each module section (e.g., Week 5: “Employment, Education, and Entertainment” or Week 7: “Evaluating and Controlling Technology”) and pulls the exact writing prompt.
2. Batch Text Generation & Formatting (The AI Core)
The script feeds those prompts directly into the OpenAI API (ChatGPT’s backend).
- The script includes a hidden system prompt instructing the AI exactly how to write: “Act as a student. Write an elaborate, 500-word response. Connect compound technical terms with hyphens, put core concepts in quotation marks, and format the output seamlessly.”
- The API generates the text for the Canvas text box.
3. Google Workspace Automation (The Docs and PDFs)
Instead of manually opening Google Drive, creating a document, pasting the text, and downloading a PDF, the student connects the AI output directly to the Google Workspace API (or uses an automation platform like Make.com or Zapier).
- The Google Doc: The script automatically calls the Google Docs API to create a new file named
Computers & Internet In Society, Week X Assignment, pastes the AI text inside, sets the sharing permissions to “Anyone with the link can view,” and grabs the URL. - The PDF: The script uses a basic python library (like
reportlaborFPDF) or prints the Google Doc to a PDF format directly in the cloud, saving it into a local folder.
4. The Canvas Submission (The Final Post)
Finally, using the Canvas LMS API (which colleges use to allow external software to interact with class pages), the script automatically posts the work.
- The student provides their Canvas API token (available to any student in their Canvas settings account page).
- The script submits the assignment to the correct discussion thread or dropbox, pasting the AI text, inserting the newly generated Google Doc link, and attaching the generated PDF file.
Why this is highly likely in your student’s case:
If the submissions are hitting the discussion boards immediately after a module drops, or if they look perfectly identically formatted every single week (down to the Google Doc file naming conventions, layout, and that weird persistent punctuation), they aren’t just using ChatGPT as a writing assistant—they have automated the logistics.
They have treated your course workflow like a data-processing pipeline: Input (WikiEducator text) → Processor (ChatGPT) → Output (Canvas API text/Doc/PDF upload).
Chat Support for Faculty
Hi, I’m Charlut, How can I help you today?
It appears that a student is making use of this as part of a workflow. Can it be turned off either for the course or specifically for this student?
Charlut C • 5:55 PM
I manage to check API token for students and yes Canvas does provide an API that allows authorized applications to interact with Canvas on behalf of a user. A student can generate a personal access token, which may allow an external application to perform actions in Canvas based on the permissions associated with that token.
At this time, Canvas does not provide a course-level setting that allows an instructor to disable API access for a specific student or prevent a particular student from using the Canvas API only within your course as token are managed directly by the school administrators.
If your concern is related to a student’s use of an automated tool or AI-generated content, we recommend following your institution’s academic integrity policies and working with your school’s appropriate academic or administrative team. Canvas Support can assist with technical questions about Canvas, but we cannot determine whether a student’s use of an external tool violates your institution’s academic policies.
If your institution has concerns about students using personal Canvas API tokens or external applications to automate assignment submissions, your Canvas administrator can review the available account-level security settings and API access controls.
An administrator may be able to revoke an existing personal access token associated with a student’s account. However, whether your institution can prevent students from creating new personal access tokens in the future depends on the administrative controls available in your Canvas environment.
Because this is an account-level security and configuration matter, we can help contacting your school’s Canvas administrator team, They can review the current API settings and determine whether API access or personal access tokens can be restricted for your institution.
We have shared this kind of issues for generating API token in our community guide which you check:
As AI proliferates, we have seen an uptick in students setting up AI integrations to automatically review and complete assignments on their behalf.
My best suggestion is discuss with school administrators first. Administrators can see and remove user generated User Access Tokens from a user’s profile. (Deployed October 8, 2025)
which they can decide to allow students to generate API token or not.
… reply to Chesa
Hi Chesa
I found the My Robot Teacher podcast that you participated in. Really enjoyed it.
I am making changes to my course to reduce the opportunities for AI-created work to be submitted. I am changing the format of some of the discussions to require replies to posts. AI currently doesn’t pick up that additional posts in reply to other students are required. I am asking for shorter, more personal responses. These and several other tweeks should highlight lack of student involvement. Either the AI-tools will have to get even more sophisticated, the students will have to intervene, and/or I get to see that the student actually learned something.
I want to see that the student actually has some knowledge about a wide range of topics covered in the course, connect it with personal experience and can apply the information if appropriate.
I have spoken with the student in a zoom meeting. He denies that his work is AI-created. I’m ok with students using AI, just not expecting me to accept for credit, questionable submissions that have all the earmarks of AI-creation.
No, I don’t have explicit policies as it wasn’t possible to do this elaborate automated workflow 3-6 months ago. Some of the interface tools are just being developed.
I want to connect with the DeAnza Canvas administrator. Instructure Canvas support gave me some suggestions that would block the student from automatically submit to Canvas. If you know who that person is, I’d appreciate it.
lectric library 