How does Silent Student work?
Short answer: Silent Student is a Mac and Windows app from El Dorado Ignition LLC. It signs in to your Canvas account in its own browser, syncs every course, and works through your assignments in due-date order. It answers and submits most quizzes; Canvas essays, discussion posts and file uploads are drafted and wait for you to approve them. It does not take proctored exams.
Updated October 20, 2026.
Your queue
Overdue first, then due soonest.
Which work does Silent Student submit, and which waits for me?
Quizzes and courseware are submitted by the app. Written work on Canvas is not submitted until you approve it. The table is the whole rule.
| Work | What the app does | Who submits |
|---|---|---|
| Canvas quizzes (Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes) | Reads each question and answers it. If fewer than half the questions got an answer, it leaves the attempt open instead of submitting. | The app. Graded, single-attempt, untimed quizzes and any quiz with a low-confidence answer stop for your review first. See what Canvas does when a quiz timer runs out. |
| Canvas essays (online text entry) | Reads the instructions and rubric and drafts the text. | You. It waits for you to approve, edit or regenerate it. |
| Canvas discussions | Drafts the post and any required replies. | You, after approval. |
| Canvas file uploads | Prepares the file. | You, after approval. |
| WebAssign | Types each part into WebAssign’s equation editor or ChemPad and reads the result back. | The app, one part at a time. |
| Apex Learning, SmartBook, myBusinessCourse, Cengage homework | Dedicated solvers written for each one. | The app. |
| Packback | Writes the question and the replies to classmates, and reads any minimum Curiosity Score the assignment sets. | The app. Posts publish directly, with no approval step. |
| Pearson MyLab, McGraw Hill Connect, ALEKS, Macmillan Achieve, MindTap opened from Canvas and others | The general screen-reading agent, which is less predictable than a dedicated solver. How it reads and checks each answer. | The app. Check the run log. |
| Proctored or LockDown Browser exams | Recognised and left alone. | You take them yourself. |
From the Canvas, WebAssign, Packback and platform pages, checked October 19, 2026. A held quiz submits on its own when its review window runs out, but only while the app is running and not paused.
How does Silent Student work, step by step?
In five steps: download the Mac or Windows app and sign in to Canvas in its own browser; sync your courses; queue an assignment, a course or everything and press Run; review the essay, discussion and file-upload drafts it holds for you; then check your grades and the run log. Quizzes and courseware are submitted by the app. Canvas written work waits for your approval.
Download and sign in
Download Silent Student for Mac or Windows (downloads need an active plan). Open it, enter your Canvas credentials, and the app signs in to your school’s Canvas portal through its own browser. Your personal Chrome, Safari or Firefox is not touched.
It supports direct Canvas login, SSO providers (Okta, ClassLink, Clever) and CAS. If your school uses multi-factor authentication, you complete it once during setup and the session persists. Your school password stays on your computer and is never sent to our servers (security).
Sync your courses
One click pulls every course, assignment, quiz, discussion and external tool link from Canvas. Silent Student reads each assignment’s type, due date, point value and submission status, then sorts everything into a queue: overdue first, then due soonest.
External courseware (WebAssign, Apex, Cengage, Packback, SmartBook, myBusinessCourse and the platforms the general agent handles) is recognised from the assignment link. There is nothing to configure.
Queue and run
Pick a single assignment, a whole course or everything, and press Run. The app works through the queue in due-date order. You can watch it, minimize it, or leave it running; while the queue has work in it, Silent Student keeps the computer from going to sleep. It can’t wake a computer that is already asleep, and closing the lid still sleeps most laptops, so leave it open and on power.
For quizzes, the app reads each question, sends it to an AI model through Silent Student’s backend, and enters the answer. On WebAssign it types into the equation editor with proper notation: derivatives, integrals, subscripts and superscripts. On Apex Learning it answers the Kuiper player’s quizzes and computer-scored tests in course order and submits each one; it clicks through study, reading and practice activities page by page until Apex marks them complete, and pauses when a run fails.
Graded, single-attempt, untimed Canvas quizzes are the exception: those stop at the finish line so you can check every answer before it submits, and any answer below your confidence threshold forces that stop even with holds switched off. Timed quizzes, multi-attempt quizzes and anything close to its deadline are never held; they submit. A held quiz auto-submits when its review window runs out, provided the app is still running and not paused. If it is stopped, quit, or the laptop is asleep, the hold waits for you instead, so a hold you never come back to can still miss a deadline.Review drafts
Essays, discussion posts and file uploads on Canvas are never submitted on their own. Silent Student drafts the response and pauses until you approve, edit or regenerate it. You see the full text before anything goes in under your name.
Drafts are edited toward plain wording and, if you have uploaded a few writing samples, toward the way you already write. Quotations, citations, formulae and code are left as they are. It makes no promise about AI detectors or any other check your school runs.
External courseware behaves differently, and it is worth knowing before you queue it: Packback posts are published directly rather than drafted, and so are Perusall comments.Check your grades
When the queue empties, the app stops. Open Canvas in your own browser and check your grades. Every submission is logged in the app’s activity feed with timestamps, scores and any errors, so you can see what it did on each assignment.
Which platforms have a dedicated solver?
Canvas is the hub. An assignment that links out is followed to the tool it lives in and worked there. The platforms below have solvers written for them; everything else goes to the general screen-reading agent, which works from what is on the screen and is less predictable.
Canvas LMS
Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes, essay text entry, discussion posts with replies, and file uploads. Reads instructions, rubrics and point values. Calculated, hotspot and in-quiz file-upload questions are not supported.
Platform pageWebAssign
Equation editor entry for derivatives, integrals, matrices and chemical notation. Each part is submitted and checked on its own, and parts already marked correct are left alone.
Platform pageApex Learning
Answers Kuiper player quizzes and computer-scored tests in course order, and submits each one. Multiple choice and multi-select only. Apex is mostly a high-school platform; Silent Student is built mainly for college Canvas courses.
Platform pageCengage
Cengage homework reached through Canvas: ChemPad and equation-editor entry, SIM activities, subscript-aware notation (H₂O, Na⁺) and per-part submits. The whole-course MindTap solver works through D2L Brightspace; MindTap opened from Canvas uses the general agent.
Platform pageMcGraw Hill SmartBook
Answers each SmartBook question, opens the reading SmartBook assigns after a miss, and keeps going until the concept counter is full. McGraw Hill’s Terms of Use bar bots, agents and third-party extensions on its service, so read them and your school’s rules first.
Platform pagePackback
Writes the question and the replies to classmates, aiming above the instructor’s minimum curiosity score. Posts publish directly.
Platform pagemyBusinessCourse
Accounting journal entries, T-accounts, ledger work and dropdown selections, including debit and credit flows and multi-step problems. Work already marked correct is left alone.
Platform pageHow does the vision agent read and check each answer?
On a platform without a solver written for it, Silent Student uses its general vision agent. It reads each question from a screenshot and from the page’s own controls, enters an answer through those controls, and reads the page back to check the answer registered before it moves on. On a page of several questions it fills the whole screen, reads each answer back, then submits and saves a receipt. On some platforms it confirms completion from the platform’s own marks, such as zyBooks’ completion checkmarks or WeBWorK’s problem list. It works only from what the page shows, so it is less predictable than a dedicated solver; check the run log.
From the Silent Student homepage, platforms hub and the zyBooks and WeBWorK pages, checked October 20, 2026.
What won’t Silent Student do?
- Proctored exams. Quizzes behind Respondus LockDown Browser, Proctorio or Honorlock are left for you to take.
- Promise a grade. The AI can be wrong. On the company’s own benchmark it got 156 of 164 graded answers right on replicas the company built, not the real sites.
- Get attempts back. It works within the attempts and checks your instructor allows and cannot restore one already used.
- Submit your writing unasked. Canvas essays, discussion posts and file uploads wait for your approval. Packback is the exception.
- Run on every computer. It needs a Mac with Apple Silicon on macOS 13 or later, or 64-bit Windows 10 or later. Not a Chromebook or an iPad.
- Speak for your school. Your school and each platform set their own rules, and under our Terms (section 5) you are responsible for following them. Silent Student is not affiliated with Instructure or any homework platform.
How it works: FAQ
How does Silent Student work?
Silent Student is a Mac and Windows app from El Dorado Ignition LLC. It signs in to your Canvas account in its own browser, syncs every course, and works through your assignments in due-date order. It answers and submits most quizzes; Canvas essays, discussion posts and file uploads are drafted and wait for you to approve them. It does not take proctored exams.
Does Silent Student submit assignments automatically?
Partly. Canvas quizzes are answered and submitted, except graded, single-attempt, untimed quizzes and quizzes with a low-confidence answer, which stop for your review. Canvas essays, discussion posts and file uploads are never submitted until you approve them. Packback posts are published directly, and work on courseware such as WebAssign is submitted by the app part by part.
Does Silent Student use my own browser?
No. It starts its own Chromium browser with its own profile, so your everyday Chrome, Safari or Firefox, its saved passwords and its logged-in sessions are not read or changed. You sign in to Canvas once inside the app. Compared with Chrome extensions.
Which AI does Silent Student use?
The question text and page content go to Silent Student’s backend, which passes them to AI model providers: currently Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Z.ai, DeepSeek and xAI, directly or through OpenRouter. Plus and Pro plans add the advanced pro model.
What happens on a platform without a dedicated solver?
It is worked by the general screen-reading agent, which reads the page from the screen and works the questions it shows. That agent is less predictable than a dedicated solver, so check the run log. Pearson MyLab, McGraw Hill Connect, ALEKS and Macmillan Achieve run this way, and so does Cengage MindTap when it is opened from Canvas. How the vision agent reads and checks each answer.
Can Silent Student get answers wrong?
Yes. On the company’s own benchmark it got 156 of 164 graded answers right (95%) on seven homework replicas the company built, which are not the real sites. No plan promises a grade, and the run log shows what it did on each question.
Can I run Silent Student overnight?
Yes, if the computer stays awake. While the queue has work in it, the app keeps the computer from going to sleep and stops when the queue is empty. It cannot wake a computer that is already asleep, and closing the lid still sleeps most laptops, so leave it open and on power.
Does Silent Student take proctored exams?
No. Quizzes behind Respondus LockDown Browser, Proctorio or Honorlock are recognised and left alone. Take those yourself. More in the FAQ on proctored and LockDown Browser exams.
Does Silent Student work on a Chromebook, iPad or phone?
No. It is a desktop app for a Mac with Apple Silicon on macOS 13 or later, or a 64-bit PC on Windows 10 or later. Any brand of Windows laptop works if it meets that. It does not run on a Chromebook, iPad or phone. Download and system requirements.
Does Silent Student have to stay open on screen while it works?
No. You can watch it, minimize it or leave it in the background; it keeps working while the app is open and the computer is awake. While the queue has work in it, the app keeps the computer from going to sleep. It can’t wake a computer that is already asleep, so leave a laptop open and on power.
Can Canvas see what Silent Student does?
Yes, the same way it sees your own activity. Silent Student works in its own browser under your Canvas login, so your submissions show in Canvas as yours, with their times. In Classic Quizzes, if your course has turned on Quiz Log Auditing (Instructure calls it “a course opt-in feature”), the log lists events such as “Answered a question” and “Stopped viewing the Canvas quiz-taking page.” Silent Student does not hide or change anything Canvas records, and gives no advice on avoiding detection. Your school’s rules apply either way. Source: Instructure, How do I view a quiz log for a student? (checked October 20, 2026). What your school can see.
Does Silent Student need my Canvas password?
Yes, once, to sign in inside the app. Direct Canvas login, SSO (Okta, ClassLink, Clever) and CAS are supported, and multi-factor sign-in is done once during setup. The password stays on your computer, in macOS Keychain or Windows’ built-in encryption, and is never sent to Silent Student’s servers. Assignment content is sent to AI model providers; the security page lists what leaves your computer.
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