Reading Time: < 1 minuteInstructure has started incorporating AI directly into Canvas with a few features available now and more on the way. Currently, Canvas has added discussion summaries as well as a smart search option in courses. Smart Search allows instructors and students to quickly search course content. Smart Search operates based on its understood context – it isn’t restricted to keyword-based searches like we’re used to with Google or other search engines. This does mean that things you may be used to (like including a search term in quotation marks for an exact search) do not work in Smart Search, but Canvas is working on an updated search…
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Summer 2025 Canvas Roundup
Reading Time: 2 minutesWelcome back for another semester! Summer is always a busy time and a welcomed break from the school year. Because of that, we’re going to highlight some of the Canvas changes to make sure you’re up to speed with the current status of things. Assignments Canvas has made a few tweaks and adjustments to Assignments this year – they made it simpler to update due dates for assignments with “assign to” available in more places, they added a way for students to self-assess their work with the assignment’s rubric, and they have an annotation assignment type! For full details on each of these changes or features, check…
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Beginning of Semester Reminders and Tips
Reading Time: 2 minutesWelcome to the start of a new semester! Today we’re going be chatting about some tips and reminders to make the first week (and the rest of the semester) easier. We know there’s a big chunk of time between semester starts, so it’s easy for some of these things to slip your memory. Combining Canvas sections You may be teaching multiple sections of the same course but want to combine all your students into one section so you have a single place to work on the course. Canvas makes it simple to combine those multiple sections into one. A brief note: you’ll need to combine them before…
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State of Canvas 2025: Quizzes
Reading Time: 2 minutesSo far, we’ve covered the current state of Assignments and Discussions in Canvas. This week, we’ll be chatting about (New) Quizzes! It’s been a relatively quiet year for New Quizzes so far – the biggest update we’ve talked about has been the update to the moderation settings. But there are a few exciting things that have either already landed or are on the horizon! Text blocks in New Quizzes Have you ever wished that there was an easy way to provide directions or additional information inside a New Quiz? Previously, you could to that through using a Stimulus – but you had to attach questions to it, and…
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State of Canvas 2025: Discussions
Reading Time: 2 minutesLast week, we took a moment to review the current status of Assignments in Canvas. This week, we’re turning our focus to Discussions. We’ve talked about Discussions a few times over the last several months because of some big updates to the tool. We’ll be going over those and more today! Discussion Checkpoints Canvas has finally added multiple due dates for discussions with their Discussion Checkpoints update earlier this year. Now, you can set one due date for students to submit initial replies to the prompt and a second due date for students to submit replies to other students. There was a moment of oddness with how…
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State of Canvas 2025: Assignments
Reading Time: 2 minutesNow that we’ve hit the summer and have half a moment to breathe, we’re going to take the next few weeks to do a comprehensive review of various elements of Canvas. We’ll be taking a look at the current state of the tools, highlighting any major changes that have been made recently, and looking forward at Canvas’ roadmap and future changes. This week, we’ll be looking at Assignments in Canvas. Out of the posts we have planned, assignments is the most “stable” at the moment – we’ve had some changes across the last year, and there isn’t anything huge on the horizon (at the moment). So, let’s…
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Microsoft Teams/Canvas Integration Is Changing – Current Tools Leaving in June
Reading Time: < 1 minuteMicrosoft recently announced that they are in the process of updating some of their LTIs – and the Teams Classes and Teams Meetings LTIs are at the top of the list. Both of these tools in their current iteration will stop working in Canvas June 15, 2025. Microsoft is working a “new, unified experience” that consolidates the capabilities of both of these tools, but there is no further information on this so far. Since we do not know when exactly Microsoft will release new tools, there are some simple workarounds to use after June 15. If you are using Teams Classes, your Team will still exist…
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Submitting Final Grades from Canvas to the Registrar
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIt’s a simple process to submit your final course grades to the registrar from Canvas. Before you start this process, however, you’ll want to follow these three tips for checking your Canvas gradebook to make sure you’re all squared away. Once you’re ready, follow these three steps: 1. Click the “Submit Grades to Registrar” link in your course menu. If you don’t see the link there, click “Settings” in the course menu then the “Navigation” tab. Drag and drop “Submit Grades to Registrar” from the inactive items list to the active items list and click “Save.” 2. Scan the information on the “Submit Grades” page. Is…
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Three Tips for Checking your Canvas Gradebook before Submitting Final Grades
Reading Time: 2 minutesFinals are soon approaching, so it’s time to start wrapping up your courses and preparing to submit your grades. Submitting grades is a quick process, but there are a few items you’ll need to do before you click that button. 1. Check your course grading scheme You should have a grading system in your syllabus with the values defined for each grade letter. Canvas can display that letter grade to both you and your students, but you need to make sure you have this setting enabled with the correct values set. 2. Check your grade breakdown The grade breakdown is different from the grading scheme! Go to the…
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Canvas Update: New Quizzes Moderation Settings
Reading Time: 2 minutesCanvas is revising how New Quiz moderation works in their April 23 update. Most of the adjustments included here are smaller – Canvas is tweaking some labels in the process of adding additional time for a student. But there is one very important change coming with this update. Instructors will now be able to add additional time while a student is taking the quiz. Previously, if a student was taking a quiz, an instructor was not able to add any kind of time adjustment to it – but now, when on the “Moderate” page, instructors can use the pencil icon while a student is taking the quiz…