Canvas Teacher Customer Service

Canvas Teacher Positive Reviews

Crashes with IOS 13UPDATED REVIEW: Canvas has fixed the problem and the Canvas Teacher’s app works wonderfully. As before iPadOS 13, it is easy to use to grade student essays or contact students. With this fix, I now give it a five-star review. It took a while, but... Well done, Canvas!!! UPDATED REVIEW: I have spoken to several Canvas people and have been told Canvas is aware of the app crashing with iOS 13 or iPadOS 13 and they are working on an updated version of the app. I was told by one of their L2 engineers that he could not give me a date for when the new app version will be released. Until it is released, my one-star review must stand. (Why is it taking Canvas so long to fix this problem?) PREVIOUS REVIEW:This was a great app until IOS 13. Since then, I cannot leave a comment within a highlighted section of text for a student paper because the app crashes —every time. My problem was reported to Canvas, and I get responses from their support staff as though they do not know what is going on. So I will tell Canvas what is going on: Your Teacher App is creasing after IOS 13 came out. Not that hard to understand (Canvas support people actually asked me for my “crash logs” from my iPad). Please fix this! If Canvas cannot fix this, the app is worthless and teachers would be better off going back to the desktop version. What a shame..One Happy AuthorVersion: 1.9.1

Pesky persistent bug makes the otherwise good app a pain to use.If you are like me, you might like to write detailed feedback notes, when grading your students’ submitted homework. Then, just like me, you are also constantly struggling with the tiny input text box, which doesn’t auto-scroll properly, making you constantly wiggle your phone this way and that in an attempt to type a few additional words. And if you wish to copy/paste a link to a helpful external reference, forget it! A couple of months ago, I have raised this issue with a Canvas support representative. He sounded so surprised that I began to wonder if this problem affects me alone, but it is not the case. I have asked my colleagues and they too are having the same issue..ZhuchokVersion: 1.9.3

Solid, but lacks basic features.Overall, this is a solid app. However, it seems the developers did not take into account that we use this app to check-in on our courses while we’re on the go. We do not use it to facilitate our courses. Accessing your course through a mobile browser may be a better option depending upon what you’re trying to do. - There is no ability to mark a message or discussion post as unread in the app. Once you open or view it, it cannot be marked as unread. If I don’t plan on responding at that very moment, I have to make a separate reminder to check it when I return to the desktop. I’ve basically stopped accessing messages and discussions through the app for this very reason. (In most cases, I’m not going to respond as soon as a student messages me, but I do want to read their message. Marking it as unread allows me to see the notification on the desktop where I prefer to respond.) - The actual text from sent and received messages cannot be copied. Not being able to copy a portion of a previous message I have sent is frustrating. I frequently send the same explanations for assignments, etc. Having the ability to copy a portion of a message for another email - when I’m on the go - seems like an oversight on the developers’ behalf. - To be continued....BriznitVersion: 1.6.4

Pretty good with one really annoying featureI use this app and generally like it. Performance has been pretty stable with a few times where upgrades screwed up the works briefly, but contact with Canvas straightened things out pretty soon. There is one thing the app does, though, that drives me bananas. They wanted it to be a “speedgrader”, so they’ve made it so that the slightest flick allows you to quickly and effortlessly move from one student to another. I don’t know about others, but this feature seriously screws me from time to time. I believe it’s important to give the students substantial feedback on their work. So I will write a rather long comment - but midway through find I need to scroll to another part of the student’s submission to finish making my point. It’s at that point that, if I don’t really carefully just scroll straight down or up, but accidentally scroll slightly right or left, that the app moves me to another student, and my long comment is lost. I have to go back and rewrite it. I can’t tell you how many times that has happened and it just doubles my work every time. I really would rather it take a little more effort to get from one student to another if it would mean I’m not having to rewrite my comments so often. Thanks for considering that tweak, Canvas!.SalsieannVersion: 1.11.9

Mostly goodI wouldn’t use this alone, but it is helpful when paired with the desktop version. I like the ability to write directly on my student’s pdf assignments (it would be great if it took fewer clicks for them to find that feedback, but that is not the fault of the Teacher app). I pretty much only use this to write on students’ work as I find everything else easier on the desktop . I’ve removed my complaint about the February 2021 update since that has been resolved. The remaining issue that I have is that sometimes when I write feedback it doesn’t save the ends of sentences/words. It’s difficult to troubleshoot because I can see everything until I close the assignment and reopen it (which I don’t usually do). Unfortunately the students can get confused by comments with partial words or missing worlds! If I don’t feel too rushed I load the next paper then come back to the previous one and skim through the comments to make sure that everything shows up, but it is frustrating. (For reference I use an iPad Pro purchased in November 2019 and an Apple Pencil).AnnjessaVersion: 1.13.0

Added some great features but lost othersI have been waiting for the ability to annotate student papers with my Apple Pencil for a long time. I'm so excited about that and it seems to work pretty well. I have lost, though, the ability to leave voice or media comments from my iPad. That is a feature I use with every paper I assign, so I really hope that comes back soon. I also had a hard time getting a grade to save. This particular assignment I was just marking rough drafts as complete or incomplete. I hit the + to add a grade, selected "complete" from the menu, but then had to push the + again to save it. It took me a while to figure out why nothing was saving. It seemed a little awkward. I like the direction this app is going, but I had to go back and reinstall the old SpeedGrader app in order to accomplish what I needed to get done. EDIT AFTER SOME MORE USE: I also realized after grading a whole batch of essays that some of my handwritten annotations are missing! There are times when only a few words of a whole sentence are there when I go back in or when students look on their end. NO!! Waste of time!!.Video Game FanVersion: 1.0.3

Almost good, far from excellentThere are so many odd quirks with this application that it makes you wonder. They apparently have developed the whole app without access to iPad and Apple Pencil - this has been born out when I’ve called support and the people that answer the phone have stated that they’ve never used an Apple Pencil and can’t understand my complaints. For example, the engineers decided on a 2.0pt stroke for the pencil when grading assignments and the default can not be changed. As you scroll through each assignment you have to select the width you want; it doesn’t even remember your selection during a session! Not that big of a deal, but annoying. (The default used to be 1.0pt, but some developer changed it without providing an option to set your own default!) This tells me that the most important users in the Canvas universe are the programmers. Overall, the app works about 80% well and they have no interest in making it better. Like google, Canvas is satisfied with mediocrity. Too bad..LeitersideVersion: 1.9.4

Combine with BookWidgets!I wish you updated teacher-friendly features on here. However, this app paired with book widgets allows me to grade French and Spanish worksheets so much faster and have self checking assignments for distance learning. We have it set to sync to infinite campus so s lot of data entry is accurately and reliably done for you. This is the first time in years and years that part of my workload was LESSENED! Such a time saver. It is so much easier to track kids’ work patterns. I spend time helping, not repeatedly grading the same answers on fill in the blank activities. I wish the Quiz portion of the app were more flexible. That part needs improvement to aide in engagement and making the kinds of paper and digital quizzes I make. It is far behind on that front but thankfully allows other software access. Zero regrets. I highly recommend the app to my students. It is very user friendly for distance learners..MmegratteVersion: 1.20.0

Newest update is glitchyI LOVED the Canvas teacher app until the most recent update. The grading in the app has been very glitchy. It will say that a student submitted work, but then when I open it say they haven’t submitted anything. If I close it out and go back to it, the student’s work is there. When I slide the slider over to give a grade, the grade will repeatedly disappear. Another thing weird about the update is now my to-do list only says how many assignment groups I have to grade, not how many total assignments I have. I saw this weekend that I only had 7 assignments on the to do list, so I thought the grading could wait until Monday. No, each of those “to-dos” included multiple submissions. I really had dozens of things to grade. I really liked knowing I had 145 or whatever submissions to grade, so when I got down to 5 I knew I had five left. Now 5 could mean 500. Not a fan of this update, Canvas..Eeveelyn55Version: 1.12.0

General feedback for all versions of canvasI like having students complete both peer and self reviews. I love the peer review assignment option through assignment pages. For the purposes of the classes I teach I would like use this function to assign students to as reviewer of their own submissions. I attempted to do this but noticed their own names are not an option when manually assignment peer reviews. Perhaps there is another way to do this that I have not figured out yet? If not, I would LOVE if such a function can be added so students can engage in a self review process with all the same editable functions that are available in the peer review option. I would also love for all the rubric descriptions to be available in the canvas app. Right now only the general category description is available but even then, no consistently. I can see it for some of my assignments but not all. It would be nice if both General descriptions as well as the descriptions by point distribution were available. I have young children at home and often find myself grading at all hours of the day and night based on my infant and toddlers eating and sleeping schedules. Not having access to full rubric details from my phone slows up my progress when I am trying to take advantage of these random opportunities to grade while feeding our putting my kiddos to sleep. Otherwise I’m loving the app!!.NewListener8Version: 1.9.0

Odd UI ChoicesLet me start by saying I’m a huge Canvas fan. It’s made my life so much easier and made it so I can deliver consistent curriculum to students and their families. This app however, makes some strange design choices that sometimes make it easier to use the site in a browser. It’s good in a pinch, or in certain use cases, but with a few changes and additions, it could be so much better. My current issue is with the redesign of the rubrics. Previously, when grading, the rubric scores were stationary and the rubric criteria was in a tool tip. Now, when you tap the rubric score, the rest of the rubric moves, like a hinge or drawer, moving the rest of the rubric downwards. This makes quick grading a huge pain, since the tap targets are constantly moving. Another longstanding feature that is missing in the app is the ability to read submission comments in the inbox. When dealing with a large amount of students or assignments, not being able to filter new submission comments in the inbox (as you can do on the site), makes this extremely difficult to use to find and respond to specific students. While I’m at it, I’d love to see the it implement support for the new Pencil Pro tools and tool selection, and also love to select a default browser for Canvas to use (that may be a iOS / iPadOS limitation), as I use Chrome for work..MutantSquidVersion: 2.4.0

Still some basic needsThis app seems like it is getting the attention it deserves, but there are still some basic functions that are sorely lacking. 1) I need and want to be able to download student submissions within the app instead of going to the site in a browser. Because... 2) I cannot rely on the built-in annotation system. Recently, it just simply didn’t display when trying to grade and comment on a student’s paper. There was just nothing there. I could swipe to the next student’s submission and it was there... swipe back to the previous student and still nothing. 3) I really like the inbox and messaging system of this app. Very easy to read and use and in fact, I much prefer it to using the site for this task. BUT... I can’t select text for copy and paste??? That’s insane, guys. There are so many times where I have the need to email individual students and share similar information. Copy and paste. This should be an immediate priority. Please! 4) It makes absolutely no sense to me that pressing the “Courses” icon at the bottom of the screen does not take me back to the main course selection splash page. Zero sense. Instead, we have to hit the “Back” option in the top left twenty-five times. Why is the “Courses” button there at all if not for this quick access? It would be hugely helpful for those of us with 6+ courses any given semester..ShwannyDHVersion: 1.11.9

Only one flaw and one wish in an otherwise amazing appI haven’t done online teaching for a good while, and I was pleasantly shocked to see how well designed this app was compared to what I remember about online learning platforms in the early days. Kudos to the developers. I truly was amazed. This was made for busy teachers on the go (which is me!) to be able to do good grading quickly. One flaw: the comment window for the teacher is so tiny, and there’s plenty of space above it for it to grow! I had to resort to writing my comments in another app on my iPad Pro and then pasting them in. I’m surprised that in an app with otherwise great UI that this little flaw showed up. One wish: I like making audio comments, but I like to pause and restart the recording multiple times—like 40 times in a 25-minute recording session. I didn’t see that I could do that with the audio recording function..MarklwardVersion: 1.11

Can’t believe I just found this!If you are using Canvas for your online course or summer program, you need this app! We’ve been using Canvas more & more over the past year for our grant-funded undergraduate research program at a state university, and have relied on it heavily since mid-March when we were ordered to work remotely. Over 3 months later, I am just realizing there is a Canvas app and I can do pretty much anything I need to do right from my phone....add/edit assignments, grade & make comments on student submissions, etc. it’s even better using the app because I get a notification right to my phone every time a student submits an assignment or adds a comment. Already making my life so much easier and I WISH I had downloaded it months ago!!.KrayfennVersion: 1.11.4

Teacher Interface ProblemsThe Teacher app exits if I touch or write too close to the bottom of the screen. This may be a "feature" of iOS but is extremely annoying. Wasted time is the worst feature of the app. Sometimes, Teacher crashes when I try to swipe left or right to the next assignment to be graded. I curse when this happens. It is awful (the app, that is, my cursing is quite satisfying). I find that the slider for entering a score oftens jumps to the next higher or lower number wheen I let go of the sldier. The slider seems to have been modified to have clicks between scores now, but the problem persists. Once in awhile I get red lines being drawn when I try to scroll down with two fingers. This might be acsribed to only one finger being sensed, but the problem seems to be more related to some kind of state the program is in. Another issue seems to be occurring at a higher level than the Teacher app itself. This issue is that, when I login to Canvas on my iPad, the Teacher app insists on popping up instead of the dashboard. I have to kill the teacher app to get out of it--it has taken over my Canvas access. I only use teacher for grading and have no view on other features..ChesspastimeVersion: 1.13.1

New Changes Have Ruined My LifeThere’s no hyperbole in my review title. I work from home while taking care of my son, who I gave birth to right before COVID hit. The only time I have to grade is when he naps or sleeps. I have been grading on my phone with the app for the last year and a half. However - The new changes to the app have made the comment bubbles jump around while I’m trying to leave my students comments on their work. My words disappear while I’m typing them. The assignment speed grader flips through the assignments super fast, also unintentionally, while I’m trying to grade. So I can’t grade on my phone anymore. THANKS SO MUCH for the changes - from a stressed out overworked full time professor and mom..Phillyirish14Version: 1.12.2

I wish there was more control over notificationsI really love this app except that as the person in charge of teaching in my school/college I’m a default member on many sites. Some sites we can’t auto-subscribe students to because they aren’t for a specific class (eg academic advising). Because of my role on those sites I get alerts for hundreds of students accepting the invitation! I’ve had to turn off notifications all together because there were so many alerts but now I can’t see the things I really need to see, like if a student posts a question in the discussion forum. Please create a method for teachers to select the different things they want to be notified about (or not). I guess kind of like how that one social media app lets us choose if we want to have an email notification if we have a new friend request, are tagged in a photo, etc. Thanks..J, my nickname was takenVersion: 1.7

FrustratingIt kicks me out as I’m annotating an assignment. Then I have to go back through all the steps to get back to that student’s page. Very frustrating. Other teachers I know have said it does the same for them as well. Also some times I can swipe to move from one student’s paper to the next as I am annotating, yet other times I can not. I am unclear as to why that is the case. I also wish I could set a default color choice as the pen color so it is not red. I always have to go in and select a different color for each student and each new file they’ve uploaded. All those extra steps over and over are annoying and take more time when you times it by 158 students..Parr4Version: 1.10

Useful but limitedNot the worst but lots of annoyances and limitations. I'm currently trying to grade discussion posts in the app and the readability is frustrating. Why does the text not wrap around?! Each line is juuuust too long for the screen. Sometimes it won't even zoom out so that it all fits on the screen, and the app doesn't rotate to horizontal either. So I have to move the text back and forth for every line or hold it pinch zoomed out. Even when the zoom level sticks: I have great eyesight and even I find the text too small. I can't imagine using this with even middling eyesight. Accessibility is not an unreasonable expectation from an ed tech company. Frustrating. This is illustrative of issues with the app. Has promise. Not hot garbage. But not yet truly good. More UX work pls. Make it accessible!.ShoutingLoudlyVersion: 1.15.4

Really Good, and Getting BetterThe Canvas Teacher app is a must-have tool for instructors and schools utilizing Canvas CMS. I encourage all my students to use the Canvas Student app to conveniently receive notifications, check grades, and communicate with Inbox. I’ve done surveys showing 75% of my students use their smartphones for accessing Canvas, and this is the best tool to encourage more effective interaction with the student. Canvas Instructor keeps getting better. There have been glitches, and confusing menu structures, or tools not available as they are of the web portal, but they keep improving it, so I feel confident in using it in the future and recommending it now. Tech support is fantastic..KDVoyagerVersion: 1.6.4

Too many classes in email!I have had this app on my iPhone for a while, but I don’t use it much. One of my problems with it is sending out emails. As long as I am replying to one of my students I don’t have a problem with this, but when I want to send out a new email, I get presented with a list of ALL the Canvas classes that we have for me, both active and inactive, and there is no way to tell them apart in the class list without going into each one and seeing if I have students in the class. When accessing this function from the website, I am only presented with a list of my active classes. So, it is easy to find the one I want. It would sure be nice if the app would do the same thing so that I don’t have to hunt through ALL of my inactive classes to find the few active ones..Rockhound211Version: 1.8.5

Good way to keep up with class happeningsI use Canvas Teacher to monitor and grade for my classes. It is convenient and works well for the job. I can annotate on submitted assignments with my Apple Pencil, just like I am writing on paper. The app does not allow me to rotate pages, as far as I can tell, however. It is allowed on the web version on my PC but my markings done on the App end up being oriented incorrectly relative to the submitted page. Other than that, the app notifies me appropriately when submissions/messages occur in the class, and my very portable iPad allows me to take action..CanvasTeacherUserVersion: 1.12.2

Good, but needs workThe app is not too bad overall. It definitely needs work, though, particularly so it has more functionality. I primarily use an iPad Pro now rather than a computer, and I’m feeling the limitations. To complete certain tasks I have to go to Canvas through my browser rather than using the app. Also, PLEASE GET RID OF THE HORRIBLE SLIDER IN THE GRADING AREA. I have had a terrible time trying to get exactly the grade that I want because as soon as I lift my finger off of the screen the slider almost always moves a bit, leaving me with something like an 88 instead of an even 90 for example..PDLee123Version: 1.9.2

Can we have...Hi! So I just discovered there was a teacher app last night! I am ecstatic. I just finished grading some things. A couple of things I’d like to see is a way to see our comments to students on speedgrader like we can on a computer. Another thing I’d like is to be able to view “modules” for each class. It’s one of the few options not showing. And while I can view most all of it from other sections, having to go to them makes them so much harder to find and access. I’d also like the ability to view my grade books in each class. As of now, those are my suggestions. It does seem really easy to use. If it had had these features, then I would have given a 5 star rating..ChandlerashleyVersion: 1.6.1

Not good enoughThe app looks ok and it’s practical to reply messages and post announcements. But it doesn’t have the option at modules, edit modules, or create significant assignments using the phone! I would give it 5 starts if I could modify everything on my course using the app..JMX MTYVersion: 1.14.0

SpeedGraderThere should be an option to change the order of files when viewing multiple files attached by student. There is no option to reorder according to name or date modified and this is very inefficient. How the files are viewed on a computer is very different than how they are organized on the app but this should be kept consistent. Rotating files option is also missing! Add these features, I beg you. PLEASE!!!!.WheebeeVersion: 1.23.3

Read-only appUnfortunately, this is a read-only app. I cannot update my page from here. For example, I tried to publish a module that was already created and I couldn’t. I had to do it via the browser..Lino CoriaVersion: 1.15.3

Good, not great yet.Great app, I use it on my iPad. Two things 1. Discussion board is very difficult to use at a high level. There is an option to just show the original posts, but then you can’t click on one to go to it or download them all. The weakness in the discussion capability is why I will use another product next time. 2. Would love to be able to speed grade in Teacher..Tennis Fan from afarVersion: 1.13.1

Wish this had group functionalityWorks well, but lacks good interface for assignments grafing and can’t understand why the app distegards groups.JumpinjehoVersion: 1.11.9

So many new glitchesStarted a month or two ago. courses keep disappearing from the homepage; the notifications are broken (I have “push” turned off for grading but still get push notifications for grading); etc. Not very helpful at all..Kekei22Version: 1.13.1

Rubrics are not showing in Assignments?Why won’t rubrics show in assignments? I have created numerous assignments and attached rubrics to them in Dell Windows System. Help.Sgt2424Version: 1.9.4

Great app that requires few improvementsFolks at Canvas::::: Please, do us a favour and add (Submissions Comments) to this app. It’s incredibly crucial. The inbox has all main features except this one. Regards *******£££ This is a great app that makes collaboration with students seamless. However please consider adding the following to both the app and/or the website itself: Canvas Enhancements: 1- In the website, Under (Grades), We should be able to change the view from (Students) to (Groups) so we can see Group related assignments and grades There must be a specific tab for the (To-Do) in the browser, just similar to the one in the iOS App. 2-There must be a tab on both the iOS App and the Browser version where we have a consolidated views for all (Comments). Now, it is near possible to be able to trace and track where students made comments, on what assignments, and when on the app. One the website, you have to go to the inbox. 3-Abilities to arrange columns in the grade centre to match the fields on instructors portal-grading section Ability to add a (calculated column) in the grade centre. 4-(Submissions Comments) are missing from the iPhone App while we can see them online. Please add them..Mike MissiVersion: 1.9.0

From no longer working to constantly crashingAfter my latest update, the app stopped working on my phone. The courses no longer exist. The only two things remain available and functional are To Do and Inbox. The latest update fixed the issue I talked about above. But after a few days, the app no longer works on my phone. It simply crashes each time I try to use it..V1c70Version: 1.8.3

Notification for inbox does not workI have teacher installed on my iPhone with all notifications enabled. However when I get a new mail within teacher none of the notifications come up and thus I have to continuously manually check the inbox and the app. Please fix..Notification 12345Version: 1.8.5

Accessing modulesUnfortunately I can access Modules through this app. I can’t either have full benefits of the speed marking features as the app doesn’t allow me to highlight,etc. Thank you for your help. Iris.Ap296XVersion: 1.6.4

Wastes a lot of timeIt takes so long to load anything in speedgrader that I’m sure I’ve spent hours over this semester just waiting for the next assignment to load. I wish we hadn’t switched to canvas..Kimkoalaq987Version: 1.7.2

Modules viewWe need to see modules.MyinsideartVersion: 1.6.3

Significant problemI have been using canvas as a teacher for a major Canadian university. The product is mostly well developed and feels like a mature product. However, there is a major problem when writing comments in grading rubrics for students. When writing if you touch outside the box or miss the small send button slightly you loose all text in the comments box and you must start over. I would suggest creating a confirmation button or a save feature or just keep the text field available when touching other parts of the screen. Then you can tap back into the field to complete the comment without loosing your previous text. Also related, I would like the option to save all comments and grades without publishing for view by the student. Publishing should be a separate activity. This could also be implemented on the web version of canvas as well. Sometime grading is done over several sessions and I would like the option to grade all students before releasing grades and comments to everyone at once..Little FosVersion: 1.5.1

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Canvas Teacher Negative Reviews

Missing some of the most important features from SpeedGraderHere’s the issue: when grading assignments with an iPad on this new “Teacher” app, if you hold the iPad in landscape orientation, you know, like literally every keyboard case does, there is this GIGANTIC score tab on the right side of the screen that’s taking-up about half the screen. That wouldn’t be all that bad if there was a way to hide it, but for some reason, and I still cannot fathom what that reason is, there is no way to minimize it, hide it, swipe it off screen to the right, etc. (which, by the way, was something you could do with the previous SpeedGrader app). Nope, it’s just stuck there, literally taking-up half the screen. But, if you hold the iPad in portrait orientation, you can minimize the scoring tab to the bottom of the screen. The result is that the “paper”/assignment is actually displayed larger when the iPad is in portrait orientation than it is in landscape. Another thing, and this one isn’t quite as much of an issue, is that I see no way to select seeing the submissions of just one, specific section, meaning there’s no way for me to see only my 5th period submissions. Again, this was something that could be done with the “old” SpeedGrader app. Generally, I really love Canvas, and, overall, I’m very pleased with my experience with it. But, I’m very frustrated in being forced to use these “new”/“better” apps that actually do less, or, at least in my case, make using them MUCH more difficult/less efficient..Mr ShettVersion: 1.5.1

Assignment grader is buggy for group projectsMy course is structured around many team project submissions. When I select an assignment for grading, as I expect, I see a graphic with the number of submissions graded, the number in need of grading, and the number not submitted. When I select the middle option, need grading, I get a list of the submissions. When I select team one, I get a Forrest Gump box of chocolates experience—a team submission appears, just not the one I selected. So I select done, and try another submission. Same issue, the same team submission reappears—again, not the one I selected. So I give in and grade the random submission. I click done, and note it is off the needs grading list. I select another submission and get the same submission I just graded, only this time without a grade. Darn. I click done and then back to the assignment submission summary. I note that one assignment is showing up as graded. I click on it, confirm it is the random submission I graded previously. I open it and confirm it has a grade. Click done, go back to summary, click on needs grading, select a submission, and now I either get a new random submission to grade OR the original random submission reappears—without a grade... this is not acceptable. The system worked fine 2 weeks ago and is now squirrelly. The iPad makes marking up reports so easy, but this is defeated if I can’t access the submission I want to grade!.Dr RKSVersion: 1.9.0

Speedgrader loses annotations, horrible supportI use the Canvas app exclusively for Speedgrader since everything else is easier to do by computer. I noticed that it was often failing to save the last annotations or erasures I made on papers. This would be an understandable bug, especially given the sudden demands of the pandemic, but six months after my initial report it still hasn’t been fixed. Much worse is the constant gaslighting along the way by Instructure support: for example, they said they had never heard of the problem and tried to claim it was the fault of my network connection when six different members of my department (everyone who has used it, on many different networks including our very fast one on campus — as well as other reviewers here) see the same problem. They claimed it was a problem with the Apple Pencil (what else would I use?) and said they couldn’t obtain one for testing. I’ve sent them samples and recorded multiple videos showing the problem but then weeks go by and once I do hear from them it’s back to square one. Update: my campus Instructure liaison has told me this will not be fixed. Apparently data corruption is considered acceptable. Don’t make the mistake we did of getting locked into this platform — find a different LMS provider!.STEM-teacherVersion: 1.13.2

SlowGraderThis app is a disaster, and even worse than the SpeedGrader which I am happy to say I still have in this iPad. 1. I teach by Module. Each Module has supporting material as well as the week’s assignment. Why then is there no Module I can work with in the sidebar? This I’m guessing is why my students rarely do their reading or video assignments — they seem to be unaware of them if they are using the app. PLEASE ADD MODULES TO THE APPS. 2. Where is my custom Dashboard with my system of colours that allows me to instantly recognise which class is which? 3. I am constantly losing sentences I have carefully constructed for my students as commentary on their work. Where are they going? Sometimes I want to copy something from another student’s comment field and when I come back my current comments are gone. How about a clipboard feature inside the app so we can save often-used comments, like “Please submit this assignment” and “please read the instructions?” 4. Why couldn’t I see my students’ uploads of .pngs and .jpgs on my new iPhone 8 plus? I teach digital art.I take off so-and-so many points per week late... 5. I like having access to the due date of the assignment (and the parameters) so I can make a wise grading choice. 6. I like the speech-to-text feature but it is a hornet’s nest of, um, hornets..AuntVioletVersion: 1.19.0

Messaging app is buggyFor about 6 months the messaging feature has become unreliable. Words that I’ve typed disappear mid-message, forcing me to re-write messages on my computer. It’s super annoying. The messaging app was already touchy — your text could disappear if you switched to another app or take a phone call. I used to sorta like Canvas. But now I’m starting to think that they’re not attending to their product anymore because it’s become obligatory and hard-to-avoid. What incentive do they have to innovate or improve? They have a lot of teachers trapped. I hope that I’m just being cynical today. But for me the balance between saving me time and wasting my time is going in the wrong direction. I’m starting to dread my buggy app, and the fifteen thousand clicks it’ll take to do anything. If I’m away from my computer and a student needs something fast, it’s a crap shoot whether or not it’s going to waste a half hour. Maybe Canvas isn’t paying enough creatives and programmers?.TechieGentrifyBayAreaVersion: 1.22.1

Good enough, but sometimes frustrating to useOverall it’s good enough to do what I need to, but not everything always works correctly. For example, sometimes you cannot swipe sideways to grade the next student’s assignment, and need to press “done” to go back to the list of submissions and select the next student. You can only annotate documents where the whole document is a file submission—you cannot annotate quiz questions that are file uploads and have the students see those annotations. This is very frustrating; direct feedback can be very valuable to the students, so the system not allowing students to see these annotations is problematic. (My workaround has been do save the annotated files and email them to each student individual. This is not a sustainable solution for me; it only works this quarter because I have small classes.) Update: I’ve run up against another issue that caused me to remove a star. When grading, sometimes grades and comments on individual questions simply don’t save. This is obviously a major issue..ProbabilisticWorldVersion: 1.11.3

Less than greatIt has been the biggest waste of time for teachers and students in the worst rolled out management system in training for that system, and has completely ignored how long it takes for teachers and students to manipulate it. Not to mention a complete waste of money and an overreaction to one semester and a half of zoom. I mean why go away from Google classroom. We’re all trained on that for years and they just got sprung on us and they didn’t even know how to teach it which they’ve got a lot better at so it didn’t have potential but it just takes so long to do everything so many clicks. And once was in a meeting or someone said, what do you want us to do this you know evaluation for students and to fill out these forms and how many clicks does it take to get me to where I want to be and he’s worked it out to be 11 and we talked about it in the meeting and we will get it down to seven. I did count with one point and I was over 30 and I just like are you kidding me there’s so many clicks to get some little one.CoachfreemanVersion: 1.19.1

Serious issuesI’m a teacher and I literally bought an iPad just so that I could use it for grading during the pandemic. If I had known how buggy this app is, I would have reconsidered. The iPad app has many, many issues, including: Nearly impossible to submit comments on student work in Speedgrader Can’t see what I’m typing in Speedgrader because a little bar pops up from the bottom and hides part of the comment box (even when I use an external keyboard) Submit button disappears as a result (and disappears completely when writing longer comments) If I write a comment on Speedgrader, and touch the comment box in the slightest wrong way, the app swipes to the next student’s submission entirely and I lose the whole comment I just wrote (lots of lost time) (On desktop it auto saves the comment. Can’t you do that here?) Cannot delete Speedgrader comments on tablet, so I have to boot up my laptop every time I make a mistake (like another reviewer said, you have to get it perfect the first time, even though you can’t see what you’re typing) I can’t annotate student papers with a stylus at all; it’s very selective about recognizing the stylus, and half the time nothing shows up. There are certain other features that don’t work at all on tablet. I also cannot edit pages, can’t edit modules, and struggle to access integrations like Perusall and Blackboard Ultra. (There are other issues I can’t remember but will add as I remember them). I honestly expected Canvas to have a more functional app, and I’m very disappointed with them. I wish I had known better than to buy a whole iPad with external keyboard and stylus pens specifically for grading purposes. It was a nice vision, the idea that I might be able to do work on my tablet…oh well. Please, please fix your app. These issues are urgent, and they are harming the functionality of your app to the point that it is a waste of time to even open it up. You have dozens of reviews saying the same things I am saying…..StanleyB95Version: 1.13.0

Unreliable & BuggyThis app frustrates me continuously. The Canvas Teacher app is essential to my workflow as the ipad is my main device and I grade with my Apple Pencil, but the app is completely unreliable. It often fails to save my handwritten comments fully, it is slow and buggy. Every other note taking app I have has zero problems saving writing, but Canvas constantly fails to save when my internet slows. I hate this app. Every day when I open it to grade essays, I just hope that it works as it should, and most days it doesn’t. Essential, obvious features take years for Canvas to deploy, development is slow, and bugs return after they have supposedly been fixed in updates. Just another example of education software that is light years behind other tech and that is unreliable and unpredictable. I never write reviews, but I finally had to write this one after years of frustration with this sub-par product. But I have to use it. Do better, Canvas!.EvensupposingVersion: 1.15.4

“Buggy” is the best thing I can say...I remain incredibly perplexed by what seems to be the plight of all LMS companies: the utter inability to create functional software interfaces. While Canvas has a sleeker, (semi-) modern interface in comparison to several competitors, their efforts to translate features into a mobile framework are half-baked at best. Many features are absent in the mobile app or, when trying to access various course integrations, require loading a web-view. So, I wonder why Instructure even bothers with the app when it seems to function more like a webpage wrapper than a functional, standalone app. Honestly, I would be happy to look past the lackluster course functionality on the app (as I and most colleagues tell our college students to do) if the ability to use the app as a stylus-based grading interface were functional. However, while they offer “Speedgrader” integration, trying to use it for much more than a few highlights or marking a pre-constructed rubric proves to be an experience that is anything but “speedy.” Instead, I consistently find myself having to re-write comments when the pen function freezes or doesn’t save comments. If I create quality rubrics with any sort of complexity, I can’t see rubric descriptions for these categories in the app (just a “general” description). Okay, I created the rubric, so it makes sense that I don’t need to see my own descriptions. But what about the ability to leave comments for individual sections of a rubric? Sure, it possible, but only if you are using a rubric meant for written feedback (whereas the web interface allows me to add individual comments on a rubric for individual categories). I could go on listing more criticisms, but I know many comments will go unread (perhaps because the company seems to favor “feature request” forums over hiring a larger team of designers with the expertise that is necessary to carefully construct a framework and timeline for a fully-featured mobile app)..KrannonVersion: 1.11.8

Grading tool needs A LOT of updates to be helpfulThis is my first time using Canvas instead of Google Classroom. Here are a few things that I wish were different on Canvas: 1) the grading writing with a pen- I wish I could change the thickness of the stylus. When I zoom in, the pen is so thick so it makes it very challenging to leave good comments. 2) the grading with a highlighter- I wish I could highlight student written work. I can only highlight the types text from the pdf, but I like using the highlighter so it doesn’t completely cover their work (unlike the pen) 3) the grading text. When I type comments, it doesn’t quickly/easily fit into the text box. I will type the comment, then change the box size to be more square shaped and the text doesn’t automatically change size. When I do change the font size to be smaller, the text box automatically goes back to the default size (long and skinny rectangle when I would like it to stay as a square).Knee514Version: 1.7.3

Still a Major Bug On Comment Submission: Moving from portrait to landscape erases comments!Mind boggling! Even after two bug fixing updates major bugs will have you lose comments. As you type comments, if you rotate the iPad and view switches to portrait or landscape, your comments get erased! Anything you type can vanish just by tilting your iPad! Unbelievable, even after latest update: In Speedgrader while in landscape mode on iPad, long comments cannot be submitted as the submit buttons vanishes. If you then turn the iPad to portrait mode, your comments get erased! Anything you type can vanish just by tilting your iPad! Outrageous waste of time. This app dev team is utterly incompetent. I loathe this app, but am required to use it. Old (and still valid) review Needs resizing of the Grade/Comments/File column in Grading mode The app is not too bad, except for the fact that in grading view you cannot resize the column with comments. I have to grade hundreds of paper, and my eyesight is not great. It’s imperative you allow a resize of the Grade/Comments/File column. This would allow annotation with Apple Pencil on the full screen, and then typing comments in a larger space than that tiny column. This is a HUGE oversight to an obvious feature. It makes me wonder if any of these dev have any experience grading and teaching. Please fix this! Until then 2 stars..PolymathicVersion: 1.12.2

Terribly unstableThe Canvas Teacher application is almost useless. Yes, you can use it to view or edit your assignments while on the go, which is occasionally helpful if you made a mistake with a due date or found a typo. The usefulness completely evaporates once you try to drill down to a specific student. Without fail, the app will present an error screen, complete with a worried panda icon, indicating that “something went wrong.” If I am both fast and lucky, I can get one student open, open an assignment submission, and enter a grade or comment. More often than not, however, I get the tragic panda and have to close the application and try again, usually without success. This issue has persisted across multiple devices and updates. I had foolishly hoped that today’s update would address this problem, but alas, it did not. I recommend avoiding Canvas Teacher unless you have no other option..MinecraftgamergirlsVersion: 1.28.0

App Barely Functional NowI used the app extensively last year and loved it. I never had problems and was able to grade on the go, sync grades from my phone/iPad, and do all of the other things that I could do on the desktop version. All of a sudden, now the app is a total disaster. It has stopped loading student submissions most of the time in the speed grader section, won’t allow me to assign grades for assignments, and I can’t sync my grades to our LMS from the app anymore. The option for that is completely gone from the menu. On the rare instances when I can actually get it to load a student submission for a given assignment, it hangs up after every student and makes me hit the done button and come back in to see any further student submissions. I’m sorely disappointed! This is an expensive product, and these issues are totally unacceptable; especially after using it so successfully last year. How did we go backwards?.PhotogMarilynVersion: 1.12.0

Notifications Don’t Make SoundsThis app is garbage for one simple reason: notifications do not make a sound on your iPhone. The badge/banner notification comes through, but for some reason Canvas has disabled the ability to have these make a sound. What this means is if you’re a teacher, you will have no way of knowing if a student messages you unless you constantly check your phone. It is so annoying and honestly I hate it because I pride myself on being available but it makes me look like I am ignoring messages. P.S. this isn’t user error. I have contacted support regarding this and this was the reply “Unfortunately it's not possible with iOS. The setting is there, but the app doesn't support audio/vibrate prompts with notifications, just your typical banner, notification center, lock screen notifications.” So literally every other app can figure this out except Canvas Teacher? Give me a break..Kent1255555Version: 1.11.6

Frustrated, sad, and inconveniencedThis app is generally very frustrating. It’s completely different than how Canvas functions on my computer such as, the speedgrader function is frustrating when leaving a comment (it doesn’t let you scroll up in the comment nicely and I like to leave detailed comments so that’s annoying), it doesn’t have any options to change assignments or editing modules, like adjusting prerequisites or publishing things. But perhaps the most annoying part of this app is when I get one notification and I get five notifications for that same notification. So, if I get a notification that X student submitted X assignment, I get that same notification five different times on my iPhone. I’ve tried editing settings in my iPhone, editing settings in the app itself, and I can’t seem to figure out how to stop this problem. It’s just generally more a hassle to have it than it’s worth..KiKi.Lynn.Version: 1.11.10

Another not good updateI know everyone wants different things, but congratulations on making an update where things are worse than before. First, when I’m viewing student submissions, I have to click on “comments” to then be able to click on “grade” to make the grade options appear. Yep, always wanted an extra step from this app. Second, the app tells me I have more submissions to grade and these are not new submissions, this is after the due date, so I click to continue grading. And guess what, I get the picture of the astronaut suit in space, which I can only assume is empty of a living being. And the message says there are no more submissions that can be displayed. This is not helpful and didn’t happen before. Congratulations on making something that was helpful and functional into something that is probably going to get deleted..Stop ittttttttttttVersion: 2.0.0

Cannot grade PDFsYou might as well just use a laptop to grade because this app works inconsistently. If students have assignments that require them to upload a file, it causes issues. Sometimes it will work, and sometimes you will unintentionally give a student a lower grade than they deserve because it appears as though they didn’t complete their work. This is unfair to students and only creates MORE work for the teachers because we have to go back to check assignments we thought were previously graded. For example, sometimes there are assignments in which students are to fill in answers on a PDF and then upload that PDF as their assignment. When using the app to grade these assignments, students’ PDFs look blank - not so on a laptop. Last semester, I reached out to our campus administrators. You can view their response below. Basically, the issue is known and has not been resolved 6 months later: “Canvas engineers responded back to let us know that the feature you want to use is not available in the Canvas app. Here is their response: Form data files are not designed to show on the Canvas app. Grading will need to be done within a browser. This is due to the multi layer properties of files of this type.”.BssskkdnsVersion: 1.12.1

Completely UselessWithout the ability to access the full gradebook, this app is completely useless. If I’m on the go without computer access and a student has a question, I need to be able to quickly access their overall grade. Additionally, Canvas messages frequently don’t display properly in the app. If a student sends a long message, only several lines can be viewed in the app, with the rest of the message being cut off with no ability to scroll and view it. This was never an issue in previous app versions. Until the gradebook is added to the app, the ability to view the desktop Canvas site from a mobile device must be added. Currently, if you attempt to login to Canvas on the website via a mobile phone, it instantly redirects to the app, which again, is totally useless..JohnDavidWSUVersion: 1.32.0

UnusableThis latest update has made the app unusable! I can see only 4 of the class assignments (exams occurring in the far future). There is no way to easily go to past assignments (duh, these are the ones I need to grade!). Even when I discover the assignment from the To Do list, I can’t choose the student to grade; I’m forced to go in alphabetical order. Also, all annotation tools are missing. The only reason I was using this app was to grade my students’ papers. I often need to write, cause mathematical formulas can be difficult to understand using the simple text comments provided on the website (no math editor). Universities are paying big money to use this platform, unfortunately. While there are incremental improvements on the website, the iPad app is getting from bad to worse!.MthgrlVersion: 2.1.0

Please add rich text to email!Canvas - this is truly ridiculous that you don't have this function in email. It is 2024. This is not a beta testing issue - it's pure laziness. You even have rich text in this chat forum! You have it in the announcements. It makes no sense at all why it is taking so long to add this. You should know that communicating with Gen Z requires the ability to be able to bullet, bold, italicize, use colors, change size etc. At the very least, let us send the announcements in an email since that has the functionality. Even Blackboard had this way back in 2002 when I first started teaching. I am tired of waiting. Please give a better answer why you don't have this added yet. I would think this would be a simple add on that would take no time at all. It is 2024!!!!.PDKDCVersion: 1.30.0

Appallingly poor considering its intended useThe iPad app is almost worse than useless. Masquerading as a time-saving tool under the auspices of a speed grader, this glitch, slow, and unresponsive app actually WORSENS the quality of feedback I share with my students. The whole point of such a tool is to leverage the iPad’s mobility and pencil features, but it takes forever to load assignments even with lighting fast internet, and the handwriting engine drastically reduces the quality of text markup. While my handwriting isn’t the best, I do a lot of work to ensure my comments are legible. But each time I click “done” on an assignment, I can see all of my on-screen notes get just subtly reformatted - re-rendered, I suppose - to look like that of a two year old being electrocuted. Speed grader? Hardly..Woodcock JohnsonVersion: 1.13.2

Annotations rotate 90degrees randomlyMajor issue, that only happens occasionally, though enough that I want to quit grading more than usual. I teach chemistry so rely on students uploading pictures of their work an calculations. I then use my iPad/Apple Pencil to grade and correct the work. When I move to a different page or a different student’s work and go back, my annotations are rotated 90 degrees. To be able to see what comments go with what question, I need to go back and forth four times to get the comments lined up with the work so I can add up the grades. Then when the students go back to look at how I graded, the markings are all askew. I don’t have time or the inclination to print out my student’s annotated work when it is all aligned, so we can go through their work..Kahlan89Version: 1.12.1

The worstLimited functions. Why can’t I post grades from the app? Instead, I have to find my way to a desktop just to click a button. Also, compatibility with Apple Pencil is awful. Annotations lag and sometime just refuses to work. Must force quit app after grading each submission because tool palette simply disappears after entering a grade and Apple Pencil doesn’t work anymore. I’m so glad I only have to grade quick ‘checkmark’ assignments using this app otherwise I bet trying to grade lengthy submissions with detailed annotations will make me want to throw my iPad against a wall. This is the absolute worst app and a travesty that’s been foisted upon hundreds of schools that will of course find it challenging to switch away in spite of the plethora of problems this system has. Shame on Instructure..JustmelaraVersion: 1.15.3

Nearly unusable for gradingI loved this app as a busy graduate student. It really helped streamline my grading. However, with the most recent update it is now nearly unusable. When using speed grader in landscape orientation the left 3 or so inches are completely unresponsive to touch. This includes the annotation button, which I use a lot. When using the rubric to grade each question on an assignment, I no longer know whether the grade for each question will be remembered or whether it will be gone the next time I load the app. This makes it hard to trust the automatically assigned total grade for the assignment, which wastes my time with double grading and double checking. Also, once I’ve used the rubric or assigned a grade for one student’s assignment, I can no longer swipe to view the next student’s assignment. I have to exit the grading screen, scroll through the student roster to find where I left off grading, then select the next student and wait for the grader to reload. So much wasted time! Finally, and maybe this is an Apple problem, I could find nowhere to report issues. Absolutely no feedback option in the app or in the App Store. Besides leaving this review..LverniermVersion: 1.12.0

SyncWay to hard to Sync grades to Skyward. The main thing is getting the grades over to Skyward. Software engineers should make this more seamless and easier to use. Also when school starts at the beginning of the year, it doesn’t need to populate all semesters of classes at once. I had 14 different classes show up at once and didn’t recognize the names. Think..... teachers aren’t coder’s and make this less complex and simpler looking interfaces. I would just make the whole Canvas software way easier to use, and do some real field tests with it in action and see some of the problems that come up. Some teachers have classes of 40+ and other classes are only 5 students. So class sizes should be limited, other wise you can’t tell if everyone is learning..DevotiondudeVersion: 1.12.2

Slow and buggyIt’s actually faster to download completed assignments on my computer, mark them on the notetaking software on my iPad, export them back to my computer, and individually re-upload them..CephalinVersion: 2.2.0

OkHas its advantages but harder to use than the browser version. Documentation tedious to find. Does not render MathJax properly..MyqwlysVersion: 1.14.0

Course Images Don’t DisplayCourse images do not automatically display on mobile app. How absurd is that! If there is an image in the course is should automatically display in the app, period! The app is unreliable. You think you know what your students are seeing but you don’t..GlenkinVersion: 1.13.4

New Update is NOT User FriendlyThe most recent update has made the app terrible to use. There are a number of issues that have made this app no longer user friendly. Most of the time it does not filter only the assignments that still need to be marked when you click on needs grading. It will randomly switch to a different student’s submission when trying to add an annotation. Sometime only some of the submissions will show up. It no longer changes the number of assignments that need marking unless you reload the page. I wish I could go back to the previous version..DritchotVersion: 1.12.1

Latest update is absolute garbageCan’t swipe between homework once it’s annotated. Unbelievable..MatrixzyVersion: 1.12.0

Crashes every few minutesA piece of junk. Crashes while grading every few minutes. Then have to swipe through dozens of students to come back to where it crashed. Too bad my institution uses this buggy junk..Max_zornVersion: 1.11.10

PDFs speed graderPDFs don’t load in speedgrader, they just show “open in”, making this pointless.Fgjjdddunvdry?Version: 1.9.2

Issues with gradebook and speedgraderOk app but lacks functionality. On an ipad, the ipencil pushes the page around rather than writes on it, making speedgrading not only pointless, but actually nauseating..CommonSenseTOVersion: 1.7.3

ModulesBig issue for me is that I cannot access modules on the app..SuzdoesntlikeofoanymoreVersion: 1.7.3

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