jenabanes Bugs & Maintenance

RESOLVED: Speedgrader incorrectly marking grades as “Hidden”

UPDATE: This bug has been resolved by the vendor. Please report any continuing issues to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.

On October 14, 2026, we were made aware of an issue with Speedgrader. When an instructor enters a full or partial grade for an Assignment in Speedgrader, they receive an erroneous “Hidden“ message, regardless of their Grade Posting Policy. However, grades will still appear for students in the Gradebook when grades are posted.

We have replicated this issue and opened a ticket with the vendor; we’ll share another blog post when the issue is resolved.

Workaround: For now, instructors can simply refresh Speedgrader to remove the Hidden message.

If you have any questions, please contact canvas@pobox.upenn.edu

Kate Rojas Bugs & Maintenance, Canvas Updates, Third Party Tools (LTIs)

iThenticate 2.0 Migration Coming October 21

Penn will be upgrading to the new version of iThenticate, iThenticate 2.0, on Wednesday, October 21, 2026.

On this date, access to our current version of iThenticate will end. IThenticate users should plan for:

  • 24 hours of downtime while our institution’s accounts, users and user groups, submissions, similarity reports, and folders are being transferred to the new version.
  • A new URL: http://upenn-ithenticate.turnitin.com
  • A welcome email with instructions to reactivate their account in iThenticate 2.0

After October 21, our current version of iThenticate will be disabled and all users will access
past similarity reports and make future submissions via iThenticate 2.0.

If you have any questions or require assistance, please email canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.

Kate Rojas Bugs & Maintenance

RESOLVED: Roll Call Attendance (7/14/26)

UPDATE: Roll Call is accessible again. Please report any continuing issues to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.

Canvas users may be receiving a message that the “Instructure Attendance Tool is currently down for maintenance” when trying to access the Roll Call Attendance tool.

Instructure has identified the issue, and a fix is being implemented. We will provide an update once the issue is resolved.

Canvas and all other integrated tools are unaffected by this bug.

Please direct any questions or concerns to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.

Kate Rojas Bugs & Maintenance

Turnitin, Gradescope, and iThenticate Maintenance – 7/18

All Turnitin products will be having scheduled maintenance on Saturday, July 18, from 11am-5pm Eastern. During this time, Turnitin, Gradescope, and iThenticate may experience intermittent availability.

  • To avoid issues, instructors are encouraged to set due dates for Turnitin and Gradescope assignments outside of the scheduled maintenance window.
  • Students are encouraged to submit Turnitin and Gradescope assignments in advance of affected due dates.

Canvas and all other integrated tools will be available and unaffected by this maintenance.

Please direct any questions or concerns to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.

eleanortf Bugs & Maintenance, Third Party Tools (LTIs)

RESOLVED – Bug: Delays to Restoring Archived Panopto (Class Recordings) Videos (7/7/26)

We have been made aware of significant delays to restoring archived Panopto (Class Recordings) videos. This process is typically meant to take no longer than 72 hours, but is currently experiencing significant delays.

Panopto has confirmed that this is a widespread issue impacting more than just the Penn community. They have also confirmed that the processes will eventually finish, though they did not say when. Panopto engineers are working on the issue, but did not give an estimate of when it would be resolved. We will provide a update when the vendor has solved the issue.

Canvas and all other third-party tools (LTIs) are unaffected. To read more, please visit this Panopto Community page.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.

eleanortf Bugs & Maintenance, Canvas Updates

Update on Canvas Disruption

The Courseware Team is resharing the message below from Russ Composto, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Kelly Jordan-Sciutto, Vice Provost for Graduate Education:

“As of this morning, access to Canvas was restored for the Penn community. We ask that all instructors consider the following:

  • For any courses with final exams or assignments due between Thursday, May 7 at 4:00pm through end of day Friday, May 8, we ask instructors to be flexible as needed. In addition to the flexibility that is always available to instructors, please consider these options due to the Canvas disruption:
    • Approving students to take make-up exams during the University’s postponed exam period
      • Postponed exam dates for graduating seniors only are Wednesday, May 13th through Thursday, May 14th, 2026
      • Postponed examinations for all other students will be Tuesday, August 25th, 2026 through Monday, August 31st, 2026
    • Extending deadlines for take-home exams and assignments
    • Offering alternate forms of assessment
  • If you use Canvas for grading, download a copy of the grades now so you have access to it in the event of any further disruptions. Grades should be stored in a secure location such as PennBox.
  • Have backup copies of any materials in Canvas so that they can be shared with students outside of Canvas if needed through a cloud sharing tool like PennBox.
  • The grading deadline currently remains 12pm EST on Friday, May 15, to ensure that grades are submitted in time for commencement.

Instructors are encouraged to be proactive in communicating with their students about any impacts of the Canvas disruption on their courses and contact their schools with any questions.”

Kate Rojas Bugs & Maintenance, Canvas Updates

RESOLVED Outage – Canvas Down (5/7/26)

UPDATE: As of 8am Penn Canvas is accessible again. Please report any continuing issues to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu

UPDATE: As of 7:14 am Penn Canvas is still inaccessible this morning due to problems with authentication. We are working with ISC and Instructure to resolve this as soon as soon as possible. 

UPDATE – This issue is still ongoing as of 12am on Friday May 8. We will provide an update once service is restored.

Canvas is currently down across many institutions. This issue is not limited to Penn.

Our team has notified the Canvas vendor, Instructure, and they are working to restore functionality.

Please visit CETLI’s Resources for Teaching During a Canvas Disruption for solutions to continue teaching during this time.

We will let you know once service is restored, and we apologize for the inconvenience. To check for updates, visit https://status.instructure.com/.

eleanortf Bugs & Maintenance, Canvas Features

RESOLVED -Turnitin Similarity Reports Not Generating (5/4/26)

UPDATE 5/4/26 at 7pm: This issue has been resolved. Please note that Canvas will resubmit the affected submissions; it is worth noting that this may take a while to complete. Please direct any continuing issues to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu

Users may encounter errors accessing or generating reports in Turnitin for newly submitted assignments

Reports for previously submitted assignments do not appear to be affected and are still accessible.

For updates please see the vendor’s status page.

Canvas and all other integrated tools are available and working normally.

Please direct any questions to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.