eleanortf Canvas Features, Canvas Updates

New Course Request Form LIVE

We are pleased to announce that the new Course Request Form mentioned in our blog post from Feb. 18 is now live! It can be accessed at the same URL: https://courserequest.library.upenn.edu/.

The new form includes improved syncing with University data sources, a streamlined user experience, and new features like a preview for custom course titles and PennKey validation for additional enrollments. Updated instructions are available for how to request a course using the new form.

Please report any issues to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu 

eleanortf Bugs & Maintenance, Canvas Features

New Course Request Form & Form Downtime – 2/25

We’re excited to announce that a new Course Request Form will launch on February 25!

As part of the launch, the Library Course Request Form will be unavailable on Wednesday, February 25 from 9am-9:30am Eastern while we make the transition. Once this downtime is complete, the current URL will direct users to the New Form, so any existing links or bookmarks will continue to work. Instructions on how to use the new Course Request Form will be published on Canvas Info@Penn after the transition is complete.

While we do have contingencies for any site requests made after business hours on February 24, we would advise users to place any site requests before 5pm on February 24 or to wait until after the New Course Form is live on February 25.

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

eleanortf Bugs & Maintenance, Canvas Features

New Quizzes Maintenance – 2/1

On Sunday, February 1,from 6:02am to 9:02am Eastern New Quizzes may be unavailable in Penn Canvas and Open Canvas due to scheduled maintenance by the vendor.

This maintenance will only impact assessments created in New Quizzes.

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

Canvas and all other integrated tools (including Classic Quizzes) will be available and unaffected by this maintenance.

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

eleanortf Canvas Features, Canvas Updates, Start/End of Term

What’s New in Canvas Spring 2026?

Assignments & Grading

  • Scheduled Feedback In the Gradebook, instructors can manage the visibility of grades and feedback for individual assignments. For details, see the release notes.

Want to learn more about Assignments and Grading in Canvas? See our upcoming Canvas Workshops in January and February.

New Quizzes Updates

  • Survey Support New Quizzes supports Survey-type quizzes, allowing instructors to collect anonymous or non-anonymous feedback, with graded or ungraded options. Instructors can view survey data in the Reports tab. For details, please see the release notes.

    Please note – CSV export of results/reporting is not available for New Quizzes surveys yet. This feature is estimated to release in early 2026. If you will need a downloadable Excel file of student responses, we recommend creating a Classic Quizzes survey for now.

    New Quizzes is currently an opt-in feature. Contact canvas@pobox.upenn.eduif you’re interested in enabling it.

Other Canvas Changes

Third Party Tools

  • Panopto (Class Recordings) has a new and improved course copy process that makes it easier to transfer recordings between semesters. Recordings can still be copied using the old process if you prefer.
  • Perusall has gotten an upgrade. Instructors can find information about the new version of Perusall, and how to copy over previous semester Perusall content in the transition guide.
    • In addition to the new version of Perusall, this tool has a new look and improved features.
      • These include: clarity in multi-part assignments for students, new language options, more efficient scoring templates and rubric application, flexible grouping, and a new “gated assignments” feature. For details, please see the “What’s New in Perusall” blog post.

Questions?

For additional help and support, please email canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.

eleanortf Canvas Features, Canvas Updates, Start/End of Term

What’s New in Canvas? Fall 2025

The following information will introduce you to notable changes in Canvas for Fall 2025. If you haven’t used Canvas in the past year, we recommend reviewing What’s New in Canvas Spring 2025.

Assignments & Grading

Want to learn more about Assignments and Grading in Canvas? See our upcoming Canvas Workshops in September.

New Canvas Features & Updates

New Features

  • Redesigned Files Page The Files page is redesigned. A temporary button allows users to switch between the new and original interface. For a complete list of how the look and feel of the Files page has changed, please see the release notes.
  • Dyslexia Friendly Font When the Use Dyslexia Friendly Font feature option is enabled in User Settings, the Canvas interface and the Rich Content Editor display text using the OpenDyslexic font by default. If the feature is disabled, both OpenDyslexic and OpenDyslexic Mono are available as font options within the Rich Content Editor. For details, see the release notes.
  • Discussions Default View Settings When creating or editing a discussion, instructors can configure the default view settings, including thread collapse/expansion and sorting options for students, with the ability to lock these preferences if needed.

Feature Updates

  • Media Player with Improved Accessibility and Usability The media player playback experience has been improved with enhanced accessibility, adaptive streaming, and privacy features. For details, please see the release notes.

    Please note – these are changes to the built-in media player in Canvas and do not effect Panopto/Class Recordings.

New Quizzes Updates

  • Text Block In New Quizzes, instructors are able to provide students additional context with standalone text or prompts that are not tied to questions on a New Quiz. For more details, please see the release notes.
  • Question Bank Migration on Course Copy Instructors can migrate Classic Quiz question banks to New Quiz item banks by using the Convert content to New Quizzes checkbox, previously labeled Import existing quizzes on the Course Copy and Import Course Content pages.

    New Quizzes is currently an opt-in feature. Contact canvas@pobox.upenn.edu if you’re interested in enabling it.

Third Party Tools

Pilots

  • Wooclap A tool for student engagement through in-class polling and checks for understanding. Wooclap has similar functionality to Poll Everywhere. Poll Everywhere remains available for those not participating in the pilot.

    If you’re interested in joining the pilot, contact your LSP.

Updates

Questions?

For additional help and support, please email canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.

eleanortf Canvas Features, Canvas Updates

Discussion Checkpoints Feature Disabled

We have disabled the recently released Discussion Checkpoints feature option in both Penn Canvas and Open Canvas. We made this choice after the vendor was alerted by by faculty and support staff to serious concerns regarding the new Discussions SpeedGrader experience and pulled the feature for institutions that had not already enabled it. Based on the data we were able to access through the Canvas API, we do not believe this feature was in active use by any Spring 2025 courses.

Issues with the new Discussions SpeedGrader experience that weren’t clear in testing before release include:

  • Accessibility of the tool for those with disabilities
  • Loss of discussion context
  • Slow loading time for large discussions

Because the new SpeedGrader experience affects all graded Discussions if Discussion Checkpoints is enabled, we had to disable the feature. We will re-evaluate in the future if improvements are made. In the meantime, the previous Discussions SpeedGrader experience is still available to faculty, along with the third-party tool Ed Discussion.

Please contact canvas@pobox.upenn.edu with any questions.