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 Canvas Updates

Canvas Production Release Notes: February 21, 2026

Canvas operates on a monthly release cycle through which features are added or updated. Courseware Support posts highlights from Canvas’s production release notes, a link to these notes, and other relevant content to Canvas Info @ Penn a few days before the production release, which usually occurs on Saturdays. Please contact Courseware Support at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu if you have any questions about an upcoming production release.

February 21, 2026 Production Release Highlights

Feature Options

  • Delayed Until 2/25 Course Accessibility Checker This feature provides a course-level interface that gives instructors and administrators an overview of accessibility issues and guided tools for quick remediation. It initially supports scanning Canvas Pages and Assignments, enabling faster, more effective fixes. For details, please see the release notes.

The course accessibility checker is currently an opt-in feature. Local Service Providers (LSPs) should contact canvas@pobox.upenn.edu to enable it. Instructors should contact their LSP to see if the feature is available for their courses.

New Quizzes Updates

  • Delayed Until 3/21 Survey Results Visibility In New Quizzes Survey Reports, instructors can click the response count to view a list of students who selected a specific answer. For anonymous surveys, student identities are masked as Student 1, Student 2, and so on to ensure privacy.
  • Delayed Until 3/21 Export Survey Responses Instructors can export survey responses to a CSV file. For details, please see the release notes.

For a complete production release update, please see:

Canvas Production Release Notes: February 21, 2026.

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 Updates

Canvas Production Release Notes: December 13, 2025

Canvas operates on a monthly release cycle through which features are added or updated. Courseware Support posts highlights from Canvas’s production release notes, a link to these notes, and other relevant content to Canvas Info @ Penn a few days before the production release, which usually occurs on Saturdays. Please contact Courseware Support at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu if you have any questions about an upcoming production release.

December 13, 2025 Production Release Highlights

New Features

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

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.

Other Changes

For a complete production release update, please see:

Canvas Production Release Notes: December 13, 2025.

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

Outage – Canvas, Gradescope, Turnitin, PollEverywhere Down (10/20/25)

UPDATE 11:37 AM ET

Gradescope, iThenticate, Turnitin, and PollEverywhere are now working. Canvas is still experiencing an outage.

While Canvas is inaccessible, you can access these tools directly at Gradescope.com, iThenticate.com, Turnitin.com, and Polleverywhere.com.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

10:00 AM ET

Unfortunately, several of our tools (including Canvas) are currently impacted by an ongoing Amazon Web Services (AWS) outage this morning. 

You may be unable to login or encounter significant performance issues for Canvas, Gradescope, Poll Everywhere, and Turnitin until this is fixed by Amazon. You can follow the progress below for specific tools, and we will update you once we hear that service has been restored.

If you have any questions, 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 Updates

Canvas Production Release Notes: July 19, 2025

Canvas operates on a monthly release cycle through which features are added or updated. Courseware Support posts highlights from Canvas’s production release notes, a link to these notes, and other relevant content to Canvas Info @ Penn a few days before the production release, which usually occurs on Saturdays. Please contact Courseware Support at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu if you have any questions about an upcoming production release.

July 19, 2025 Production Release Highlights

New Features

  • Manage Threaded Replies in Legacy Type Discussions In Discussions, a banner displays with a Manage Discussions button allowing instructors to enable or disable threaded replies in bulk. Individual discussion settings can be adjusted using a drop-down menu. This update replaces the previous temporary Make all Discussions Threaded button.
  • 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.

Other Updates

  • Accessibility Updates Over the coming months, a series of updates will be introduced to enhance Canvas’s accessibility and intuitiveness, with a focus on improving usability for assistive technology users. For details, please see the release notes.

For a complete production release update, please see:

Canvas Production Release Notes: July 19, 2025.

eleanortf Canvas Updates

Canvas Production Release Notes: June 21, 2025

Canvas operates on a monthly release cycle through which features are added or updated. Courseware Support posts highlights from Canvas’s production release notes, a link to these notes, and other relevant content to Canvas Info @ Penn a few days before the production release, which usually occurs on Saturdays. Please contact Courseware Support at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu if you have any questions about an upcoming production release.

June 21, 2025 Production Release Highlights

New Features

  • Redesigned Files Page The Files page is redesigned. For a complete list of how the look and feel of the Files page has changed, please see the release notes.

Release of the redesigned Files tab in Canvas has been rescheduled to take place on July 19-20, rather than the weekend of June 21-22. 

Other Updates

  • Accessibility Updates Over the coming months, a series of updates will be introduced to enhance Canvas’s accessibility and intuitiveness, with a focus on improving usability for assistive technology users. For details, please see the release notes.

For a complete production release update, please see:

Canvas Production Release Notes: June 21, 2025.

eleanortf Canvas Updates

Canvas Production Release Notes: May 17, 2025

Canvas operates on a monthly release cycle through which features are added or updated. Courseware Support posts highlights from Canvas’s production release notes, a link to these notes, and other relevant content to Canvas Info @ Penn a few days before the production release, which usually occurs on Saturdays. Please contact Courseware Support at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu if you have any questions about an upcoming production release.

May 17, 2025 Production Release Highlights

New Quizzes Updates

  • New Quizzes 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.

New Features

  • Permalink for Discussion Entries In Discussions, each reply includes a copyable permalink allowing users to share a direct link to that specific reply. If the reply is part of a thread, the thread will expand to reveal it.

Other Updates

  • Accessibility Updates Over the coming months, a series of updates will be introduced to enhance Canvas’s accessibility and intuitiveness, with a focus on improving usability for assistive technology users. For details, please see the release notes.

For a complete production release update, please see:

Canvas Production Release Notes: May 17, 2025.