Kate Rojas Canvas Features, Canvas Updates, Start/End of Term

What’s New in Canvas Fall 2026?

The following information will introduce you to notable changes in Canvas for Fall 2026. If you haven’t used Canvas in the past year, we recommend reviewing What’s New in Canvas Spring 2026.

Assignments & Grading

  • Enhanced rubrics – The new enhancements bring an updated user interface that allows for easier creation, streamlined management across courses, and new display options for Instructors. See our blog post for more information.
  • Performance and usability upgrades for SpeedGrader – The new enhancements include an updated drop down menu for sections, refreshed states for “No Submission” and “Empty Course,” alignment with the grade status selector, consistency with rubric display, and improved comment attachment workflow. See our blog post for more information.
  • 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 September.

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.
  • 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. For details, see the release notes.
  • Export survey responses – Instructors can export survey responses to a CSV file. For details, please see the release notes.

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

Other Canvas Changes

  • New Course Request Form – 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.
  • Removal of NameCoach on August 31, 2026 from Penn Canvas – To compensate for this, we’ve enabled the native Canvas name pronunciation tool for all users to be able to type out their name phonetically. For guidance on adding a pronunciation, please visit the profile guide.

Third Party Tools

  • Gradescope LTI 1.3 – Penn has completed our upgrade to Gradescope LTI 1.3. This integration improves assignment linking, provides easier access to Gradescope in Canvas, and has improved authentication and security protocols. The Gradescope for Instructors page now includes updated directions for using the new version of the tool in Canvas. We recommend starting from Canvas when creating assignments.

Questions?

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

Kate Rojas Canvas Features, Canvas Updates

Enhanced Rubrics are Coming on August 17!

Starting on August 17, 2026, you will notice a change to the layout and capabilities of the Rubrics area in Canvas as we upgrade to Enhanced Rubrics. Current rubrics for your courses will appear in this new layout with no additional action on your part. The classic version of Rubrics will no longer be available.

Enhanced Rubrics bring an updated user interface that allows for easier creation, streamlined management across courses, and new display options for Instructors. The view and experience will remain essentially unchanged for students.

Easier Rubric creation with new features:

  • Drag and Drop reordering of rubric criteria.
  • Customizable ordering of rating scales (low to high or high to low).
  • Duplicate criteria and entire rubrics.
  • Create rubrics via import of a CSV file if you prefer to create rubrics outside of Canvas. 

Streamlined Rubric Management:

  • See what rubrics are connected to which assignments via the Rubrics menu.
  • Ability to use rubrics in multiple courses.
  • Ability to search for rubrics.
  • Archive old rubrics that you would like to reference.

Grading with Rubrics:

  • Additional rubric display options in Speedgrader: Traditional, Vertical, and Horizontal.
  • Bulk download of rubric assessments.
  • Canvas Outcomes are now easy to access and align in rubrics.

Important Items to note:

  • The +Rubric button has changed to a Create New Rubric button.
  • To preview a rubric, select its name. A tray will appear displaying the rubric. 
  • To edit, duplicate, copy to, archive, or delete a rubric, select the 3 vertical dots (options) button.
  • Continue to Create rubrics via the Rubrics Course Navigation button or at the individual assignment or discussion level. If building at the assignment or discussion level, be sure to check the “Use this rubric for assignment grading” box so scores are calculated automatically.
  • Rubrics can only be added to graded assignments or discussions. Canvas will alert you if you attempt to edit a rubric that is currently in use or if you build a rubric that does not add up to the point value assigned to that assignment.

Please see Rubric Management to view a step-by-step video on the new features as well as how to create an enhanced rubric from scratch.

For assistance with enhanced rubrics, contact your Local Support Provider or submit a request to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.

Kate Rojas Canvas Updates

Canvas Production Release Notes: July 18, 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 the Canvas at 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 18, 2026 Production Release Highlights

Feature Options

Notebook- Student With this feature option enabled, students can highlight text on Pages directly within their course content. They can mark content as Unclear or Important, add notes, and manage their entries from a dedicated Notebook page in Course Navigation. Notes will only be accessible to the student as long as they have access to the course, and they cannot be exported. The feature is only available on Pages and will not work on embedded content such as PDFs or Word documents.

For more details, please see the release notes. This feature will be enforced for all users on August 15, 2026.

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

For a complete production release update, please see:

Canvas Production Release Notes: July 18, 2026

Kate Rojas Canvas Features, Canvas Updates

Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader are Here!

We have now enabled Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader, as mentioned in our blog post from June 16.

The new enhancements include an updated drop down menu for sections, refreshed states for “No Submission” and “Empty Course,” alignment with the grade status selector, consistency with rubric display, and improved comment attachment workflow.

Please review Using SpeedGrader for guidance that includes these changes.

Questions? Email canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.

Kate Rojas Canvas Features, Canvas Updates

Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader are Coming on July 2!

Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader will be enabled at Penn on July 2.

Most of the changes are minor, with minimal tweaks to grading workflow and the look and feel of the feature.

These enhancements include:

  • Updated drop down menu for sections
  • Refreshed states for “No Submission” and “Empty Course”
  • The grade status selector will match recent design patterns
  • Rubrics in SpeedGrader will always display in the enhanced traditional grid view for consistency
  • Improved comment attachment workflow (easier updates, clearer delete icon)

On July 2, our Using SpeedGrader guide will be updated. For more details, please read the vendor’s documentation. We will post again when the feature goes live.

If you have any questions, 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 Canvas Updates

Canvas Production Release Notes: April 18, 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.

April 18, 2026 Production Release Highlights

Feature Options

  • Enhanced Accessibility Reporting – Admin, Instructor (Course Accessibility Checker) An Account-level accessibility dashboard is available in the account navigation, and the course-level accessibility report includes additional features:
    • At the course level, the report includes Announcements, Syllabi, and Discussions.A close remediation feature allows users to mark a resource as complete, removing any remaining issues from the total counts and statistics.

    For more details, please see the release notes.

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

Other Notes

For a complete production release update, please see:

Canvas Production Release Notes: April 18, 2026