How do I create Differentiated Tags as an instructor?

This guide applies to institutions who have opted-in to the Differentiation Tags feature preview. If your user interface displays differently, the feature has not been enabled at your institution. To learn more about the feature preview, ask questions, or comment on functionality, navigate to the Differentiation Tags user group.

A Canvas administrator will need to enable Differentiation Tags setting at the account level or sub-account level. This setting can also be locked for sub-accounts.

You can use differentiation tags to assign specific content to customized sets of students. These sets are not visible to students. Additionally, admins can access differentiation tags through Canvas Data for reporting and analysis.

Notes:

  • If the Differentiation Tags feature option is enabled and locked at the root account, the sub-account setting will display. However, if the feature option is enabled and unlocked at the root account but disabled in the sub-account, the sub-account setting will not be displayed.
  • Both the Differentiation Tags Feature Option and Account setting must be enabled.
  • CSV upload is not currently supported.
  • Differentiation tags are not retained during course exports or imports.
  • Each course is limited to 40 tags total and 10 variants per tag set.
  • There is no limit to the total number of tags a student can have; however, a student can only be assigned one tag per tag set.

Open People

Open People

In Global Navigation, click the People link.

View People Page

View People Page

In the People page of a course, click the Manage Tags button.

Note: Due to permission caching, changes may take up to an hour to appear unless a users cache is manually cleared in Canvas.

View Manage Tags

Enable Setting

In the Manage Tags tray, click the Get Started button.

Create Tag

Create Tag

Enter a Tag Name [1] and a Tag Set [2]. Then, click the Save button [3].

Assign Tag As

Assign Tag As

To add tags to students, click the checkbox of the desired student(s) [1]. Then, click the Tag As button [2]. You can either select an existing tag [3] or create a new tag [4].

Note: Creating a new tag using the Tag As button does not automatically apply the tag to previously selected users. Additionally, you can bulk select users via Shift+Click.

View Differentiated Tag

View Differentiated Tag

Once a tag is assigned to a student, a tag icon displays. To view the assigned tags, click the icon.

View Student Tag

View Student Tag

All tags assigned to a student display in a modal.

Note: Students can have multiple tags. However, if the tags are part of the same tag set, a student can only be assigned one tag from that set.