What feature options are currently available for Canvas courses?
Canvas is continually creating new features to improve your experience. The majority of improvements will be made available as part of our regular release cycle. However, some features may change the workflow for common activities in Canvas during your current term and will be placed in your Course Settings as a Feature Option. After a specified period of time, some Feature Options may become standard features in Canvas. Learn more about Feature Options and how to enable them in the manage new features lesson.
Feature Option Availability
Feature Options are enabled by your institutional admin. The Feature Options shown in this lesson are currently available for your institution as noted in their respective environments (beta or production). If you do not see them available in your Course Settings Feature Options, please contact your admin.
Feature Types
Feature options are grouped into one of three types, when available. Unless otherwise noted, all features default to Off and Unlocked.
- Pending Feature Options will eventually be enabled for all Canvas users. Use your beta environment to learn about these new Feature Options for your course. You'll have advanced notice in Upcoming Canvas Changes regarding their enforcement dates.
- Feature Previews are feature options in active development. Users who opt in to the feature and join the Community user group can help improve the feature through direct feedback. Learn more about feature previews.
- Optional Features are feature options that will never be enforced, and they will eventually be moved to an Account or Course Setting.
Notes:
- Feature option settings are never copied from production and always retain their default settings. Feature options must be managed individually in the test and beta environments.
- Some feature options may not be available in Free-for-Teacher accounts. Please view the Canvas Account Comparisons PDF.
- Please note that course feature options can be enforced for an entire account instead of being allowed on a course-by-course basis.
Pending Feature Options
Pending Feature Options will eventually be enabled for all Canvas users. Use your beta environment to learn about these new Feature Options for your course. You'll have advanced notice in Upcoming Canvas Changes regarding their enforcement dates.
New Quizzes
New Quizzes allows you to use New Quizzes to create assessments in your course. Once it is enabled, New Quizzes can be accessed from the Assignments page. If disabled, New Quizzes can't be created in a course but can still be imported and used if the LTI is installed for the account the course is in.
Details
- Released in production 2018-07-01
- Feature Option Overview: New Quizzes
- View feature resources in the Quizzes Transition group
Feature Previews
Feature Previews are feature options in active development. Users who opt in to the feature and join the Community user group can help improve the feature through direct feedback.
Assignment Enhancements - Student
Assignment Enhancements - Student allows students to view an improved Assignment interface and submission workflow.
Details
- Released in beta 2019-12-23
- Released in production 2020-10-17
- View feature resources in the Assignment Enhancements Users group
Discussions/Announcements Redesign
Discussions/Announcements Redesign allows users to view improved Discussions and Announcements interfaces and workflows.
Details:
- Released in production 2021-06-19
- View feature resources in the Discussions/Announcements Redesign Users group
Enhanced Gradebook Filters
Enhanced Gradebook Filters allows enhanced filtering options in the Canvas gradebook.
Details:
- Released in production 2022-03-02
- View feature resources in the Gradebook Filters user group
New Course and User Analytics
New Course and User Analytics allows you to use and preview New Analytics in your course before it replaces the current Course and User Analytics features. New Course and User Analytics replaces course links and buttons with links to the New Analytics feature.
When this option is enabled, the New Analytics link in Course Navigation is enabled by default. Data may take 24 hours to appear in New Analytics after enabling this feature.
Details
- Released in production 2019-10-19
- View feature resources in the New Analytics Users group
Optional Features
Optional Features are feature options that will never be enforced, and they will eventually be moved to an Account or Course Setting.
Allow Outcome Extra Credit
Allow Outcome Extra Credit allows you to award more than the maximum possible score on an outcome in a rubric.
Note: Excess points for a rubric criterion can be awarded at any time and are not managed by this feature option.
Details
- Released in beta 2018-04-09
- Released in production 2018-04-21
- Instructors: How do I use a rubric to grade submissions in SpeedGrader?
Anonymous Grading
Anonymous Grading requires all course assignments to be graded anonymously in SpeedGrader. Students can view whether or not an assignment was graded anonymously in both the student Grades page and the sidebar of the assignment submission page.
If this feature option is off, you can still set anonymous grading for individual assignments in the SpeedGrader Settings menu.
Details
- Released in beta 2015-11-30
- Released in production 2015-12-19
- Instructors: How do I add an assignment that includes anonymous grading?
Optional Features are feature options that will never be enforced, and they will eventually be moved to an Account or Course Setting.
Anonymous Instructor Annotations
Anonymous Instructor Annotations allows instructors to create assignments with anonymous instructor annotations in DocViewer-supported submissions. When students view instructor comments in DocViewer, comments do not display an instructor's name.
Details
- Released in beta 2018-09-25
- Released in production 2018-10-06
- Instructors: How do I enable anonymous instructor annotations in student submissions?
Canvas Elementary Theming
Canvas Elementary Theming allows Canvas courses, that do not already have a customized Course Navigation menu, to view a simplified Course Navigation menu. Visible links default to Home, Announcements, Modules, and Grades (subject to content being available in Announcements and Modules).
The Canvas Elementary Theming option also displays the Global Navigation, Course Navigation, Breadcrumbs bar, and text in the Rich Content Editor in the Balsamiq Sans font and adds Architect's Daughter as a font option in the Rich Content Editor. If this feature option is disabled, the font will change back to the Canvas font default, Lato.
Details:
- Released in beta 2020-05-11
- Release in production 2020-05-16
- For more granular elementary theming, your institution may enable Canvas for Elementary, which affects an entire course in an entire subaccount
Emojis in Submission Comments
Emojis in Submission Comments adds an emoji picker that allows students and teachers to add emojis to their submission comments.
Details
- Released in beta 2022-03-21
- Released in production 2022-04-16
ePub Exporting
ePub Exporting allows all users to download a course as an ePub file. This feature allows users to view course content offline, such as files and pages. However, users cannot interact with the course in ePub material; course materials are displayed in a read-only state and any tasks such as submitting an assignment must be completed online.
By default, an ePub file is arranged by module, meaning only items that students have access to view in each module are included in the ePub file. However, instructors can choose to organize the ePub file by content type (e.g. assignment, quizzes, etc.) in Course Settings.
Note: Canvas offers an additional download option that allows users to export modules content offline as an HTML file. If this feature is enabled for an account, the offline content feature will override the ePub Exporting feature option. The offline content feature can be enabled by a Customer Success Manager.
Details
- Released in beta 2015-11-30
- Released in production 2015-12-19
- Instructors: How do I view course content offline as an ePub file as an instructor?
- Students: How do I view course content offline as an ePub file as a student?
External Collaborations Tool
This feature should only be used with the Google Apps LTI or the Microsoft LTI.
External Collaborations Tool allows users to view an updated interface for Collaborations when an institution has added the Google Apps LTI or the Microsoft LTI.
Enabling the External Collaborations Tool removes the links to all existing collaborations and no longer allows users to create collaborations with the existing Canvas Google Docs collaboration option.
If this feature option is available in Course Settings, do not enable the feature option in the course until existing collaborations listed in the Collaborations page are no longer needed.
Details
- Released in private beta 2016-08-01
- Released in production 2016-12-10
- Instructors: How do I use the Collaborations Index Page?
- Students: How do I view Collaborations as a student?
- Observers: How do I view Collaborations as an observer?
Final Grade Override
The Final Grade Override allows you to manually enter a final grade for a student that is different from the grade automatically calculated by Canvas.
Once this feature option is enabled within the course, the feature option cannot be disabled in the course.
Details
- Released in beta 2019-02-04
- Released in production 2019-02-16
- Instructors: How do I override a student's final grade in the Gradebook?
Learning Mastery Gradebook
The Learning Mastery (Outcome ) Gradebook helps you assess the outcomes that are being used in Canvas courses. Located as part of the regular Gradebook, the Learning Mastery Gradebook provides an overview of student learning based on standards rather than grades. You can also use the gradebook for feedback about curriculum and teaching methods.
Students are not affected by the Learning Mastery Gradebook unless the Student Learning Mastery Gradebook preview is also enabled.
Details
- Released in beta 2014-02-18
- Released in production 2014-03-01
- Instructors: How do I use the Learning Mastery Gradebook to view outcome results in a course?
Moderated Grading
Moderated Grading allows anyone with assignment creation permissions to specify an assignment submission to be reviewed by one or multiple graders, review the assignment grades, and select which grade should be set as the final grade for each student.
For each moderated submission, the moderator does not have to personally grade the assignment, but only they can specify the final grade for each assignment. Once the assignment is created, only the moderator and admins will be able to change the assigned final grader.
Anonymous Moderated Grading
When the Anonymous Grading and Moderated Grading feature previews are both enabled, content creators can create assignments that hide student names from graders and set moderating options. All options for both anonymous grading and moderated grading are displayed for the assignment on the assignment details page.
Details
- Released in beta 2018-07-02
- Released in production 2018-07-14
- Instructors: How do I add a moderated assignment to be graded by multiple reviewers?, How do I review moderated assignments in SpeedGrader as a moderator?
Quiz Log Auditing
Quiz Log Auditing allows you to investigate problems that a student may have when taking a quiz. Quizzes will automatically create data for any quiz taken in the course, but Quiz Log Auditing allows the logs to be viewed as part of a student's quiz results.
Details
- Released in beta 2014-12-29
- Released in production 2015-01-31
- Instructors: How do I view a quiz log for a student?
Student Learning Mastery Gradebook
This feature can only be used when the Learning Mastery Gradebook feature option is also enabled.
The Student Learning Mastery Gradebook shows students how they are being scored against outcomes being used in Canvas courses. When enabled, this feature displays as a separate grades tab on the Student Grades page.
Details
- Released in beta 2014-06-18
- Released in production 2014-07-12
- Students: How do I view my Learning Mastery scores in the Grades page?
- Observers: How do I view my student's Learning Mastery scores in the Grades page as an observer?
