What feature previews 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 Preview. After a specified period of time, some Feature Previews may become standard features in Canvas. Learn more about Feature Previews and how to enable them in the manage new features lesson.
Feature Preview Availability
Feature Previews are enabled by your institutional admin. The following Feature Previews 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 Previews, please contact your admin.
Account-Level Features
Please note that course feature previews can be enforced for an entire account instead of being allowed on a course-by-course basis.
Notes:
- Feature preview settings are never copied from production and always retain their default settings. Feature previews must be managed individually in the test and beta environments.
- Some feature previews may not be available in Free-for-Teacher accounts. Please view the Canvas Account Comparisons PDF.
Accessibility Checker Notifications
The Accessibility Checker Notifications feature preview shows content creators when accessibility concerns are detected without needing to open the Accessibility Checker. When this feature is enabled for a course, any accessibility issues detected within the Rich Content Editor display an indicator.
Details
- Released in production August 21, 2021
- View the Accessibility Checker lesson
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 preview.
Details
- Released in beta April 9, 2018
- Released in production April 21, 2018
- View the Using a rubric to grade submissions lesson
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 preview is off, you can still set anonymous grading for individual assignments in the SpeedGrader Settings menu.
Details
- Released in beta November 30, 2015
- Released in production December 19, 2015
- View the Anonymous Grading lesson
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 September 25, 2018
- Released in production October 6, 2018
Assignment Enhancements - Student (Beta)
Assignment Enhancements - Student (Beta) allows students to view an improved Assignment interface and submission workflow.
Details
- Released in beta December 23, 2019
- Released in production October 17, 2020
- View the Assignment Enhancements Users group.
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 preview is disabled, the font will change back to the Canvas font default, Lato.
Details:
- Released in beta May 11, 2020
- Release in production May 16, 2020
Discussions/Announcements Redesign
Discussions/Announcements Redesign allows users to view improved Discussions and Announcements interfaces and workflows.
Details:
- Released in beta June 19, 2021
- Released in production June 19, 2021
- View the Discussions/Announcements Redesign Users group.
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 preview. The offline content feature can be enabled by a Customer Success Manager.
Details
- Released in beta November 30, 2015
- Released in production December 19, 2015
- View the ePub Exporting lesson
External Collaborations Tool
External Collaborations Tool allows users to view an updated interface for Collaborations. This feature preview only applies when the Google Apps LTI is enabled as an external app.
Enabling the External Collaborations Tool removes the links to all existing collaborations and no longer allows users to create collaborations with the existing Google Drive option. If you want to retain existing collaborations, do not enable the External Collaborations Tool feature preview.
Details
- Released in private beta August 1, 2016
- Released in production December 10, 2016
- View the Collaborations lesson
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 preview is enabled within the course, the feature preview cannot be disabled in the course.
Details
- Released in beta February 4, 2019
- Released in production February 16, 2019
- View the Final Grade Override lesson
Learning Mastery Gradebook
This feature will always be a feature preview in Canvas.
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 February 18, 2014
- Released in production March 1, 2014
- View the Learning Mastery Gradebook lesson
MasteryPaths
MasteryPaths allows you to customize learning experiences to students based on student performance. Along with course designers, you can identify activities for each student’s learning path and differentiate assignments for required learning, optional learning, or choosing their own content and assignments within a specific path.
Details
- Released in beta (US environments only): November 7, 2016
- Released in production (US environments only): November 19, 2016
- View the MasteryPaths lesson
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 July 2, 2018
- Released in production July 14, 2018
- View the Moderated Grading lesson
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 October 19, 2019
- View the New Analytics lessons
- View the New Analytics Users group.
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.
Details
- Released in production July 1, 2018
- View the New Quizzes lesson
- View the New Quizzes Users group.
Post Grades to SIS
Post Grades to SIS allows the Canvas Gradebook to share grade information with your institution's external Student Information System (SIS). You can use this feature to pass back grades from the Gradebook. Only assignments that are individually selected will be sent back to the SIS.
SIS integrations supported by this feature preview currently include: PowerSchool
Details
- Released in beta December 29, 2014
- Released in production January 10, 2015
- View the Publish Grades to PowerSchool lesson
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 December 29, 2014
- Released in production January 31, 2015
- View the Quiz Log lesson
Student Learning Mastery Gradebook
This feature will always be a feature preview in Canvas. This feature can only be used in conjunction with the Learning Mastery Gradebook feature preview.
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 June 18, 2014
- Released in production July 12, 2014
