January 2025 Canvas Changes and Updates

Posted in News

Canvas regularly releases updates to their system, and on this page you will find a number of important updates that have happened over the past several months.

Smart Search is a new feature in Canvas that is currently in development. Smart Search leverages semantic algorithms and AI to understand the context of queries, providing more accurate and relevant results without the need for traditional boolean operators or other search tools. When Smart Search is enabled in a course students and faculty can quickly find relevant information by typing in questions or keywords related to what they’re looking for.

To enable Smart Search, faculty or staff members who have permissions to change course settings must first go to their course settings page and then the feature options tab (Course Settings > Feature Options > enable the Smart Search feature option). Once Smart Search is enabled in feature options it can then be added to the course menu. Currently, Smart Search will need to be enabled on a course-by-course basis.

Note: Smart Search is currently only querying the following items within a course: content pages, announcements, discussion prompts and assignment descriptions. The intention is to expand this scope as the Smart Search tool continues development.

Namecoach

Namecoach is now available in Canvas to help both students and faculty learn and properly pronounce names. Faculty and students can record their names in Canvas using Namecoach.

Gradescope

Use Gradescope to grade and manage paper-based handwritten assignments and exams in Canvas. After initial setup and syncing with Canvas, assignments and exams can be scanned and uploaded to Gradescope by the instructor or by individual students. Once uploaded, Gradescope uses handwriting recognition to identify the students’ names and responses, organizing them for grading. The final scores can then be synced to the Canvas gradebook and students can view the feedback.

Lucid Whiteboard

Lucid for Education is now available for all courses in Canvas. Lucid offers a suite of visual applications consisting of LucidChart and LucidSpark, which are apps for org charts, flow charts, and other charts. Lucid combines the creative power of diagramming and design to help students understand their own thinking, foster creativity, and encourage collaboration.

VoiceThread Update

In January Georgetown updated the VoiceThread integration in Canvas to the latest version (VoiceThread LTI 1.3). This update does not impact any existing VoiceThreads created or copied into your Spring 2025 courses.

However, we recommend those who use the VoiceThread integration in Canvas to create “new” VoiceThread activities in their future Canvas courses. By creating new VoiceThread activities it will ensure you are using the latest version of VoiceThread, and will allow you to take advantage of the “deep linking” feature making VoiceThread easier to use. This means that your VoiceThread activities and its specific settings will copy automatically when the course is copied in Canvas, saving you time from having to re-create each VoiceThread activity one-by-one.

New Analytics: Online Attendance Settings

Instructors, TAs, and other course roles with Gradebook access in a Canvas course can now customize online attendance criteria for their course. Data is refreshed for published courses in the New Analytics dashboard every 4 hours.

New “Assign To” Workflow

For faculty returning this spring semester the “Assign to” settings in Canvas might look different. Assign to settings are used to assign learning activities in a Canvas course to all students, specific students or sections, and control things like availability and due dates.

Don’t see what you are looking for or have questions?

Check out the Get Help and Training & Support pages for more resources.

Learn about past Canvas changes and updates at Georgetown.