Summer 2026 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.
- Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader
- Enhanced Rubrics
- Differentiation Tags
- New Accessibility Checker
- New Learner Dashboard (students only)
- New quizzes out of iFrame (update planned for May 18)
Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader
This update enhances the performance of the SpeedGrader for a faster load times, enhanced stability and a smoother experience for instructor and TAs handling larger courses or complex assignments.
- Introducing Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader
- How do I use SpeedGrader with the New Performance and Usability Upgrades?
Enhanced Rubrics
Enhanced Rubrics allows educators to spend less time on the administrative tasks of rubric creation and management, and more time on teaching – thanks to an improved creation process with drag and drop functionality and better visibility into where rubrics are being used. Other key updates include rubric import and export capabilities and draft and archived rubrics.
- Enhanced Rubrics Feature Overview
- How do I add a rubric in a course using Enhanced Rubrics?
- How do I manage rubrics in a course using Enhanced Rubrics?
Differentiation Tags
Differentiation Tags are custom, invisible labels you can apply to individual students. They allow instructors to discretely group students without altering the course structure or official sections. Key capabilities include:
Targeted Assignments: You can selectively assign pages, quizzes, assignments, or entire modules to a specific tagged set of students.
Differentiated Pacing: Easily adjust due dates or availability windows exclusively for the students with a particular tag.
Student Privacy: The best part? Differentiation tags are completely invisible to students. They won’t know which tag they’ve been given, avoiding awkward labels or grouping stigmas.
Gradebook Management: Use tags as filters in the Canvas Gradebook to quickly grade specific subsets of students.
Targeted Communication: Send direct Inbox messages to specific sets of students without having to select them one by one.
- How do I create and manage Differentiation Tags as an instructor?
- How do I use Differentiation Tags in the Gradebook as an instructor?
New Accessibility Checker
Canvas has updated their accessibility tool that detects common accessibility errors within the course. The Accessibility Checker scans Pages and Assignments. The Accessibility checker tests against a curated selection of WCAG 2.1 Level A, AA, and AAA success criteria.
The accessibility checks do not cover all issues that may occur in complex or interactive content created outside the Rich Content Editor. This includes items such as color contrast errors in internal or external CSS, embedded third-party tools (like LTI tools or external apps), custom JavaScript or interactive widgets, iframes and externally hosted content, and interactive elements such as simulations, quizzes, or drag-and-drop activities.
- Course Accessibility Checker Feature Overview
- How do I use the Accessibility Checker in Canvas?
- How do I use the Accessibility Checker in the Rich Content Editor?
New Learner Dashboard (students only)
The Learner Dashboard is an optional feature that students can enable on their Canvas account. The static navigation “course card” experience will remain the default Dashboard experience for students. The button to enabled the “Learner Dashboard” will be present on a student’s Canvas Dashboard. TAs and instructors with student enrollments will not be offered this feature at this time.
The new Learner Dashboard seeks to be more personalized, action-oriented, and a dynamic action-oriented command center for students. The new dashboard prioritizes critical deadlines, grades, and feedback, putting the information students need most front and center the moment they log in.
New Quizzes moving out of the iFrame
(update planned for May 18)
The New Quizzes Native Integration moves the New Quizzes experience out of its legacy iFrame layer and into the Canvas page, creating a more seamless experience while enabling third party tools to work more reliably during assessments.
No major workflow changes are introduced with this update. The quiz interface, quiz creation process, and existing instructor and student workflows will remain the same. The primary change happens behind the scenes, allowing New Quizzes to run natively in Canvas rather than within an embedded frame.
This update represents one of the final steps in bringing New Quizzes to parity with Classic Quizzes, so institutions feel confident beginning or continuing their transition to the modern assessment experience in Canvas.
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