Canvas Releases Teacher App
At InstructureCon 2017, the annual conference for all things Canvas, Instructure released the new Canvas Teacher App. This replaces the SpeedGrader App and the original Canvas App should be used by students.
Please review the feature comparison for each of the Canvas apps:
Canvas Teacher Release Notes (Android 1.1)
In an effort to continually improve Canvas, Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, releases periodic upgrades to their mobile apps along with Production Release Notes. Pertinent features and upgrades are listed below. You may view the full Canvas Teacher Release Notes for Android 1.1 and associated images.
New Features
Audio & Video Comments (Assignments)
Assignments support audio and video comments on assignment submissions. Teachers can record an audio or video comment by tapping the Add button in the Comment field. Audio comments provide teachers with a convenient option to leave feedback on student assignment submissions. Video comments allow teachers to leave verbal and visual feedback on student assignment submissions. Video comments can have a maximum duration of 60 seconds.
Attendance (Courses)
The Teacher App supports Attendance for courses. Attendance allows instructors to take attendance in their class using their mobile device. Students can be marked as present, late, or absent.
External Apps (Courses)
The Teacher app supports external apps (LTI) in courses. You may be able to access some external apps from your Course Navigation. External apps can be identified in Course Navigation by the LTI icon. Other than the Attendance tool, all external tools will display the same functionality as seen when used in a web browser. The external apps displayed in the Teacher app will vary based on the external apps enabled for your institution or course.
People (Courses)
The Teacher App supports the People page for courses. The People page allows teachers to quickly view information about users in their courses. Teachers can view all users in a course, search for a user, and filter the list by user role.
Student Context Cards (Users)
The Teacher app supports context cards for students in a course. Context cards provide teachers with a simplified overview of student information and can be viewed by tapping a student’s name from People, assignment submissions list, SpeedGrader, SpeedGrader comments, inbox messages, announcement replies, and discussion replies. Student context cards display a student’s email address, section, last activity date/time, submission details, grade, and submission details. Teachers can send a message to a student from their context card. When the context card is opened from the People page, teachers can also open student submissions by tapping the submission. Like in the web version of Canvas, teachers can still view data for other user roles but can only view the user’s email address, section, and last activity date.
Updated Features
Attachments (Discussions)
Teachers can add an attachment to a discussion post. Teachers can add an attachment by tapping the Attachment icon when creating a new discussion.