Canvas is continually creating new features to improve your experience. Generally, the majority of improvements will be made available as part of our regular release cycle, but some are available for instructors to use on an opt-in basis when they are first introduced and Canvas is still working on improving their functionality or their use may change your workflow for common activities. After a specified period of time, these feature options may become standard features in Canvas.
Features options available to enable in your course can be found in Settings under the Feature Options tab.
Feature options are controlled at a course-level and most are not enabled by default. If a feature is locked on or off, instructors are unable to make changes to those particular features. Click the arrow icon next to a feature to expand the feature box and display its description or review the Canvas feature document, Canvas Feature Option Summary. Below is a list of the currently available Canvas@UD Feature Options and their default setting.
| Feature Option | Description | Default State |
| Anonymous Grading | Anonymous Grading provides an option on all course assignments to hides student names from graders when they view assignment submissions in SpeedGrader. Posting grades for an anonymous assignment then removes anonymity from the assignment. See the Canvas guide, How do I add an assignment that includes anonymous grading? | Disabled |
| Anonymous Instructor Annotations | Anonymous Instructor Annotations provides an option on all course assignments to allow instructors to make anonymous SpeedGrader annotations when grading submissions. See the Canvas guide, How do I enable anonymous instructor annotations in student submissions? | Disabled |
| Assignment Enhancements – Student (Feature Preview) | Assignment Enhancements provides students with an updated interface and submission workflow, improving the student experience in completing and submitting assignments, viewing rubrics, and locating instructor feedback. See the Canvas@UD blogpost, New Assignment Enhancements for Students, or the Canvas guide, What is Assignment Enhancements? | Disabled |
| Disable Classic Quiz Creation | Disable Classic Quiz Creation would prevent Classic Quiz creation. This option has been locked by local administrators. See the Canvas@UD blog post, Canvas New Quizzes Transition Update. | Disabled and locked |
| Discussion Summary (Feature Preview) | A Generative AI model summarizes the main points and ideas of a Canvas Discussion. See Feature Preview Overview: Discussion Summaries for more information. | Disabled |
| Enhanced Rubrics (Feature Preview) | This feature provides visual and functional enhancements to rubrics across Canvas. See the Enhanced Rubrics Instructor Guide. | Disabled |
| Final Grade Override | The Final Grade Override allows instructors to manually enter a final grade for a student in the Gradebook different from the grade automatically calculated by Canvas. See the Canvas guide, How do I override a student’s final grade in the Gradebook? | Enabled |
| Learning Mastery Gradebook | The Learning Mastery Gradebook helps assess students based on the outcomes that are being used in a course. See the Canvas guide, How do I use the Learning Mastery Gradebook to view outcome results in a course? | Disabled |
| Moderated Grading | Moderated Grading allows multiple reviewers to grade assignment submissions and a moderator to review those grades and select which grade should be set as the final grade for each student. See the Canvas guide, How do I add a moderated assignment to be graded by multiple reviewers? | Disabled |
| New Quizzes | The New Quizzes LTI is an assessment engine that integrates with Canvas and will replace Classic Quizzes functionality. Please see the Canvas@UD blog post, Canvas New Quizzes Available, the Canvas@UD transition update, or the Canvas community hub, New Quizzes Hub. | Enabled |
| Outcomes Service Results to Canvas Reporting | Allows result data stored in the Outcomes Service to display in Canvas reporting for administrative purposes. | Enabled |
| Preserve Group Set During Assignment or Discussion Copy | When copying a group assignment or discussion topic to another course, a group set set with the same name is created in the destination course if no matching group set exists. (Previously, copied group assignments were automatically linked to an already-existing matching group set in the destination course or defaulted to the Project Groups group set, which was created automatically if no other match was found.) | Disabled |
| Quiz Log Auditing | Enables the tracking of events for a Classic Quizzes quiz submission, and the ability to view a log of those events once a submission is made. See the Canvas guide, How do I view a quiz log for a student? | Enabled |
| Student Learning Mastery Gradebook | The Student Learning Mastery Gradebook shows students how they are being scored against outcomes being used in Canvas courses. Its use is only applicable with the Leaning Mastery Gradebook feature. See the Canvas guide, How do I view my Learning Mastery scores in the Grades page? | Disabled |
| Submission Stickers | Allows teachers to attach stickers to student submissions. Requires the “Assignment Enhancements – Student” feature flag to be enabled. | Disabled and locked |
A Feature Preview tag indicates means the feature is available for use in your production environment but is still in active development. For feature previews, updates may occur outside the regular update schedule, and you can visit the associated feature user group in the Canvas community for support and feedback.
To toggle the state of a feature option, click on the current status icon and choose the new state. The example below demonstrates enabling New Quizzes:
Feature options are not copied from one course to course. Instructors will need to manage feature options in each course.
If you have any questions about feature options or about how to use Canvas effectively, IT-Academic Technology Services staff is always available at the IT-ATS Welcome Bar or you can send your questions to canvas-info@udel.edu.
| Date | Change Log |
| 1/20/2025 | updated for discussions summary and enhanced rubrics previews |
| 08/19/2024 | updated quiz log and override to enabled, removed discussions preview |
| 08/09/2023 | Updated New Quizzes to Enabled |
| 4/12/2023 | initial post |