Canvas “Assign To” Enhancements and New Features

The July 20th Canvas Release includes many new helpful updates and features for instructors, including:

• Enhanced “Assign To” functionality for Assignments, Discussions, and Pages
• New “Assign To” functionality for Modules
• SpeedGrader comment draft enhancement

Review the summaries below for more information on these items. Please visit Instructure’s Canvas Releases page for comprehensive release notes.

“Assign To” Enhancements and New Features

The Assign To interface in Canvas has been updated to make it easier to use. The Assign To box is no longer visible when editing an assignment, but a Manage Assign To link button has been added. Clicking this button opens a tray on the right that reveals the Assign To panel. The panel has been redesigned with separate date and time selectors, each date on its own line, and everything resized to be readable. 

Instructors can now assign Pages to students and set availability dates. This update streamlines instructor workflow and improves the ability to differentiate instruction. Note: Pages cannot be assigned due dates.

On the Modules page, instructors can assign students to an entire module and individual module items from the Modules page. Additionally, the Add Module and Edit Module Settings pages are redesigned as trays.

SpeedGrader Comment Drafts

In SpeedGrader, after drafting a comment and moving on to another student, a Draft pill displays indicating that the comment has not been submitted. This update enhances the user experience by clearly indicating when a comment has not yet been submitted.