Courses at UChicago

Expanded Student Annotation Assignment Options in Canvas

by Sarah McDaniel | Jun 21, 2021 | Canvas , Canvas Features/Functions , How-tos , Pedagogy

Fountain pen writing

With an updated release of Canvas that launched in mid-May, instructors now have access to an additional Assignment format on Canvas: Student Annotation Assignments . With the addition of Student Annotation Assignments to the suite of resources supported through Canvas, instructors can now make use of two distinct platforms for student annotation assignments and activities, which can be tailored to distinct instructional contexts and learning objectives.

In this post, we will explore two frameworks for student annotation and close-reading exercises – individual annotations, completed independently by students, and social or group annotations, which students generate collectively – and consider which digital annotation tools best suit each purpose. Additionally, we will provide an overview of the new Student Annotation Assignment format and a recommended workflow for designing assignments that make use of it.

I. Student Annotation Assignments on Canvas

Features of canvas annotation assignments.

As a new Assignment format native to the Canvas learning management system, Student Annotation Assignments enable instructors to design assignments that ask students to annotate text- and image-based documents using a variety of annotation features also available to instructors in SpeedGrader. When working with an Annotation Assignment, students have access to a highlighting tool (to select text), a rectangular area selection tool (to select an area of the document), a pin marker (to mark a point of focus at a specific location in the document), a freehand drawing tool, a text box tool, and a strikethrough tool.

Student Annotation Toolbar

In addition, when making use of any of these text selection or modification tools, students can type out marginal comments that describe or reflect on their annotation choices.

Example marginal comment

Once students have completed their annotations, they click the maroon “Submit Assignment” button to save their work and deliver their annotated version of the document to the instructor through Canvas.

Submit Assignment button

Students are also able to download their annotations – an annotated copy of the document – through the annotation toolbar.

Annotation toolbar with download icon indicated

Pedagogical Context for Canvas Annotation Assignments: Individual Work

As the Student View perspective shown above indicates, Canvas Annotation Assignments are designed for independent use by individual students . In brief, students open such assignments as they would any other on Canvas, begin an assignment attempt (by clicking “Start Assignment”), and access an unannotated copy of the original document uploaded by the instructor to begin their annotations. Each student, in other words, accesses a fresh copy of the document and creates and submits annotations that are visible only to the instructor.

As a result, Canvas Annotation Assignments are not effectively suited to group annotation work , for the simple reason that annotations are generated and submitted on an individual rather than a collaborative basis. However, individual annotation exercises – performed individually by students and submitted to the instructor for assessment – have a wide variety of instructional uses across the disciplines and can be used to help students prepare for group annotation work.

In the language-learning classroom, for example, individual annotation exercises represent one streamlined way to assess students’ reading comprehension skills (asking students to make translations, highlight particular parts of speech or grammatical structures, paraphrase passages, and raise comprehension or discussion questions responsive to the text) while challenging students to develop their fluency as readers, writers, and speakers through tasks that work through layers of cognitive complexity.

Across humanities and social sciences classrooms, individual annotation exercises can enable instructors to gain insight into and assess their students’ use of interpretive strategies and modalities through targeted reading exercises that challenge students to generate observations about a text or document, develop an argument or thesis about it, and gather evidence to support that thesis from their initial observations – an activity that could either precede the drafting of an argumentative essay or serve as a standalone exercise to develop the scaffolding for an argumentative essay.

In a variety of STEM contexts, individual annotation exercises can challenge students to represent their thinking and their work clearly in response to problems and questions – that is, to elucidate and emphasize the process of their problem-solving in addition to the solutions, products, and outcomes they ultimately generate.

Creating Canvas Annotation Assignments: Workflow for Instructors

For instructors, creating Canvas Annotation Assignments is just as straightforward as creating any other Canvas Assignment:

  • We recommend uploading to your Canvas site the file you wish students to annotate before creating your Annotation Assignment. You may do so by navigating to the Files tab and uploading files there. This helps prevent occasional hiccups in correctly linking the Canvas Assignment with the file.

Assignment Interface with Edit indicated

Grading Student Annotation Assignments

After students have attempted and submitted this assignment, you can view, assess, and provide feedback for student work using SpeedGrader. In opening each student’s submission, you will be able to view all annotations, mark-up, and comments the student generated.

Assignment interface with SpeedGrader indicated

II. Hypothes.is Integration on Canvas

A second format for student annotation activities and assignments on Canvas is the social annotation platform Hypothes.is, available for instructor use through the Canvas – Hypothes.is integration. As a platform designed specifically to support the work of social annotation, Hypothes.is is ideally suited to collaborative, group-based exercises in reading and annotation.

Unlike with Canvas Annotation Assignments, Hypothes.is activities and assignments are visible by default to all members of a Canvas site; as students contribute annotations, these become visible to their colleagues, who are then able to respond to and comment on the observations and ideas that have been shared. Instructors at UChicago have found that Hypothes.is activities are a good way to promote students’ engagement with each other, to encourage discussions of close reading, and to make the reading process more transparent.

To access Hypothes.is activities in Canvas, students click on the name of the activity (under Modules or Assignments) and load a new tab that displays the document undergoing annotation. The Canvas – Hypothes.is integration makes use of a collapsible annotation applet that loads on the right-hand side of this tab.

Hypothesis in Canvas

An additional important difference between Canvas Annotation Assignments and Hypothes.is lies in the way that annotations are saved and the document formats that are supported. Canvas Annotation Assignments make use of an image-based overlay process, incorporating student highlights, comments, and other modifications onto approximated locations in the document. Hypothes.is, on the other hand, makes use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to tie annotations and highlights – the two annotation strategies available to students – to particular characters or strings of characters in the document. Accordingly, Canvas Annotation Assignments are compatible with a variety of file formats (.pdf, .docx, .png, .jpeg) and enable students to produce annotations on non-textual features of a document (such as images, diagrams, and interstitial space), while Hypothes.is can be used to annotate web pages and PDFs for annotation and does not support the annotation of non-textual features of a document. Annotations produced through Canvas Annotation Assignments can thus at times be less precise (not tied to specific characters) than those generated in Hypothes.is (which are highly portable across browsers and devices because they are tied to specific characters), while Canvas Annotation Assignments allow for the annotation of additional non-textual features.

Instructors at UChicago have found creative ways to respond to the affordances and limitations of each platform; for an in-depth exploration of faculty use of Hypothes.is and social annotation at UChicago, please see “ Social Annotation and the Pedagogy of Hypothes.is ” on the Academic Technology Solutions blog. For a comprehensive treatment of the technical specifications and steps required to implement Hypothes.is in Canvas, as well as effective practices for its use, please see “ Use the Hypothesis-Canvas Integration ” on the UChicago IT Knowledge Base.

If you have any questions about Canvas Annotation Assignments, Hypothes.is, digital annotation, or other topics in Canvas, Academic Technology Solutions can help. Set up a consultation with us , or drop by our Virtual Office Hours .

  • How do I annotate a file as an assignment submission in Canvas? (Canvas student guide)
  • Student Annotation Submissions (Canvas instructor video)
  • Use the Hypothesis-Canvas Integration
  • Social Annotation and the Pedagogy of Hypothes.is

(Featured photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash )

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Canvas update: student annotation submissions.

  • May. 10, 2021
  • Teaching Center Staff
  • Canvas , Featured , News
  • Introduction

Overview/How to Use

Limitations

Student directions, assignment ideas, new assignment type: student annotation submissions.

Canvas is getting a significant new feature with the May 2021 Feature Update (“Canvas Release”), going live on May 15. The new feature, called Student Annotation Submissions, is an entirely new online submission type for assignments. This new assignment allows the teacher to upload a file to Canvas that the student can then, without leaving Canvas, mark up using the built-in annotation tools (highlight, make comments, draw marks, etc.) as their submission.

As part of the roll-out of this new feature, we will be hosting two twenty-minute mini-webinars introducing and discussing the feature. The webinars are scheduled Friday, May 21 at 11 a.m. and Tuesday, May 25 at 1 p.m. Click on either date to be taken to the registration page. We will also record the webinar and post it for anyone to watch at a later date.

See the end of this page for some ideas for how you might use this feature. If you would like, you can go to the Canvas release notes page to see the details from the vendor.

  • Create an assignment as usually would.
  • For the assignment type, choose Online.
  • Under online entry options, check student annotation.
  • Choose an existing file (such as a PDF, Word document, or JPG), or upload a new one, that will be the template for the annotation assignment.
  • Finish completing your assignment with the normal process.

Official step-by-step documentation from Instructure is not yet available.

  • Annotation assignments use the same annotation tools available to teachers with SpeedGrader. While a variety of file types are supported, PDF or Word files will have the best compatibility. Here is a list of file types the DocViewer can preview.
  • These assignments are not currently available for use with with peer assessment, but this is planned for the future.
  • This type of assignment cannot be made a group assignment. (For these, consider using a full collaboration tool, like Office 365.)
  • This is not a multi-user live collaborative document (like Office 365, Google Documents, etc.).
  • Keep in mind that most students do not have a stylus for detail drawing, and drawing with a mouse is imprecise at best.
  • All annotations exist as a layer in Canvas displayed over top the original; it is not actually editing the original document. You can export the annotations to a PDF file, where the annotations will exist on the PDF comment layer.

Official step-by-step documentation from Instructure is not yet available. However, since the assignment uses the same tools available to a teacher using SpeedGrader, you can share those directions with students until official documentation is ready.

Here are some ideas to get you thinking about how you might use this new tool in your course. Do note that many of these are possible to do in other ways (like using Office 365 collaboration documents). The tool in Canvas can make some of these quicker or easier, but, in some cases, it may be appropriate to continue to use the other tools. Feel free to contact the Educational Software Consulting team for help using the feature, or ask for a consultation with Teaching Support staff to discuss how these activities might help your students reach their learning objectives in your course.

  • Have students analyze, critique, or respond to prompts (texts, images, or both).
  • Train academic paper reading skills. Reading academic papers can be challenging to read and learn from without training. Upload a paper (either relevant to this course, or perhaps in a similar field, but not exactly related to this course) and ask the students to read it. Have them use the annotation tools to highlight passages they consider important, make margin notes for questions that remain or their thoughts at that moment of reading, or to make commentary about the structure, flow, and formatting of the paper.
  • You can provide feedback on important information the student did not take notes on, extraneous highlighting, and other details.
  • Ask for self-reflection and/or start a class discussion of errors in papers. Use a sample assignment submission like students might hand in and ask them to mark it up. Optionally, you can include a rubric in the template document for the students to fill in. This will allow you to have a discussion with them about the feedback that they find most important. This can also help them to review their own submissions before submitting.
  • Post a “find errors and correct them” assignment. Especially useful for a language or coding course (but also can apply to others, like math or logic), create an assignment of statements or solutions that have errors in them, and ask students to mark up what the error is, and suggest corrections. Do keep in mind the limitations of annotations as small corrections; do not have problems that require a significant rework. “True or False, but, if false, make it true” assignments are a narrower sub-type of this activity.
  • Ask students to label a diagram or image as their submission. The student can use point comment tools to label individual parts, or box comments for larger structures that cover an area. This is comparable to a “hot spot” question in some ways. This is only recommended for identifying parts of a diagram, image or document; other assignment types are better for rote whole image identification. This can be used not only for low-level identification (“label the parts of this building’s façade and attribute it to a period”), but also higher-level analysis (“discuss your interpretation of this x-ray”).
  • Collect student feedback in a specific format, such as providing a form or template that you would like students to fill in for a “360 degree” peer evaluation after a group assignment, but you do not want students to need to download or upload files (and a survey is too much for what is needed).
  • Fill out “lab notebook” or “observation notebook” documents in a course that does not make heavy use of them to utilize another tool specialized to that purpose.

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Georgetown University.

New Canvas Assignment Type: Student Annotation

Posted in Announcements

On the assignment creation page , instructors can select the option to create an online assignment and select the Student Annotation assignment type.

Instructors provide the file that should be annotated, and students use the annotation tools to complete the assignment. Completed annotation submissions are viewed in SpeedGrader with the student’s annotations shown for grading. 

  • Student annotation assignments cannot be used for group assignments.
  • Although annotations are supported in the Canvas Student app, this specific assignment type is not currently supported for mobile devices. If instructors want students to be able to annotate a document via the mobile app, they should also use the File Uploads submission type and provide the original file in the assignment description for students to download and annotate in the app.
  • Peer reviews are supported for student annotation submissions. However, Anonymous Peer Reviews are not supported for student annotation assignments, as the names of students are not displayed anonymously in annotations.
  • See the full Canvas Release Notes (2021-05-15) for more details.
  • Learn about other recent Canvas changes and updates at Georgetown.
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  • For Students

Expanded Student Annotation Assignments in Canvas

by Sarah McDaniel | Jun 21, 2021 | Instructional design , Services

Fountain pen writing

With an updated release of Canvas that launched in mid-May, instructors now have access to an additional Assignment format on Canvas: Student Annotation Assignments . With the addition of Student Annotation Assignments to the suite of resources supported through Canvas, instructors can now make use of two distinct platforms for student annotation assignments and activities, which can be tailored to distinct instructional contexts and learning objectives.

In this post, we will explore two frameworks for student annotation and close-reading exercises – individual annotations, completed independently by students, and social or group annotations, which students generate collectively – and consider which digital annotation tools best suit each purpose. Additionally, we will provide an overview of the new Student Annotation Assignment format and a recommended workflow for designing assignments that make use of it.

I. Student Annotation Assignments on Canvas

Features of canvas annotation assignments.

As a new Assignment format native to the Canvas learning management system, Student Annotation Assignments enable instructors to design assignments that ask students to annotate text- and image-based documents using a variety of annotation features also available to instructors in SpeedGrader. When working with an Annotation Assignment, students have access to a highlighting tool (to select text), a rectangular area selection tool (to select an area of the document), a pin marker (to mark a point of focus at a specific location in the document), a freehand drawing tool, a text box tool, and a strikethrough tool.

Student Annotation Toolbar

In addition, when making use of any of these text selection or modification tools, students can type out marginal comments that describe or reflect on their annotation choices.

Example marginal comment

Once students have completed their annotations, they click the maroon “Submit Assignment” button to save their work and deliver their annotated version of the document to the instructor through Canvas.

Submit Assignment button

Students are also able to download their annotations – an annotated copy of the document – through the annotation toolbar.

Annotation toolbar with download icon indicated

Pedagogical Context for Canvas Annotation Assignments: Individual Work

As the Student View perspective shown above indicates, Canvas Annotation Assignments are designed for independent use by individual students . In brief, students open such assignments as they would any other on Canvas, begin an assignment attempt (by clicking “Start Assignment”), and access an unannotated copy of the original document uploaded by the instructor to begin their annotations. Each student, in other words, accesses a fresh copy of the document and creates and submits annotations that are visible only to the instructor.

As a result, Canvas Annotation Assignments are not effectively suited to group annotation work , for the simple reason that annotations are generated and submitted on an individual rather than a collaborative basis. However, individual annotation exercises – performed individually by students and submitted to the instructor for assessment – have a wide variety of instructional uses across the disciplines and can be used to help students prepare for group annotation work.

In the language-learning classroom, for example, individual annotation exercises represent one streamlined way to assess students’ reading comprehension skills (asking students to make translations, highlight particular parts of speech or grammatical structures, paraphrase passages, and raise comprehension or discussion questions responsive to the text) while challenging students to develop their fluency as readers, writers, and speakers through tasks that work through layers of cognitive complexity.

Across humanities and social sciences classrooms, individual annotation exercises can enable instructors to gain insight into and assess their students’ use of interpretive strategies and modalities through targeted reading exercises that challenge students to generate observations about a text or document, develop an argument or thesis about it, and gather evidence to support that thesis from their initial observations – an activity that could either precede the drafting of an argumentative essay or serve as a standalone exercise to develop the scaffolding for an argumentative essay.

In a variety of STEM contexts, individual annotation exercises can challenge students to represent their thinking and their work clearly in response to problems and questions – that is, to elucidate and emphasize the process of their problem-solving in addition to the solutions, products, and outcomes they ultimately generate.

Creating Canvas Annotation Assignments: Workflow for Instructors

For instructors, creating Canvas Annotation Assignments is just as straightforward as creating any other Canvas Assignment:

  • We recommend uploading to your Canvas site the file you wish students to annotate before creating your Annotation Assignment. You may do so by navigating to the Files tab and uploading files there. This helps prevent occasional hiccups in correctly linking the Canvas Assignment with the file.

Assignment Interface with Edit indicated

Grading Student Annotation Assignments

After students have attempted and submitted this assignment, you can view, assess, and provide feedback for student work using SpeedGrader. In opening each student’s submission, you will be able to view all annotations, mark-up, and comments the student generated.

Assignment interface with SpeedGrader indicated

II. Hypothes.is Integration on Canvas

A second format for student annotation activities and assignments on Canvas is the social annotation platform Hypothes.is, available for instructor use through the Canvas – Hypothes.is integration. As a platform designed specifically to support the work of social annotation, Hypothes.is is ideally suited to collaborative, group-based exercises in reading and annotation.

Unlike with Canvas Annotation Assignments, Hypothes.is activities and assignments are visible by default to all members of a Canvas site; as students contribute annotations, these become visible to their colleagues, who are then able to respond to and comment on the observations and ideas that have been shared. Instructors at UChicago have found that Hypothes.is activities are a good way to promote students’ engagement with each other, to encourage discussions of close reading, and to make the reading process more transparent.

To access Hypothes.is activities in Canvas, students click on the name of the activity (under Modules or Assignments) and load a new tab that displays the document undergoing annotation. The Canvas – Hypothes.is integration makes use of a collapsible annotation applet that loads on the right-hand side of this tab.

Hypothesis in Canvas

An additional important difference between Canvas Annotation Assignments and Hypothes.is lies in the way that annotations are saved and the document formats that are supported. Canvas Annotation Assignments make use of an image-based overlay process, incorporating student highlights, comments, and other modifications onto approximated locations in the document. Hypothes.is, on the other hand, makes use of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to tie annotations and highlights – the two annotation strategies available to students – to particular characters or strings of characters in the document. Accordingly, Canvas Annotation Assignments are compatible with a variety of file formats (.pdf, .docx, .png, .jpeg) and enable students to produce annotations on non-textual features of a document (such as images, diagrams, and interstitial space), while Hypothes.is can be used to annotate web pages and PDFs for annotation and does not support the annotation of non-textual features of a document. Annotations produced through Canvas Annotation Assignments can thus at times be less precise (not tied to specific characters) than those generated in Hypothes.is (which are highly portable across browsers and devices because they are tied to specific characters), while Canvas Annotation Assignments allow for the annotation of additional non-textual features.

Instructors at UChicago have found creative ways to respond to the affordances and limitations of each platform; for an in-depth exploration of faculty use of Hypothes.is and social annotation at UChicago, please see “ Social Annotation and the Pedagogy of Hypothes.is ” on the Academic Technology Solutions blog. For a comprehensive treatment of the technical specifications and steps required to implement Hypothes.is in Canvas, as well as effective practices for its use, please see “ Use the Hypothesis-Canvas Integration ” on the UChicago IT Knowledge Base.

If you have any questions about Canvas Annotation Assignments, Hypothes.is, digital annotation, or other topics in Canvas, Academic Technology Solutions can help. Set up a consultation with us , or drop by our Virtual Office Hours .

  • How do I annotate a file as an assignment submission in Canvas? (Canvas student guide)
  • Student Annotation Submissions (Canvas instructor video)
  • Use the Hypothesis-Canvas Integration
  • Social Annotation and the Pedagogy of Hypothes.is

(Featured photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash )

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Information and Updates on Digital Teaching and Learning @ Rice University

New Assignment Type- Annotate on a Document

Starting on May 15th 2021, instructors can use an annotated assignment type to upload a file for students to annotate and submit directly in Canvas.

Change Benefit

This change allows instructors to provide a file as an assignment and allow students to annotate the file directly in Canvas. Currently students have to either print the file and take a photo to submit, or use a third-party tool to complete the submission.

Instructors

In the assignment creation page, instructors can select the option to create a Student Annotation assignment type. The file that should be annotated is uploaded for the assignment, and students can use the annotation tools with DocViewer to complete the assignment. This assignment type is included under the online assignment types so that instructors can select additional submission options for students unable to annotate onscreen.

Peer reviews are supported for student annotation submissions . However, Anonymous Peer Reviews are not supported for student annotation assignments, as the names of students are not displayed anonymously in annotations.

Completed submissions are viewed in SpeedGrader with the student’s annotations shown for grading.

  • Student annotation assignments cannot be used for group assignments.
  • Assignment Enhancements currently do not support student annotation assignments.

erinhmcmillan_0-1618854141430.png

Students can complete the annotation assignment directly in Canvas using the annotation tools in DocViewer. Annotations can also be created on the Canvas Student app.

If a student later views a previously submitted attempt, the annotations on the file are shown as read only and additional annotations are not allowed.

erinhmcmillan_1-1618854141360.png

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New Feature: Student Annotation assignments

Student annotation assignments.

This feature allows instructors to provide a file in the assignment workflow for students to annotate. Currently students must take additional steps or use third-party tools to annotate files.

How to set up a Student Annotation assignment

  • Create/edit an assignment. Set Online as the Submission Type .
  • Check the box for Student Annotation then choose a file from the Available folders or Upload a new file.

How do students annotate a file?

Student annotation assignment limitations.

  • Cannot be assigned to groups.
  • Not supported on mobile devices. Use the File Uploads Submission Type and provide the file in the assignment description for students to download and annotate on a mobile device.
  • DocViewer, the tool used for annotating, is currently not accessible for students using assistive technologies.

IT-ATS | Canvas@UD

New Online Submission Type – Student Annotation

by Beth Cartwright | May 4, 2021 | Featured , News

In the May 15 production update of Canvas, the online submission type for assignments has a new option – annotated assignment.  This new submission type will allow you to upload a file that students can annotate using the DocViewer (SpeedGrader) interface and submit directly in Canvas avoiding the need for students to print, scan, or take photos of some assignments to submit.  Completed submissions are viewed in SpeedGrader with the student’s annotations shown for grading.

canvas student annotation assignment type

When creating the assignment, you may upload the file or select a file already uploaded in your course Files.  You can use any type of file that can be previewed in Canvas.  For a list of those file types, please see the Canvas guide, What types of files can be previewed in Canvas?

Students can complete the annotation assignment directly in Canvas using the DocViewer annotation tools. Annotations can also be created on the Canvas Student app.  If a student later views a previously submitted attempt, the annotations on the file are shown as read only and additional annotations are not allowed.

canvas student annotation assignment type

Note: The student annotation submission type cannot be used for group assignments and is not supported if the Assignments Enhancements feature has been enabled in your course.

For more information, watch the overview video:

If you have any questions about the changes 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 [email protected] .

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Higher Ed and Technology: Academics at Chapman

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New Canvas Feature: Student Annotation Submissions

May 24, 2021

The most recent Canvas update rolled out a new feature inside of Assignments that allows for an Annotation assignment. Instructors can upload a document to Canvas that students can then annotate using the same annotation functions instructors see inside of the Speedgrader. This includes highlighting, commenting, creating text boxes, drawing, etc.

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Canvas Student Annotation Submissions

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Great news for teachers looking for a way to create annotated assignments. As of May 15, Canvas has a new annotated assignments option now available under online submission types.

What does this mean?

When creating a new assignment, the teacher can select “Online” and a new check box will be available for “Student Annotation.” Teachers will then access their course files, with the option to upload a file, which will then create a version for each student to annotate. This will now work with PDF documents! Yes, finally, an easy way to give our students PDF.

canvas student annotation assignment type

A copy of the document is created for each student and they will use DocViewer to complete the assignment with the available annotation tools (the same one you use to view your student’s work in Speedgrader). Since this is an online assignment type, teachers may also choose to include other submission types.

canvas student annotation assignment type

Some other notable features when using the student annotation option include:

  • Peer reviews are supported (anonymous peer reviews are not)
  • Student annotations will be viewable in Speedgrader
  • Student annotations cannot be assigned for group assignments
  • It is not supported in mobile devices, students will need to complete this from a computer or teachers should also include a downloadable version of the file for File Upload submission type.
  • If a student views a previously submitted attempt, it will show the annotations in a read-only format and additional annotations are not allowed (students will need to resubmit in order to modify their annotations)

For more on Canvas, check out our past posts. Please contact your Ed Tech Lead or Ed Tech TOSA for additional support.

canvas student annotation assignment type

  • Category: Canvas , Tool Bits
  • Tag: annotation , Canvas

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This is such exciting news and your writeup is really helpful Stephanie!! As an LA teacher I am hype!

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Thank you, Courtney!

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Canvas Feature: Annotation Assignments

Canvas has added a new way for students to complete assignments – annotating a document you upload. In this kind of assignment, students have access to all the annotation tools you use in SpeedGrader and create the annotations in the same kind of view. This assignment type can only be used for individual assignments – it will not work for a group assignment.  

But you might be thinking “Okay, this sounds cool. But what would I even use it for?” Having your students annotate a document is flexible and can be used for a myriad of assignments. You could have your students interpret lab results or statistics. They could practice peer editing of a paper draft or do a critical reading of a short story or article. They could even annotate a piece of sheet music. But you’re definitely not limited to only those uses. Think through the assignments in your course, and you might find you already have something there that would benefit from being swapped to this assignment type.  

To set up an annotation assignment:  

  • Create an assignment or go to the settings page of an existing assignment.  
  • Under “Submission Type,” check the box for “Student Annotation.”  
  • Use the “Upload File” button to add the document for your students to annotate.  

Canvas does recommend you also allow at least one other submission type in case your student is not able to create annotations (for example, if you student is working on the assignment exclusively through the Canvas Student mobile app, where this assignment type has not yet been implemented).  

If you’re interested in using this feature, Canvas has created a document to walk students through annotating a file in Canvas.  “How do I annotate a file as an assignment submission in Canvas”  will help your students get started and understand how to complete this assignment type.  

Questions? Please leave a comment down below or send us an email at  [email protected] .  

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IMAGES

  1. Expanded Student Annotation Assignment Options in Canvas (2022)

    canvas student annotation assignment type

  2. Expanded Student Annotation Assignment Options in Canvas

    canvas student annotation assignment type

  3. New Feature: Student Annotation assignments

    canvas student annotation assignment type

  4. Student Annotation Assignment

    canvas student annotation assignment type

  5. Grading Student Annotations in Canvas : Hypothesis

    canvas student annotation assignment type

  6. Expanded Student Annotation Assignment Options in Canvas

    canvas student annotation assignment type

VIDEO

  1. Never start with blank Docs canvas again

  2. How to use Canvas lecture page '23-'24

  3. Canvas

  4. Finding assignments on Canvas

  5. Canvas

  6. Canvas Student Tour

COMMENTS

  1. Expanded Student Annotation Assignment Options in Canvas

    As a new Assignment format native to the Canvas learning management system, Student Annotation Assignments enable instructors to design assignments that ask students to annotate text- and image-based documents using a variety of annotation features also available to instructors in SpeedGrader.

  2. How do I annotate a file as an assignment submission in Canvas?

    View Submission The Sidebar displays information about your submission [1]. If allowed by your instructor, you may choose to resubmit another version of your assignment by clicking the New Attempt button [2].

  3. Canvas Update: Student Annotation Submissions

    The new feature, called Student Annotation Submissions, is an entirely new online submission type for assignments. This new assignment allows the teacher to upload a file to Canvas that the student can then, without leaving Canvas, mark up using the built-in annotation tools (highlight, make comments, draw marks, etc.) as their submission.

  4. New Canvas Assignment Type: Student Annotation

    Posted in Announcements On the assignment creation page, instructors can select the option to create an online assignment and select the Student Annotation assignment type. Instructors provide the file that should be annotated, and students use the annotation tools to complete the assignment.

  5. Canvas Student Annotations Assignments

    13 3.8K views 2 years ago This video covers the basics of student annotation on Canvas assignments using a web browser. With this assignment type, students can annotate files uploaded...

  6. Creating Student Annotation Assignments with Canvas LMS

    Creating Student Annotation Assignments with Canvas LMS - YouTube 0:00 / 6:09 • Intro Creating Student Annotation Assignments with Canvas LMS lolleys 11.4K subscribers Subscribe...

  7. New Option in Canvas

    In the assignment creation page, instructors can select the option to create a Student Annotation assignment type. The file that should be annotated is uploaded for the assignment as part of the Online assignment type. Students can complete the annotation assignment directly in Canvas using the annotation tools in DocViewer.

  8. Completing a Canvas Annotation Assignment

    If your taecher assigns you "a student annotation" submission type, you can type, highlight, add comments, color in, etc. This video shows you how to use th...

  9. Expanded Student Annotation Assignments in Canvas

    As a new Assignment format native to the Canvas learning management system, Student Annotation Assignments enable instructors to design assignments that ask students to annotate text- and image-based documents using a variety of annotation features also available to instructors in SpeedGrader.

  10. New Assignment Type- Annotate on a Document

    In the assignment creation page, instructors can select the option to create a Student Annotation assignment type. The file that should be annotated is uploaded for the assignment, and students can use the annotation tools with DocViewer to complete the assignment. ... Students can complete the annotation assignment directly in Canvas using the ...

  11. New Feature: Student Annotation assignments

    Student Annotation assignments This feature allows instructors to provide a file in the assignment workflow for students to annotate. Currently students must take additional steps or use third-party tools to annotate files. How to set up a Student Annotation assignment Create/edit an assignment. Set Online as the Submission Type. Check the box for Student Annotation […]

  12. New Online Submission Type

    This new submission type will allow you to upload a file that students can annotate using the DocViewer (SpeedGrader) interface and submit directly in Canvas avoiding the need for students to print, scan, or take photos of some assignments to submit. Completed submissions are viewed in SpeedGrader with the student's annotations shown for grading.

  13. How do I create a Student Annotation assignment?

    .rtf .txt .jpg .jpeg .png Notes Students can only annotate the document. They cannot edit the document. Students cannot delete text, insert images or links, edit PowerPoint slides, or edit Excel data. Student annotation assignments cannot be set up as Group Assignments, but they can be peer reviewed.

  14. Student Annotation in Canvas

    October 14, 2021 Hypothes.is Instructors can make PDFs and web pages hosted in Canvas annotatable. Students can then annotate course readings collaboratively, sharing comments, and replying to each other's comments.

  15. New Canvas Feature: Student Annotation Submissions

    The most recent Canvas update rolled out a new feature inside of Assignments that allows for an Annotation assignment. Instructors can upload a document to Canvas that students can then annotate using the same annotation functions instructors see inside of the Speedgrader. This includes highlighting, commenting, creating text boxes, drawing, etc.

  16. How do I create an online assignment?

    Select the online entry options you want to allow for the assignment. You can select up to four options: Text Entry [1]: Students can submit their assignment directly in the Rich Content Editor. DocViewer annotations are not available for text entry submissions. Additionally, text entry submissions cannot be re-uploaded to the Gradebook.

  17. Canvas Student Annotation Submission Assignment

    The student annotation assignment allows the teacher to upload a file to Canvas that the student can then, without leaving Canvas, mark up using the built-in annotation tools (highlight, make comments, draw marks, etc.) as their submission. See the end of this page for some ideas for how you might use this feature. Screencast Video

  18. How do I add annotated comments in student submiss...

    Canvas DocViewer is a tool that allows annotations on online assignment submissions in Canvas. You can use DocViewer to view files and assignments in SpeedGrader. You can view when students view annotated feedback in the assignment details section of the sidebar. DocViewer has a 10-hour session limit that begins when you open a submission.

  19. Canvas Student Annotation Submissions

    As of May 15, Canvas has a new annotated assignments option now available under online submission types. What does this mean? When creating a new assignment, the teacher can select "Online" and a new check box will be available for "Student Annotation."

  20. Canvas Feature: Annotation Assignments

    To set up an annotation assignment: Create an assignment or go to the settings page of an existing assignment. Under "Submission Type," check the box for "Student Annotation.". Use the "Upload File" button to add the document for your students to annotate. Canvas does recommend you also allow at least one other submission type in ...

  21. How do I annotate a file as an assignment submissi...

    Canvas Student Canvas Student Android Guide How do I annotate a file as an assignment submissi... How do I annotate a file as an assignment submission in the Student app on my Android device? Your instructor may upload a file for you to annotate as your assignment submission.

  22. Student Annotation Assignments

    Student Annotation Assignments Mrs_M Community Member 09-01-2021 10:36 AM Hello, I am helping a teacher who is using the new (ish) Student Annotation assignment type in Canvas. We are having an issue where a student will complete their annotations and submit the assignment, but in SpeedGrader, the teacher is unable to see any annotations at all.

  23. How do I add annotations to a submission in the St...

    Canvas DocViewer is a tool that allows annotations in online assignment submissions. Annotations made in Canvas Student can be viewed by your instructor when grading your submission. If a file is not compatible with DocViewer, the document previewer will still display the file, but DocViewer markup and commenting will not be available.

  24. "Annotations are not available for this document"

    You're signed out. Sign in to ask questions, follow content, and engage with the Community. Sign In

  25. Speed Grader not allowing annotations

    It seems that my institution updated Canvas yesterday and now I cannot annotate any flat text files (specifically .cpp, .py, .sql). When I go to the next assignment, I get a warning box saying that I cannot annotate that file type. Another issue I am having is with .sql files specifically. These are flat text files and now they no longer appear.