SlowGrader
This app is a disaster, and even worse than the SpeedGrader which I am happy to say I still have in this iPad. 1. I teach by Module. Each Module has supporting material as well as the week’s assignment. Why then is there no Module I can work with in the sidebar? This I’m guessing is why my students rarely do their reading or video assignments — they seem to be unaware of them if they are using the app. PLEASE ADD MODULES TO THE APPS. 2. Where is my custom Dashboard with my system of colours that allows me to instantly recognise which class is which? 3. I am constantly losing sentences I have carefully constructed for my students as commentary on their work. Where are they going? Sometimes I want to copy something from another student’s comment field and when I come back my current comments are gone. How about a clipboard feature inside the app so we can save often-used comments, like “Please submit this assignment” and “please read the instructions?” 4. Why couldn’t I see my students’ uploads of .pngs and .jpgs on my new iPhone 8 plus? I teach digital art.I take off so-and-so many points per week late... 5. I like having access to the due date of the assignment (and the parameters) so I can make a wise grading choice. 6. I like the speech-to-text feature but it is a hornet’s nest of, um, hornets.
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Submitted assignments
On the app I can see the assignments clearly from my completed students but on the browser they are not in the same place and I can not see my feedback. We have to internally verify other teachers work so I need to be able to find it. The app seems to be different to the browser and a few things have changed recently and we can’t find students work.
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Can’t filter marking by groups
You can’t filter marking by groups which makes this app completely useless for team taught modules. Shame as feedback should be a good experience with an iPad but lack of basic features from the web version lets it down.
Missing features that can only be done on the PC
Sadly the app does not let you add new assignments and has limited features. When marking the drop down rubric comments don’t appear. I find that I have to use the Computer to do most things needed on CANVAS.
I use the app to view tasks, take photos and upload images of student work samples, however, I use the computer for everything else.
I use the app to view tasks, take photos and upload images of student work samples, however, I use the computer for everything else.
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Useful but limited
Not the worst but lots of annoyances and limitations.
I'm currently trying to grade discussion posts in the app and the readability is frustrating. Why does the text not wrap around?! Each line is juuuust too long for the screen. Sometimes it won't even zoom out so that it all fits on the screen, and the app doesn't rotate to horizontal either. So I have to move the text back and forth for every line or hold it pinch zoomed out. Even when the zoom level sticks: I have great eyesight and even I find the text too small. I can't imagine using this with even middling eyesight. Accessibility is not an unreasonable expectation from an ed tech company. Frustrating.
This is illustrative of issues with the app. Has promise. Not hot garbage. But not yet truly good. More UX work pls. Make it accessible!
I'm currently trying to grade discussion posts in the app and the readability is frustrating. Why does the text not wrap around?! Each line is juuuust too long for the screen. Sometimes it won't even zoom out so that it all fits on the screen, and the app doesn't rotate to horizontal either. So I have to move the text back and forth for every line or hold it pinch zoomed out. Even when the zoom level sticks: I have great eyesight and even I find the text too small. I can't imagine using this with even middling eyesight. Accessibility is not an unreasonable expectation from an ed tech company. Frustrating.
This is illustrative of issues with the app. Has promise. Not hot garbage. But not yet truly good. More UX work pls. Make it accessible!
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Needs better mark book
I really like the way you can mark a student’s work and write on the electronic copy.
However, this app needs a better mark book and better integration with the quizzes next.
However, this app needs a better mark book and better integration with the quizzes next.
Unreliable & Buggy
This app frustrates me continuously. The Canvas Teacher app is essential to my workflow as the ipad is my main device and I grade with my Apple Pencil, but the app is completely unreliable. It often fails to save my handwritten comments fully, it is slow and buggy. Every other note taking app I have has zero problems saving writing, but Canvas constantly fails to save when my internet slows. I hate this app. Every day when I open it to grade essays, I just hope that it works as it should, and most days it doesn’t. Essential, obvious features take years for Canvas to deploy, development is slow, and bugs return after they have supposedly been fixed in updates. Just another example of education software that is light years behind other tech and that is unreliable and unpredictable. I never write reviews, but I finally had to write this one after years of frustration with this sub-par product. But I have to use it. Do better, Canvas!
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Read-only app
Unfortunately, this is a read-only app. I cannot update my page from here. For example, I tried to publish a module that was already created and I couldn’t. I had to do it via the browser.
Can’t mark assignments - app bug
I am in the process of marking assignments - when attempting to open the submissions I receive an error that there are ‘no valid submissions to grade’ even though there are over 100 unmarked pieces of work.
It is likely that the students will not receive feedback by the deadline as this app is routinely crashing- making marking take hours longer than needed.
It is likely that the students will not receive feedback by the deadline as this app is routinely crashing- making marking take hours longer than needed.
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The worst
Limited functions. Why can’t I post grades from the app? Instead, I have to find my way to a desktop just to click a button. Also, compatibility with Apple Pencil is awful. Annotations lag and sometime just refuses to work. Must force quit app after grading each submission because tool palette simply disappears after entering a grade and Apple Pencil doesn’t work anymore. I’m so glad I only have to grade quick ‘checkmark’ assignments using this app otherwise I bet trying to grade lengthy submissions with detailed annotations will make me want to throw my iPad against a wall. This is the absolute worst app and a travesty that’s been foisted upon hundreds of schools that will of course find it challenging to switch away in spite of the plethora of problems this system has. Shame on Instructure.
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