Control is glitchy
I tried marking with Canvas teacher app.
The control is very glitchy.
If you didn’t carefully drag to select, the app would accidentally bring you back to the to-do list page, sometimes resetting your comments.
When accidentally move the iPad, you can reset the marking too.
The highlight button stays down every time you try to scroll down. Why don’t we have the ability to make it stay down if we want. The default option should let this button reset every time we finish highlighting.
Update: new bug. Now the app does not update my markings. Unbelievable lack of support even though it was used everywhere I teach. Degrade it from 3 star to one. I hope some new startup can replace this old and buggy system. Still wonder why we have to used such a terrible system like this for education??
The control is very glitchy.
If you didn’t carefully drag to select, the app would accidentally bring you back to the to-do list page, sometimes resetting your comments.
When accidentally move the iPad, you can reset the marking too.
The highlight button stays down every time you try to scroll down. Why don’t we have the ability to make it stay down if we want. The default option should let this button reset every time we finish highlighting.
Update: new bug. Now the app does not update my markings. Unbelievable lack of support even though it was used everywhere I teach. Degrade it from 3 star to one. I hope some new startup can replace this old and buggy system. Still wonder why we have to used such a terrible system like this for education??
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New Changes Have Ruined My Life
There’s no hyperbole in my review title. I work from home while taking care of my son, who I gave birth to right before COVID hit. The only time I have to grade is when he naps or sleeps. I have been grading on my phone with the app for the last year and a half. However - The new changes to the app have made the comment bubbles jump around while I’m trying to leave my students comments on their work. My words disappear while I’m typing them. The assignment speed grader flips through the assignments super fast, also unintentionally, while I’m trying to grade. So I can’t grade on my phone anymore. THANKS SO MUCH for the changes - from a stressed out overworked full time professor and mom.
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Annotations rotate 90degrees randomly
Major issue, that only happens occasionally, though enough that I want to quit grading more than usual. I teach chemistry so rely on students uploading pictures of their work an calculations. I then use my iPad/Apple Pencil to grade and correct the work. When I move to a different page or a different student’s work and go back, my annotations are rotated 90 degrees. To be able to see what comments go with what question, I need to go back and forth four times to get the comments lined up with the work so I can add up the grades.
Then when the students go back to look at how I graded, the markings are all askew. I don’t have time or the inclination to print out my student’s annotated work when it is all aligned, so we can go through their work.
Then when the students go back to look at how I graded, the markings are all askew. I don’t have time or the inclination to print out my student’s annotated work when it is all aligned, so we can go through their work.
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Cannot grade PDFs
You might as well just use a laptop to grade because this app works inconsistently.
If students have assignments that require them to upload a file, it causes issues. Sometimes it will work, and sometimes you will unintentionally give a student a lower grade than they deserve because it appears as though they didn’t complete their work.
This is unfair to students and only creates MORE work for the teachers because we have to go back to check assignments we thought were previously graded.
For example, sometimes there are assignments in which students are to fill in answers on a PDF and then upload that PDF as their assignment. When using the app to grade these assignments, students’ PDFs look blank - not so on a laptop.
Last semester, I reached out to our campus administrators. You can view their response below. Basically, the issue is known and has not been resolved 6 months later:
“Canvas engineers responded back to let us know that the feature you want to use is not available in the Canvas app. Here is their response:
Form data files are not designed to show on the Canvas app. Grading will need to be done within a browser. This is due to the multi layer properties of files of this type.”
If students have assignments that require them to upload a file, it causes issues. Sometimes it will work, and sometimes you will unintentionally give a student a lower grade than they deserve because it appears as though they didn’t complete their work.
This is unfair to students and only creates MORE work for the teachers because we have to go back to check assignments we thought were previously graded.
For example, sometimes there are assignments in which students are to fill in answers on a PDF and then upload that PDF as their assignment. When using the app to grade these assignments, students’ PDFs look blank - not so on a laptop.
Last semester, I reached out to our campus administrators. You can view their response below. Basically, the issue is known and has not been resolved 6 months later:
“Canvas engineers responded back to let us know that the feature you want to use is not available in the Canvas app. Here is their response:
Form data files are not designed to show on the Canvas app. Grading will need to be done within a browser. This is due to the multi layer properties of files of this type.”
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Functionality in marking/annotation
This app does not have the functionality of an app like Notability. The window pane for marking is tiny and makes writing annotations difficult and cramped. Also, the array of options is quite limited. Finally, setting up an assignment on the app is difficult. Certain submission formats are not ‘mark able’ as the ‘docviewer’ doesn’t load on a text submission for example. Canvas is overly complex and needlessly labyrinthine.
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No response from any Customer Service
I have been using this up for a few weeks now. Had a number of technical issues like, submitted student’s work wouldn’t open on the app or a problem with adding new people to the course.
I emailed “Help” section three times, and the only emails I received was “we’ll get back to you with your query”. That was over a week ago.
Therefore, I think customer service is really poor. Good job this is a free platform. I wouldn’t be paying for this.
I emailed “Help” section three times, and the only emails I received was “we’ll get back to you with your query”. That was over a week ago.
Therefore, I think customer service is really poor. Good job this is a free platform. I wouldn’t be paying for this.
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New Update is NOT User Friendly
The most recent update has made the app terrible to use. There are a number of issues that have made this app no longer user friendly. Most of the time it does not filter only the assignments that still need to be marked when you click on needs grading. It will randomly switch to a different student’s submission when trying to add an annotation. Sometime only some of the submissions will show up. It no longer changes the number of assignments that need marking unless you reload the page.
I wish I could go back to the previous version.
I wish I could go back to the previous version.
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App Barely Functional Now
I used the app extensively last year and loved it. I never had problems and was able to grade on the go, sync grades from my phone/iPad, and do all of the other things that I could do on the desktop version.
All of a sudden, now the app is a total disaster. It has stopped loading student submissions most of the time in the speed grader section, won’t allow me to assign grades for assignments, and I can’t sync my grades to our LMS from the app anymore. The option for that is completely gone from the menu. On the rare instances when I can actually get it to load a student submission for a given assignment, it hangs up after every student and makes me hit the done button and come back in to see any further student submissions.
I’m sorely disappointed! This is an expensive product, and these issues are totally unacceptable; especially after using it so successfully last year. How did we go backwards?
All of a sudden, now the app is a total disaster. It has stopped loading student submissions most of the time in the speed grader section, won’t allow me to assign grades for assignments, and I can’t sync my grades to our LMS from the app anymore. The option for that is completely gone from the menu. On the rare instances when I can actually get it to load a student submission for a given assignment, it hangs up after every student and makes me hit the done button and come back in to see any further student submissions.
I’m sorely disappointed! This is an expensive product, and these issues are totally unacceptable; especially after using it so successfully last year. How did we go backwards?
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Newest update is glitchy
I LOVED the Canvas teacher app until the most recent update. The grading in the app has been very glitchy. It will say that a student submitted work, but then when I open it say they haven’t submitted anything. If I close it out and go back to it, the student’s work is there. When I slide the slider over to give a grade, the grade will repeatedly disappear.
Another thing weird about the update is now my to-do list only says how many assignment groups I have to grade, not how many total assignments I have. I saw this weekend that I only had 7 assignments on the to do list, so I thought the grading could wait until Monday. No, each of those “to-dos” included multiple submissions. I really had dozens of things to grade. I really liked knowing I had 145 or whatever submissions to grade, so when I got down to 5 I knew I had five left. Now 5 could mean 500.
Not a fan of this update, Canvas.
Another thing weird about the update is now my to-do list only says how many assignment groups I have to grade, not how many total assignments I have. I saw this weekend that I only had 7 assignments on the to do list, so I thought the grading could wait until Monday. No, each of those “to-dos” included multiple submissions. I really had dozens of things to grade. I really liked knowing I had 145 or whatever submissions to grade, so when I got down to 5 I knew I had five left. Now 5 could mean 500.
Not a fan of this update, Canvas.
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Updates not an improvement
Used to love this app, for the most part. It made grading with my iPad a breeze. Now it’s almost unusable. I can’t see what I’m writing in the comment section. Also, I used to be able to tap the slider bar to grade, now I have to physically move the slider. The time it adds is annoying—especially when you have hundreds of assignments to grade. Those few seconds really add up. Also, I used to be able to tell exactly how many assignments I needed to grade without opening the app; now I have no way of knowing without going to the desktop. Please change it back.
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