Terrible app, even worse company
Buggy, and limited parity with web app. There are repeatable crashes in every update, but NO WAY TO REPORT THEM IN THE APP. The link on the App Store to report a problem also 404s to Canvas’ worthless website. Finally, the main purpose of canvas for teachers is grading and managing a class. Viewing/grading from this app is buggy and cumbersome. Can’t view team groups in the app, can only edit limited parts of an assignment. Many other problems as well. Canvas is probably outsourcing or not paying their developers well, so why would they care about fixing it. Call your schools and beg them to move to a different platform.
Show more
Not fit for purpose
So many of the features simply do not work. My class lists typically have at least 100 students. There is no way to home in quickly on the report you need. When you find it, the mark-up tools are USELESS. Add to that the massive cyber security issue this month (May 2026) and I have had enough of this garbage. Same goes for the CANVAS system itself. Hard to believe people keep paying them, yet nothing seems to change.
Time we went back to pen and paper!
Time we went back to pen and paper!
Show more
Not functional for teaching
Canvas has gone from being a decent LMS for college instructors to a very glitchy app. I would caution any faculty to not use the teacher app for anything other than a convenient messaging app. Grading with a rubric doesn’t function. I will be using the desktop app for any prep or grading. The student interface is worse. I tell my students to not use their phone app for assignments, quizzes, or discussions because of the unreliability.
Show more
Needs Updating - Daily Struggles!
As a teacher and a coach on the go, I need this app to be capable of the same things as the desktop version. It’s a daily frustration to need a computer anytime I have to create a module, a quiz, an assignment, Quizzes, edit almost anything and look at the entire grade book (I can see individual grades inside an assignment which is somewhat helpful). I like Canvas, but I need to be able to use both the desktop and mobile app interchangeably everyday. Please update it.
Show more
Couldn’t Log-in, Deleted.
Got tired of trying to hack into my own Canvas account, never did succeed.
Deleted this app and used a browser with no problems.
Deleted this app and used a browser with no problems.
Takes forever to load
Frustrating to use as the app often takes forever to load up the courses you need. Speedgrader functionality is also limited
Export Bug
Canvas is not allowing docx files to easily export to programs like iAnnotate. Please fix this. Speedgrader is too buggy, so let us at least use better software.
Terrible
It’s so incredibly slow that it’s useless for actually entering grades. It freezes and crashes frequently. You’re not able to see responses to quizzes in some cases, so it can’t be used in real time to get insight.
Continues to be unusable
Completely unusable. Crashes constantly. Developers couldn’t care less.
Missing so many functions
Maybe this should just be called Canvas grader? So much is missing that I have to log into my computer to do many functions - can’t add students, no gradebook?
not all features as webpage
i cannot see quiz responses in the app, only on the webpage. changing the points of a quiz requires me to manually regrade. this doesn’t make sense
UI degradation
If I could sum up my review, speed grader desperately needs a compact view option.
I have used the canvas app for iPad and iPhone for 5 years now. I used to sing it’s
praises and insist all teachers buy an iPad exclusively to grade assignments using the canvas
app. This is no longer the case as the speed grader interface is designed by people who do not
have to grade hundreds of assignments through the course of the year. Over the past few years
the user experience has been degrading making the app slower and more difficult to use.
The main issue is updates to the speed grader interface that have been adding
increasing amounts of UI padding and repeated irrelevant information. This results in more and
more wasted space that leads to less useful screen space for viewing the assignment itself and
less actually useful buttons on screen.
This is particularly egregious if rubrics are being used for grading. With the old interface
on a 13 in. iPad, I was able to have a full page of the assignment visible while having nearly 10
rubric criteria visible. This enabled me to be able to view the entire assignment and easily input
grades by selecting the buttons in the rubric criteria. With latest updates, this experience no
longer exists.
For one, the assignment view now defaults to filling the width of the screen making the
assignment increasingly zoomed in with no ability to zoom out and have it stay that way. This
necessitates scrolling the assignment to read them if they are longer than a single paragraph
and fiddling with pinch zoom if I need to see the entire page at once. This also now means the
app needs to be used with both hands if one is trying to grade with any sense of urgency.
On top of this the rubric criteria interface has been all but ruined by the increasing
amount of UI padding and irrelevant information added to the criteria selection boxes. To start,
each criteria is now in it’s own box, and this box now has padding to the other criteria. The
information in these score selection boxes used to be presented completely in line, they are
now separated into a vertical list with each entry now having UI padding as well.
There are now also a comment entry box on every rubric criteria as we a comment entry
box for the assignment as well as space used to show comments from students. If comments
are not used, which in my experience they are used very rarely, this is an incredible amount of
wasted space.
All of this wasted space adds up to there now only being 2 criteria visible on the screen.
This leads to two issues; scrolling and movement. With only two criteria visible you now have
to scroll through the list. This requires more user input and time, but also is very unresponsive
and unreliable as the interface regularly gets confused on whether you are scrolling vertically
through the list, or horizontally through student submissions, or trying to select a score in the
criteria box.
This means it regularly takes multiple attempts to get the list to scroll to the select
scores without the list scrolling and feels deeply unpleasant to use. This is further compounded
by the fact that the scores cannot be selected if the list is scrolling, given the smooth scrolling
inertia of the interface this means the list needs to be dragged then stopped before a score can
be entered. When you take these multiple user inputs and couple them with the interface
regularly misinterpreting scrolling direction, trying to use this interface for entering rubric scores
for more than a single assignment is incredibly frustrating.
On top of all of this, these changes spread the interface out. I used to be able to enter
the scores with rubric criteria and swipe to the next submission with only the movement of my
thumb, now everything takes up so much space I now have to move my entire arm to reach all
of the buttons. This sounds like a minor complaint, but again this slows down the use of the
app and when compounded across hundreds of assignments in a single grading session this
time inefficiency movement fatigue adds up.
When the user interface began to get frustrating to use, I stopped using the canvas app
and instead would use safari and use the web version of speed grader as that interface would
allow me to see the entire assignment as well as easily see and reach all of the grading criteria
of the rubric.
This UI problem with the app interface has now moved the web interface as well. The
browser version of speed grader now how the same UI padding and Big buttons and extra
cement boxes that waste space meaning, I can no longer use the web interface without
fiddling with scrolling and zooming.
Beyond the use of the interface being frustrating there is now and increasing amount of
redundant data on screen. When using the speed grader interface in the canvas app, the
assignment score is displayed, no less than 6 times. Points are displayed twice, and grade is
displayed twice. There are now 4 different ways to input a score, with them being two separate
pairs of duplicate interfaces. This can be seen in the interface where you can tap to enter a
score, and again in a redundant “status” box that just repeats the information that is literally
and inch above it on the screen. This wastes vertical space that is better used to show more
rubric grading criteria.
While each grade readout may have a use depending of the use of gpa scales or
interpretation scales, there is no reason to show all of this at the same time, if I am grading in
points, and entered 7 points, I don’t need two other interfaces to display the final score of 7
points. There only needs to be the point entry box.
Only if a gpa or interpretation scale is enabled for an assignment should the “Final
Score” be shown to show how this grading scale has been applied. It also only needs to be
shown once. This display can also be moved to the top of the screen in order to preserve
vertical space that is better used to show rubric criteria.
There is a
I have used the canvas app for iPad and iPhone for 5 years now. I used to sing it’s
praises and insist all teachers buy an iPad exclusively to grade assignments using the canvas
app. This is no longer the case as the speed grader interface is designed by people who do not
have to grade hundreds of assignments through the course of the year. Over the past few years
the user experience has been degrading making the app slower and more difficult to use.
The main issue is updates to the speed grader interface that have been adding
increasing amounts of UI padding and repeated irrelevant information. This results in more and
more wasted space that leads to less useful screen space for viewing the assignment itself and
less actually useful buttons on screen.
This is particularly egregious if rubrics are being used for grading. With the old interface
on a 13 in. iPad, I was able to have a full page of the assignment visible while having nearly 10
rubric criteria visible. This enabled me to be able to view the entire assignment and easily input
grades by selecting the buttons in the rubric criteria. With latest updates, this experience no
longer exists.
For one, the assignment view now defaults to filling the width of the screen making the
assignment increasingly zoomed in with no ability to zoom out and have it stay that way. This
necessitates scrolling the assignment to read them if they are longer than a single paragraph
and fiddling with pinch zoom if I need to see the entire page at once. This also now means the
app needs to be used with both hands if one is trying to grade with any sense of urgency.
On top of this the rubric criteria interface has been all but ruined by the increasing
amount of UI padding and irrelevant information added to the criteria selection boxes. To start,
each criteria is now in it’s own box, and this box now has padding to the other criteria. The
information in these score selection boxes used to be presented completely in line, they are
now separated into a vertical list with each entry now having UI padding as well.
There are now also a comment entry box on every rubric criteria as we a comment entry
box for the assignment as well as space used to show comments from students. If comments
are not used, which in my experience they are used very rarely, this is an incredible amount of
wasted space.
All of this wasted space adds up to there now only being 2 criteria visible on the screen.
This leads to two issues; scrolling and movement. With only two criteria visible you now have
to scroll through the list. This requires more user input and time, but also is very unresponsive
and unreliable as the interface regularly gets confused on whether you are scrolling vertically
through the list, or horizontally through student submissions, or trying to select a score in the
criteria box.
This means it regularly takes multiple attempts to get the list to scroll to the select
scores without the list scrolling and feels deeply unpleasant to use. This is further compounded
by the fact that the scores cannot be selected if the list is scrolling, given the smooth scrolling
inertia of the interface this means the list needs to be dragged then stopped before a score can
be entered. When you take these multiple user inputs and couple them with the interface
regularly misinterpreting scrolling direction, trying to use this interface for entering rubric scores
for more than a single assignment is incredibly frustrating.
On top of all of this, these changes spread the interface out. I used to be able to enter
the scores with rubric criteria and swipe to the next submission with only the movement of my
thumb, now everything takes up so much space I now have to move my entire arm to reach all
of the buttons. This sounds like a minor complaint, but again this slows down the use of the
app and when compounded across hundreds of assignments in a single grading session this
time inefficiency movement fatigue adds up.
When the user interface began to get frustrating to use, I stopped using the canvas app
and instead would use safari and use the web version of speed grader as that interface would
allow me to see the entire assignment as well as easily see and reach all of the grading criteria
of the rubric.
This UI problem with the app interface has now moved the web interface as well. The
browser version of speed grader now how the same UI padding and Big buttons and extra
cement boxes that waste space meaning, I can no longer use the web interface without
fiddling with scrolling and zooming.
Beyond the use of the interface being frustrating there is now and increasing amount of
redundant data on screen. When using the speed grader interface in the canvas app, the
assignment score is displayed, no less than 6 times. Points are displayed twice, and grade is
displayed twice. There are now 4 different ways to input a score, with them being two separate
pairs of duplicate interfaces. This can be seen in the interface where you can tap to enter a
score, and again in a redundant “status” box that just repeats the information that is literally
and inch above it on the screen. This wastes vertical space that is better used to show more
rubric grading criteria.
While each grade readout may have a use depending of the use of gpa scales or
interpretation scales, there is no reason to show all of this at the same time, if I am grading in
points, and entered 7 points, I don’t need two other interfaces to display the final score of 7
points. There only needs to be the point entry box.
Only if a gpa or interpretation scale is enabled for an assignment should the “Final
Score” be shown to show how this grading scale has been applied. It also only needs to be
shown once. This display can also be moved to the top of the screen in order to preserve
vertical space that is better used to show rubric criteria.
There is a
Show more
UI degradation
I have used the canvas app for iPad and iPhone for 5 years now. I used to sing it’s praises and insist all teachers buy an iPad exclusively to grade assignments using the canvas app. This is no longer the case as the speed grader interface is designed by people who do not have to grade hundreds of assignments through the course of the year. Over the past few years the user experience has been degrading making the app slower and more difficult to use.
The main issue is updates to the speed grader interface that have been adding increasing amounts of UI padding and repeated irrelevant information. This results in more and more wasted space that leads to less useful screen space for viewing the assignment itself and less actually useful buttons on screen.
This is particularly egregious if rubrics are being used for grading. With the old interface on a 13 in. iPad, I was able to have a full page of the assignment visible while having nearly 10 rubric criteria visible. This enabled me to be able to view the entire assignment and easily input grades by selecting the buttons in the rubric criteria. With latest updates, this experience no longer exists.
For one, the assignment view now defaults to filling the width of the screen making the assignment increasingly zoomed in with no ability to zoom out and have it stay that way. This necessitates scrolling the assignment to read them if they are longer than a single paragraph and fiddling with pinch zoom if I need to see the entire page at once. This also now means the app needs to be used with both hands if one is trying to grade with any sense of urgency.
On top of this the rubric criteria interface has been all but ruined by the increasing amount of UI padding and irrelevant information added to the criteria selection boxes. To start, each criteria is now in it’s own box, and this box now has padding to the other criteria. The information in these score selection boxes used to be presented completely in line, they are now separated into a vertical list with each entry now having UI padding as well.
There are now also a comment entry box on every rubric criteria as we a comment entry box for the assignment as well as space used to show comments from students. If comments are not used, which in my experience they are used very rarely, this is an incredible amount of wasted space.
All of this wasted space adds up to there now only being 2 criteria visible on the screen. This leads to two issues; scrolling and movement. With only two criteria visible you now have to scroll through the list. This requires more user input and time, but also is very unresponsive and unreliable as the interface regularly gets confused on whether you are scrolling vertically through the list, or horizontally through student submissions, or trying to select a score in the criteria box.
This means it regularly takes multiple attempts to get the list to scroll to the select scores without the list scrolling and feels deeply unpleasant to use. This is further compounded by the fact that the scores cannot be selected if the list is scrolling, given the smooth scrolling inertia of the interface this means the list needs to be dragged then stopped before a score can be entered. When you take these multiple user inputs and couple them with the interface regularly misinterpreting scrolling direction, trying to use this interface for entering rubric scores for more than a single assignment is incredibly frustrating.
On top of all of this, these changes spread the interface out. I used to be able to enter the scores with rubric criteria and swipe to the next submission with only the movement of my thumb, now everything takes up so much space I now have to move my entire arm to reach all of the buttons. This sounds like a minor complaint, but again this slows down the use of the app and when compounded across hundreds of assignments in a single grading session this time inefficiency movement fatigue adds up.
When the user interface began to get frustrating to use, I stopped using the canvas app and instead would use safari and use the web version of speed grader as that interface would allow me to see the entire assignment as well as easily see and reach all of the grading criteria of the rubric.
This UI problem with the app interface has now moved the web interface as well. The browser version of speed grader now how the same UI padding and Big buttons and extra cement boxes that waste space meaning, I can no longer use the web interface without fiddling with scrolling and zooming.
Beyond the use of the interface being frustrating there is now and increasing amount of redundant data on screen. When using the speed grader interface in the canvas app, the assignment score is displayed, no less than 6 times. Points are displayed twice, and grade is displayed twice. There are now 4 different ways to input a score, with them being two separate pairs of duplicate interfaces. This can be seen in the interface where you can tap to enter a score, and again in a redundant “status” box that just repeats the information that is literally and inch above it on the screen. This wastes vertical space that is better used to show more rubric grading criteria.
While each grade readout may have a use depending of the use of gpa scales or interpretation scales, there is no reason to show all of this at the same time, if I am grading in points, and entered 7 points, I don’t need two other interfaces to display the final score of 7 points. There only needs to be the point entry box.
Only if a gpa or interpretation scale is enabled for an assignment should the “Final Score” be shown to show how this grading scale has been applied. It also only needs to be shown once. This display can also be moved to the top of the screen in order to preserve vertical space that is better used to show rubric criteria.
I did not buy an iPad to use a giant iPhone interface, please fix.
The main issue is updates to the speed grader interface that have been adding increasing amounts of UI padding and repeated irrelevant information. This results in more and more wasted space that leads to less useful screen space for viewing the assignment itself and less actually useful buttons on screen.
This is particularly egregious if rubrics are being used for grading. With the old interface on a 13 in. iPad, I was able to have a full page of the assignment visible while having nearly 10 rubric criteria visible. This enabled me to be able to view the entire assignment and easily input grades by selecting the buttons in the rubric criteria. With latest updates, this experience no longer exists.
For one, the assignment view now defaults to filling the width of the screen making the assignment increasingly zoomed in with no ability to zoom out and have it stay that way. This necessitates scrolling the assignment to read them if they are longer than a single paragraph and fiddling with pinch zoom if I need to see the entire page at once. This also now means the app needs to be used with both hands if one is trying to grade with any sense of urgency.
On top of this the rubric criteria interface has been all but ruined by the increasing amount of UI padding and irrelevant information added to the criteria selection boxes. To start, each criteria is now in it’s own box, and this box now has padding to the other criteria. The information in these score selection boxes used to be presented completely in line, they are now separated into a vertical list with each entry now having UI padding as well.
There are now also a comment entry box on every rubric criteria as we a comment entry box for the assignment as well as space used to show comments from students. If comments are not used, which in my experience they are used very rarely, this is an incredible amount of wasted space.
All of this wasted space adds up to there now only being 2 criteria visible on the screen. This leads to two issues; scrolling and movement. With only two criteria visible you now have to scroll through the list. This requires more user input and time, but also is very unresponsive and unreliable as the interface regularly gets confused on whether you are scrolling vertically through the list, or horizontally through student submissions, or trying to select a score in the criteria box.
This means it regularly takes multiple attempts to get the list to scroll to the select scores without the list scrolling and feels deeply unpleasant to use. This is further compounded by the fact that the scores cannot be selected if the list is scrolling, given the smooth scrolling inertia of the interface this means the list needs to be dragged then stopped before a score can be entered. When you take these multiple user inputs and couple them with the interface regularly misinterpreting scrolling direction, trying to use this interface for entering rubric scores for more than a single assignment is incredibly frustrating.
On top of all of this, these changes spread the interface out. I used to be able to enter the scores with rubric criteria and swipe to the next submission with only the movement of my thumb, now everything takes up so much space I now have to move my entire arm to reach all of the buttons. This sounds like a minor complaint, but again this slows down the use of the app and when compounded across hundreds of assignments in a single grading session this time inefficiency movement fatigue adds up.
When the user interface began to get frustrating to use, I stopped using the canvas app and instead would use safari and use the web version of speed grader as that interface would allow me to see the entire assignment as well as easily see and reach all of the grading criteria of the rubric.
This UI problem with the app interface has now moved the web interface as well. The browser version of speed grader now how the same UI padding and Big buttons and extra cement boxes that waste space meaning, I can no longer use the web interface without fiddling with scrolling and zooming.
Beyond the use of the interface being frustrating there is now and increasing amount of redundant data on screen. When using the speed grader interface in the canvas app, the assignment score is displayed, no less than 6 times. Points are displayed twice, and grade is displayed twice. There are now 4 different ways to input a score, with them being two separate pairs of duplicate interfaces. This can be seen in the interface where you can tap to enter a score, and again in a redundant “status” box that just repeats the information that is literally and inch above it on the screen. This wastes vertical space that is better used to show more rubric grading criteria.
While each grade readout may have a use depending of the use of gpa scales or interpretation scales, there is no reason to show all of this at the same time, if I am grading in points, and entered 7 points, I don’t need two other interfaces to display the final score of 7 points. There only needs to be the point entry box.
Only if a gpa or interpretation scale is enabled for an assignment should the “Final Score” be shown to show how this grading scale has been applied. It also only needs to be shown once. This display can also be moved to the top of the screen in order to preserve vertical space that is better used to show rubric criteria.
I did not buy an iPad to use a giant iPhone interface, please fix.
Show more
The app has a bug…
when you go to the grading screen there is no way to go back to the main page. You have to close the app and restart
Odd UI Choices
Let me start by saying I’m a huge Canvas fan. It’s made my life so much easier and made it so I can deliver consistent curriculum to students and their families. This app however, makes some strange design choices that sometimes make it easier to use the site in a browser. It’s good in a pinch, or in certain use cases, but with a few changes and additions, it could be so much better.
My current issue is with the redesign of the rubrics. Previously, when grading, the rubric scores were stationary and the rubric criteria was in a tool tip. Now, when you tap the rubric score, the rest of the rubric moves, like a hinge or drawer, moving the rest of the rubric downwards. This makes quick grading a huge pain, since the tap targets are constantly moving.
Another longstanding feature that is missing in the app is the ability to read submission comments in the inbox. When dealing with a large amount of students or assignments, not being able to filter new submission comments in the inbox (as you can do on the site), makes this extremely difficult to use to find and respond to specific students.
While I’m at it, I’d love to see the it implement support for the new Pencil Pro tools and tool selection, and also love to select a default browser for Canvas to use (that may be a iOS / iPadOS limitation), as I use Chrome for work.
My current issue is with the redesign of the rubrics. Previously, when grading, the rubric scores were stationary and the rubric criteria was in a tool tip. Now, when you tap the rubric score, the rest of the rubric moves, like a hinge or drawer, moving the rest of the rubric downwards. This makes quick grading a huge pain, since the tap targets are constantly moving.
Another longstanding feature that is missing in the app is the ability to read submission comments in the inbox. When dealing with a large amount of students or assignments, not being able to filter new submission comments in the inbox (as you can do on the site), makes this extremely difficult to use to find and respond to specific students.
While I’m at it, I’d love to see the it implement support for the new Pencil Pro tools and tool selection, and also love to select a default browser for Canvas to use (that may be a iOS / iPadOS limitation), as I use Chrome for work.
Show more
Rubric feedback!? WOW :)
I’ve waited a decade for the ability to enter rubric feedback. THANK YOU.
One major glitch: I cannot remove an automatic late penalty by changing the number of days late to zero. The field is editable, but even if I change it and hit enter, it returns back to the days late the submission was leaving the grade book setting of 5% per day late deducted automatically.
I appreciate the rubric changes overall!
One major glitch: I cannot remove an automatic late penalty by changing the number of days late to zero. The field is editable, but even if I change it and hit enter, it returns back to the days late the submission was leaving the grade book setting of 5% per day late deducted automatically.
I appreciate the rubric changes overall!
Show more
The app is slow and broken.
It takes way too long to open an assignment.
And now when you go to the grading screen there is no way to go back to the main page.
And now when you go to the grading screen there is no way to go back to the main page.
Completely useless
You can’t do anything in the app that would be useful on mobile, like sending a notification you’re late for class. You can only view
Crash prone app.
On iOS, it works “ok” not great. You’re better off just using a web browser.
On macOS, it crashes constantly when trying to use Speedgrader.
Avoid.
On macOS, it crashes constantly when trying to use Speedgrader.
Avoid.
Not Grading Friendly
Maybe I need to take a course on how to better utilize canvas. But my experience in the last four years is that it takes triple the amount of time to grade assignments through this app. Windows constantly close it is not easy to edit within the document. There are multiple steps to download and re-upload a graded assignment. The app does not allow me to quickly edit assignment details. My students love it. I hate it and I’ve now started going back to paper in most instances.
I am appalled at how terrible the grading tool is-this is a nightmare! 2 assignments in 2 hours is unacceptable. Please fix the grading tool
I am appalled at how terrible the grading tool is-this is a nightmare! 2 assignments in 2 hours is unacceptable. Please fix the grading tool
Show more
