Streamlining Resource Discovery
What is it?
Smart Search is a feature of Canvas that is currently in development. Leveraging semantic algorithms and AI, the new Smart Search feature understands the context of queries, providing more accurate and relevant results without the need for traditional Boolean operators or other search tools. This approach is an improvement over traditional keyword-based searches, and will enable users to swiftly and efficiently navigate the vast array of educational resources available on Canvas.
Why is it important?
Smart Search supports a multilingual model. This allows for a non-native speaking user of the course language to search for course content using their native language. Please note that performance may vary across languages. At this time, Smart Search is not visible on Canvas mobile apps. We look forward to adding mobile support for this feature in the future. Not at this time. We are aware that account-level/cross course searching is desired functionality, but we are prioritizing search within the context of a course and exploring expansion in the future.
How do I do it?
Course Level
To enable at a course level, go to Course Settings > Feature Options > enable the Smart Search feature option. You may want to manage course navigation to ensure Search is visible to users.
- Select the Search area of Course Navigation.
- In the search box, type in keyword(s), content, or just give a general gist of what you are looking for (“guitar”, “what are the steps of photosynthesis?”, “math to turn a function into frequencies“). The search will occur within a course's content pages, announcements, discussion prompts and assignment descriptions.
In the latest release, we do on-demand indexing within the course. That means when the search is initiated within a course the very first time, users will see a status indicating that results are being prepared (see screenshot below). This indexing will only be seen on the initial launch of Search and may take a few minutes to load; subsequent searches will return results instantly.
How does the Search feature work?
Our Smart Search feature relies on an AI-adjacent technology called “embeddings.” This technology “reads” the course content and creates a complex mathematical representation of each piece of content. When you perform a search, the technology “reads” your query and converts it into a complex mathematical representation. The tool then compares the mathematical representations of both your search and course content to return relevant results; this result is returned with a “Confidence” rating.
Because the search operates on “understanding” both the content and the queries, you can type in keyword(s), content, or just give a general gist of what you are looking for (“guitar”, “what are the steps of photosynthesis?”, “math to turn a function into frequencies“). We think you will be surprised at how well the system understands the intent of your queries and returns results accordingly.
What AI is being used?
Our Smart Search feature relies on an AI-adjacent technology called “embeddings.” It currently uses the Cohere Embed Multilingual model hosted on AWS. The “nutrition label” below answers some key questions at-a-glance related to the AI model, data, privacy and security.