Summary
Quarterly overview of new and improved Canvas features for the 2025–2026 year. Each update highlights changes that have a direct impact on teaching, learning, accessibility, and course admin, with a focus on what is new, what has changed, and whether any action is required. This approach helps faculty and staff stay informed without being overwhelmed, while ensuring timely awareness of enhancements that can improve course design, student experience, and instructional workflows.
Body
What’s New, What’s Changed, and When
This page highlights Canvas Core updates most relevant to instructors, students, and Canvas administrators. Third-party integrations and Canvas Plus/Next-only features are not included.
Legend:
I = Instructor | S = Student | AD = Admin | A = All users
Quarter 4 2026 (Upcoming)
Quarter 4 2026 (Upcoming) Canvas Features and Updates
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Item and Description
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Who
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Status
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Notes and KBs
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Action Taken
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Course Backup Reminders
New: When enabled, instructors can see Dashboard reminders when course content and grades have not been exported recently, with options to download backups or dismiss the reminder temporarily.
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AD / I
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Upcoming: October 17; disabled by default
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Canvas
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Review / Optional
|
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Course Navigation: LTI Visibility Indicator
Improved: LTI tools configured with admin-only course-navigation visibility display a crossed-out eye icon so instructors and admins can see that the tool is hidden from students.
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I
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Upcoming: October 7
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Canvas
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Automatic
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New Quizzes: Matching Questions in Surveys
New: New Quizzes will support Matching questions in graded and ungraded surveys.
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I
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Delayed: scheduled for November 21
|
Canvas
|
Automatic when released
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Reports: API Scope Usage
New: Admins can run a report showing which API scopes an active key accessed during a selected time period, helping identify over-permissioned or unexpectedly used keys.
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AD
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Upcoming: October 7
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Canvas
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Automatic
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Quarter 3 2026
Quarter 3 2026 Canvas Features and Updates
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Item and Description
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Who
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Status
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Notes and KBs
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Action Taken
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New Quizzes Migration Required
Improved
: Step 4 of 4: Disable New Quiz importing and migration checkboxes, defaulting them to enabled.
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I
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Pending Tech Committee Approval
|
Canvas
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Enforced
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Admin Authentication: MFA Requirement
New: Canvas requires multi-factor authentication for admins who sign in with Canvas email/password credentials. Institutions using third-party SSO continue to manage MFA through their identity provider.
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AD
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Available / Required
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Canvas
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Enforced
|
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Notebook for Learners
New: Students can highlight course-page content, mark material as Important or Unclear, add notes, and manage those notes from a Notebook page in course navigation.
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S
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Available; enabled by default
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Canvas
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Automatic
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Custom Navigation Links
New: Admins can add links to account, course, and user navigation, and instructors can add links to course navigation. Course-copy references are maintained for supported links.
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AD / I
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Available
|
Canvas
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Automatic
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Customizable Dashboard for Learners
Improved: The customizable student Dashboard is enabled by default and lets students switch between dashboard experiences, organize widgets, review coursework, and see recent grades and feedback.
|
S
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Available; enabled by default
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Canvas
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Automatic
|
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Academic Integrity Pledge
New: Institutions can require students to acknowledge an academic integrity pledge before submitting assignments, using default or institution-specific pledge text.
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AD / S
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Available
|
Canvas
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Optional
|
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Admin Tools: Login Activity Improvements
Improved: Login/Logout Activity records the actual authentication method for new events and allows admins to search activity across a time range for multiple users.
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AD
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Available
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Canvas
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Automatic
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LTI Reports: Version Information
Improved: The LTI Report CSV includes the LTI version for each tool, making it easier for admins to identify and review installed integrations.
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AD
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Available
|
Canvas
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Automatic
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Canvas Portfolio: Assignment Evidence and Sharing
Improved: Portfolio users can import multiple Canvas assignments as requirements, preserve submission snapshots, add assignment submissions to projects, allow comments on shared evidence, and embed supported external content.
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I / S
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Available
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Canvas
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Automatic
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Quarter 1-2 2026
Quarter 1-2 2026 Canvas Features and Updates
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Item and Description
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Who
|
Status
|
Notes and KBs
|
Action Taken
|
|
Captions
New
: Captions for all Canvas media can be automatically generated and published, making it easy for educators to provide accessible content for learners in Canvas.
|
I
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Pending
|
Canvas
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Automatic
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Outcome Results
New
: Enables instructors to view outcome results from individual assignments and better understand how scores contribute to overall mastery.
|
I
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Can be made available in Canvas Test on a sign-up basis only.
|
Canvas
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Automatic
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STEM
:
Item Types
New
: Adds new item types to improve support for STEM courses.
|
I
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Pending
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Canvas
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Automatic
|
|
SpeedGrader
:
IgniteAI
Improved
: Provides AI-generated grading suggestions in SpeedGrader, with score justifications included.
|
I
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Can be made available in Canvas Test on a sign-up basis only.
|
Canvas
Coming Soon . . . April 2026
Assist in maintaining consistency across submissions by helping evaluate student work against rubric criteria to provide consistent, criteria-based suggestions. It supports instructors by reducing workload and improving consistency, while keeping them fully in control of final grades and feedback.
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Automatic
|
|
New Quizzes
:
Item Banks
Improved
: Enables programmatic management of quiz items in Canvas Item Banks, fostering content reusability and large-scale authoring.
|
I
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Available
|
Canvas
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Automatic
|
|
Assignments
:
Peer Review functional changes
:
Assigning
Improved
: Enables instructors to automatically assign peer reviews based on available submissions, reducing manual setup.
|
I
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Available
|
Canvas
How do I automatically assign peer reviews for an assignment?
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Automatic
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|
Assignments
:
Peer Review functional changes
:
Points and Date Settings
Improved
: Allows instructors to set points and a separate due date for peer reviews, making expectations and deadlines clearer for students.
|
I
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Available
|
Canvas
How do I create a peer review assignment?
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Automatic
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Learning Mastery Gradebook: Chart layout update
Improved
: Updates the Learning Mastery Gradebook chart so instructors can more clearly and accessibly understand student progress toward outcome mastery.
|
I
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Available (not activated)
|
Canvas
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Automatic
|
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Learning Mastery Gradebook: Layout improvement for large courses
Improved
: Instructors can quickly and consistently access LMGB, even in courses with many students and assignments.
|
I
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Available (not activated)
|
Canvas
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Automatic
|
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Disable New Quizzes
Improved
: Step 3 of 4: Use New Quizzes as the default quizzing engine when creating a quiz. Removes the ability to create classic quizzes.
|
I
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Pending Tech Committee Approval
|
Canvas
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Enforced
|
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New Quizzes: Multiple-Answer Feedback
Improved: Instructors can provide feedback for each answer choice in multiple-answer questions, giving students more targeted feedback after a quiz.
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I / S
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Available
|
Canvas
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Automatic
|
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New Quizzes: Partial Credit for Categorization
Improved: Categorization questions can award automatic partial credit based on individual correct decisions rather than all-or-nothing scoring.
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I / S
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Available
|
Canvas
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Automatic
|
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New Quizzes: Default Font Setting
New: Instructors can set a default font and font size that applies across Rich Content Editors within a New Quiz.
|
I
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Available
|
Canvas
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Automatic
|
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SpeedGrader: Current Student Indicator
Improved: The student drop-down menu identifies the student currently being viewed, making navigation between submissions clearer.
|
I
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Available
|
Canvas
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Automatic
|
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New Quizzes: Improved Accommodation Tray
Improved: Instructors can adjust time accommodations and reopen an attempt from one tray, with the student's total allowed time shown before changes are saved.
|
I
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Available
|
Canvas
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Automatic
|
|
Admin Tools: Sub-Account Grade Change Search
Improved: Authorized sub-account admins can search Grade Change Activity by course, grader, student, or assignment within their sub-account.
|
AD
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Available
|
Canvas
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Automatic
|
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Account Settings: Notification Suppression
New: Admins can suppress all notifications or selected notification categories at the root-account level.
|
AD
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Available
|
Canvas
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Optional
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Previous Canvas Updates
Older, settled updates are listed below for reference. Recent and active changes remain in the detailed tables above.
Quarter 4 2025
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Differentiation Tags
— Added hidden student tags that instructors can use to differentiate assignments, modules, and Gradebook views.
Resources:
Assignments
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Gradebook
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Modules
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People
-
Discussion Translation: IgniteAI
— Added translation options for discussion topics and replies.
Resources:
Canvas guide
-
Question Authoring: IgniteAI
— Added AI-assisted quiz item generation from uploaded source material and learning outcomes.
Resources:
Canvas guide
-
Portfolio Improvements
— Added portfolio alerts, export options, Showcase and Evaluation portfolio improvements, learner completion tools, and assignment options.
Resources:
View Portfolios
|
Evaluation Portfolio
|
Export and Share
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Discussion Pinning
— Added the ability for instructors to pin important discussion replies at the top of a topic.
-
Discussion Summarization: IgniteAI
— Added AI-generated discussion summaries with optional custom prompts.
Resources:
Canvas guide
-
New Quizzes: Native Layout
— Moved New Quizzes toward a more native Canvas experience, improving compatibility with accessibility and other Canvas tools.
Resources:
Canvas: New Quizzes
Quarter 1-3 2025
-
Discussion Checkpoints
— Added multiple due dates within a graded discussion so instructors can separate initial posts and replies.
Resources:
Canvas guide
-
Differentiation Tags
— Introduced hidden student groupings for differentiated course organization and assignment workflows.
Resources:
Canvas guide
-
SpeedGrader Performance Improvements
— Introduced performance and usability improvements for SpeedGrader, especially in larger courses.
Resources:
La Salle KB