The Canvas Teacher App is not a substitute for the version of Canvas you use in your browser. However, it does provide a way to manage parts of your course on-the-go which includes grading, updating content, and communicating with students. You can download the free Teacher app from the Google Play store on Android or the Apple Store on iOS. The app works similarly on both platforms.
Please watch this short video tutorial on how to set-up and use the Teacher app:
As the video shows, you can use SpeedGrader in the app, access your Canvas Inbox for messaging, and edit assignments, discussions, and pages.
Grading On-the-Go
Grading in the app can be especially convenient. Here are a few additional tips for grading in the Teacher app:
- After you access an assignment's submission as shown in the video (which takes you to SpeedGrader), you can swipe left or right to move between students. If a student has made more than one submission, there is a dropdown menu at the top you can use to toggle between those submissions.
- You can swipe up on the GRADE / COMMENTS / FILES bar to expand it, and swipe down on it to hide it and return to the full view of the submission.
- To give a grade to a submission, tap the GRADE tab, then tap the plus (+) sign:
- As shown in the video, you can leave inline annotations using the toolbar at the top of SpeedGrader.
- To provide or respond to general comments on a submission, tap the COMMENTS tab. This shows you the correspondence between you and your student and allows you to enter new comments. These are the general comments you'd leave under the submission's grade if you were using SpeedGrader in a browser. You can also tap the plus (+) sign at bottom left to add audio or video comments:
- Finally, tapping the eye icon at top right of SpeedGrader...
...lets you post or hide all grades for an assignment:
What are some other things I can do in the app?
Here are some other useful things you can do in the app:
- Post announcements.
- Create, edit, and reply to non-graded discussions.
- Edit and reply to graded discussions.
- Create and edit pages.
- Edit assignments.
- Upload or delete files.
- View and message people in a course.
- Use Student View to view your course.
What CAN'T I do in the app?
Not all of Canvas' features are available in the app. Here is a list of things you cannot do in the app:
- Create, add items to, or remove items from Modules.
- Create new assignments, quizzes, or graded discussions.
- Reply to group discussions.
- Change the submission type of an assignment.
- View or edit the syllabus.
- Use any feature that doesn't appear in the app's course menu.
As you can see, the Teacher app has a lot of utility! It's a great tool to use in addition to the browser version of Canvas—not instead of it.
Canvas Manuals
If you want to learn how to use the app in more detail, you can check out the full Canvas manuals:
What is the Canvas Teacher App?
Canvas Teacher iOS Guide (table of contents)
Canvas Teacher Android Guide (table of contents)
Finally, there is also a Canvas Student App. If students are interested in using it, you can share this Canvas guide with them:
What is the Canvas Student App?