[DocViewer] Universal Viewability Preserving Formatting For All Kinds of Documents

[ortizf]

Problem statement:

Problem is the following: "We do not guarantee that everything will appear in DocViewer as it does in the original program due to the varied encoding methods and various document types used. For the best viewing, these files should be downloaded and viewed in the program that created the file. The DocViewer in Canvas tries its best, but it’s not perfect so the formatting is not guaranteed to display the same as in the file creation program." This discrepancy creates stress and makes instructors lives more difficult and opens the door to incorrect grading to students based on formatting such as APA/MLA not displaying correctly. Instructors manually downloading each file manually isn't feasible for instructors in this day and age of increased course workloads.

Proposed solution:

Solution would be an enhancement overhaul of the DocViewer system to allow and enable universal compatibility with various documents to preserve document formatting no matter the browser or document type. The why for this solution would be to help automate and make instructors lives easier by always being able to grade and view any kind of document in DocViewer without needing to download the documents manually. Additionally, this would help students by further reducing the chance of incorrect grading based on document formatting not displaying correctly in Canvas.

User role(s):

instructor