[Feedback] Annotation passback between Student and Teacher app

[svonderbruegge]

In a 1-1 iPad environment many assignments get completed using Apple Pencils on .pdf documents. Whenever this happens it would be great to have the ability to pass feedback back and forth quickly between the student app and teacher app without forcing downloads of documents after each instance of annotated feedback.

For instance, a student takes a test by writing on a Note or in Notability and submits. Teacher then gives handwritten feedback and suggestions. Student then does additional handwritten work and re-submits. The link below gives a video of this actually working in another app environment. If Canvas could include this functionality teachers could streamline their workflow and keep all work in the Canvas ecosystem.

Annotation and handwriting pass back on assignments

[KristinL]

Hi!

Have you tried the Canvas Student and the Canvas Teacher apps? I think those annotation features and SpeedGrader features would be a great asset to your workflow. While not identical to what you show in the video, it's pretty close!

How do I add annotations to a submission in the Student app on my iOS device? 

How do I submit a PDF assignment with annotations in the Student app on my iOS device? 

How do I add DocViewer annotations in the Teacher app on my iOS device? 

Here's a video of the workflow too! 

After exploring the Canvas Student app and Canvas Teacher App combo, let us know if you'd like to continue with the Feature Idea process.

[svonderbruegge]

Thank you for the help. 

We are in fact using the Student and Teacher apps. It looks like what we see in the video is the functionality we had previously. We were told that we had previously had this functionality due to an exploit in the code. However, we cannot recreate that as the annotation tool option is not showing for students to use their stylus. We will run some tests today and report back.

If this was in fact a functionality due to an exploit then we want to continue with the Feature Idea progress so that the exploit becomes permanent.

[svonderbruegge]

So we did test out the workflow and your video did match up to what we experienced.

However, if you watch the video at the 2:30 mark you will notice that the annotation tools on your student iPad do not appear. This is also what we are experiencing. The student at this point cannot make additional annotations on the document without these tools. 

The teacher, however, can continue to make comments and annotations. We were able to make several comments, "commit" the comment and have it appear on the student iPad (3 times in fact). All the student had to do was refresh the assignment and the fresh annotation would appear. 

So, it looks like back and forth annotation/revision only works in one direction, from teacher to student and not from student to teacher.

If I am wrong, would you mind posting another video where an assignment goes through multiple returns/rewrite/submission cycles?

Thank you

[KristinL]

Hi - I understand what you're requesting!

Canvas Student users should have access to the annotation tools available from the Submission Review screen to be able to continue collaboration with their instructors. This would parallel the experience in the browser.

While students can always resubmit from the original screen, it would be beneficial in many cases that they can annotate their original submission alongside their teachers.  (This could be really cool...and feel much like the collaborative feeling we experience with tools such as Google Docs.) They can currently comment on annotations, but not add additional free-form lines.

A question I have is How can you tell when the annotations were added to the document? The annotations are not timestamped, and that would be important for submission status. Otherwise, some students could submit a blank worksheet and annotate after. A teacher would need to tap each mark to see if it was 'flattened' with the document or if it was added post-turn-in. 🤔

[svonderbruegge]

You've hit the nail on the head!

My teacher's say the student and teacher apps had this functionality last school year but I was told by Canvas support that it was due to an "exploit in the code". 

I will add to this though. This would be an additional, not parallel, experience in the iOS browser ecosystem. 

Accessing Canvas via browser on an iPad (as opposed to using the app) does not launch the ability to annotate with an Apple Pencil though. It would only parallel the experience of a "non-tablet" browser experience.

I have been able to create the experience outside of Canvas. The workflow goes like this:

• Teacher posts an assignment in Canvas to stay "in compliance" with school policy to "use Canvas"
• Instructions in the assignment say "Go to Showbie to complete" (Showbie is another app that does exactly what is requested in this feature request)
• Teacher annotates, passes back, receives corrections, annotates, passes back as many times as necessary to give good formative feedback.

While this workflow takes teachers and students outside of the Canvas ecosystem it is a much simpler workflow than downloading, re-submitting, multiple copies (using Notability as the annotation app) as each passback involves a new document. 

[StephanieGilber]

I don't have a iPad