Student PDF Annotations on Web Browser Version

[danielle_kenned]

Recently, a new feature was added to the Canvas App, which allows students to "mark-up" PDFs directly in Canvas and submit them. This is amazing! However, it s only a feature on the App, and not in the normal web browser version for students with Laptops or Desktops. This is a great feature that Canvas has, and I just wish the students at our school (who all have district-provided laptops) could do it too!

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

For more information, please read through the  Canvas Release Notes (2021-05-15).

[slfairburn]

Please add this functionality!

[jbarton]

This would be a very useful feature. I am asked frequently how students can mark up pdfs in Canvas. I share with my teachers the feature in the app as well as the work around of having the students submit the pdf blank and then go to view feedback and mark it up there, but it is confusing for students to have to download and submit a blank file and then go and do their actual submission. The capabilities are already there, just need to make it an actual feature instead of work around. 

[AdamG]

This would be such a HUGE addition!!! In our district, we have such a wide variety of devices being used by students. With many school issued Chromebooks, accessing Kami is helpful, but we also have many student owned Chromebooks and there is an endless battle between our school Google accounts and the student's personal Gmail accounts. It makes for very frustrated users trying to authenticate their Kami accounts. It would be unbelievably helpful to have this feature available on the web version of Canvas!!!

[epulham]

Hi everybody - I just this week allowed instructors to turn on the feature option "Assignment Enhancement - Student" and when the student uploads and submits a PDF file, it really nicely displays the PDF for marking up before the instructor reviews it. I think that if you want some of that functionality right now, you could experiment with that new feature option and train any instructors who want a workaround while Canvas works on this, because I think the end result is supposed to be that students have access to the PDF annotations in the browser version easier with this enhancement turned on. 

What is Assignment Enhancements? 

Here's a video where I walk my instructors through what the Assignment Enhancement can do, including marking up the PDF: https://youtu.be/FhVoBv0jCOY

[stricknadeln]

This would be JUST the ticket for organic chemistry students, who must draw structures to complete assignments.  I very much hope this feature will enabled on web-based Canvas, because my students who don't use the app must draw answers on paper, take a photo, and upload.  When poor wifi causes assignments to arrive after deadlines, everyone is stressed.  If CANVAS could record their drawings instead of them writing on paper, we would be making real progress!

[chihyul]

I was hoping this would have happened by now. I'm a busy college student, and being able to annotate directly on Canvas can save me a lot of time and hassle by trying to juggle assignments between Canvas and Google Docs (or other editor).

[Stef_retired]

Comments from Instructure

Instructors can use an annotated document assignment type to upload a document for students to annotate and submit directly in Canvas. This change allows instructors to provide a worksheet as an assignment and allow students to complete the worksheet directly in Canvas. 

For more information, please read through the  Canvas Release Notes (2021-05-15).

[epulham]

@Stef_retired This is great news! Thank you!

[epulham]

@Stef_retired I am trying to test this out in the Beta environment but I cannot find where to turn it on. Can't find it in the Admin Feature Options or the course options in our beta instance. When I open up the assignment settings I don't see the Annotation option in the dropdown menu. Am I missing something? Is this being pushed to Beta later on?