App distorts annotations made by digital pencil

[JessicaModaff]

I am a music theory professor. I grade homework on my iPad with an Apple Pencil. This is necessary, because we use music notation and not alphanumeric text.

Once I exit and return to an assignment which I've already annotated/corrected, my pen markings are pixelated, don't look natural, and are often displaced from where I originally wrote them. Because I write corrections on images containing a music staff (and note placement is of absolute importance), my annotations often are moved up 1-2 millimeters after I've exited and returned to the assignment. That won't do. 

I've included a file which frankly doesn't show the worst of it (I'm short on time...sorry). My handwriting doesn't usually look that odd. The first few notes should be centered on the second space. When I wrote them, they were absolutely centered. And now they're all shifted up slightly. Sometimes the app shifts them up to the next line. Like I said, that won't do.

Is this a setting on my end? Is there any way to get Canvas to save my natural line-curves and line-placement in my annotations so that my feedback may be helpful to my students?

[rseilham]

What iPad and iPadOS are you using? I can't seem to replicate it using an iPad mini with Pencils on iOS 15. 

[byrdnick]

I intermittently get the issue in iPad OS 17.1.2 running on an iPad Pro with M1 (screenshot attached). I'm running the latest version of Canvas Teacher available from the App Store  (1.23.3).

How I reproduce it: 

1. Annotate an assignment submission using the Apple Pencil.
2. Navigate away from that assignment (e.g., to another assignment submission).
3. Navigate back to the annotated assignment submission.
4. Write another annotation above or below the prior annotation (to see if it renders better than the saved version).

Note: sometimes students and I see this issue for up to about 10 seconds, after which the original (higher-quality) rendering quality shows. However, sometimes the original (higher-quality) rendering does not show regardless of how long we wait. This makes me wonder if part of the problem traces back to backend factors like server resources. (The devices my students and I use are among the most computationally and graphically powerful — there's no way it's a local resource issue.)

[KristinL · Accepted solution]

Hi @JessicaModaff - By chance, have you reached out to Canvas Support? They may be able to better diagnose the issue. Additionally, if there have been other reports of this occurring, they can link your case with the ones that already exist.How do I contact Canvas Support? 

[CeciliaCasta]

Hi Jessica, 

I'm having the same problem as you. Were you able to get a solution for this? I'm having a hard time finding answers.