This was the answer provided by support@instructure.com. It still does not address our issue as when downloaded the format has changed. The possibility of uploading as a PDF may be solution here.
The issue here is caused by the fact that the DocViewer in Canvas displays files with a different formatting than the formatting that word files use. In this cases the teacher would either need to download the file to their device and view it there locally so the formatting does not change. Alternatively the students can upload the files as a pdf as pdf files tend to display properly and without any formatting issues within the DocViewer in Canvas.