Photo submissions are huge and I can't see the whole image

[LISADARLING]

I'm an art teacher and my students submit photos of their artwork for their assignments. In the last couple of weeks, when I view their image, it is so large that I can only see about 20% of it, and I can't zoom out. I can move the image around to see the other parts, but it makes it almost impossible to grade their work. This is a new problem that the other art teachers are also having. It is worse with some assignments than others, but is happening with all of them.  On some assignments, almost all the photos are like this.

You can see how large the pushpin is on the screenshot I included, to give you an idea of how large the photos are. 

I have tried using different computers, and the same problem occurs. Almost all my students use the Canvas app on their phone and use the camera function to take their photo. 

I have downloaded different photographs to check file sizes, and the file sizes do not seem to correlate with the problem. 

I have been using Canvas for many years and have never had this problem before. 

Any thoughts?

[Gabriel33]

If you right click the image and choose to open it in a new tab, do you see the whole image (and are you able to then zoom in and out)?

This might not be the most convenient option, but it's something to try

[LISADARLING]

Thanks for your reply. I am not able to right click on the image to open it in a new tab. It doesn't give me that option.

And as you said, that would probably not be a sustainable option. I really appreciate you trying to problem solve for me though! 

it looks like it was particularly bad on certain days, like anything turned on Feb 26th and 27th in the morning is huge, regardless of the assignment. Unfortunately, kids were submitting a bunch of work on those days. I will have to check in with other teachers to see if there is a correlation. 

[Gabriel33]

And you don't get a bar such as the one attached on top of the image?

[LISADARLING]

I do have that bar, and it gives me the option to make it full screen, but not to open the image in a new window. Unfortunately, opening it in full screen does not allow me to see the whole image. Is that what you mean? 

I might have my students resubmit a few things so I can grade them.

[Gabriel33]

You said you couldn't zoom out. The zoom controls in that bar are not working, or is it that even zoomed out you can only see 20% of the image?

Also, the bar has a "download" button (on the left). If you download it, do you see the whole image?

[LISADARLING]

No, the minus bar is not active, and it won't do anything. I can only zoom to make it even bigger. I can download the images and see the whole image, but with 224 students, it's not possible to do this. We are also encouraged to not download things to our work computers when possible.

I have reached out to our District IT people to see if they can contact Canvas for me. I will figure out a way to grade these assignments, but I'm hoping it won't happen in the future. I generally really like Canvas and I use it a lot. 

[Gabriel33]

I agree downloading individual images is not a good solution, just wanted to find out if the image is there or not, and for that testing with one or two figures would be enough.

Does it happen on a different browser?

It looks like this used to be an issue years ago , but it was fixed (see here).

[LISADARLING]

That's a great question about using a different browser. It doesn't seem to fix it. I really appreciate all your ideas and willingness to help. It looks like it is a known glitch. Thank you!

[ryan_corris]

Hey @LISADARLING!  I have two suggestions:

First, I know this is a little bit more work for the students, but they could insert the images into a Google/Word Doc or Google Slides/PowerPoint slide deck and submit the file for the assignment.  

Second option is instead of using a file upload, try using Text Entry as the assignment's submission type.  This way students should hopefully be able to insert the image file into the Rich Content Editor and adjust the size prior to submission.

If you wanted to try this on the current assignment, you could just have students submit a second time and asked them to insert images into another doc and upload the doc or edit the current assignment to accept Text Entry submissions and ask them to resubmit using the Text Entry option.

Both of these options have worked when our teachers have had similar issues.  If you try them, hopefully they will work for you as well. 🤞

[LISADARLING]

Thanks, Ryan. That's a good idea. I think every time we do a big class submission, I'll have a couple of students turn their assignment in through the Canvas app and if it's glitching, I have everyone make a google doc and submit the file. It will be slower, but at least I will be able to see their assignments. 

I appreciate you taking the time to reply and your willingness to help. 

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @LISADARLING and others,

I'm pretty sure this was recently posted to the known issues area: [OPEN] Impossible to zoom out on image submissions... - Instructure Community - 635496.  It does appear this is currently a bug and something Instructure realized will need to be addressed, but there is no timeline for a resolution yet.  I would say that getting the issue to at least be acknowledged is a big first step on the way to getting it fixed though!

-Chris

[LISADARLING]

Thanks, Chris! 

I'm glad they are aware of the problem. Thank you for letting me know and for taking the time to answer my question. This community has been so helpful!

-Lisa