Allow Annotation of PDF Documents Directly In The Canvas App

  This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

 

  Idea will be open for vote Wed. October 7, 2015 - Wed. January 6, 2016  Learn more about voting...

 

I recently saw an archived idea (listed at the end of this listing). I am sad to see that it was archived with only 42 votes (I just leaned about voting today...brand new here). I would like to reemphasize a use case.

 

In today's paperless classroom it is useful to gather information from students through writing. Specifically in the K-12 arena, where we still sometimes ask students to fill out worksheets to show certain level of mastery of fact based work such as mathematics and grammar. While K-12 education should be striving to change from multiple choice tests and simple drill and kill to cognitive mastery, there are still cases where this type of assignment can be useful at reemphasizing skills. Furthermore, while speed grader does give the ability to the teacher to quickly click through rubrics or embed notes there are times teachers would like to "write" directly on student submissions. Adding in an annotation feature helps in both of these situations. Annotation features could also be used for signatures of documents passed back and forth for things such as field trips and other permission based files teachers may wish to send home with students.

 

For younger children especially, it is hard to advocate for using separate apps. Having one application that does viewing of pdf files and annotation would cut down tremendously on downtime used to submit and view documents. It would also tie well with the offline files feature that Canvas has already implemented for uses where internet is not reliable or homes which have no internet.

 

I would like to see the archived idea reopened for a vote. There are many competing products out that already do this sort of annotation. Our school is actually moving from a different product to Canvas because we want a more full blown LMS for online courses in the future. My teachers are all still under beginning phases of training and would all vote for the feature if it were opened up again. That would be 80+ more votes for implementation.

 

Student assignment annotation on mobile by Hilary Scharton

 

 

 

  Comments from Instructure

 

For more information, take a look at the release notes:

Canvas by Instructure Release Notes (iOS 3.15)

Canvas by Instructure Release Notes (Android 5.5) 

71 Comments
rowlandl
Community Novice

I would like to test it as well. (Hilary, I am trying to private message

you but it's not letting me.)

Thanks!

Linda Rowland

rowlandl@osageschools.org

Linda Rowland, French Teacher

School of the Osage

636 Highway 42

Osage Beach, MO 65065

(573) 348-0115 Ext. 4157

rowlandl@osageschools.org

2016-09-08 11:34 GMT-05:00 bconner@azleisd.net <instructure@jiveon.com>:

Canvas Community

<https://community.canvaslms.com/?et=watches.email.idea_comment>

Allow Annotation of PDF Documents Directly In The Canvas App new comment

by Brian Conner

<https://community.canvaslms.com/people/bconner@azleisd.net> View all

comments on this idea

<https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/2818?commentID=60541#comment-60541>

srea
Community Participant

Hillary - I would like to be a part of the test. Smiley Happy

mikescheid
Community Contributor

Hilary,

How do we private message you. Is this a function of the community site I am somehow missing?

Mike Scheid

Technology Manager

Cherry Hills Christian Schools

3900 E. Grace Blvd.

Highlands Ranch, Co 80126

303-325-8407

http://cherryhillschristian.org

lisahistory
Community Novice

Looks like you can only private message someone who is following you.

lisahistory
Community Novice

Also interested. Also cannot private message (I think because you are not following me).

hilary
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

Oops, sorry, all.  I thought if you clicked on my name you could email me, but maybe that's some kind of magic for Canvas employees.

Please send me the email address you use for your Apple ID to hilary(at)instructure(dot)com if you'd like to beta with us.

Thanks so much for all of your support!

Hilary Smiley Happy

blangston
Community Participant

Yes Please. I am a math teacher and would love to see some tool that is similar to what is possible on www.ducksoup.us. I use this tool daily and its a life saver for math teachers.

bkraus
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

Any feedback you have about it, feel free to send to me - bkraus(at)instructure(dot)com.

And to be clear, this functionality is for the student side of annotations, such as annotating a worksheet prior to submitting and then submitting as an assignment submission, not annotating a submission after the fact. That is a different piece of the pie.

Thanks all!

bkraus
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

3.15 for iOS is out as of yesterday! Android also released yesterday with this functionality! Let us know how ya'll like it!

Renee_Carney
Community Team
Community Team

If you are following this thread, you may want to take a look at:
Canvas Creates Industry's First Mobile Annotation Capability for Best-in-Class Learning Management

Official release notes coming soon!