Insights: Canvas DocViewer

[kmcgee]

[14 June 2017 Update] For the most accurate information about DocViewer, please reference Canvas Release: Canvas DocViewer.

[7 June 2017 Update] Thanks for your interest in Canvas DocViewer! To best help us manage all existing feedback, please follow the feedback process explained at the end of this blog post. Please also review all existing comments to see if your concerns have already been addressed. Thank you!

As a product manager, one of the most frequent questions I am asked is: "What are you doing to improve the Crocodoc experience in Canvas?" Today I’m excited to introduce you to DocViewer, the next standard in learning management system technology.

What does DocViewer do?

DocViewer automatically converts common office documents into web-viewable and interactive learning experiences. This description probably sounds familiar because it describes most of the document functionality that already exists in Canvas. DocViewer will be available anywhere Canvas currently uses Box for content previews and Crocodoc for annotations. (Did you know that out of all five annotation types, point comments are used 49% of the time? Highlight and textbox annotations are the next favorites, followed by strikeout, drawing and area annotations.)

How is DocViewer different?

DocViewer is not that different from current functionality. DocViewer contains all the same document types and all the same annotation types, with some extra benefits!

• Modern interface that looks and feels like Canvas
• Improved performance
• Fewer clicks

More features will be coming soon, including:

• Color options
• Persistent tool colors within an annotation session (and from session to session)
• Free text annotations

Mobile Devices

For our institutions using mobile devices, annotations will continue to be supported in our mobile apps. New and improved annotation functionality will be part of our new Canvas Teacher mobile app and eventually replace the SpeedGrader app.

Why is Canvas switching to DocViewer?

We know SpeedGrader is one of the top used interfaces of Canvas where instructors spend a lot of time grading student submissions using annotated feedback. In turn, students can respond to their instructor’s feedback and may also be able to view additional feedback from other students using peer reviews.

For the past few years, we’ve recognized that relying on third-party tools can reduce the service that we can directly offer to our customers. Crocodoc has been a great product in building the interactive content experience between students and instructors in Canvas, but this product will no longer be supported by Box at the end of the year and will be replaced with a tool with reduced functionality.

The needs of our customers have unquestionably outgrown existing Crocodoc functionality—and that’s a good thing! Moving forward with DocViewer, we can:

• Improve reliability of document rendering
• Develop new features and product enhancements to drive a more functional roadmap (and adequately address annotation/document previewing feature ideas in Canvas Studio!)
• Better address hosting needs for international regions
• Enhance support for assistive technology users

DocViewer also gives us a stronger technical foundation to improve existing features, such as contribute to the next version of SpeedGrader. Implementing DocViewer functionality brings numerous future benefits to Canvas.

What do I need to do to prepare for DocViewer?

The best part about our new product is that no action is required to enable DocViewer. All Canvas accounts will be migrated to DocViewer by our engineering team. And all course history is coming, too—all previous documents and annotations will also be included so nobody will lose any of their work.

When can I use DocViewer?

Our engineering team has been working hard to ensure a seamless delivery for all customers. DocViewer will be enabled for specific environments according to the following timeline:

Beta Environment: Friday, June 2

• DocViewer will apply to all courses in all beta environments ([yourschool].beta.instructure.com).
• Official details of this new feature are included in the Canvas Beta Release Notes (2017-06-12). 
• DocViewer will have to be re-enabled each week by our engineering team, so the tools may not be be available immediately on Monday mornings.

Free-for-Teacher: Monday, June 5

• DocViewer will apply to all courses in our Free-for-Teacher account (canvas.instructure.com).
• Instructors and students can view our new document preview and annotations tools within all their courses and help us get feedback in authentic institutional settings for several weeks before making the tools available in production environments for paid accounts.

Production Environment: Monday, June 19, through Friday, June 23

• DocViewer will apply to all courses in all production environments for paid accounts, including all international regions.
• Account admins will receive an email from our Canvas Support team notifying them when DocViewer will be available in production for their specific database cluster.

How do I provide feedback about DocViewer?

We know that being able to test features is important to you as our customers. We encourage you to visit your beta environment on June 2 and take a look at the improved workflow of SpeedGrader.

Between beta and production releases, our primary concern is to provide a product that works the same way as previously used in Canvas. DocViewer has been thoroughly reviewed by our support and QA teams by replicating your coursework and grading policies. However, we know there are always going to be use cases and workflows that are unexpected, which is why we ask for your feedback and help to improve Canvas. We want to build software that makes teaching and learning as effortless as possible.

Here’s how to share your feedback:

• General Feedback: Comment in this blog and/or Beta and Production Canvas release notes, which will be posted in the Release Notes space on June 12 and June 24, respectively.

• Broken Functionality: According to your institution’s support policy, submit a support case to the Canvas Support team or through your Canvas-connected ticketing system. An example of a support case would be if your previous annotations are not showing for an assignment. We definitely want to help with that!

• Feature Enhancements: Visit https://community.canvaslms.com/community/ideas?sr=search&searchId=64a2ab3b-28c4-4824-81f8-f242e73ca... and see if an idea already exists (view the DocViewer content tag to see all related ideas). If your idea doesn’t already exist, create a new feature idea and add DocViewer as a tag.

For more help with feedback, we’ve created a new community document that explains exactly what we’re looking for with each type of feedback and how we use it. Check out our Canvas Community Feedback Guidelines document.

Thanks for your participation and enthusiasm for Canvas DocViewer!

[MLentini]

Renee, I'm sure this was planned to the nth technically, and I know sometimes business-driven deadlines force Instructure's hand. From my perspective, I agree, it's a small interface change, but my perspective has four LMS's worth of experience and doesn't have to grade and comment on 120 essays in three days. 

This started with me (and a bunch of our peer schools here in WA) asking for our particular change date to be moved. We know we're all on the same shard. I'm not sure if that puts us on the same cluster as far as databases go, but seems like it would. 

I understand that in this case, circumstances broke the usual change management processes. But in that situation, providing clients who are going to take this one on the chin some flexibility or control over the impacts seems like a reasonable step. 

[anthonem]

Ugh...it's frustrating that this new interface doesn't have a Save button for comments. Needing to know a secret in order to get a tool to work correctly is not good!

[herriott10ad]

We ran the DocViewer through its paces, and came up with the following UX recommendations:

HIGH PRIORITY:

* There are no "rotate" options; instructors cannot compensate for students who submit a file in landscape orientation.

* Tools cannot be used to select an area that includes a portion of the document that is not yet onscreen. Attempts to get a document to "follow" the tool (via drag-scrolling) instead end the selection process at the point where the cursor exited the document area.

* Admin and Instructor roles have no authority to remove annotations.

High Priority Ideas : 

DocViewer: Rotate page/image 

DocViewer: drag-scroll selection by Tool 

DocViewer: Admin and Instructor can edit/delete comments 

IMPORTANT:

* Tool selection is granted on a one-time basis. When you select the Free Draw tool and start drawing, the Free Draw tool remains selected during the drawing of that one line, and then the tool selector reverts to the Selection tool. For an instructor to make a multi-line Free Draw object, or in making repeated use of the Highlight or Strikethrough tools, they will have to re-select the chosen tool after each use.

* There is no way to treat a group of objects as a single unit, nor is there a method for editing the scope of an object. A strikethrough object cannot be extended beyond its origin, a highlight section will overlap and duplicate a subsection highlight, and a group of X lines will have X comment boxes associated with it.

* The "undefined" text in comment boxes is generated as actual editable text. This "undefined" text should be a placeholder that vanishes during selection. Once edited, a comment cannot be removed entirely without also removing the associated object. Deleting a comment and clicking outside the comment box restores the original comment.

Important Ideas:

DocViewer: Persistent tool selection 

DocViewer: Grouping annotations 

NUISANCE:

* Order of operation is to select the tool first, and then manipulate the document space. If you select the document space first (say, selecting the text you wish to highlight or strikethrough) and then choose the tool, nothing happens and the selected text is de-emphasized. This is not a bug, per se, but this functionality is often found in similar tools.

[Renee_Carney]

 @herriott10ad ‌

Thank you for the summary of your feedback here.  Per the https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-11159-canvas-community-feedback-guidelines?sr=search&search...‌ it may be helpful to other readers if you provide links or notations on each of your points above; whether a link to feature idea that you created, or a support case number that others can reference.  Thanks.

[lindalee]

Hi  @kblack ‌,

Our institution is also one experiencing the comments and annotations not saving. Remembering about the Firefox bug, I did try the steps you recommend, as well as trying alternate browsers -- no luck with any of it.

Hopefully our support ticket will yield some helpful information soon.

-Linda

[GideonWilliams]

That was/is a big frustration for us! No reason why it should remain in DOC Viewer surely?

[Renee_Carney]

Summary Comments.

My apologies, but I'm going to move a few of your comments to this summary post so that the comments will stay threaded.  When we reach +100 comments they unthread.  Thanks for understanding.

 @bdoriot  May 31, 2017 4:56 PM

Thrilled about this new DocViewer. I know it's been a lot of work and our staff is very appreciative of it. Thank you. 

 @jfrielich_ls ‌ May 31, 2017 4:58 PM

This is AWESOME! I can't wait to start using the new DocViewer to comment on my students work. I teach visual arts and have my students upload images of their work. We love doing working critiques through the peer feedback. Even our principals view student work and comment on them, and it looks like the new DocViewer will be even easier for us to comment and view our work! Mary Tatum, I CAN'T WAIT!!

hallmans‌ Jun 1, 2017 6:42 AM

This is great news- Crocodoc was a major pain point for our students. Great functionality in theory, but not as intuitive and reliable as a core tool needs to be. This is going to be a very popular focus in our summer training.

Deactivated user‌ May 31, 2017 6:47 PM

Jayde Colquhoun, Ruth Williams, Alicia Major and Jason Anfield.

Check out what is on its way! DocViewer will create a better grading environment for your Instructors that they will love and opens up the ability to drive a more functional roadmap in the future! Once released into Beta, feel free to check it out!  

 @iys2 ‌ Jun 1, 2017 4:44 AM

Thank you for the news on what's to come. Will check it out in the test environment on Friday

 @kblack ‌ Jun 1, 2017 5:18 AM
Great news! And frankly, I'm just as excited to see that this means that the new DocViewer is even available in the test and beta environments, to begin with. It was already hard to see any updates in Speedgrader in Beta or test things with faculty when crocodoc was not available in either beta or test.

 @nbiddinger-c ‌ Jun 1, 2017 9:48 AM
This is exciting news - especially as we will begin training our district teachers next week! So good to know what it coming and what it will be able to do to support our teachers!

 @ProfessorBeyrer ‌ Jun 1, 2017 12:21 PM
Great news and I am looking forward to the new, native tool. I am especially excited to read that there will be a totally seamless transition for faculty and students, as this change is scheduled to be imposed during our summer term, which begins June 5.

It is also heartening to read that the new DocViewer will better support universal design. I love Crocodoc but am careful when training other faculty to remind them to duplicate their work and also "leave feedback in the assignment's comments sidebar" (per the document How do I use Crocodoc in Canvas assignments as an instructor?).

orwinr Jun 1, 2017 3:23 PM
So looking forward to this, especially the ability to add additional features requested by users. While I like crocodoc, this will be a huge leap forward!

[GideonWilliams]

Super list - bit like snagging in a new house. I am worried that a number of them could be quite off putting to our staff who have just learned to use one particular system, so thank you for raising them as Ideas.

Think you are being generous with your 'Nuisance' heading :O) Talking to many staff who annotate on Microsoft Word will often highlight sections first then press the Comment feature or Highlight button. Not sure why it cannot be possible to annotate both ways..

[arking]

Hi Erin, this doesn't really answer  @a_eberhard ‌'s question. If someone has a class of 1000+ students (which he University of Michigan has many of) what happens to things like load times? What happens if multiple instructors are looking at the same student? Is there a search function and how does the search function work? I think this is certainly something every Unizin school will be interested in hearing more about, as will many other universities.

Best,

Anthony

[lindalee]

Many of our teaching team members use the text entry tool when anonymous grading is necessary -- usually for large-enrollment courses with TAs, where the faculty want to obscure the identity of which TA is providing feedback.

Our testing thus far suggests that -- like Crocodoc -- the highlight, strikeout, and draw tools currently do not leave an indication of the marker's identity, unless a corresponding comment is also left. We hope that a text-entry tool will be added soon. While I understand that this is an edge case, until/unless a feature like https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/4643-hide-names-of-graders-aka-anonymous-graders?sr=search&sea...‌ is added, the text-entry tool is the best option currently available for addressing this need.

[buellj]

Seeing some odd behavior from student view when mousing over the edges of the preview windows; the bottom window resizes randomly even when not selected. 

[mtuten]

Do we know how screenreader-friendly DocViewer is yet?

In my own meager testing, I noticed that with NVDA and Chrome I couldn't read the document I was annotating and each comment was called "Section" (I also had no audible indication when annotation tools had been selected). With JAWS and Chrome I could access the document, but there was no indication of the location or extent (in the case of strikethrough and highlight) of the annotations. I know that I wasn't using the appropriate browser/screenreader combination, but

[...]

In IE (with JAWS), I couldn't get highlight or strikethrough to even work.

In FireFox, NVDA could read the document after I indicated which page I wanted to see/read and there was still no indication of annotation types or locations. Additionally, there was still no audible indication that an annotation tool had been selected.

[Renee_Carney]

Did you report this to support?

[kmcgee]

Hey Tom, This release of DocViewer will not include notifications to students of feedback and annotations that are waiting for their review. This request, however, is high on our list of functionality to add. So keep your eyes out for upcoming releases. 

Thanks for your question!

Kate

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Anthony,

DocViewer is simply used in SpeedGrader; it does not directly affect loading times for student submissions. You may want to follow Canvas Studio: Speedgrader 2.0 to view the status of our planned SpeedGrader improvements.

Thanks,

Erin

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Michelle,

Our engineers are aware that improvements can still be made to DocViewer and plan to address them. If you want to ensure that your comments are passed on, feel free to file a support ticket. Otherwise, watch the Canvas release notes for updates.

Thanks!

Erin

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, everyone,

Thanks for your general excitement for DocViewer and sharing your thoughts with Kate.

Our support and engineering teams are working extremely hard to ensure the DocViewer transition is as smooth as possible during the upcoming weeks. The best way to help them address your concerns (especially bugs) is by following the feedback process outlined in the blog post. 

We know you have questions and we want to help you get the answers you're looking for! When we ask if you've submitted a support case for unintended functionality, we have your best interest at heart. In short, blog comments cannot be triaged or addressed by our support team. We know that submitting a support case may be a tedious process (especially since we generally don't ask you to submit tickets for features in the beta environment), but our support process is in place as the best and fastest way to let support and engineering know about DocViewer.

And yes, DocViewer matches Crocodoc functionality with a few limitations—for now. Features that we've noted as coming soon (annotation downloads, colors, and free text) will be available as close to production as possible. Our engineers know these features are important and want to get them to you just as soon as they can.

For those of you looking for documentation about DocViewer, our Canvas Beta release notes posted on June 12 will provide information that you can use for reference; all existing lessons in the Canvas Guides regarding Crocodoc will be updated to DocViewer content on June 24.

We appreciate your patience during this transition process!

Thank you,

Erin

[GideonWilliams]

Erin, is Speedgrader 2.0 back on the cards? I thought planned improvements had been cancelled.

Response from  @Renee_Carney ‌ Jun 7, 2017 12:56 PM
Hi Gideon. SpeedGrader 2.0 was never taken completely off the table, and may be a priority in the future. The reason it was moved off the roadmap was because Priority: Gradebook Enhancements is a prerequisite of most features in the scope of SpeedGrader 2.0. Once that priority is complete, I'm sure there will be a reevaluation of priorities.

Response from  @bsnelearning  Jun 7, 2017 1:12 PM
Thanks for clarifying, good to know :O)

[rpeters3]

Hopefully a quick question - when I view a document that was previous annotated within the Crocodoc viewer, I do not see the prior annotations, this new viewer in beta does not have them. Is this intentional, a bug, or something I need to submit as a feature request?

As you can imagine, there's historical value in the previous annotations our instructors had made, so I'm concerned about losing them.

[kmcgee]

Hi Richard, We are working on the development work for screen readers right now. We will have the functionality available for general availability at the end of the month. From there we hope to gather functionality on how to continue to improve this experience. Thanks!

[kmcgee]

Hi  @natalie_norton1  and  @kblack , thank you for all your questions, answers, and through testing of DocViewer! 

To answer your question Natalie regarding the student's ability to annotate and reply to comments, our main objective in building DocViewer was to not lose any functionality that our users were accustomed to, and as Mark mentioned this is functionality that Crocodoc enabled. As we have the opportunity to dig into the data and feedback we will have the opportunity to now craft a DocViewer experience that is tailored to teachers and students. 

On our radar specifically, is enabling students to get better notifications regarding feedback, comments, and annotations. Lots of support for that in the community: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/3254" modifiedtitle="true" title="Making feedback more visible.... It would make sense for us to ensure that the appropriate experience is created for teachers as well regarding feedback and comments.

Thank you again for your time and attention to detail as you've tested DocViewer!

[kiran_mohan]

Not sure if anyone else faced this issue, I have raised a support ticket too.

When viewing documents using the new Doc Viewer, the links in the documents are not clickable. These documents are rendered through Box currently in our PROD, and the links work fine. Would be great to get this sorted before the release to PROD, if not none of the links in the documents will be clickable when viewed through Canvas (not a great user experience).

Example: Please see below image, they are represented to users as links but are not clickable.

[fox]

I'm looking forward to sharing this announcement with my faculty - has anyone found a new guide to replace the now-outdated https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10250-4152719763 ? Thanks!

[r_morgan_1]

I hope this is just a work in progress thing but a couple of days ago I only found one paper on one course that had carried over the annotations from previous assignment today all I am getting is "Crocodoc is still processing this document."

• 

  Renee Carney @ Richard Morgan on Jun 8, 2017 6:40 AM

  Richard Morgan

  Did you report this through support yet?

• 

  Gideon Williams@ Richard Morgan on Jun 8, 2017 9:29 AM

  Also happening here. Have contacted Support

   @GideonWilliams  Thank You

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi  @fox ‌...

Technically speaking, I wouldn't say that the current Guide is outdated...yet.  Please see the above comment from erinhallmark‌ where she discusses when Guides will be updated here in the Community:

For those of you looking for documentation about DocViewer, our Canvas Beta release notes posted on June 12 will provide information that you can use for reference; all existing lessons in the Canvas Guides regarding Crocodoc will be updated to DocViewer content on June 24.

[Renee_Carney]

What do I need to do to prepare for DocViewer?
The best part about our new product is that no action is required to enable DocViewer. All Canvas accounts will be migrated to DocViewer by our engineering team. And all course history is coming, too—all previous documents and annotations will also be included so nobody will lose any of their work.

If you're not seeing previous annotations, please report this through support.

[Amanda_L_Albrig]

I agree with a number of requests above.

• Allowing for annotations on PDF documents would be extremely helpful. Sometimes an assignment needs to be accomplished in a program other than something that produces a .doc extension. Brain storming applications are one example. If students are being asked to submit a PDF of their assignment, it would be very helpful if this file type could be annotated.
• The new DocViewer for grading assignments does not work on mobile browsers. We have faculty and students who prefer to use the browser for their engagement in Canvas, particularly for grading or reviewing assignments. CrocODoc currently allows the creation of annotated comments within the iPad browsers. The new Doc Viewer does not. This is a loss of functionality for those who are used to being able to simply use the browser and not have to rely on yet another app.

I'm still in the process of testing this, but these are the two most pressing issues I have at this time.

Amanda

Response from 

Kate McGee @ Amanda Albright on Jun 8, 2017 4:46 PM

Hi Amanda, 

To answer a few of your questions PDFs and a variety of other documents are available for annotating with DocViewer. We'll be publishing a list of those documents here soon. Here's my test of a PDF: Screen Shot 2017-06-08 at 4.37.14 PM.png 

You are correct we don't support mobile browsers at this time. If this is something you would like to see I'd like to encourage you to submit a Feature Enhancement with the tag 'DocViewer'. Having your ideas in the community helps us quantify the priority of the requests for future development. 

All the best!

Kate McGee

[natalie_norton1]

Would it be possible to confirm if there will be any back up of the original crocodoc annotated docs after go live?  At the moment we can cross check against production to see any differences, but once we go live I am not sure how we can verify if anything is missing? As appeals can be launched for up to 4 years, and we need to be able to produce the original feedback, it would be reassuring to know there will be a back up if needed. Thank you!

Response from 

Kate McGee @ Natalie Norton on Jun 8, 2017 4:49 PM

Hi Natalie, Yes, we've captured an entire backup of all Crocodoc documents and annotations. Hopefully, that reduces some of your concern. Best! Kate

[JACOBSEN_C]

Are you-all sure this is ready to roll out?  In support's response was...

   "[...] I tested this with 3 different browsers: Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari, and the document displayed correctly on all 3 browsers. try clearing cache and cookies or try using a different browser. Is your screen not maximized?"

... And after clearing my Chrome Browser cache the behavior seems to persist.  Video linked to below to illustrate...

2017-06-08_0940 

[yarrish_julie]

Does anyone in this community have experience working with Turn-It-In, specifically their "Feeback Studio" product that allows faculty to grade by rubric, make annotations and other feedback including audio feedback.  I can see by the conversation on this new edition, there is no capabilty for comment banks.  Turn-It-In has all these grading features and even include a drag & drop comment bank.  Faculty love this part of this product but the vendor is expensive and we originally intended to use them for their plagarism product.  We would like to consider less expensive plagarism vendors but are now tied to Turn-It-In for their secondary feedback tools.  Ideally Canvas already has feature parity (I doubt it currently does) or this is on the front burner.  Any comments the community can make on our conundrum would be appreciated.

Julie@Santa Monica College

Response from Chris Hofer @ Julie Yarrish on Jun 8, 2017 9:22 AM

Yes, Dallas E Hulsey is a good resources for Turnitin.  He also has an awesome write-up on it: Canvas and Turnitin.

Response from 

Dallas E Hulsey @ Julie Yarrish on Jun 8, 2017 9:57 AM

Hi, Julie Yarrish! As Chris says, I use Feedback Studio almost daily. If you purchase Turnitin, it comes as a package: originality reports, Feedback Studio, and Peermark. I feel it is worth every penny, but that is easy to say because I don't pay for it: my school does.  The fact is, Turnitin does something nothing else can do right now: you can download papers to their iPad app, grade them even offline and sync the papers when you hit wifi again. Since I live in a rural area and am often taking my kids to the park, dance lessons, etc., I could not function without this. 

Having said that, I know Turnitin is an expense and feel lucky my school has it, but there is an alternate solution for a comment bank: You can use a clip board manager to store, organize, and reuse comments. There are a bunch of them. I use ArsClip because it is free, and I like the way it works. The huge benefit to a clipboard manager over a comment bank in Speedgrader is you can use your saved comments anywhere: Google Docs, Microsoft Office, Email, Canvas, etc.  

Personally, I would rather that people use clipboard managers so that Canvas does not have to spend development dollars on a comment bank that can only be used in Speedgrader, but I know some faculty will always favor a built in solution over an external tool and that a comment bank will be a popular request as the new document viewer develops.

Anyway, if you have questions about Feedback Studio or ArsClip, I am happy to help, Julie.  

[rpeters3]

I have now submitted a support ticket - the announcement that came through the e-mail was not clear on whether or not previous annotations would remain, so I came here to ask if it was intended or not, thanks!

[GideonWilliams]

I've noticed that you cannot annotate on a students work even when marking it as a teacher. Would think that you would want to have that feature preserved?

[rpeters3]

That timing seems a little off, we're set to move over June 15th and the inability to give our instructors the new documentation ahead of time rather than wading through release notes (which are also not up yet) is discouraging. We like to give instructors as much of a heads up as possible and including new documentation really helps with that, as they can get a sense of what's changing, what features they gain, which they lose, and how it's going to to look.

This thread is great for those of us who like discussing and conversing but is too much for most instructors to want to go through.

[Chris_Hofer]

Understandable, but typically when there are new features in Canvas, they aren't published until the day of the Release...usually every third Saturday.  ( What is the Canvas release schedule for beta, production, and test environments?)  If you are in the Community on a Saturday morning when updates are pushed out, go to the "Browse" menu at the top of the screen, and then select "Content".  You'll typically see several Guides that are listed that the Guides team is updating.

Our team sent out an e-mail to our faculty and adjuncts at the beginning of June with a link to this blog post so that people are aware of what's going on.  Of course, there were less comments at the time, but at least they still have the overview of what Kate wrote and what they should expect.

[syeo]

Currently, when a Mac user filled out an Adobe PDf fillable form using a Preview application that is a default application in mac computer, and submitted it via Assignment page.  The Speedgrader will show up a blank page.  Faculty will have to download the above document on their desktop in order to view the completed form.  With Canvas DocViewer, I have tested the above document processed in Preview application and it turned out a success!!! 

Way to go, Canvas developers!

Thank you.

Sue Yeo

[kmcgee]

 @arking  and  @lindalee  author indicators for no-comment annotations (highlight, strikeout, and draw tools) are anticipated by General Availability at the end of the month!

[rpeters3]

I definitely agree and understand about the release notes timing, I'm just trying to have a more definite sense of things to give our faculty. Normal releases usually don't change functionality so dramatically as to greatly impact how faculty and students use Canvas. SpeedGrader is a hugely utilized feature, so any dramatic changes are going to have quite the impact.

I know it's not the scale of the new UI, but in a similar vein, that change was carried out in a way in which we were given documentation ahead of time to provide faculty. I was hoping for something similar here. I'm personally very glad that Canvas is moving to an in-house feature, but it's a dramatic change on a date we cannot change during the middle of the summer term. I worry about faculty response and want to be able to provide some training and self-help ahead of time.

I also note that at this point with the date we were give, we'll have nearly two weeks on which the new DocViewer will be in production with no supporting documentation for faculty to refer to.

[MsTia]

Things I miss so far about the older version of the annotation tool:

• Can no longer free-draw the VERY frequently-used proofreading mark of double underline for capitalization, nor other proofreading marks that contain more than one stroke (work-around of dragging separate lines is extremely time-consuming. I use these every week, so it's a problem for me.

Other comments:

• It now takes MORE clicks to delete, because now I must select object, then click margin box, then click trash can icon

Response from 

Jennifer Hunter@ Tia Murchie-Beyma on Jun 9, 2017 8:00 AM

I second Tia's comments about things I miss. Please don't update a tool and take away features we used and relied on for high quality teaching.

[hunter]

1. There's no way to mark up the assignment like we have in the current crocodoc.

2. You can't right click (like to copy) on it.

[ewilhelm]

It's a bit disappointing that the new doc previewer does not have all the functionality of the old tools. For example, that there is no full-screen option for the preview. fabianm‌ has already created a new feature idea for anyone who wants to vote for the full-screen option.  

[Amanda_L_Albrig]

Students also like the ability to download the documents with annotations.

Sent from my iPad

Response from 

Ken Black @ Leona Barratt on Jun 9, 2017 9:01 AM

Yes--Renee Carney posted (on June 6) the following:

You will not see a way to download or print the annotated documents at this point.  Printing and downloading is in development.  It probably won't make production release, but it will be close to it.

It's hard to spot, given that this thread has gotten so long!

[Renee_Carney]

Thank you, everyone, for the fabulous testing and feedback!  We've done our best to keep this thread from unravelling, but there are too many comments at this point.  Because the beta release notes are so near (Monday) we're going to close this thread for comment.

If you find issues, or have feature ideas, please continue to follow the https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-11159-canvas-community-feedback-guidelines?sr=search&search...‌!