Introducing Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader

[YasiAfsharnive]

What we have been referring to as Modernized SpeedGrader now has a new name. Performance and usability upgrades for SpeedGrader: a title that better reflects what’s really changing under the hood. While the name has evolved, the functionality remains the same: enhancing the SpeedGrader experience to be faster, more efficient, and future-ready.

What is changing?

Performance and usability upgrades for SpeedGrader introduce backend enhancements aimed at boosting speed, stability, and scalability, especially for courses with large enrollments. Here’s what you can expect:

• Optimized for Large Courses
  SpeedGrader now performs more efficiently in high-enrollment environments, delivering faster load times and smoother performance across the board.
  
  
• Minimal Learning Curve
  The interface you know and trust remains intact, allowing users to jump right in with little to no training.
  
  
• Built for the Future
  These foundational improvements enable faster, iterative enhancements to usability and performance going forward.

Minor UI Improvements

While these performance upgrades include a handful of UI refinements, the core SpeedGrader experience remains unchanged, ensuring instructors and graders can continue working confidently, without the need for retraining or adjustment. Below is a summary of the targeted interface updates, each aimed at enhancing clarity and visual consistency:

• The Sections selector now features an updated drilldown interface for a more intuitive selection experience.
• The “No Submission” alert and Empty Course UI have been visually refreshed for greater clarity.
• The Grade Status selector has been updated to match the recent design enhancements introduced in Discussion Checkpoints.
• Rubrics in SpeedGrader now always display using the enhanced traditional (grid) view, regardless of whether the Enhanced Rubrics feature flag is enabled.
• This change applies only within SpeedGrader and does not activate Enhanced Rubrics throughout Canvas.
• For users with Enhanced Rubrics enabled, a new tabbed rubric viewing option is now available.
• The comment attachment workflow has been improved:
• Clicking the attachment button now opens your browser’s file upload dialog.
• Removing an attachment now uses a trash icon, replacing the previous red “X” button.

All community guides and support documentation will be updated by June 21 to reflect these UI changes.

Success from the Early Adopter Program (EAP)

We held an Early Adopter Program (EAP) throughout March and April, which gave over 50 institutions early access to this upgraded SpeedGrader experience. Results of the EAP have been positive. 30 institutions enabled the feature in their production environment, exceeding our 20–25 target, with 165 courses actively using it. Two institutions have already made it the default experience, and others plan to adopt it during peak grading periods. Opt-outs have remained below 1%, signaling strong confidence in the new experience. With a high Net Promoter Score (NPS) and several institutions choosing to use it during final exams, it’s clear the feature is delivering meaningful value where it matters most.

Thanks to our customers who participated in this EAP, we also identified and addressed usability improvements—most within just 2–3 days of discovery. This iterative feedback loop also helped us validate that SpeedGrader’s performance either remained consistent or improved.  

What’s next: Feature Preview coming June 21!

We’re excited to announce that on June 21, 2025, performance and usability upgrades for SpeedGrader will be available in all production environments. It will be off by default, giving you complete control over when and how to enable it. You can enable this feature via the account level feature option, “Performance and usability upgrades for SpeedGrader”, as shown below.

Alt txt: Screenshot of feature option titled "Performance and usability upgrades for SpeedGrader".

Read the full release notes here.

To better support our customers who are approaching peak grading season, we are offering early access to the even faster and more performant SpeedGrader before its release on June 21. Institutions interested in gaining access sooner can sign up using this form.

Join the Feature Preview Community

We invite all customers to start enabling and exploring this upgrade when ready—and to join our Feature Preview Community User Group to share experiences, ask questions, and provide feedback.

Your partnership continues to shape the future of SpeedGrader. We can’t wait for you to experience what’s next.

[tom_gibbons]

Any chance that the submission comments sidebar will show the full comment thread for all of a student's submissions, when you're using Assignment Enhancements? 

Right now, with Assignment Enhancements, if a student resubmits, the instructor will only see the submission comments for the current submission, rather than the complete history for all of that student's submissions for that assignment. For example: 

• Student submits
• Instructor provides feedback in a submission comment
• Student responds to comment
• Student resubmits
• Instructor attempt to assess resubmission, but has to select the previous submission from the dropdown to review the conversation and then go back to the current submission to pick things up again. 

It's not a great experience for instructors--the conversation about the learning is fragmented rather than continuous. 

[YasiAfsharnive]

@tom_gibbons Thanks for bringing this up. Right now, with Assignment Enhancements, instructors only see submission comments for the current attempt, which can break up the conversation.

This is something our design team has been looking into as part of the SpeedGrader UI updates. We know it's important for instructors to see the full thread, especially when students resubmit and there's ongoing feedback.

We don’t have a timeline yet, but improving this experience is definitely on our radar. Appreciate the feedback, it helps guide where we focus.

[cgl233]

Is there a reason why the Speed Grader Comment Library is limited to 20 comments when the Performance Upgrades are enabled?  Can that PLEASE be changed back to unlimited comments?  

If I go back and disable the upgrades, the comment library reverts back to the previous number, but upon trying again to enable the upgrades, the comment library is limited to 20.  I attempted to add additional comments, but the additional comment would not save.  

[YasiAfsharnive]

Hi @cgl233. Thanks for reporting this! This is actually a bug - you should be able to see all saved comments in the comment library. Our team is working on a fix right now and it should be released soon. 

[mbmacdonald]

Hi @YasiAfsharnive -thanks for your updates on this. I haven't really been following this one because my institution does not have large classes, ever. But this is still an optional feature option. So, is there any reason I shouldn't turn it on on June 21? If the current speedgrader is adequate for our users, is there any potential downside to enabling this feature option?

Second question, you also mentioned that turning on this feature option will fix a bug with Enhanced Rubrics. Will that bug be fixed for regular speedgrader eventually? I am definitely waiting for most of the bugs to be squashed before turning on Enhanced Rubrics. Thanks for your time!

[YasiAfsharnive]

@mbmacdonald Thanks for your questions! I'm happy to clarify.

Regarding your first question about enabling the new SpeedGrader: 

There's generally no downside to enabling the new SpeedGrader on June 21st. It offers the same experience with better overall performance and minor UI updates (you can see these outlined above). All future improvements, including those for Enhanced Rubrics, will be applied to this new version.

The usability enhancements with Enhanced Rubrics will only be fixed in the new SpeedGrader. Since we're focusing our development on this updated SpeedGrader, any fixes for issues like this one will be implemented there. So, if you're holding off on fully embracing Enhanced Rubrics until those bugs are resolved, enabling the new SpeedGrader is key to getting those improvements.

Hope this helps clarify things!

[kcilio]

*** Circling back and trying to resolve the lack of "download-ability" in my school's Canvas Speed Grader. @YasiAfsharnive, can you provide insight here?  We anxiously awaited the June 21st SpeedGrader Update, and I have enabled the "Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader" and have seen some of the updates listed on this thread, but still do not have the ability to download media files from student submissions.  Docx, xlsx, PDF.... all OK.  But, we still can not download media files and very much need to. 

Once again... thank you in advance for your help and any insights.

Kellyann

[DavidSchlater]

I have made this tool available for teacher to try, but have not enforced it server-wide to be on by default. Has anyone taken that approach? I'm not sure if this is solid enough yet to go into Fall 2025 with it on for every course. What do you all think?

[dbrace]

Hi @DavidSchlater,

At my institution (a community college in Pennsylvania, with a small Department of Online Learning team that supports Canvas and is separate from our IT Department), we generally take a slow approach to releasing new/upgraded features or functionality.

Because of all of the new/upgraded features related to grading in general (discussions checkpoints, enhanced rubrics, SpeedGrader), we previously would have set them as disabled and locked (not allow them at all) but decided instead to set them as disabled and unlocked (allowing them voluntarily) and communicated their availability (and included links to official Canvas documentation).

We did not even think about setting them as enabled and unlocked because they are still new and there are growing pains (both for learning and for their actual usage).

Just wanted to share high-level overview of our institution's stance.

-Doug

[ProfessorBeyrer]

Thank you @YasiAfsharnive for sharing this news! I finally encountered this in one of my classes this evening, and I was very happy to find out that the keyboard shortcut "c" to access the comments field has been restored. 😀

[John_Gaspar]

I'm very excited testing the updated SpeedGrader - we have a lot of subjects with large enrollments, the max around 1800 students, so this is a real plus.

There's a new delete icon showing next to the submission download button. I assume it's used to delete the student's submissions and have a few questions:

1. It doesn't do anything in my Beta - is it role restricted, does it need to be activated by Admin, or is it buggy?
2. If a student submission is deleted where does the deleted file go? Can it be recovered from /undelete?
3. If a group submission is deleted is it also deleted from the Group > Files > Submissions?
4. Is the deletion recorded in Gradebook history? If not, are submission deletions trackable or auditable some other way?

Cheers,

John

[dbrace]

Hi @John_Gaspar,

I cannot speak to the beta experience (or lack of experience) that you have described but Canvas Support in their  How do I delete a file upload assignment submissio... - Instructure Community - 425635  support article talks about this functionality.

This functionality has existed (and continues to exist with this enhancement) and is only available to admins. A message does appear when the submission has been deleted.

-Doug

[YasiAfsharnive]

Thanks for your response @dbrace!

Hi @John_Gaspar - this feature is only available to admin, if you're not an admin then you shouldn't be able to see the trash icon (that's a bug, thanks for flagging it for us!)

If a file is deleted, it wont be accessible to the student or instructor. We do show a warning. Since the feature is only accessible to admins, and it should only be used for unusual circumstances.

[John_Gaspar]

Thanks @dbrace - I thought it might be the admin delete option.

And thanks for confirming that it shouldn't be visible to non-admins, @YasiAfsharnive.  That'll make it much easier to update our resources and training workshops.

[cgl233]

@YasiAfsharnive , are there any updates on the comment library bug with upgraded speed grader?  I tried it again yesterday and was still only seeing a limited amount of comments in my comment library (only 20 when there should be over 50 there).  

[YasiAfsharnive]

@cgl233 Thanks for checking in. We have a fix ready to go - it should be deployed to production in the next couple of weeks. 

[ChristopherBass]

I'm hearing from instructors that when using the updated Speedgrader, students who dropped the course or transferred to another section of the course are still appearing in the old section when they filter by section. They do also appear in the new section. Should past enrollments be showing up?

[HeatherHarris2]

We are also experiencing dropped students and transfers appearing both in their old and new sections in SpeedGrader.

[John_Gaspar]

When I tested the problems reported by @ChristopherBass and @HeatherHarris2 I had similar problems.

The sections I was testing have between 36 and 42 students but when I apply the Section filter in Gradebook they consistently have over 60 students in SpoeedGrader. Seems like once in a section, always in a section.

But only in SpeedGrader. Gradebook is displaying the filtered lists as expected.

I didn't have a problem with withdrawn / inactive students.

[YasiAfsharnive]

Hello @HeatherHarris2 @John_Gaspar @ChristopherBass. Thanks for surfacing this - this is a known issue and we're working to resolve it. Speedgrader should respect the inactive/concluded filter in Gradebook.  If you filter out inactive students in Gradebook, they should also be filtered out in SpeedGrader. Look out for a fix soon! 

[DavidSchlater]

@YasiAfsharnive  any word on this bug in the new SpeedGrader, and when it might be addressed? 

[YasiAfsharnive]

@DavidSchlater Thanks for checking in. The team is currently workin on this one so hopefully a fix should be coming in before the end of the month. 

[emc2]

@YasiAfsharnive thanks for keeping us updated! We are also seeing the SpeedGrader Section filter includes students (not all, but a couple) from other sections. It would be great if this could be fixed soon so we don't have to worry about it at the end of the semester. I'm assuming that when a fix is put it, it should automatically be applied to all courses in a Canvas instance and instructors or admins won't have to worry about going through and adjusting anything?

[YasiAfsharnive]

@emc2 Thanks! This is a known issue and one we're currently working on. Look out for a fix soon! 

[MRedelfs]

@YasiAfsharnive I am wondering about a feature in the old Speedgrader that I'm not seeing in this new version. Are we able to see past student submissions in this new version? Thank you!