Comment Tools Missing

[tcomer]

In Speedgrader, on some assignments, the comment tools will not appear; this seems to happen one out of every 20-30 uploaded assignments-- I can't find a way to remedy this.

[kblack · Accepted solution]

Hi  @tcomer  Welcome to the Canvas Community! A few things to know about the DocViewer (as it's called) in SpeedGrader.  One is that annotation is not possible with text entry assignments.  So, if you enabled both the online submission and the text entry checkboxes when creating your assignment, those students who chose to use text entry would not have the annotation tools available for you.

Also, according to this specific online guide (How do I add annotated comments in student submissions using DocViewer in SpeedGrader? ), note that it states in the blue area at the top "SpeedGrader may take up to ten minutes after an assignment is submitted to display a file that supports DocViewer."  So the advice I give to my own faculty members when this occurs is to simply wait a bit, do something else, and come back!

If you find that it is happening very consistently, however, first just double-check that your browser is up to date, and then it may be time to report it to Canvas Support (Help>>Report a Problem).  But also check that the files submitted are fully compatible, as well...which are also noted in that first link, above.  The bottom line, however, is that it will usually resolve itself before too long.

I hope this helps a bit, Thomas.

[tcomer]

Thanks Ken. Yes, this was indeed submission via text entry vs. document upload. In the future, I will uncheck that box as I like using the document viewer tools to give feedback directly on the assignments. T

[kblack]

Ah....okay!  Thanks for letting me know.

[MaryAbercrombie]

After much frustration with this issue, I found a post by doing a Google search on this issue that alluded to the fact that the comment tools do not work in the SpeedGrader DocView if Peer Reviews are required on an assignment.  This is a HUGE issue!  I want students to review each other's submissions, but I do NOT want to download all of their submissions, edit them using track changes in MSWord, and upload them again.