Feature Preview User Groups

Some new opt-in features are available in the production environment but are subject to change. Provide your feedback and help contribute to additional improvements before they're enabled for all product users.

Please note features noted as Feature Previews are in active development. Feature updates take place within the product's regular release cycle and will be noted in Release or Deploy Notes, as needed. Please view the user group for more details.

Assignment Enhancements

Supported student assignments display an improved interface and submission workflow. This change improves the student experience in completing and submitting assignments, viewing rubrics, and locating instructor feedback.

  • Assignment Enhancements User Group
  • Current status: Feature Preview (Active Development)
  • Production availability: 2020-10-17
  • Projected feature stability: 2021-10-27
  • Projected feature enforcement: TBA

Canvas Portfolio

Whether you're an educator looking to guide learners through structured, competency-based portfolios or a student building a personal showcase of your academic journey, you can now join the experience and collaborate with others exploring Canvas Portfolio.

  • Canvas Portfolio User Group
  • Current status: Feature Option (Active Development)
  • Beta availability: 2025-07-19
  • Projected feature enforcement: January 2026

Course Pacing

Course Pacing is a feature preview. See the Course Pacing Feature Overview.

  • Course Pacing User Group
  • Current status: Feature Preview (Active Development)
  • Production availability: 2022-04-27
  • Projected feature enforcement: TBA

Differentiation Tags

Meeting the diverse needs of students can be challenging. That’s why we’re excited to introduce Differentiation Tags, a new feature designed to simplify personalized learning. With these tags, you can easily label students or groups based on learning needs, styles, or interests—then use the "Assign To" feature to deliver targeted resources, assignments, and activities effortlessly.

Discussion/Inbox AI Translations

Discussion and Inbox Translation use AI to support multilingual communication in Canvas. Discussion Translation allows students to translate entire discussion threads to better understand and participate in conversations. Inbox Translation enables instructors to translate messages before sending, helping improve communication with non-native speaking parents and guardians.

Discussion Summaries

Discussion Summarization uses a Generative AI model to provide instructors summaries of key points, questions, and ideas in a discussion thread. This feature is designed to save educators time and to allow discussions to be used effectively in large-format classes and other environments where they were previously infeasible.

  • Discussion Summaries User Group
  • Current status: Feature Preview (Active Development)
  • Production availability: 2024-07-20
  • Projected feature enforcement: TBA

Enhanced Rubrics

The rubrics redesign and enhancements improve the functionality of rubrics within Canvas LMS.

Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader

SpeedGrader has long been an essential tool for instructors, simplifying the grading process and enabling timely feedback for students. However, as course sizes grow and grading demands increase, the current version has shown performance limitations—including slow load times, system instability, and a UI that could be more intuitive.

Smart Search

Leveraging semantic algorithms and AI, Smart Search allows users to search Canvas course content by understanding the context of queries and finding relevant results based on that context. Smart Search facilitates faster content discovery for both teachers and students.

  • Smart Search User Group
  • Current status: Feature Preview (Active Development)
  • Production availability: 2024-07-20
  • Projected feature enforcement: TBA