Lesson: 2 of 3

The SpeedGrader™ allows you to view different types of assignment submissions in one place, make text and audio comments to students, and grade using different methods, such as rubrics. DocViewer is a tool integrated within SpeedGrader to help instructors annotate and provide additional feedback.

What Can You Do with SpeedGrader™?

Providing rich feedback to students can enhance student engagement and learning. The SpeedGrader™ has several places where instructors can offer feedback:

Post a grade directly to the gradebook.
View and use the rubric (if the assignment has a rubric attached).
Add general comments that can start back-and-forth discussions around the assignment.
Provide students with written, video, and audio commentary.
Include additional attachments.
Download the original submission.

In the SpeedGrader™, instructors can also view the date/time of a student submission (and you'll be alerted if the submission was late).

Click to view additional details of the SpeedGrader.

What Can You Do with DocViewer?

Canvas DocViewer is a tool that allows annotations on online assignment submissions in Canvas. You can use DocViewer to view files and assignments in SpeedGrader. You can view when students view annotated feedback in the assignment details section of the sidebar.

When you open a submission, DocViewer will automatically save any annotations made to the submission file for one hour. You can restart a DocViewer session at any time by refreshing the submission page. To help you avoid losing work, Canvas will generate a session expiration warning after 60 minutes.

If your browser includes a built-in PDF viewer, select the option to view the PDF in the system viewer.

Compatible DocViewer Files

If a submission includes a file that can be rendered in DocViewer, but the submission preview is not yet complete, Canvas will generate a message stating the document is still processing.

The following file types are supported for the auto preview in Canvas:

.doc
.docx
.ppt
.pptx
.xls
.xlsx
.pdf
.odt
.odp
.ods
.odg
.odf
.sxw
.sxc
.sxi
.txt
.rtf

Notes:

Currently, annotations cannot be downloaded.
Files over 100 MB and password-protected files will not be converted by DocViewer.
SpeedGrader may take up to ten minutes after an assignment is submitted to display a document that supports DocViewer.
DocViewer annotations can be viewed in the Canvas Teacher app.

Click to view the annotation tools in DocViewer in greater detail.

The following tutorials related to SpeedGrader™ and DocViewer: