Canvas Teacher 12+

UPDATED REVIEW: Canvas has fixed the problem and the Canvas Teacher’s app works wonderfully. As before iPadOS 13, it is easy to use to grade student essays or contact students. With this fix, I now give it a five-star review. It took a while, but... Well done, Canvas!!!

UPDATED REVIEW: I have spoken to several Canvas people and have been told Canvas is aware of the app crashing with iOS 13 or iPadOS 13 and they are working on an updated version of the app. I was told by one of their L2 engineers that he could not give me a date for when the new app version will be released. Until it is released, my one-star review must stand. (Why is it taking Canvas so long to fix this problem?)

PREVIOUS REVIEW:This was a great app until IOS 13. Since then, I cannot leave a comment within a highlighted section of text for a student paper because the app crashes —every time. My problem was reported to Canvas, and I get responses from their support staff as though they do not know what is going on. So I will tell Canvas what is going on: Your Teacher App is creasing after IOS 13 came out. Not that hard to understand (Canvas support people actually asked me for my “crash logs” from my iPad). Please fix this! If Canvas cannot fix this, the app is worthless and teachers would be better off going back to the desktop version. What a shame.

I wouldn’t use this alone, but it is helpful when paired with the desktop version. I like the ability to write directly on my student’s pdf assignments (it would be great if it took fewer clicks for them to find that feedback, but that is not the fault of the Teacher app). I pretty much only use this to write on students’ work as I find everything else easier on the desktop .

I’ve removed my complaint about the February 2021 update since that has been resolved. The remaining issue that I have is that sometimes when I write feedback it doesn’t save the ends of sentences/words. It’s difficult to troubleshoot because I can see everything until I close the assignment and reopen it (which I don’t usually do). Unfortunately the students can get confused by comments with partial words or missing worlds! If I don’t feel too rushed I load the next paper then come back to the previous one and skim through the comments to make sure that everything shows up, but it is frustrating. (For reference I use an iPad Pro purchased in November 2019 and an Apple Pencil)

Overall, this is a solid app. However, it seems the developers did not take into account that we use this app to check-in on our courses while we’re on the go. We do not use it to facilitate our courses. Accessing your course through a mobile browser may be a better option depending upon what you’re trying to do.

- There is no ability to mark a message or discussion post as unread in the app. Once you open or view it, it cannot be marked as unread. If I don’t plan on responding at that very moment, I have to make a separate reminder to check it when I return to the desktop. I’ve basically stopped accessing messages and discussions through the app for this very reason. (In most cases, I’m not going to respond as soon as a student messages me, but I do want to read their message. Marking it as unread allows me to see the notification on the desktop where I prefer to respond.)
- The actual text from sent and received messages cannot be copied. Not being able to copy a portion of a previous message I have sent is frustrating. I frequently send the same explanations for assignments, etc. Having the ability to copy a portion of a message for another email - when I’m on the go - seems like an oversight on the developers’ behalf.
- To be continued...