Release notes outline upcoming customer-impacting changes that are expected to display in beta and/or production environments. Please note that features considered for future development are not included in the notes.

New Features

• Authentication: Multi-factor Authentication Required- Admin
• Courses: Notebook- Student
• Gradebook: Learning Mastery Gradebook Enhancements- Instructor
• Navigation: Navigation Links in Account, Course, and User Menus- All Users

Other Updates

• Assignments: Accurate assignment due dates in student LTI launches- Student
• External Tools: Improved LTI person_sourcedid claim handling- Admin
• SpeedGrader: Enforcement of SpeedGrader Upgrades- Instructor

All Users

Admin

Instructor

Student

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) is required for all admin users in Canvas who log in with an email and password. MFA was previously optional, but is now mandatory for any account with admin privileges.

For Canvas admin users, the MFA requirement depends on how your institution handles authentication:

• Canvas authentication: Admin users must set up MFA. On their next login after enforcement, admin users are prompted to complete setup before continuing. Setup can be completed via an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Authy, and others) or SMS. Admins won't be immediately locked out.
• Third-party SSO or identity provider (Okta, Microsoft, ClassLink, and others): Instructure won't enforce MFA directly. MFA is managed through an institution's identity provider. Instructure strongly recommends confirming that MFA is enabled and required for admin accounts at the identity provider level.

Note: This change does not impact instructors, students or other non-admin Canvas users.

Change Benefit

• Part of broader platform security improvements: A five-workstream hardening program addresses identity and access, application security, infrastructure, data exposure reduction, and threat detection, making the platform harder to compromise and faster to respond when something looks wrong.
• Stronger protection for admin accounts: Requiring MFA for admin logins ensures a stolen password alone can't be used to access an account with elevated permissions.

When the Notebook feature option is enabled, students can capture and organize highlights and notes on pages directly within their course content. Students can mark content as Unclear or Important, add notes, and manage their entries from a dedicated Notebook page in Course Navigation.

Change Benefit

• Encourages active engagement with course materials: Gives students a structured way to interact with content as they learn, making it easier to study, reflect, and retain key information over time.

Feature Workflow

In the Course Navigation, the Notebook link displays when the feature is enabled.

On Pages, students can highlight content and mark it as Unclear [1] or Important [2].

When content is marked, a Notebook tray opens where students can:

• View whether the content is marked as Important or Unclear [2]
• Add notes [3]
• See the date the content was marked [4]
• Delete the note [5]

On the Notebook page, students can sort their notes [1] and click a notecard to return to the marked content [2].

The enhanced Learning Mastery Gradebook gives instructors more flexibility to search, sort, and customize how they view student mastery data. Added options include expandable bar charts, per-outcome display settings, and a student detail tray for quick access to submissions, mastery reports, and feedback.

Note: Outcome scales with more than 5 ratings don't display mastery icons or bar charts in the main table.

Change Benefit

• Increased visibility into student mastery data: Instructors can view the individual scores that contribute to a student's mastery calculation, making it easier to identify assessment issues, verify results, and step in with targeted support.

In the enhanced Learning Mastery Gradebook, instructors can:

• Search students [1]
• View mastery bar charts [2]
• View individual mastery [3]
• Search outcomes [4]
• Export data [5]
• Manage settings [6]

Instructors can use the Settings tray to customize their gradebook view.

When an outcome scale has more than 5 ratings, the mastery icons and bar chart don't display in the gradebook.

Note: Instructors with edit permissions will see a banner message when creating or editing an outcome scale that exceeds 5 ratings.

To enlarge the bar chat, click the Expand icon.

Click the Information icon to view a summary of outcome details [1], or click the Configure Mastery link to return to the Mastery tab on the Outcomes page [2].

Click the bar chart to see which students fall into each mastery level [1], the Create Differentiation Tag link to set up differentiation tags [2], or the Message Students link to send students a message [3].

Click the Options icon to access the following options [1]:

• Sort students by ascending or descending scores [2]
• Show contributing scores [3]
• View outcome info [4]
• Show outcome distribution [5]

Selecting Show Contributing Scores expands assignment-aligned outcomes to show each contributing assignment as its own column in the gradebook.

Click the Expand icon to open a student detail tray [1], which displays:

• The name of the outcome [2]
• The assignment aligned outcome [3]
  Note: Instructors can also navigate between aligned assignments.
• A button to open the submission in SpeedGrader [4]
• Navigation to move between students [5]
• A link to view the student's Mastery Report [6]
• A comment field to submit feedback [7]
  These comments show everywhere submission comments display.

The Performance and Usability for SpeedGrader feature option is enforced and removed for all institutions, making the improved experience the default.

Change Benefit

• Modernized grading experience by default: Enables the improved SpeedGrader experience for all institutions by default, giving instructors faster load times and a cleaner interface.

New Features

• Authentication: Discovery Page Configuration- Admin [Delayed as of 2026-05-15]
• Canvas Apps: Manage App Registration- Admin
• Pages- IgniteAI Study Tools- All Users [Added on 2026-04-30]
• Portfolio: Video and Image Support- All Users
• Portfolio: Enhanced Linked Evidence Labeling- All Users
• Portfolio: Updated Evidence and Requirement Trays- All Users
• Portfolio: Guided Reflection Prompts- Instructors
• Themes: Login Page Custom Text

Other Updates

• External Tools: LTI 1.3 Tool Configuration Schema Updates- Admin
• User Settings: Removal of User-Generated Access Tokens for Free for Teacher Accounts- All users

All Users

Admin

Instructor

New Features

• Dashboard: Customizable Dashboard- Student
• Grades: IgniteAI Grading Assistance for SpeedGrader- Instructor
• Navigation: Enhanced Accessibility Reporting- Admin, Instructor
• Rich Content Editor: Automated Captions and Interactive Transcripts for Canvas Media- Instructor, Student

Other Updates

• Platform/Integrations: AWS CloudFront Transition- Admin
• Portfolio: Publish Portfolio Modal Update and Enrollment Sync Improvements- Instructor, Student

Admin

Instructor

Student

New Features

• Assignments: Document Processing App- Admin, Instructor
• Canvas Apps: Availability and Exceptions- Admin [Added 2026-01-28]
• Canvas Apps: Sub-account Apps and Monitor Access- Admin
• Course: Accessibility Checker- Instructor [Delayed until 2026-02-25]
• New Quizzes: Native Canvas Integration Production Environment Availability- All Users [Delayed as of 2026-02-13]
• New Quizzes: Survey Results Visibility- Instructor [Delayed as of 2026-02-20]
• New Quizzes: Export Survey Responses- Instructor [Delayed as of 2026-02-20]

Other Updates

• Canvas Apps: Updated Apps Page Text for Sub-accounts- Admin
• Developer Keys: Canvas Apps Link- Admin [Added 2026-01-28]
• Navigation: Lucid Placement Updates- Admin

All Users

Admin

Instructor

New Features

• Course: IgniteAI Image Alt Text Generation in Course Accessibility Checker- Instructor
• Grades: IgniteAI Grading Assistance for SpeedGrader- Instructor [Delayed as of 2026-02-23]
• New Quizzes: Survey Results Visibility- Instructor [Added on 2026-02-20]
• New Quizzes: Export Survey Responses- Instructor [Added on 2026-02-20]

Other Updates

• Announcements/Discussions/Inbox: IgniteAI translations for Discussions, Announcements and Inbox Feature Preview Concluded- Instructor
• Developer Keys: Legacy LTI Keys Replaced by Unified Key for Canvas Portfolio- Admin
• Discussions: IgniteAI Insights for Discussions Feature Preview Concluded- Instructor
• Discussions: IgniteAI Summaries for Discussions Feature Preview Concluded- Instructor
• New Quizzes: Native Canvas Integration Production Environment Availability- Instructor
• Platform/Integration: User-Agent Header Enforcement- Admin [Delayed as of 2026-03-13]
• Rubrics: IgniteAI Generator for Rubrics Feature Preview Concluded- Instructor
• Rubrics: Enhanced Rubrics Feature Preview Concluded and Default Status Update- Instructor

All Users

Admin

Instructor

New Features

• Canvas Apps: Availability and Exceptions- Admins [Delayed as of 2026-01-20]
• New Quizzes: Native Canvas Integration- All Users
• SpeedGrader: Performance and Usability Upgrades for SpeedGrader Feature Preview is Concluded- Instructors

Other Updates

• Developer Keys: Canvas Apps Link- Admin [Delayed as of 2026-01-20]
• Deprecation of limit Argument-Admin
• Deprecation of user.comment_bank_items_count Field-Admin
• Infrastructure/Platform: Canvas Delivery Network Update (CDN) [Added 2026-01-05]
• User-Agent Header Enforcement-Admin [Delayed As of 2026-01-09]

All Users

Admin

Instructor