August 25, 2026
Enhanced Rubrics - An Improved Rubrics Experience
One of the biggest Canvas improvements ever! Enhanced Rubrics is a major overhaul of entire Canvas Rubrics workflow, offering an improved experience in the following functional areas (click on each for a short video demo):
If you prefer to revert to the legacy Rubrics workflow, you may disable the Enhanced Rubrics Feature Option.
Related Canvas Guides:
Try Course Nickname!
Did you know that Canvas allows you to assign nicknames to your courses, which are visible only to you? Adding a nickname makes it much easier to identify the right course when navigating menus or managing multiple sections.
To set a course nickname: navigate to dashboard (you must be in Card View, not List view), click on the More menu (3 dots) for the course you wish to nickname. Type in the nickname then click "Apply."
The course nickname will appear in various locations in Canvas including:
- Dashboard
- Breadcrumb navigation at the top of the page
- Inbox dropdown menu
- Course copy (import) dropdown menu
In order to reduce student confusion and improve data consistency university-wide, instructors will soon be restricted from changing the official name of their course in Canvas. Nicknames provide a way for instructors to label their courses in way that makes sense to them, without changing things for anyone else.
Read more about how to customize Card View Dashboard: How do I view my courses in the Card View Dashboard?
Improvements to the New Canvas Portfolio Experience
Last spring, we announced brand-new, native Canvas Portfolio solution (hereafter referred to as simply Portfolio). The new Portfolio allows students to pull assignment submissions from multiple courses into a bundled portfolio, along with other documents and artifacts.
On September 19, some major improvements are coming to this developing product. Notably, students will be able share their portfolios via public link, even if the portfolio includes material linked from Canvas.
Reminder: Some older portfolio tools (Folio/Portfolium/Canvas Student ePortfolios) previously available in Canvas will be sunset on December 30, 2026. If you have used these products in the past, please refer to Sunset Date for Canvas Student ePortfolios (Portfolium) & New Portfolio Solution for more information about exporting or migrating old portfolio content.
Student Notebook
Students now have access to a new, experimental feature called Notebook in all Canvas courses. It allows students make "comments" on some Canvas course material, which get aggregated into a course Notebook, visible only to the individual student. Instructors cannot see the Notebook, or any of their students' Notebook activity, nor is student Notebook activity data collected in any way. If instructors wish to hide the Notebook in their course, it can be hidden from Course Navigation.
For more information see: Introducing Notebook: built-in note-taking for learners in Canvas.
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What's New in Canvas? is a semesterly article that showcases the latest features and enhancements in FSU's Canvas learning management system and highlights existing features you may not be leveraging to their fullest potential. Brought to you by the
Education Technology Office (ETO).