Canvas Student Reviews

by Htfdgbjh

I would have rated this a zero if I thought it would submit. This platform should have never been released until it was more reliable. Work is constantly lost or shows up in different places. It is extremely inconsistent in showing if work has been completed or not. My son had spent hours doing assignments 7 days a week sometimes 10 hours a day. More than half of the work he has submitted is “lost in canvas”. My husband and I have spent over 5 combined hours trying to submit a single assignment for my 4th grader with no luck. My son used to be an A student with his favorite subject being ELA. In Remote learning on Canvas he has a 35....out of 100. Most days are spent crying and last Friday after another 10 hour day he rather intelligently sputtered out through frustrated tears, “What is the point? I spend all my time doing school work with no time to have fun and I am still failing”. I want decision makers to know Canvas is the number 1 problem with remote learning and the sanity of parents as well as detriment to our elementary school students quality of learning and their self esteem. Please Please find something better. I think there is a program called Schoolology that sounds very promising.

by Kehlani Villanueva

Canvas is not my favorite it’s easier then google classroom though, but I find it highly annoying at times when the notifications mess up or it glitches. it’s glitched a few times when I’m on CanvasStudent , I wish the setup was a bit easier to deal with though. with the way it is set up it isn’t bad though I just wish they made it a bit less complex. I find it complex because that’s just the way I am, not everything is exactly easy for me. if they had set it up a bit differently that would be perfect, like the modules, announcements, calendars etc. something about in those spots to be different would definitely help, now another thing I have an issue with is the color….I’m sure a lot of other people have suggested it and i know people who literally complain about the color at times. but if there was a dark theme it would make things so much easier to deal/work with, literally if there was a dark theme I would like CanvasStudent a whole lot better. but just a few bugs need to be fixed, I’ve had to delete CanvasStudent a few times to get it to work properly, I’ve signed in on others laptops and phones before and the notification wouldn’t work. I’ve even tried to delete my account and make a new one it still wouldn’t work???? that’s all I’ve got to say.

by Different.but.Weird

Yes, it shows me my grades and the modules, but CanvasStudent version fails to load any assignments, grades received on assignments, assignments on the calendar, comments made on assignments, assignments from the modules, assignments on the to do list, and has constant error screens. Every time you click retry it keeps you on the same page with the same error. This has made me have to use the website on my phone rather than CanvasStudent , since the website works way better than CanvasStudent . I understand that CanvasStudent is still developing but these problems have been consistent since I first started using it in August of 2020. Every update I hope at least one of these problems get fixed, but it just gets worse and worse. Although CanvasStudent was made for convenience, it has been anything but helpful. The only thing that is beneficial from CanvasStudent version is the notifications. I get notifications for when assignments are graded, assigned, comments are made, and when due dates changes. Unfortunately, whenever I click on these notifications, it just takes me to a loading screen that can load for hours. I was very excited to be able to do school on with app from my mobile device, but this was a real let down.

by Idkwhattopickasmehname

So I’ve been using canvas for quite a while end of like sometimes like whenever I go to email a teacher or like something like that it really just randomly crash like and Sundays like you act like it’s like the Wi-Fi like so slow or something I don’t know what it is but whenever I like going to it just loads for like 10 minutes straight and crashes it’s like the most annoying thing in the world and even more than that whenever I click on one of my teachers names or a class and it has like some sort of weird grade or something that it doesn’t like or like I don’t know teacher say that like it sometimes they calculate the grade for them or like it will have a calculation grid glitch that will have repeating decimals and whenever I click on it it just crashes CanvasStudent and to the point where I have to restart my iPad five times for getting my new net work a bunch of times going back in and trying to see if it loads after waiting 10 minutes to see a crash, oh and it also automatically allows itself to go to your calendar and make several events that are in your calendar already in CanvasStudent so like now I have a bunch of calendar events that just say oh you’re Odysseus or odyssey assignment is due and it’s like in my calendar so they just gang access do you like your personal apps without even asking

by Orangetwelve

CanvasStudent feels like it was built because it had to be, likely to accommodate the reality that students use their iPads and iPhones more than anyone wants them to. There are things missing from CanvasStudent that feel glaring - like the absence of support for dark mode. Or the fact that posts don’t save automatically, like they do on almost every other iOS app. More than once, CanvasStudent crashes mid-response and I lose everything, so I have to write everything somewhere else first, then move it over to Canvas when I’m ready to post. Not a huge deal, but frustrating when you forget and lose a lengthy post. And document uploading is weirdly unreliable. I don’t know why — nothing about CanvasStudent feels so…thin…but document uploading does. Oh, and granular notifications! Why can’t there be more granular notifications? I get really frustrated by the way this thing alerts me. It’s either too much, or not enough. And I can’t dial it in to make notifications just about the responses I’ve posted.

All said, it’s an app I have to use. And after using the web version, CanvasStudent is far less enjoyable and lacks most of the best features of the website.

by Phillyphan101

From the beginning, CanvasStudent was fine. I enjoyed using it and it was a good way of keeping up with my grades (assuming my professors uploaded them in the first place), but this recent update, as of April 16, is annoying to say the least. If your class are heavily discussion based, good luck. You now have to scroll though everyone’s posts and comments to finally reach your own. It gets hard to tell which one is a post and which one is a comment because there’s no real indicator except for a very thin gray line. If you want to edit a previous comment or past that you made? Tough luck, you’ll just have to replay again and add to the madness that is already this discussion board. Not only that but the scrolling never loads everything and often gets stuck when it reaches the bottom and has to load more also causing CanvasStudent to crash. It was so much more efficient when all of the comments were in folders under the original post. Not only that but the notifications are still broken in the sense of, when you get a notification and you click on it, it still doesn’t take you to the right page.

by Luke13243546

As a student, I way prefer Google Classroom for one main reason: it’s easy. Canvas is honestly way too complicated and each class is navigated in a different way. On the computer, which is a school Chrome book, it is ridiculously slow compared to google classroom, which is fast and efficient. I shouldn’t need to press a million buttons just to get to an assignment, nor should I have to wait for a page to load for me to be able to start an assignment. I, along with many other students, have complained about Canvas being very inefficient. The modules and assignments tab shouldn’t even exist if it were up to me. I would just have a main feed for the whole class and that would be filled with announcements and assignments like google classroom. Simplicity will make online learning 1000x easier because using Canvas was such a pain. I will give CanvasStudent designers some credit for making the iPhone app smooth and more friendly, but it’s still full of so many links that aren’t necessary that it’s easy to miss an assignment if you don’t check everywhere possible, which by the way, isn’t a problem with Google Classroom.

by Lemon Scott

All the functions on CanvasStudent work fine except for the Calendar tab. Whenever I tap the calendar tab, CanvasStudent freezes and becomes unresponsive, and I have to restart CanvasStudent if I want to use it at all. Restarting CanvasStudent doesn’t fix the calendar tab issue. Sometimes CanvasStudent has no problem opening the calendar tab, but other times this happens. I’ve seen other people report this issue multiple times this year on the website support forum, but it just keeps getting marked as Solved without any actual solutions being posted. The issue is so prevalent I have to open up my computer to use the website or run the website in desktop mode on my browser in private browsing mode just to use the calendar function, which is an important function for many of my classes. I wish that the devs would just figure out what’s going wrong here instead of just ignoring the issue for months on end, but that doesn’t seem to be what’s happening. If it weren’t for this issue, I’d say overall I enjoy using CanvasStudent and find it pretty useful, but this ruins the user experience.

by Ackley121

Edit: Would it be possible to only receive notifications for replies to my own discussion post and not all discussion posts?

I like CanvasStudent in general. It sure is handy. I don’t like that the To Do tab only shows a limited amount of tasks and that you can add or view To Do tasks that were added by oneself. You can view the To Dos you added using the desktop website in the Calendar tab in iPad and iPhone, but you cannot add, edit or delete them. I really wish the To Do tab was more useful in the iPad and iPhone apps. Another thing I noticed is that when a particular course imports quizzes from an external application like Cengage Mindtap, it does not mark the assignment as completed in the To Do list. It has to be checked off manually. I wish the To Do list (or List View in the Dashboard tab on desktop) were enhanced as having a comprehensive and editable list of To Do’s is very useful for students to track their assignments. I also noticed that the Inbox feature in the mobile app versions lack a couple capabilities that at least exist in the desktop version. For example, members of a group message can view who is in the message thread while on desktop. But in the mobile apps, you would only see the addressees by clicking reply all.

by Steak Haus

Nothing auto uploads to the calendar. If I have to personally check 10 sources to make sure Im on schedule, this is basically a very complicated syllabus with a forum attached to it. The format allows and inadvertently causes faculty to make busy work for the student by uploading more and more materials with more deadlines to keep track of, but since it does little to organize or enhance workflow, it has essentially made it more work for the student as you are looking through 50 pages of materials to make sure you’ve covered all the bases. I’d rather have a paper syllabus and take home handouts as needed, then have to keep track of hundreds of files, notifications, emails, forms and dates throughout the term. Its idea of a solution inadvertently creates a bigger problem. You’d think everyone having remote access to something would make the workflow more efficient. Instead it just opens floodgates to 40 people at a time thinking “Oh, I’ll just say or add this one more thing...” At least add a global search tool.

by CJH3rd

Love CanvasStudent overall! I would love to see an updated UI in the future to kind of bring everything together a little better. I have found issues with the mobile app not being able to load certain files at times (ie. PPT, Word, and other extensions). Perhaps the most problematic is the failure to load grades in the correct module. I can usually get around it by going to assignments though.

Something else that I will note it the somewhat cumbersome viewing of comments on papers. Each time a specific comment is viewed it takes you out of the paper completely, or you have to swipe down again. It just feels rather clunky and I think it can be better implemented.

I love Canvas and look forward to seeing where it goes. Oh, and I’m not sure if it is already available but I would love to see this tied into a degree plan completion module somehow to know which courses have fulfilled certain requirements. This may already be available I’m not sure.

by L.s.1313!

CanvasStudent is fantastic, it’s much easier than having to pull out my computer every time I want to check grades, messages, etc and helps me keep on track. The “to-do” feature is especially helpful, as it’s basically a planner built into my phone without me having to do any work! It’s a great way to check my assignments easily without having to click on every class to see them.

The reason I gave this 4 stars and not 5, though, is because of the amount of duplicate messages and emails I get, as well as the structure of them. Every notification of a new grade, assignment date change, etc is delivered to my phone twice- which isn’t awful, it just gets really irritating after a while. The other reason is the emails I get tend to be pretty unhelpful- such as, “your assignment in x class was graded,” but it doesn’t tell me the grade in the email, so what’s the point of sending it?

Overall, though, there are definitely more pros than cons to CanvasStudent, so I’m not going to complain about it too much :)

by TheLincolnguy

I enjoy using this instead of having to log on every time on a web browser and having to boot up my computer, it’s also wherever I am. I do have a couple of occasional issues though, sometimes CanvasStudent doesn’t load, it just keeps showing the canvas logo rotating forever (I think it may have something to do with having do not disturb on, I don’t know if it’s exclusive to my 2017 model iPad Pro 10.5 or if it could be a generic issue). Also, when writing a long reply on a discussion, the letters sometimes can start to fall behind, even to the point of a full second delay and then it will start back spacing if you made a mistake and won’t stop for a minute. This problem may have been fixed just this week with a canvas update (not CanvasStudent , just canvas in general). The only thing I would like added is the option to edit a post/reply in discussions, I really wish I could do this without having to log on online and just use CanvasStudent . But overall all, this is a great app to use.

by Bdubs85

I'm getting much happier with the new updates that have rolled out recently. Most of the functionality is intact, which makes it really good for getting a forum post or two done during down time somewhere.
Some things that are still a bit difficult are picking up discussion conversations that you have posted in. There is no way to quickly find or jump to posts that you have already made, which makes it difficult in larger classes with protracted discussions. Perhaps tagging people in a Facebook name type format and then being able to jump to that particular point in the discussions would help this?
The only other major problem that I've found (and this may just be an IOS problem) is that if I switch to another app to copy and paste some material or even just the web page url itself, CanvasStudent closes itself and I lost my entire post. Like I said, this may just be an IOS thing with memory management but it is still a major pain in the rear to lose a long post that was typed on a mobile keyboard.

Overall it works well for me and I'm pretty happy with it! Keep up the improvements, it's about there!

by Gavin Apollo

The Canvas student app is really responsive and high functioning, almost easier to use sometimes than the actual desktop site. It makes doing school work while on the go a total breeze.

HOWEVER, I knocked a star off because there is just one MAJOR issue that I hope they can fix in a future update. I’ve noticed that whenever I navigate away from CanvasStudent and then return (for example, checking a module for an assignment due date, navigating away to my calendar app, then navigating back to canvas to read further) CanvasStudent backs out from where I was and returns to the main screen. This is really ANNOYING and I wish it would be fixed. I don’t close CanvasStudent , I simply switch to a different one, but when I return I have to navigate all the way back to where I was, often needing to click through multiple menu bars to get back to my place. It’s really aggravating when trying to multitask (as all students usually are), especially when phones these days are trying to make multitasking more intuitive and easier to manage.

Hopefully that can be fixed because otherwise this is a really successful app.

by Anxious&Obsessed

In general, CanvasStudent is good. I can easily submit files of many types when I need to and for any class, and I can track grades, upcoming events, discussions, and more. I love the ability to watch videos in-app and track what I still need to do. There have been some issues with my To-Do list in the past and it’s been hard to find some of my assignments, but after investigating I realized that this was due to faulty organization and uploads by my instructors, not because of CanvasStudent itself. The only problem I have with CanvasStudent right now is that it is missing some of the features available online. In my online Canvas account, which I use on a PC, I can submit Google Drive or OneDrive files directly to Canvas. On my iPad, which is what I use with CanvasStudent , I only have the ability to make a text entry or upload a file from my iPad itself, which means I have to go through the trouble of moving Microsoft files from OneDrive to my iPad’s regular storage. If you could add support for this on both the online version and app, then I’d be grateful. I’d also appreciate full-screen support for videos.

by The Star Critic

I have been using Canvas for about a year now and it's been very helpful! Although the initial switch from Google Classroom to Canvas in my school district was hard, I have now gotten used to the apps interface and how it works. I like how organized everything is in CanvasStudent , I can see all my classes laid out when I open it. If I click on one of my classes, I can easily open modules to find my assignments. I can also keep track of my assignments with the todos tab and inbox which shows messages from my teachers. Turning items in is also an easy process (depending on which format). You can turn in with audio, website URL, media recording, file upload, or text submission (depending on what the teacher chooses as submission process). Another great aspect is that all of your assignments are sorted by unit in the modules making it very easy to find your needed assignments. Overall Canvas is a good app, I only gave it 4 stars because on several occasions my teachers have made CanvasStudent more difficult by allowing only a certain type of submission/ locking material by mistake, etc. I do have one recommendation, and that is when you film an in app video submission, there should be a pause button, I have experienced times when I was not able to pause and I wanted to.

by Tha239;)

I love this program, CanvasStudent as well. It's treated me well the past few years that I have been in college. If there's schools that use other programs, they should change to this one ! The ONLY issues I have are this :
One. I wish that with new upcoming semesters I would be able to look up all my classes like I can do on a computer and add them to my main page , as long as they are published and ready to be added. This isn't a big problem since I can always use the computer laptop to do this, but it would be nice to do on my phone.
Two. When I get notifications for files added and announcements, and I click in to it on my iPhone, it only brings me to the first page that you always are greeted with that just has all your classes and stuff. It would be really cool if from the phone we could click into that notification and be brought directly to that announcement, assignment, or whatever else.

Again, minor stuff that would be cool if changed, but LOVE CANVAS!

by Azaarika

CanvasStudent made the studying process so much easier. They did a great job on how everything functioning but I removed one star because of their recent design changes. CanvasStudent icon appears to be red with white logo on it, which made it very hard to see new notifications (since they also appear red in apple devices). I don’t usually write reviews but this really became uncomfortable for me personally. For example, I don’t get notifications on my locked screen, and my banners are also turned off when I get a notifications. When I unlock my phone I could still see that little red circle in the upper right corner of CanvasStudent icon (that would tell me that I have a message or something). However, now CanvasStudent is red, and I don’t notice a new notifications because two same colors blend together... I hope this review is helpful. I like CanvasStudent in general. To all their team, thank you for your hard work.

by Eenie320

Canvas is second to none in my mind. Not much more I can, or really need to, say. CanvasStudent and website work really amazingly and they both integrate some really excellent features lacking on other platforms I've used. And the software team isn't lazy about updating it. They're very proactive and new versions reliably come out at least weekly.

However, I will add something CanvasStudent does that is quite annoying (though not enough to take away a star from my overall rating): regardless of the keyboard I use to write a discussion post on my phone, if I try to tap and replace a word after scrolling further up the post as I'm writing it, the screen automatically scrolls back down and will not let me select the word without much pushback and struggling. I've found success accomplishing that task maybe twice out of the hundreds of times I've tried it now. It drives me nuts, but Canvas is still handily the best.

CanvasStudent would be quite literally perfect if this one issue were addressed. Thank you, devs!

by Tsalazar1987

Reasons why I dislike canvas
1. If you log into canvas from multiple devices, and say, you check some announcements from your phone, and then log into canvas from your computer later it does not recognize that you already checked all your announcements already. This is the same for grades and any other updates
2. If you get a notification saying an assignment has been graded, and you click on that notification, it takes to to the comment/submission portion of that assignment (which doesn’t show the grade) and if you hit “done” it take you to the home page. So that’s really annoying, because you have to start back from square one. Might as well not click the notification and go to canvas since you’ll be redirected back to the home page anyway
3. If you are on canvas and then switch over to a different app, almost instantly canvas loses your spot, so when you come right back to canvas you are back in the homepage.
There are more issues with canvas but it does work, it’s just annoying that it can’t remember a lot of things.

by Mabluvs2sing

For years, I have had CanvasStudent downloaded on my phone, because all of my classes now require canvas (a stupid decision in my opinion, every student I know absolutely hates using this interface). However, I have not ONCE been able to log in to my account, because it won’t let me find my school. When you open CanvasStudent , it has a page that says “find my school,” or something to that effect, but every time I type in the name of my school, it says it can’t find it. Which is ridiculous, because every class in my school uses Canvas, so please explain to me how an entire school just went missing. On top of that, the website is completely confusing for students, it took me about 3 months just to get my bearings. I feel like an old woman trying to use this website because I just can’t get a feel for the technology. 0/10 would not recommend. If you’re a teacher and considering using Canvas as your main interface between you and your students, please do them a favor and look elsewhere. I would recommend Google Classroom. That site is super user friendly and easy to understand. I have no idea why my school system ever switched.

by Mcd36

I use Canvas all the time for my middle school so I know my way around it. When I got into this elite program for gifted students called Duke TIP, I was very excited. It gave me the chance to learn about things last actually interested me for a change and get some interaction with lots of different kids over the summer. One night I was logging in on my computer to Canvas. We were messing around with it and I thought it would be a good idea to get CanvasStudent ... oh boy was I wrong. 😡 The first of my problems was getting my school put in. I put in every variation of Duke and Duke TIP until finally I got the right combo, after like 15 minutes. I was relieved that I finally got it to work, even if it took forever to load. Then I had to enter in my email. I had a special email for the class I am enrolled in and apparently it is not a real google account. I kept trying and trying until I just gave up. So if you ask me, do not get the canvas app if you have a special class or something that may not be considered a “real school”. Also do not get it if you have a different email or do not have a google account. So if you have anything like i stated above, DO NOT get the canvas app. I rated it one star... for good reason.

by S In VA

It’s a good app and a little more user friendly than Blackboard but it has organizational issues that can be hard to handle. I wish there was a way to customize your course selection screen and the access points for your modules once you open your course. I have to jump through hoops to get to where I need to go for some assignments. It’s time consuming and frustrating. Also I wish there was a feature where you can add events or assignments to your personal in app calendar. I have one class that does not enter the time or day assignments are due directly into Canvas and therefore the assignments don’t show up in the calendar. I’d be willing to manually enter due dates from the syllabus if CanvasStudent would allow me to but unfortunately the entire calendar is locked down. I can’t even export it to my phones calendar or reminders. Very frustrating to deal with but it hasn’t killed me yet so 🤷‍♀️

by Fairladyorchid

While it helps to have an app that allows me to continue my education even while putting a child to sleep, there are a great many problems. The biggest is the slow keyboard response. When writing, one must be willing to be overly patient. In this era, we should be able to type at will and have the technology move with us. More often than not I must type and wait for each word to appear. It is common for CanvasStudent to take more than 10 seconds to respond to my typing and mangle the sentence into an unintelligible mess.

The other failing is the annoying tendency for CanvasStudent to relapse into previous versions of the screen in which I am working. If I complete a post or reply, it would suddenly disappear as if it failed to upload the post. If I retyped my post, it would all of the sudden remember the past and double post. Unfortunately, this is not only a problem in CanvasStudent but also the desktop version. Please fix this!

by Samuel Haskins

First off, I want to say I love CanvasStudent. Very easy for students to stay up to date on their schoolwork. I have used other programs such as My Big Campus and Blackboard Learn, but CanvasStudent puts both of them to shape in terms of how easy it is to navigate. I could barely use their apps because everything was a mess, so good job with the creation of CanvasStudent. However, I would like to make a few suggestions. As soon as something is posted to Canvas, it should you should IMMEDIATELY get a push notification and/or email. Sometimes, it takes several hours even though a grade, post, or assignment was posted a day ago, so make the notifications faster and more efficient. If I view a notification on the Canvas app, it should view as read on the desktop version. I notice when I view a notification on CanvasStudent , it will show I have not viewed it on the desktop version. Also, find a way to allow users to do the “What-If?” grade scenarios on CanvasStudent .

by Jzanell

I downloaded CanvasStudent because it allowed me to interact with my instructors & fellow classmates. Somehow there was an update to CanvasStudent & I can’t get into it anymore. There’s a function that allows a person to reset password & every time I try & request a new password via email, I never get anything from canvas at all. When I go into my school website on the computer, my info works just fine so I’m getting the password right they just don’t have my info in their system or something. I have also had other issues but nowhere to go & try to get help for CanvasStudent. I’ll be deleting it off my phone since I can’t get in anyway. And it will remain deleted unless they go back to the way CanvasStudent was 2 weeks ago. Fix your app idk how that needs to be done but it isn’t working for me & there’s no one to call or email for issues unless you’re logged into CanvasStudent 🙄

by FishHeadsForever

I definitely get benefit from using CanvasStudent for three classes now. Starting on the 4th. I gave it 5 stars because it is useful. Recommendations for improvement include: the Echo 360 videos do not have audio on my iPad; the People section does not have the groups; power point slides get rendered a little off, but good enough, and there is a way to copy to Power Point for IOS so that is ok. Pretty good integration with Office and OneDrive on IOS; the discussions it would be nice to have a toggle to a view with all reply’s expanded, then back again to only top level posts to be drilled down into. The first two made it so I had to lug my personal laptop on business trips in order to do all I needed for the classes. Still, I found CanvasStudent worthwhile. Keep on improving it so that it can be used equivalently to the full PC browser based version.

by Jeff.Siegman

I absolutely love this apps usability. I just have a couple suggestions to make it a little more user friendly. Not sure if this matters, but I go to Ashford University. First, it would be nice to have your own posts displayed at the top of each discussion, so they are easier to locate. Instead of having to scroll down through every other post just to find your own. Second, although the notifications are nice, they can also be a bit annoying. Especially since clicking on the notification does not take you directly to the specific reply of that post. It simply takes you into CanvasStudent and then you have to “guess” who commented and on which post. Those are my only two suggestions/complaints. Other than that, CanvasStudent is awesome! Fix these two things and I’ll change my rating to 5 stars.

by Loaded Soft

Great app, it is really on the fence of getting a 4 instead but with all the bug fixes it’s okay, if you have problems with CanvasStudent just ask people who know it will enough, most people complain about CanvasStudent but it’s actually pretty good. It sends notifications thru text and notification just in case it did not work, I really hated how it handled files but know it is okay, I also hated how it handled assignments but know it’s really good, it might need a place to put your email for teachers and students a like, I don’t like how it has the messages layer out like reddit, it’s not even the good reddit one, it’s the bad see reply one and you have too keep pressing and pressing, it has a very useful Hud where you can see all your classes and you can change and customized them, it also has access to drive and outlook. Thx canvas