Championed by APAC: your 2025 end-of-year product update

To say it's been a big year for Canvas across the Asia–Pacific region is an understatement. 

Over the past 12 months we’ve modernised core assessment workflows, improved performance for large cohorts, and continued investing in analytics, while introducing AI in ways that support teaching and learning. Many of these updates exist because you asked for them, tried early versions, and shared honest feedback about what needed to change.

We also know release notes can pile up faster than anyone can read them, especially when you’re balancing classes, meetings, and everything else campus life throws at you. This wrap-up brings together the updates you might’ve missed, with a closer look at rubrics, marking, Intelligent Insights, and New Quizzes.

Top customer asks

Across APAC, these were some of the most-requested improvements. If you helped shape any of this work, we (and your fellow educators) appreciate you. Your input made a real difference.

Rubric workflow enhancements and AI-supported design

What it is: This year brought a major Rubric Enhancements release that refreshed the look, feel, and management of rubrics. Updates include:

• CSV export and import for bulk editing and versioning
• Course-level sharing so teaching teams can work from one authoritative version
• The ability to manage rubrics from the assignment details page
• Removal of rubric point limits
• AI Rubric Generation, which uses natural-language prompts to help you draft criteria and performance levels

Why it matters: Rubrics are essential for clear, consistent assessment, yet they’ve long been one of the most time-consuming tools to build well. 

These enhancements make it easier to create a solid rubric once, use it across a course, and refine it without digging through extra menus. CSV workflows support institutions that need rigorous QA or accreditation processes, and removing point limits allows for more nuanced scales.

AI Rubric Generation gives you a quick starting point so you can focus your time on refining descriptors with your own professional judgement.

SpeedGrader and Gradebook for large courses

What it is: SpeedGrader for Large Courses and Gradebook Performance for Large Courses bring smoother loading, scrolling, filtering, and navigation to big cohorts. Moving between submissions and updating marks is quicker and feels less like a test of patience.

Why it matters: Large cohorts are part of everyday life for many APAC educators, and marking periods rarely arrive at a gentle pace. These improvements keep the grading experience you know, while reducing the delays that tend to creep in during peak submission weeks. The result is more time for feedback and fewer moments spent watching a loading spinner.

Showcase and Evaluation Portfolios

What it is: Showcase and Evaluation Portfolios introduce a refreshed ePortfolio experience within Canvas.

• Evaluation portfolios support structured collections of evidence aligned to outcomes or accreditation frameworks
   
• Showcase portfolios give students a flexible space to present work, reflections, and achievements in a personal and shareable format

Why it matters: Portfolios help surface aspects of learning that don’t always show up in marks. Evaluation portfolios make it easier to collect and review artefacts against clearly defined standards, while showcase portfolios let students present work that reflects their skills, growth, and ideas. It’s a more complete view of learning that supports both educators and students.

Intelligent Insights: from data to action

What it is: This year we expanded Intelligent Insights with:

• Ask Your Data enhancements that support richer natural-language queries and visualisations
• Students In Need of Attention, accessible to educators, highlighting learners who may need timely support
• Collaborative Pinboards that let teams organise and share boards of charts and metrics

Why it matters: When analytics are easier to explore, they become part of everyday decision-making rather than something you check at the end of term. Ask Your Data helps you get quick answers about cohort progress and assessment trends. Students In Need of Attention surfaces early signals that a learner might need support. Collaborative Pinboards help teams spend less time rebuilding the same reports each semester.

New Quizzes: evolving assessment

What it is:

New Quizzes continued to progress with:

• Survey Questions for ungraded check-ins and feedback forms
• Proctoring improvements that strengthen workflows for invigilated assessments
• Ongoing enhancements to authoring, navigation, and support for complex assessment strategies

Why it matters: APAC institutions work across a wide assessment spectrum, from informal pulse checks to high-stakes exams. Survey questions make it easier to gather student voices during a subject. Proctoring improvements support secure exams in blended and online contexts. Taken together, these updates help New Quizzes adapt to the varied and evolving needs of the region.

Small but mighty (and not to be missed!)

These updates may not grab headlines, but they’re the everyday improvements that tend to save time when it matters most.

Scheduled Feedback

What it is: Scheduled Feedback lets educators control when marks and feedback appear. You can set release times for scores, overall feedback, and specific rubric elements, and Canvas will handle the delivery automatically.

You can also release qualitative feedback separately from rubric scores when that suits your assessment approach.

Why it matters: APAC institutions have asked for more visibility and flexibility around how results are shared. Scheduled Feedback supports coordinated releases, double-marking processes, and opportunities for class discussion before scores appear. It reduces manual work and helps ensure students see feedback at the moment it’s most useful.

Canvas Apps

What it is: Canvas Apps provide a central location within Canvas where institution-built tools and partner integrations can be discovered and launched. This keeps course navigation focused and avoids adding extra clutter.

Why it matters: Digital ecosystems keep expanding, and educators often work across multiple tools to deliver learning. Canvas Apps give institutions a straightforward way to surface specific workflows in a place that’s consistent and easy to find.

And most of all, thank you! 

As we wrap up the year, we want to recognise every educator, instructional designer, administrator, and student across APAC who shared feedback, joined early adopter programmes, or encouraged us to think differently.

Your ideas shaped everything from Rubric Redesign and Portfolios to Intelligent Insights and New Quizzes. These improvements support your institution and also contribute to stronger learning experiences globally.

We’re already shaping what comes next, and we’d love you to stay involved. Reach out to your Customer Success Manager, connect with your local user group, or visit the Canvas Community to share what you’d like to see in future releases.

Here’s to another year of reducing busywork and making more time for meaningful learning.