New Canvas DocViewer

On June 20th, 2017, Canvas will replace the Crocodoc document previewer in SpeedGrader with their own native tool Canvas DocViewer.  Canvas has assured its community that the transition will be seamless and documents already rendered and/or annotated using Crocodoc will be available for you to view as normal in the new tool.

Visit Canvas Release: Canvas DocViewer  for information on how to use the new tool and what files it supports

Why is Canvas switching to DocViewer?

Canvas’ statement on why they are switching tools.

“For the past few years, we’ve recognized that relying on third-party tools can reduce the service that we can directly offer to our customers. Crocodoc has been a great product in building the interactive content experience between students and instructors in Canvas, but this product will no longer be supported by Box at the end of the year and will be replaced with a tool with reduced functionality.

The needs of our customers have unquestionably outgrown existing Crocodoc functionality—and that’s a good thing! Moving forward with DocViewer, we can:

  • Improve reliability of document rendering
  • Develop new features and product enhancements to drive a more functional roadmap (and adequately address annotation/document previewing feature ideas in Canvas Studio!)
  • Better address hosting needs for international regions
  • Enhance support for assistive technology users

DocViewer also gives us a stronger technical foundation to improve existing features, such as contribute to the next version of SpeedGrader. Implementing DocViewer functionality brings numerous future benefits to Canvas.”

Please contact CIRT for additional information and training at cirtlab@unf.edu or 904-620-3927.

-LMS Team