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A student walks on a stone pathway in the Quadrangle at the University of Pennsylvania, surrounded by fall-colored trees and traditional brick architecture in the background.

July 22, 2026

As the new semester approaches, CETLI has gathered updates to Penn’s instructional technology tools that are available to support your teaching.  

For personalized support with specific tools or strategies, please email CETLI or request a consultation.  

Canvas Updates

Course roster reminder

Only students who are registered for your course should be able to access your Canvas site. If a student has not yet registered, please do not manually add them in Canvas. This may expose sensitive information such as exam answer keys or other students’ assignments and grades. It can also lead to end-of-semester confusion, as students who have not registered are unable to receive a final grade and course credit even if they have submitted work. 

New accessibility checker 

Canvas has a new tool to check the overall accessibility of your Canvas course and recommend steps for improvement. Learn how to find it, or reach out to your LSP to ask about enabling it in your school’s Canvas account. 

Gradebook updates

Some grading features in Canvas have undergone summer updates: 

  • SpeedGrader has minor cosmetic updates. Functionality remains unchanged, but the appearance is slightly altered. 
  • Enhanced rubrics are coming on August 17. All current rubric features will remain available, and you can continue to use existing rubrics. You will also see new features, such as rubric preview, import/export, search, archive, and sharing across courses. 
  • Scheduled feedback release allows you to schedule a future date when assignment grades, feedback, or both will be made available to students.  

New Quizzes transition

Features are being gradually added to New Quizzes, which will eventually replace the Classic Quizzes platform. New Quizzes now supports both graded and ungraded surveys. If you are interested in transitioning to New Quizzes this fall, visit Is New Quizzes Right for My Course? to learn more. 

Portfolios

Canvas ePortfolios have been retired. This tool is not available for fall courses. If you need to explore a different solution for student portfolios, please email CETLI for assistance. 

Other Tools

Gradescope has been recently updated, and it now appears in the left side course menu as “Gradescope LTI 1.3”. This does not significantly impact using Gradescope as a student. However, there are changes to some workflows when using Gradescope as an instructor, especially if you plan to reuse assignments from previous courses before this transition.  

Adobe Express has been added to your Adobe Creative Cloud account and is free to all Penn faculty and staff. Use Adobe Express to find design templates, create social media and advertising content, edit images, and even generate non-expiring QR codes. 

AI tools at Penn continue to evolve. Check out our list of Penn AI Tools & Policies to stay up to date on the generative AI tools available to faculty, staff, and students. 

If you would like to know more about the instructional technology tools available to support your teaching at Penn, visit the Teaching with Technology web resources or email CETLI to meet with a CETLI staff member.

Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Innovation