Instructure Canvas Tips
Scribd and Crocodoc
Arts and Sciences Instructional Support | Donna Sue Pintar | 620-235-4765 | 216 Grubbs Hall | Pittsburg State University
To preview files online in Canvas, two tools are now being used to render files, Scribd and Crocodoc.
Scribd, the traditional preview tool which only allows the viewing of a file, will continue to be used on
non-submissions files such as files attached in an assignment or files in your Global and Course Stream.
Crocodoc will primarily be used to preview and annotate homework submissions in the SpeedGrader
application. Instructors can now annotate using text or handwritten comments directly on assignments to
provide specific feedback for their students. Student will then be able to open the marked up file through
their assignment page to view it. Students will be able to use the same features through peer reviews.
Crocodoc will only be used for supported file types: .doc/.docx, .pdf, .ppt/.pptx and .xls/.xlsx in the near
future. When another file type is submitted for a homework assignment Canvas will fall back to Scribd,
which won’t have the annotation feature.
There are several items to note. Please read all six items._______________________________________
1. Assignments and files uploaded before 09/29/2012 -- Any files uploaded or submitted to Canvas before
09/29/2012 will be previewed in Scribd. If you want older submissions to be rendered in Crocodoc, the
assignments will have to be resubmitted by the students.
2. Assignments uploaded after 09/29/2012 -- Previews for assignments will be rendered in Crocodoc, as
long as they are Crocodoc-supported file types: .doc/.docx, .pdf, and .ppt/.pptx. Please note that .xls/.xlsx
will be supported by Crocodoc soon, but they're not there yet. Assignments submitted in other formats
will be rendered in Scribd.
3. Files uploaded after 09/29/2012 -- Previews for non-assignment files (including files uploaded to the
Course Files area) will continue to be rendered in Scribd.
4. Crocodoc will not be available in the iOS app at this time. We would like to include it, but Crocodoc
doesn’t support what we would need for mobile applications at this time.
5. Students can submit assignments as Google docs, but Crocodoc doesn't render previews for those.
Previews for Google Docs will be rendered in Scribd or the Google Preview.
6. If you used Crocodoc, students view the markup with the magnifying glass icon. But if they see this
instead of this
then the monitor resolution isn’t high enough. If that cannot be adjusted, they need to use a shorter
name. Canvas is aware of the issue and is looking into it.
Crocodoc in SpeedGrder_________________________________________________________________
10-16-2012