The University of Utah and Digital Learning Technologies (DLT) are committed to ensuring that all students have equitable access to learning, and this includes meeting the accessibility requirements outlined in Title II of the ADA and the WCAG 2.1 AA standards. Faculty play a vital role in creating inclusive academic environments by designing Canvas courses that all learners—regardless of ability—can navigate and use. To support this commitment, instructors are expected to ensure their Canvas course materials follow core accessibility practices, including:

• Alt text for all meaningful images
• Accurate captions for all videos
• High contrast and no color-only meaning
• Descriptive links and clear file names
• Proper heading structure
• Tagged PDFs and readable documents

Discussion Checkpoints allow you to structure graded discussions using two distinct due dates: one for the initial post and another for required replies. This feature breaks the assignment into phases, encouraging your students to contribute early and engage thoughtfully with peers over time. 

The Initial Post Due Date sets the deadline for students to respond to the discussion prompt, while the Reply Due Date sets the deadline for completing peer responses. Each phase can be assigned its own point value, making grading more transparent and participation more consistent. By pacing contributions, discussion checkpoints help prevent last-minute posting and foster deeper, more meaningful dialogue.

The left Course Navigation Menu in Canvas has been updated to show a new default layout when new courses are created. The new default layout is simplified, making course navigation easier for students. The Course Navigation Menu can still be customized by instructors and designers and previous customizations can be used when importing content from previously created courses. This change will show only when new courses are created to Canvas. Current existing courses will not have this change applied, however the new layout is available in Canvas Commons for those who wish to use it for their Summer 2026 and Fall 2026 courses.

Canvas now offers two types of portfolios to support both learner-driven and instructor-guided use cases: Showcase Portfolios and Evaluation Portfolios. These tools support storytelling, assessment, and the validation of competencies.

In Portfolios, instructors can assign structured, competency-based portfolios, enabling learners to submit work aligned with the institutions defined requirements and skills. Learners can also create their own showcase portfolios, curating evidence of academic and co-curricular work with more flexibility, including reflections, tags, and shareable links.