Here’s what’s new for Winter 2026
(Additional updates will be added throughout the quarter. Newest updates at the top.)
- Course Navigation Drag & Drop Changes
- aPlus+ Attendance Tool Pilot
- Gradebook Status Icons
- Designer Permission Change - Publish Course
- Winter 2026 Canvas Courses Available
Course Navigation Drag & Drop Changes
When dragging a course navigation menu item, it is now highlighted in blue, instead of gray. Teaching team members can also reorder the menu items by using keyboard their keyboard. Use Tab to navigate to the tool of interest, Space to select the highlighted tool, Up/Down arrow keys to move the tool to the desired location, and Space to drop or Esc to cancel.
aPlus+ Attendance Tool Pilot
Learning Technologies and Spaces reviewed the aPlus+ Attendance tool and plans to conduct a pilot slated for Summer 2026. Summer 2026 instructors interested in participating in the pilot should contact canvashelp@stanford.edu.
Gradebook Status Icons
A "View status for colorblindness" option has been added to the Canvas Gradebook Settings. Any member of the teaching team can enable this feature which will then display symbols next to each status in the Gradebook to provide an additional visual indicator so that it's not strictly reliant on color. Please note that this new feature is a user setting, so if the instructor enables this setting, the TA will not see the symbols until they enable it as well. For more information, please refer to Instructure's Status Icon guide.
Designer Permission Change - Publish Course
As of January 2026, users with the Designer role in a Canvas can publish Canvas courses.
Winter 2026 Canvas Courses
Winter 2026 Canvas courses are now available. If you do not see the course, reach out to canvashelp@stanford.edu.