
SpeedGrader can be an efficient and powerful tool for viewing, annotating, commenting, and grading student work. But a few tweaks can fine-tune it for faster instructor performance!
Sort students by submission status
Instead of scrolling through a long list, grouping students by Needs Grading, Graded, and No Submission makes it easier to get through a batch of assignments.

See the Canvas Guide:
Use keyboard shortcuts
SpeedGrader has several built-in keyboard shortcuts for navigating. Mousing around a screen takes time, and a toll on the wrist, so mastering a few simple keyboard shortcuts can make repetitive tasks go faster and hurt less.

See the Canvas Guide:
What Do Students See When I Use SpeedGrader?
In SpeedGrader, all content you add to a student’s assignment submission is immediately visible to that student. This content includes:
- Any grades you enter into the “Grade” field (please see “Assign a Grade” in this link for an example of this action). This content saves after you add it and click on Enter or Return. No additional steps are necessary to save it. The grade appears in the Canvas gradebook since it is synced with SpeedGrader; any changes you make in one place appear in the other.
- Any feedback you make on the submission using the various SpeedGrader mark-up tools (click for more information on SpeedGrader mark-up tools). This content saves after you add it and click on Enter or Return. No additional steps are necessary to save it.
- Any feedback you give in the “Add a Comment” box” (click for more information on the SpeedGrader comment box). This content saves after you click on the Submit Comment button.
Click to see how students access grades and feedback.
What If I Don’t Want Students to See Their Grades Yet?
If you don’t want students to see any of your grading-and-feedback content, you can mute the assignment, which is a Canvas feature that lets instructors, TAs, and graders hide all grades and feedback for an assignment from students until it is unmuted, making all of this content visible to students. Click for instructions on how to mute and unmute Canvas assignments.
We do not recommend keeping the SpeedGrader view of a submission open for more than 60 minutes, as there have been issues in the past where graders have lost feedback because they have kept the tool open for more than 60 minutes.
SpeedGrader Overview