Microsoft Education: Assignments and Learning Accelerators

Note: This guide is considered complete, but a more in-depth guide(s) covering each assignment type and learning accelerator are forthcoming.

Note: This guide assumes Microsoft Education has already been set up in your course. If not, follow the setup guide to enable Microsoft Assignments in Canvas.

With the Microsoft Education app in Canvas, instructors can create and manage a variety of Microsoft-based assignments. All grades and feedback sync automatically to the Canvas Gradebook, which opens up a plethora of options for unique assignment types in Canvas. Features include:

Support for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint templates
OneDrive file selection, select an existing OneDrive file as a base for the assignment.
"Send it back" option to allow students to make revisions after submission.
Short-form video assignments powered by Flip
Canvas quizzes frMicrosoft Forms quizzes
AI-assisted instructions, descriptions, rubrics, and feedback
Built-in Learning Accelerators for reading, speaking, math, and search skills (coming soon)

Enable Microsoft Assignments

Open the Microsoft Education app from your course navigation.
Click the profile icon in the upper right and choose Course Settings.
Toggle Assignments on and select Done.

Microsoft Education app settings

Create a Microsoft Assignment

After enabling Microsoft Assignments from Settings, you'll need to create an assignment. Details, and due dates for Microsoft Assignments are handled exclusively during setup process and not in the traditional Canvas manner. You can start the Microsoft Assignment from either the Modules area, or the Assignments page in a course.

Start from Assignments

From the Canvas Assignments page, select the three-dot menu and choose Microsoft Education.

Create from Assignments

Start from Modules

From the Canvas Modules page, select the three-dot menu beside a module and choose Microsoft Education.

Create from Modules

After selecting Microsoft Education, choose from the available assignment types and tools. They will all lead to the same assignment configuration screen, so use the information below to understand each option and continue with the guide. A brief overview of the options are listed, but see the Assignment Types and Learning Accelerators area for more in-depth explanations on each option.

OneDrive: Start an assignment with an existing OneDrive file, or select a template from a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file.
Assignments: Starts a new assignment using the standard Microsoft template, offering options like file templates, Flip video submissions submissions, and more. Recommended for most assignment types.
Quiz: Create an assignment from a new or existing Microsoft Form.
Learning Accelerators: Select from a variety of unique options to center the assignment around, offering students real-time coaching to help them progress. Each one has a different experience based on the purpose. Learn more about learning accelerators.

Assignment Types

Select OneDrive File

Attach an existing file from your OneDrive for students to view or submit work on. Ideal for distributing resources or templates.

Word, Excel, or PowerPoint Template

Create an assignment with a file template as a base.

Word template: Start a writing assignment using a Word document. Each student gets their own copy to complete and submit.
Excel template: Assign a spreadsheet activity using Excel. Supports data analysis, formulas, and interactive tables.
PowerPoint template: Have students complete or build presentations from a pre-made template. Great for visual assignments and final projects.

Assignment

Create a new Microsoft Education assignment from scratch using any combination of tools. This is where you'll find nested options such as Flip video assignments, and templates.

Quiz (Microsoft Forms)

Create a quiz built on existing or new Microsoft Forms that can be automatically graded and synced to the Canvas Gradebook. Use the Add quiz option to create a quiz on the fly, or search from existing quiz created within Forms.

Learning Accelerators

Reading Progress

Tracks students’ reading skills, give educators actionable insights quickly, and focus students on specific areas for improvement with Reading Progress. By streamlining the reading assignment creation, review, and analysis process, educators can spend more of their time on active instruction.

Learn more the Reading Progress accelerator.

Speaker Progress

Track how presentation skills are improving at the individual, class, grade, and school levels and free up time for active instruction. Have students record short presentations. Useful for tracking public speaking, clarity, pacing, and delivery over time.

Learn more about the Speaker Progress accelerator.

Math Progress

Streamline assignment creation, simplify lesson planning, and gather student performance insights in Math Progress, helping educators save time and accelerate learning outcomes. Teachers can generate questions or customize their own sets.

Learn more about the Math Progress accelerator.

Search Progress

Build information literacy by tracking how students search for information online and evaluate source credibility.

Learn more about the Search Progress accelerator.

Configure the Microsoft Assignment

Once you’ve chosen your assignment type, you’ll need to finalize the assignment details. This is usually done in the assignment creation area of Canvas, but it is different for Microsoft Assignments. At this stage, you are handling the details of the assignment that will help guide the student to completing and succeeding in the assignment. You don’t need to use the built-in Microsoft rubric, but you can still use a Canvas-made rubric once you’ve finalized the Microsoft Assignment.

To continue, provide a title, description, points, and due date. Then, select Save.

Tip: Microsoft offers AI generation for the description and rubric. These are optional features.

Grade Microsoft Assignments

After creating the assignment, you’ll notice that it appears different from traditional Canvas assignments. Notably, you’ll find an embed window containing a list of enrolled students and some information regarding how many are considered late, turned in, and graded.

Microsoft Assignments are managed exclusively through this embed window on the assignments detail page and do not support SpeedGrader.

To grade an assignment, select a student from the list to open their submission.

You'll see a similar window to Canvas's SpeedGrader, with the submission on the left and the feedback, submission picker, and submit options on the right.

There are a few options available to you. You can switch between student submissions by using the student name picker at the top of the pane. There’s also a Rich Content Editor that allows you to provide appropriate feedback for the assignment, with the option to include attachments.

For grading, assign the point value the student received, select Return and sync. If you select the arrow, you have the option to return for revisions, which will give the student a chance to address the feedback and submit again.