Annotate PRO vs Canvas Comment Banks

One of Annotate PRO’s (AP) greatest strengths is its ability to work almost anywhere you can insert text. You’re not tied to using it inside a single LMS or app. AP particularly shines through in its integration with Canvas LMS with unique features like student history. Canvas offers a comment bank feature that serves a similar function to Annotate PRO. We want to show you why AP is so much more (and so much better) than the built in comment bank.

Annotate PRO can sit next to Canvas SpeedGrader™ in a toolbar

Usefulness Inside (and Outside) Canvas

Annotate PRO enters text almost anywhere that you can type. Canvas created a comment bank which is helpful inside SpeedGrader, but it is limited to use inside SpeedGrader. Annotate PRO works alongside SpeedGrader AND allows you to also use your comments elsewhere like in Canvas Discussions or Private Messages.

Drilling down through the hierarchy of AP Comments juxtaposed with the unorganized Canvas comment bank

Organization

Canvas’ Comment Bank is like a bunch of sticky notes pasted to the side of your monitor. It’s close at hand and useful if you don’t have a lot to use. But specific feedback covers a plethora of topics. Our College Edition Library for academic writing has 250 comments covering argument, citation, formatting, grammar, style, praise, and more. Saved content is only as useful as it is accessible. That’s why Annotate PRO makes use of a hierarchical structure of Groups and Sub-Groups and has a robust search tool.

Student History

Feedback requires follow-up. Has a student read the feedback? Have they progressed? When you use AP with Canvas and enable Student History, you can see what feedback you’ve already sent and then give specific praise or follow-up based on how they responded to the previous feedback.

See what Comments are used most frequently

Analytics

AP provides you with statistics about the frequency you use different stored comments. This is helpful for providing hard data to back up your intuition about different trends and how to address them.

Collaboration

Want to collaborate with your colleagues on a set of comments that explain core concepts about a subject? Can’t do it in Canvas comment bank, but it’s easy to set up for Institutions that use AP.

Conclusion

Annotate PRO is the perfect companion for grading, discussion moderation, messaging, and more in Canvas. It takes the basic comment bank feature of Canvas and turns it into a powerful tool that can be used anywhere inside or outside of Canvas.