Your expertise. Multiplied.
Canopy Assist drafts feedback from standards you write. Canopy Insights shows the patterns across a student, a class, or a discussion. Feedback Forms and Dynamic Rubrics turn your best practices into reusable, scored comments. Every draft is faster, more consistent, and still entirely yours.
Everything starts here.
Canopy Essentials is the free foundation under every plan: a comment library that is actually yours, one click away from your toolbar, in every place you already grade. Feedback Forms, Assist, and Insights all build on top of it, but Essentials alone is a real upgrade to how you give feedback, and it costs nothing.
Write it once, reuse it forever
Build unlimited libraries and groups of your own comments, or start from free libraries like Grammar Helper and Discussion Moderator. Full-text search finds any comment instantly, so nothing you have ever written is lost in an old paper.
Your most-used feedback, one click away
Pin your go-to comments as Favorites for instant access, and keep your toolbar exactly where you want it. Nothing to rebuild between papers, and nothing buried three menus deep.
One toolbar, every platform
Canopy works the same way in Canvas SpeedGrader, D2L Brightspace, Google Docs, and Microsoft Word, so you never learn a new tool or switch tabs to stay consistent.
Canopy Essentials is forever free for non-profit educators. No credit card.
How do Feedback Forms work?
A Feedback Form is a comment that opens as a pop-up form: checklists, selectable phrases, and text prompts you defined in advance. Select what applies, and a complete narrative comment assembles in your voice. Here is a form for essay feedback on the left and what the student receives on the right.
Your thesis takes a clear, arguable position, and this is a solid draft overall. To make the argument stronger, address the strongest counterargument directly in paragraph three.
One thing to focus on in the next draft: tighten the conclusion so it echoes your thesis.
No retyping, no copy-paste patchwork, no template that reads like a template. You wrote every word; the form just delivers the right combination for this student, right now.
What can you put inside a Feedback Form?
Forms are built from four element types, written in plain text with simple markers. No tables, no "add row" clunkiness: if you can write an outline, you can build a form. Mix and nest them freely inside a single comment, and choose whether to insert only what you selected or everything with the unselected items crossed out.
Bulleted items
Place a pair of brackets and a space before any line to make it a selectable, bulleted item. Stack them to build marking guides, praise lists, or rubric criteria, then tick as few or as many as apply to this paper.
Inline options
Wrap comma-separated options in double parentheses inside a sentence, then click the ones that apply. Canopy even handles the grammar: select three options and it inserts "timing, pacing, and slide design" with the "and" placed correctly.
Single items
Like bulleted items but without the bullet. Keep an optional block, a reference link, a revision policy, an 11guide article, at the end of a comment and decide each time whether to include it.
Freeform text prompts
Wrap a prompt in double brackets to add a text area to the form. Your prompt, a student's name, a grade, a specific observation, sits in light text until you type over it, so every personal detail has a reserved place and nothing gets skipped at paper 35.
What makes a Feedback Form a rubric?
Points. A rubric is a Feedback Form with point values attached: give each criterion and performance level a score by wrapping a number in double # marks, and Canopy adds everything up as you select. The result is feedback and a grade from the same form.
Write each criterion as a heading with its point value, then list performance levels as checklist items with their own points: Exceeds (25 points), Proficient (20 points), and so on. Canopy allows one level per criterion, so picking a new level deselects the old one, and nested sub-points let you say exactly why, automatically selecting their parent level. The score takes care of itself.
Anyone who has graded with a holistic rubric knows the trap: the essay has the insight of a 4 but the grammar of a 2, and neither box fits. Canopy rubrics let you escape the box and mix levels across criteria. And because the output is narrative text, a scored rubric can go places rubrics normally cannot: Canvas Assignment Comments, a gradebook text field, a Word Online comment, an email, or the body of a document, with bolding and bullets intact. Like everything in Canopy, rubrics are shareable: a district can define them once and share with hundreds of faculty.
Any point scale works (1 to 5, 0 to 100, your choice), and you can rename "Grade" to whatever your syllabus calls it. Rubrics are available today in the Chrome extension, with the Word app and Feedback Builder coming soon.
What can you build with Feedback Forms?
Dynamic rubrics
The scored kind of Feedback Form: criteria and performance levels with point values, a total that adds itself up, and narrative output you can insert anywhere. See the rubric section above.
Marking guides
The unscored workhorse: a checklist of the issues and strengths you see most, with text prompts for the student's name and specifics. Sweep a stack consistently without attaching a grade.
Praise with variety
Inline options keep your praise genuine. Ten ways to say "strong opening" in one set of parentheses means no student gets the same sentence twice, and you never type any of them again.
Style guideline checks
APA, MLA, lab report conventions, legal citation: build the checklist once and sweep every submission against it item by item. Insert it with unselected items crossed out so students see the full standard.
Live and in-class feedback
Forms are built for the shift back to in-class writing, presentations, and Blue Books. Combine items with Feedback Builder in real time: the student walks off stage and the feedback is done.
Beyond the browser
Form output inserts anywhere Canopy works, or copies to your clipboard for desktop apps like Microsoft Teams and Slack. One form, every destination, including the ones without a text box Canopy can reach.
How does a Feedback Form change a grading session?
Open the form once and keep it open, even on a second monitor, while you move through Canvas SpeedGrader, Google Docs, or Word. After each insert, the Refresh button clears your selections and the form is ready for the next student, with nothing to rebuild between papers.
Consistency is the quiet payoff. The feedback you give at 11pm on a Sunday stays just as thorough as the feedback you gave at 9am, because the form holds the standard even when you are tired.
- Open the form. From your Canopy toolbar, in whatever platform you grade in.
- Read and select. Check the items that apply, click an inline option, add your personal line.
- Insert with one click. Exactly where your cursor is: selected items only, or everything with the unselected items crossed out.
- Next paper. The form stays open; hit Refresh to clear the checks. Repeat 39 more times before dinner.
What happens after you click Insert?
Every form you fill out is also data about your teaching. That is the difference between a comment shortcut and Feedback Intelligence: the items you select become a record you can learn from. All three of these are included free with Canopy Essentials.
Student History
Every form and comment you deliver in Canvas SpeedGrader is saved to that student's history, including text written inside rubric comments. Pull up the full record, with a pie chart of feedback distribution, one click before a conference, and see whether your last notes got put to work.
The Feed
Margin comments you still write by hand are captured automatically in Canvas SpeedGrader, Google Docs, and Word. When one keeps coming up, promote it into a form as a new checklist item in one click. Your forms get smarter every term. Logging can be off, anonymized, or full.
Analytics
See which form items you select most, filtered by date range or group. If half the class triggers the same criterion, that is next week's lesson plan. Export the data to document curriculum revision or support accreditation requirements for regular and substantive interaction.
For AI-powered pattern analysis and discussion insights across a whole course, see Canopy Insights.
AI that drafts. You decide.
Canopy Assist starts with a Template you control, not a blank prompt: your criteria, your language, your standards. Use it to draft feedback on a submission, a Google Doc, or an uploaded file in seconds, then review, revise, or discard every result before it reaches a student.
- Write a Template once. The criteria, tone, and standards you want every draft to follow, saved to your Canopy Library like any other comment.
- Assist drafts from it. Open a submission in Canvas SpeedGrader or D2L Brightspace, a Google Doc, or upload a file. Assist prepares a draft in your voice, ready for review.
- You decide what happens next. Approve it as-is, edit it, or discard it. Nothing reaches a student without you.
Strong work overall. Your evidence is thorough and your citations are precise rather than decorative.
The deduction is in critical analysis: your conservation section catalogues programs without taking a stance on which deserve priority. That is description, not analysis. For a top score, evaluate and argue rather than report.
Organization and mechanics are clean. Tighten the analytical depth in that final section and this is a full 25.
Canopy Assist is $6/month, or $60/year.
See the pattern behind the papers.
Assist works on one submission. Canopy Insights looks across your gradebook. Ask about a student's progress over the term, how a whole class did on an assignment, or how a discussion is really going, and get a draft summary grounded in the grades, feedback, and rubric results already in your LMS. You review it before anyone else sees it.
Progress over time
Choose up to 40 recent graded activities and Insights drafts a progress summary from grades, feedback, and rubric results. It is ready before the conference, not after.
Patterns on an assignment
See where scores and comments cluster, which rubric criteria tripped up the class, and who is late or missing. In Canvas, quizzes get class-wide analysis too.
Who is in the conversation
Insights reads the full discussion: who started threads, who replied to whom, and who has not posted yet. In Canvas, every post it mentions links straight back to it.
Participation was broad: most of the class posted, and several students built on each other's ideas rather than only answering the prompt.
Two threads carried most of the conversation, while a handful of first posts drew no reply. Those are the natural places to jump in.
A few students have not posted yet. A quick nudge before Friday could bring them into the conversation.
Built to respect student work. Progress and class insights draw on grades, feedback, and rubric results. They do not re-read every student paper.
Canopy Insights is $7/month or $72 annually and includes Canopy Assist.
Which AI does Canopy use?
Canopy gives you a choice, and your institution can make the choice for you. Either way, you review every draft.
Bring your own approved AI
Canopy gathers the evidence on your computer and builds a text package. Copy it, or insert it straight into ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini in your browser.
Canopy sends nothing to an AI provider in this mode and never submits the prompt for you. You use the AI your institution has already approved.
Managed by Canopy
Canopy sends your Template and the evidence through its managed Gemini service and shows an editable draft in Preview. It can read PDFs visually, including scanned handwriting.
Available when your institution allows it.
If your school requires Approved AI, that choice is locked. If both are allowed, Approved AI is the default. Assist and Insights are built for text-first written work. For photos of handwritten work, attach the original in your approved AI and use Canopy to insert your Template.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Canopy Plus, Canopy Assist, and Canopy Insights?
Canopy Plus adds Feedback Forms and Dynamic Rubrics: structured, checkbox-and-text-field comments you build and select from yourself. Canopy Assist adds AI drafting: point it at a submission and a Template you wrote, and it prepares a draft for your review. Canopy Insights adds AI-powered analysis across a student's progress, a class's results on an assignment, or a discussion. Each level builds on the one before: Assist includes everything in Plus, and Insights includes Assist.
What is Canopy Assist?
Canopy Assist applies a Template you write, your criteria, tone, and standards, to one piece of student work and gives you a draft to review. It works on a submission open in Canvas SpeedGrader or D2L Brightspace, on a Google Doc, or on a file you upload (PDF, DOCX, TXT, or CSV up to 14 MB). You can edit or discard the draft, and nothing reaches a student unless you send it.
What is Canopy Insights?
Canopy Insights looks across many records at once. It can draft a progress summary for one student from up to 40 recent graded activities, analyze feedback and grades for a whole class on an assignment (and on Canvas quizzes), or analyze a discussion topic, including participation and who has not posted yet. It works in Canvas and D2L Brightspace, and you review every draft before sharing it.
Does Canopy Insights read every student's paper?
No. Student progress and class assignment analysis use grades, feedback, and rubric results, not the text of student papers. Discussion analysis does read the discussion posts. To draft feedback on a single paper, use Canopy Assist.
Which AI does Canopy Assist and Insights use?
There are two options. With Approved AI, Canopy builds a text package on your computer that you copy or insert into an institution-approved AI such as ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini, and Canopy sends nothing to an AI provider. With Canopy AI, Canopy sends your Template and the evidence through its managed Gemini service and shows an editable draft in Preview. Your institution can require Approved AI or allow both. If both are allowed, Approved AI is the default.
Does Canopy send student work to an AI company?
Not in Approved AI mode. Canopy prepares a package on your computer and never contacts an AI provider or submits the prompt for you. You choose where to paste it, so you use the AI your institution has approved. In Canopy AI mode, which appears only if your institution allows it, the request goes through Canopy's managed Gemini service so it can return an editable draft.
Can Canopy Assist read scanned or handwritten work?
In Canopy AI mode, Gemini can read PDFs visually, including scanned handwriting, and flags anything it cannot read clearly. In Approved AI mode, Canopy extracts text only and does not do OCR, so scanned PDFs are not supported there. Image files are not supported in either mode. For photos of handwritten work, attach the original directly in your approved AI and use Canopy to insert your Template.
What are Feedback Forms in Canopy?
Feedback Forms are comments that open as a pop-up form with checklists, selectable inline options, optional single items, and text prompts you define in advance. Select what applies and Canopy assembles a complete narrative comment you insert with one click, or copy to your clipboard for apps like Microsoft Teams or Slack. Feedback Forms are part of Canopy Plus and institutional licenses.
What is the difference between a Feedback Form and a rubric?
A rubric is a type of Feedback Form, but not every Feedback Form is a rubric. Any form can combine checklists, inline options, and text prompts; it becomes a Dynamic Rubric when you attach point values to criteria and performance levels, and Canopy adds up the score automatically. One form, both feedback and a grade.
How do I create a Dynamic Rubric in Canopy?
If you can write an outline, you can build a rubric: no tables or add-row interfaces. Write each criterion as a heading with a point value in double # marks, like Argument (##25## points), then list performance levels as checklist items with their own point values. Canopy calculates the total possible points and displays your selected score at the bottom of the form.
Can I turn my existing rubric into a Canopy Dynamic Rubric?
Yes. Each criterion becomes a heading with its point value, each performance level becomes a checklist item with its own points, and you can add text prompts wherever you want room for written elaboration. Most rubrics convert in well under an hour, and the result is more flexible than the original.
How does rubric scoring work?
Canopy allows one performance level per criterion: selecting a new level automatically deselects the previous one, and selecting a nested sub-point automatically selects its parent level. Your running score and the total possible points display at the bottom of the form. Any point scale works (1 to 5, 0 to 100, your choice), though percentages and letter grades are not yet supported.
Can I insert a rubric into Canvas SpeedGrader or a gradebook?
Yes, and that is the point. Because the output is narrative text, a scored Canopy rubric can go places rubrics normally cannot: Canvas Assignment Comments, a gradebook text field, a Word Online comment, an email, or the body of a document, with bolding and bullets intact.
Where do Feedback Forms work?
Anywhere Canopy works in the browser: Canvas SpeedGrader, D2L Brightspace, Blackboard, Moodle, Schoology, Google Docs, Word Online, and almost anywhere you can type, plus clipboard output for desktop apps. Dynamic Rubrics are currently available in the Chrome extension, with the Word app and Feedback Builder coming soon.
Does Canopy work in Microsoft Word?
Yes. There is a standalone Canopy app for Microsoft Word, and the Chrome extension works in Word Online. Your libraries, forms, Favorites, and search work the same way in Word as they do everywhere else.
Can students see the criteria they didn't meet?
Yes, with one toggle. Insert only the items you selected for a succinct comment, or insert everything with the unselected items crossed out so students see the full standard and exactly where they stand against it.
Can my department or district share rubrics and forms?
Yes. Like all Canopy content, forms and rubrics are built to be shared, peer-to-peer or centrally managed with an institutional license. A district can define rubrics once across grade levels and disciplines and share them with hundreds of faculty.
Can I edit the feedback after the form assembles it?
Yes. The form's output is ordinary text in whatever destination you insert it into, so you can adjust wording, add a line, or change anything before it reaches the student. Point values cannot be overridden inside the form yet, but once inserted, the text is fully yours to edit.
Can I import my existing comments into Canopy?
Yes. Canopy imports comments and templates from CSV files and from Turnitin, so QuickMarks and spreadsheet-based feedback move into your libraries in minutes, ready to organize into forms and rubrics.
Is Canopy free?
Canopy Essentials is forever free for non-profit educators: unlimited Templates, every Canopy Library, Student History, The Feed, basic Analytics, and every supported platform, with no time limit and no credit card. Canopy Plus is $3/month and adds Feedback Forms and Dynamic Rubrics. Canopy Assist is $4/month and adds AI-drafted feedback. Canopy Insights is $5/month and adds AI-powered analysis across students, classes, and discussions.
Build your first form, draft your first feedback, or spot your first pattern.
Install Canopy Essentials free, then add Plus for Feedback Forms and Dynamic Rubrics, Assist for AI-drafted feedback, or Insights for patterns across your students.
Canopy Plus: $3/month · Canopy Assist: $4/month · Canopy Insights: $5/month