Canopy: See the Forest for the Trees
Welcome to Canopy – the free actionable analytics and engagement solution for Canvas LMS.
Canopy helps instructors invest their time as wisely as possible by transforming course activity, grade, and discussion data into an instructor-centric experience. Rather than endlessly scrolling Canvas discussions, Canopy creates an interactive dashboard of student activity with helpful metrics like Discussion Health and Influencer Score to help move the conversation forward.
In a glance, you can see which students have replied TO you in a discussion but to whom you haven’t yet replied. Or scan for late posts, see totals (top-level posts vs. replies) and even discussion word counts for each student.
Need to message all students below a certain course grade? Encourage and appreciate students making online discussions vibrant and welcoming? Quickly scan for late discussion posts? Canopy makes it easy to see the forest for the trees.
The best part? A powerful version of Canopy is free to all Canvas educators and you can get started in under 3 minutes – no credit card required. Individuals can choose to license advanced features and instutions can bring Canopy to all faculty through an annual subscription.
Escape endless scrolling
Recognize this view of the world?
Canvas discussions are not ideal for instructors who want to find the most impactful ways to contribute and move the conversation forward. How long can discussions get?
Canopy saves time, reduces frustration, and gives me immediate insight into classroom discussions in a truly innovative way. If you rely on discussion boards in your online classes, you need Canopy. I cannot be more enthusiastic in my endorsement.
Secure, seamless access
Log into Canopy, securely, with a secure Canvas Token. With just a few clicks, have access to all your Canvas Discussions.
Your Canvas data – reimagined
Canopy makes it easy to see your courses side-by-side.
Your list of available courses matches Canvas.
Where to invest your time?
Canopy makes data actionable. For instance, of the rows in the summary details the number of replies TO you to which you haven’t yet replied.
Hover over the count and you’ll see the detail. Click reply to respond. Your response will post to the Canvas discussion, instantly, as if you typed it there yourself.
Respond – in context
Responding from Canopy means you see a student’s work in context. You see the discussion topic and, if the student was replying to someone else, that original post.
Canopy conveniently fills in the student’s first name in your response – to personalize your response efficiently.
Premium users get access to message the student privately, via regular email or Canvas message. Or just type and answer and hit CTRL-ENTER to blast off your reply to the appropriate Canvas discussion. As if you typed it there yourself.
Dig into your leaderboard
You can dig down into one course to see far more detail.
First stop? An overview that shows you, student by student, a snapshot of activity.
You can immediately see any discussion posts to which you haven’t replied – and reply easily. You can sort by any column, export, and check off students to bulk message words of encouragement or reminders.
Zoom around to target engagement
Canopy is an interactive spreadsheet. Hover over any hyperlinked number to see details. And take action.
We can see that we have a reply from Susan to which we haven’t yet replied. Just like the overview.
Discussion detail
Of course you can jump straight to the detailed view for any course – to see, discussion by discussion, counts of student posts and replies.
Hover over any number to see that student’s content – and reply.
Grade AND respond to discussions publicly
Canopy’s discussion workflow feature (for Institutional users only) makes it easy to view student posts in context, grade them AND reply publicly with your comments. Or provide a public comment, posted to the discussion, separately from your assignment feedback.
You can quickly filter to see only students who have answered the post or those you haven’t yet graded.
You’ll see the student in context – their avatar, course grade, and overall discussion activity.
Use Annotate PRO to speed excellent feedback
Of course Canopy works seamlessly with Annotate PRO, our solution for creating, sharing and using libraries of expert feedback to speed feedback and engagement.
This AP library showcases our School Resource Edition solution – a managed content library that makes it easy to share your school’s excellent support services so that every instructor can be an expert.
Here, with one click, the instructor has added details on how to access the university’s writing center.
How secure is Canopy?
Canopy uses industry standard encryption to send and receive data. Canopy does not store messages, grades, or other Canavs data.
Canopy does store each user’s name, email address, and a Canvas Token used for secure authentication.
The Token is not readable by humans - it is encoded using the SHA256 algorithm prior to database storage. This ‘hashed’ value can’t be decoded - hashing is a one-way street.
What data does Canopy store?
Canopy stores only the name and email address of the direct users (faculty, TAs, potentially students should your institution enable student access) along with some basic logging information (account creation date etc.). Canopy does not store ANY data on student grades, discussion posts, replies, or other data. See Canopy Privacy and Data Storage for details.
How does the free version of Canopy work?
11trees has a long history of providing powerful, forever-free versions of its solutions to educators. 11trees' Annotate PRO is used by thousands of educators around the world, many of them free users, and is entering into its 7th academic year of service. We are in this for the long haul. The free version of Canopy is a game changer for any educator managing discussion posts and Canopy+, the paid version, just amps up that experience another level.
You will not be pestered with upsell messages, advertisements, or popups begging you to "upgrade." We learn from our users and innovate with feedback from passionate educators. Rather than spending money on marketing (Google ads, attending conferences, sales teams calling prospects), we prefer to invest in product development and let word of mouth help us grow into institutional relationships and earn paid individual subscriptions. We are proud to serve schools and universities in the UK, The Netherlands, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, and many other locations.
How much does Canopy cost?
11trees is committed to supporting individual educators at non-profit and public institutions. That's why we make powerful free versions of our solutions, then offer premium features that individuals can elect to pay for, and institutional features that appeal to schools.
All Canopy features are available, for free, to beta users beginning in October 2023 and extending through January 31, 2024. After the beta closes, new users will enjoy a trial of Canopy+ features and forever-free access to a powerful, basic version of Canopy.
Learn more about our planned individual and institutional pricing on the Canopy pricing page.
Can I connect Canopy to Canvas myself?
Yes!
While Canopy shines in an institutional environment, we’ve designed it in a way that an individual educator can connect it with their Canvas workspace. See this support article that explains the process.
If you don't see options described in the support article your Canvas Admins must have removed the ability to create Tokens. Contact your Canvas / LMS Admin (often in the Instructional Technology department or similar) to request a Token or access to create Tokens.
What is a Token?
Tokens are a form of authentication. The token is like an ID Badge. It’s a way for you to prove to the system who you are and what access you should have to confidential information. By generating a token in Canvas and entering it into Canopy, you’re letting Canvas know that it should allow Canopy to interact with course data.
Tokens only allow Canopy to do what a user could do directly in Canvas themselves. Canvas this security, manages authentication, and controls all interactions an app like Canopy might have with the LMS.
Who is the beta for?
In celebration of Canopy's revamped launch for 2023, we are offering an open beta for teachers to see for themselves how Canopy will improve their Canvas experience.
- First 500 instructors to sign up get free beta access to all available features.
- Depending on learnings, we may keep the open beta going, or pause it.
- Beta users will have access to ALL features through January 31, 2024.
- After January 31, 2024 certain features will require a Canopy+ account. See the Canopy pricing page for more info.
Do students need to use Canopy?
No.
Canopy sends your replies and messages back to Canvas, instantly. Students read and respond in Canvas, as always.
What happens after the beta?
After the first 500 instructor signups and/or January 31, 2024, a powerful version of Canopy will continue to be free for instructors, individual instructors can opt to subscribe to Canopy+, and institutions can license Canopy for all users. See Canopy pricing for more detail.
How does my institution connect Canopy to Canvas?
11trees only needs some basic information that can be provided by your Canvas Admin using a "Developer Key" process that this simple, fast, and secure. Canvas Admins will be quite familiar with the Developer Key process. Details on the information required to securely connect Canvas to Canopy can be found here.
If I ignore the Token update message, do I see it again in 5 minutes?
No! If you choose to dismiss the Token update message by clicking the ‘x’ icon, this popup will not show again until you log out of Canopy, then log back in.
Does Canopy work with other LMS platforms like Moodle or Blackboard?
Not at this time, unfortunately. While theoretically possible, we are focused on Canopy-for-Canvas and not considering connecting it to other LMS platforms.