Canvas Assistant Overview

Important Availability Notice: We are grateful for users that have tried out the Canvas Assistant so far. Due to higher-than-expected demand, you may notice that the Assistant will be unavailable on certain days. We are optimizing the Assistant throughout this BETA phase, and as a result, it may occasionally go offline. Thank you for your understanding.

What is the Canvas Assistant?

The Canvas Assistant is a virtual support agent designed to help UIW students, faculty, and staff find answers to common Canvas questions, 24/7 from within Canvas. It lives in the bottom-right corner of Canvas and can guide you through tasks like accessing grades, fixing common errors, or understanding how tools work inside your courses.

Currently in Beta for June 2025, the Canvas Assistant is being actively developed and refined based on your feedback and conversation logs. Its goal is to supplement, not replace, human-to-human Canvas support by handling quick questions and offering guided help with common problems.

Why We Built It

At the end of May 2025, UIW transitioned away from 24/7 support provided by Instructure. While valuable and convenient, that support often fell short in two key ways:

Most questions were about Canvas login issues, which are tied to UIW accounts—not Canvas itself. These required university-level support that third-party agents couldn’t provide.
Answers lacked UIW-specific context for many topics, leading to confusion or incomplete guidance. In most cases, users were routed back to UIW support either directly or indirectly with bad info.

To help fill that gap, the Office of Teaching, Learning, and Technology began developing a more personalized, in-house approach to Canvas support.

The result is the Canvas Assistant, a virtual agent built on Microsoft’s Copilot Studio platform. While it's built on Microsoft Copilot and uses generative AI for answers, most guidance is powered by custom topics and structured support paths created by the instructional technology team, ensuring many answers reflect how Canvas is actually used at UIW.

What It Can Help With

The Canvas Assistant isn’t designed to answer every question directly in the chat. Due to platform limitations, the chat window is intentionally compact, so responses are generally brief and focused. Instead of lengthy explanations, the assistant often shares targeted links to UIW-specific guides or official Instructure resources. What the assistant can do:

General questions regarding Canvas
Share step-by-step guides created by the Instructional Technology team and Instructure
Guide you through common issues like missing courses, cross-listing, course access, or loading errors
Offer quick help with Canvas tools like Grades, Modules, Inbox, and Calendar
Direct you to the right support contact by submitting tickets
Collect feedback and ratings to improve the assistant over time

What It Can’t Do

While the Canvas Assistant is helpful for quick guidance, it does have limitations. It’s not connected to live Canvas data and cannot access course-specific information. That means it cannot:

Understand what’s happening in your course or on a specific Canvas page
Diagnose or resolve complex system errors or bugs
Answer [many] questions outside the scope of Canvas LMS support (e.g., It shouldn't tell you how to change your bike tires)
Modify courses, enrollments, or grades
Access or retrieve personal student records
Replace a real support person for detailed troubleshooting or follow-up

If your issue needs a closer look, the assistant will offer to escalate it to the right UIW support team and help you share the necessary details. You can also type “escalate” at any time to start that process.

How to Use It

Start a conversation by selecting the Canvas Assistant button in Canvas.
Choose your perspective (student, instructor/admin) so certain answers are tailored to your role.
Ask your questions or describe an issue.
If needed, choose to escalate the issue or leave feedback to improve the assistant.

Keeping the Message Log

The Canvas Assistant will remember your message log as long as you stay in the same browser tab. That means:

If you open a new Canvas tab, the assistant will start a separate conversation in that tab, but your existing conversation in the original tab will remain active and unaffected.
If you close the assistant window to follow instructions or check another page, you can reopen it and continue where you left off—as long as you stay in the same tab.
If you close the Canvas tab where your conversation is active, your session will end and the assistant will start fresh the next time you open it.

This lets you move around Canvas without losing progress or having to repeat yourself.

Providing Feedback

At any time, you can simply enter 'feedback' or a phrase suggesting you want to help improve the assistant, and you'll be prompted to enter feedback that will be sent to the Instructional Technology team.

Tips for Getting the Best Help

Be specific: “I can’t submit my assignment and it shows an error that says 'Storage is Full'” is more helpful than “It’s not working.”
Stick with Canvas-specific questions. The Assistant can help with some integrated apps and services, but currently it's best with features and processes native to Canvas at UIW.
If the Assistant returns with the wrong set of options, the "That's not right. Try again" option should get it back on track!
The Assistant cannot look at course data, so there's no need to provide identifiable information outside submitting a ticket.
At any point, say “Escalate” to submit a support ticket to the appropriate team.
Enter 'feedback' to add a rating and comment at the end. Please know, your feedback helps the assistant get better.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How long will the Assistant be available?

The Canvas Assistant is currently in a 30-day beta trial. At the end of that period, we’ll assess its effectiveness and determine whether to extend, revise, or retire it. Feedback is welcome at canvas@uiwtx.edu.

Is this a real person?

No. The Canvas Assistant is an AI-powered tool that uses structured conversation flows and UIW-specific content to guide you. It can connect you with human support when needed.

Is the Canvas Assistant available on mobile?

The Assistant is not currently supported in the Canvas Mobile App or mobile browsers. Desktop browsers are required. Mobile browser support is expected in early June, with app integration under review.

Yes, you can move the Canvas Assistant button anywhere on the page. Once placed, it will stay anchored there and open from that spot whenever you need to ask a question. We originally considered placing it in the left navigation menu, but feedbackexpressed a more visible and accessible floating button. We’re open to changing this, just let the Assistant know you want to leave that feedback.

Does the Assistant work on assignment or quiz pages?

No. The Canvas Assistant is hidden when viewing or submitting assignments or quizzes. To get help with those items, return to a Canvas page like the course homepage or Modules to access the Assistant.

Does the Assistant work in the Respondus LockDown Browser?

Partially. The Assistant may appear on standard pages, but it will disappear on assignment and quiz pages—even within LockDown Browser. We plan to fully disable the Assistant during LockDown Browser use in future versions.

Who reviews my feedback?

All Assistant feedback is reviewed by the UIW Canvas team. For details on how feedback is handled, read the “Privacy and Platform” section of our overview article.

Can I still get human support?

Yes. The Assistant is not a replacement for one-on-one help. Students can contact helpdesk@uiwtx.edu and instructors can reach canvas@uiwtx.edu. The Assistant can also escalate your issue if you ask it to.

Can I use the Assistant outside of Canvas?

Not yet. The Assistant only works within Canvas where it has the right context. A dedicated Canvas Assistant will be available through Copilot chat on the web in the near future.

How often is the Assistant updated?

During beta, the Assistant is updated daily to improve answers, routing, and support topics. Once stable, updates will shift to a weekly cadence. Future features in testing include:

Draggable and repositionable assistant button
Canvas mobile browser support
Additional use-case features

Why did we use Microsoft Copilot instead of ChatGPT or another model?

Microsoft Copilot Studio allowed us to build a secure, integrated experience inside Canvas without requiring personal accounts or subscriptions. Custom GPTs require a ChatGPT account, often a paid one, and cannot be embedded in external platforms like Canvas.

Copilot aligns with UIW’s Microsoft 365 environment and supports:

UIW-specific responses and routing
Deployment directly in Canvas
Anonymous use with optional escalation
Secure data handling within UIW’s Microsoft ecosystem

What future improvements are planned?

We’re continuously improving the Assistant based on real usage. Planned enhancements include better conversation flows, clearer responses, and expanded topic support—especially if the current link-based approach proves effective.

Privacy & Platform

The Canvas Assistant is built in Microsoft Copilot Studio and operates within UIW’s secure Microsoft 365 environment. It runs in a sandboxed environment managed by the Office of Teaching, Learning, and Technology (OTLT), ensuring your privacy is protected.

The assistant cannot access student records, grades, or personal Canvas data.
Conversations are anonymous and not linked to your identity, unless you voluntarily provide identifiable information.
- Note: Should you choose to escalate an issue, your UIW email address will be requested to route your concern to the right support team.
All interactions are contained within the chat window and are not shared externally.
Any feedback you submit is only reviewed by the Instructional Technology team to improve the assistant.

Transcript retention

To continuously improve the Canvas Assistant, the Instructional Technology team regularly reviews conversation transcripts to ensure responses are accurate and helpful. Transcripts are stored in a secure online environment accessible only to system administrators and select members of the Instructional Technology team. They are used solely for quality assurance and training purposes. At this time, because all interactions are anonymous by default, we have no plans to associate transcripts with individual users or change this approach.

This setup allows us to offer helpful, AI-guided support while respecting student privacy and complying with FERPA and UIW data policies. If you ever feel more comfortable reaching out to a person directly, students can email helpdesk@uiwtx.edu and instructors can contact canvas@uiwtx.edu

We’re Listening to Feedback...

We genuinely appreciate your input, especially since this is a Beta release (June 2025). By entering ‘Feedback’, or suggesting to want to provide feedback, you’re invited to rate the assistance you received and share your thoughts directly with the Assistant. You can also reach out directly with suggestions or ideas at canvas@uiwtx.edu.