Accessing your Assignment Feedback in Canvas

Written by Xinyi Gong, Student Intern (Feedback Solutions Developer), Centre for Innovation in Education, University of Liverpool, 2025

You’ve put time and effort into your assignments. But how do you make sure you’re learning from the feedback you receive?

The University's aim is to provide you with engaging and authentic assessment that supports your learning and connects it to the research work of the University. This is why feedback on your assignments in Canvas might come in a variety of formats. We know that with this variety, it can sometimes be tricky to know where to look, whether you’re using the web or the Canvas mobile app.

This guide is designed to help you easily find, read, and download your feedback from Canvas, so that you can utilise these insights to develop your skills for future assignments and beyond.

Prefer to watch a video?

This video covers all of the basics: https://bit.ly/canvasfeedbackvideo

Prefer a PDF?

Accessing your Assignment Feedback in Canvas v1.pdf

Our ‘Go-To’ Method: Using a Web Browser

When your instructor releases grades and feedback, you’ll receive a notification in Canvas and by email. If you click the link in the email, the feedback might look different depending on what device you are using, and you might not get access to all your feedback.

We’ve outlined here a reliable way to collect all your feedback that works no matter what platform you’re using. While you may later find it convenient to use the Canvas app, we recommend this approach to begin with or whenever you run into problems.

Launch an internet browser (e.g., Chrome, Edge, Safari or Firefox).
Login to Canvas (https://canvas.liverpool.ac.uk) using your university credentials and Duo.
Go to the relevant Canvas course and navigate to the Assignments area in the course menu on the left (if it does not have an Assignments area then just go back to the place you originally submitted your assignment).
Click on the name of the assignment.
On the submission screen, you’ll see your feedback in different forms, depending on how your lecturer marked the work:

(a) Grade / Points: Your overall grade and total points for the assignment.

(b) General or Multimedia Comments: Overall comments, which may include text or links video messages. (Access these by clicking on the 'View Feedback' button).

(c) Completed Rubric: The grading criteria used by your instructor, showing points for each category.

(d) In-document Comments: Specific comments and annotations placed directly on your submitted work.

Screenshot showing the types of feedback available on the submission screen in Canvas

Downloading your Feedback

While grades, general comments, and rubrics can only be viewed in Canvas, you can download a copy of the in-document comments.

Scroll down to the annotated document.
Click on the download icon at the top-left of the document viewer.

This will download your submission as a PDF file with the in-document comments. For a consistent view, we recommend installing the free Adobe Reader.

Using the Canvas App for Accessing your Feedback

The Canvas app is available through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. When using the app, the view of your assignment submissions will be different from the web version. After entering the assignment, tap on Submission & Rubric to access your feedback.

Screenshot the Canvas app showing how to get feedback through the 'Submissions & Rubric' button

You may find that the app has limitations, for example in-document comments can sometimes be hard to see. If you’re having trouble, we recommend switching to a web browser instead.

Viewing Feedback in Turnitin

While our guide has focused on feedback left using Canvas’s SpeedGrader, your instructor may have used other platforms like Turnitin. You might know Turnitin as a tool for originality checking, but it also has a separate function for marking and providing feedback. Since we estimate that about 10% of assignments use Turnitin for providing feedback, here are some instructions for that platform as well. If your instructor uses a completely different platform, then they will provide specific instructions on how to access your feedback.

Identifying a Turnitin Assignment: When access your assignment feedback, look for a button that says “Load Turnitin Assignment in a new window”. This is your key to knowing your feedback is in Turnitin.
Accessing Your Feedback (if made available in Turnitin):

Click on the “Load Turnitin Assignment in a new window” button.
Your Turnitin Assignment Dashboard will open.
Click the paper title of your assignment submission to open the Feedback Studio.
In the Feedback Studio, you can view your grade, annotated comments, rubric and general comments. You can also use the download button on the right-hand side to save a copy of your feedback.

Screenshot showing Turnitin's Feedback Studio with a marked piece of work

For more help on using the Turnitin Feedback Studio, a comprehensive guide is here: https://guides.turnitin.com/hc/en-us/articles/23858916082189-Reviewing-instructor-feedback#tab-content-01

For further support in using Canvas, please use the Help button within Canvas, or email servicedesk@liverpool.ac.uk.