At Instructure, trust is foundational to how we partner with institutions. Even when issues affect only a small portion of our community, we believe it’s important to communicate openly and responsibly. Transparency is essential to maintaining confidence in the systems educators rely on every day.
What Happened
A background processing job associated with the Roll Call Attendance tool became stuck for some institutions, preventing Roll Call from correctly applying attendance towards the final grade in Canvas Gradebook. When these jobs did not complete as intended, some grade settings did not reflect the most recent attendance data. The issue began on May 1, 2024, and was fully resolved on July 17, 2025, after which all jobs were restored to normal operation.
What is the Impact?
A subset of institutions using Roll Call had attendance grades that did not update as expected. In most cases, the discrepancy was small and did not affect final grades, but each institution should verify the data provided. Importantly:
- The vast majority of Instructure customers were not affected
- Attendance records and attendance tracking were not impacted
- The issue was limited to how attendance data interacted with grading logic and course-specific configurations
Why We’re Sharing This Broadly
Although the impact was limited, we are communicating about this incident more broadly to reinforce our commitment to transparency, accountability, and trust. We believe institutions benefit from understanding not only when systems work as expected, but also how issues are identified, validated, and addressed when they do occur.
Actions We Are Taking
We are working directly with each affected institution to:
- Provide secure, institution-specific data to support independent verification
- Support any necessary grade review or correction processes
All affected institutions have been notified directly and are being engaged through dedicated follow-up. Institutions that have not been contacted were not impacted.
Why This Required Careful Review
Because the issue involved grading logic, course settings, and rubrics, it required thorough validation and independent review before any public communication. This approach ensured accuracy and avoided premature conclusions, particularly given the sensitivity of grading data and institutional processes.
For Institutions Not Impacted
No action is required if your institution was not affected. However, we believe openness matters even when impact is limited. Sharing what we learn helps reinforce confidence in the Canvas ecosystem and reflects our responsibility to the broader education community.
What We’re Doing Next
Learnings from this audit are already being applied across our engineering and quality assurance practices, including:
- Strengthening validation around grading-related workflows
- Improving monitoring and detection of edge-case interactions
- Reinforcing safeguards for complex, configurable academic logic
Our Commitment
We value the trust institutions place in Instructure and do not take that responsibility lightly. By communicating clearly – even when impact is limited – we aim to reinforce our commitment to transparency, continuous improvement, and partnership with the institutions we serve.
