Key for Assignment Icons

Question

Hello!

I'm new to Canvas as of Spring Semester 2026 and I am curious if there is a key detailing the meaning of various icons that present next to assignments.

The 3 I see most often are (a) a green circle with a stick figure in it:

(b) what looks like a rocket heading north east:

and (c ) a piece of paper with a pencil on it:

Thanks in advance for any information provided!

Chris_Hofer · Accepted Answer

Hi @pdavidson12 …

Sure, let's start at the top and work our way down.

* The first (person inside the circle) is commonly found at the bottom right corner of the Rich Content Editor, and it is the icon for the Accessibility Checker.  I'm not sure if you are an instructor or a student, but the RCE is generally available when creating most content in a Canvas course, including also for students to reply to discussion topics and submitting assignments to instructors.  You can learn more about it at: How do I use the Accessibility Checker in the Rich Content Editor? - Instructure Community
* The second icon, the filled-in rocket ship, is the icon for quizzes…specifically the New Quizzes interface.  In Canvas, there are currently two different quiz interfaces, Classic Quizzes (with a rocket ship icon that is outlined) and New Quizzes (with a rocket ship icon that is filled in).  This is a visual indicator of how you can tell the difference between the two.  See this Guide for more details: How do I use the Quizzes Index Page? - Instructure Community
* The third icon is for Assignments in Canvas.  Anything that might or will be submitted to the instructor will have this kind of icon next to it.  Here is a Guide with more info: How do I use the Assignments Index Page? - Instructure Community

For these last two icons, although I gave you links to the Guides for the specific Index pages within a Canvas course, these icons will also show up on the "Modules" page if the instructor is building out the structure of the course via the "Modules" index page.  How do I use the Modules Index Page? - Instructure Community

I hope any or all of this information will be of some help to you.  Sing out if you have any other questions.  Thanks!

LauraCira · Accepted Answer

Hi @pdavidson12 The Assignment Index - the listing of graded work in a course that displays in the Assignment tool - includes quizzes, actual assignments, and graded discussions, if you're using them. So if you click into the Quizzes tool, you'll see that the rocketship is next to each quiz. If you click into the Discussions tool, you'll see a bubble icon next to each discussion topic. And of course, the pencil/paper icon will be next to each assignment. So those icons explain the type of graded item.

The accessibility icon - the Vitruvian man, if you will - if it is next to the title of files or assignments, may be from an integrated accessibility checker. If it's the icon next to the rich text editor, that is the native Canvas accessibility checker and will assist the user in correcting accessibility issues with the content in that text box.

I don't know of a Canvas icon directory, but that's a great idea!