Since we launched Canvas Portfolios last year, four pieces of feedback came through front and center.
- Bringing an assignment into a portfolio meant syncing it from Canvas: a linked reference, not evidence of its own.
- The Rich Content Editor held only plain text and files, with no room for a video, a board, or anything interactive, so the work that most needed to be seen was often the hardest to show.
- Once an evaluation portfolio was published, it was locked: adding one course, one requirement, or fixing a typo meant building a new portfolio from scratch, a limitation that shaped how much instructors were willing to publish in the first place.
- There was no way to share an assignment submission as evidence at all, so feedback on it stayed one-sided even when someone did see it.
You wanted an assignment to become standalone evidence, something you could build on with a reflection and tag with the skills it shows. You wanted the Rich Content Editor to hold more than plain content, so evidence could show the real thing instead of a description of it. You wanted a published evaluation portfolio to grow with a class instead of locking the day it went live. And you wanted to share an assignment submission as evidence and get real feedback on it, not just a view.
The September 19, 2026 release does all four.
An assignment, turned into your evidence.
Assignment Import brings assignments in from Canvas and turns each one into its own requirement card, title and description included. From there, it's yours: add a reflection, tag the skills it demonstrates, and every field stays open to edit. It's no longer just a synced copy, it's evidence you shape.
Assignment Submissions can also be added straight into portfolio evidence as an attachment, so the original work sits right alongside the reflection built around it.
A record of progress, not just a moment.
Assignment Snapshot locks in a submission's state the moment it's attached as evidence, submission date included, so a later change to the original assignment in your courses never rewrites what's already there. Attach the same assignment more than once, and each snapshot captures where the work stood at that point, building a timeline that shows a student's progress toward a competency, not just one moment of it.
Feedback, made visible.
This release also makes it possible, for the first time, to share an assignment submission itself as evidence in an Evaluation or Showcase Portfolio through Assignment Sharing, with a clear note on any file size limits before it's shared. Once it's shared, Shared Content Comments give instructors and peers a direct way to respond to it, not just view it. Anyone from the portfolio owner's institution can sign in with their existing Canvas account and leave a comment, no new account required, and it works on showcase evidence as well as evaluation evidence. Viewing shared content still doesn't require signing in - only commenting does- and the portfolio owner decides whether comments are open at all.
Show the real thing, not just describe it.
The Rich Content Editor now supports embedded HTML content, like YouTube videos, Miro boards, Google Slides, and interactive prototypes, displayed right in place. A reflection can sit next to the work it's reflecting on, instead of a link pointing away from it.
A published portfolio that keeps up with the semester.
Instructors can now add a new course, a new section, or a new requirement to a published evaluation portfolio, and edit its title or description. Existing requirements, skill tags, and courses that are already tied to a portfolio stay as they are, so students won't see changes to work they've already started. Changes wait in the browser until the instructor republishes, and student portfolio statuses recalculate automatically once they do. One portfolio can now run across multiple semesters instead of getting rebuilt every time a class changes.
This is what a portfolio looks like when it keeps up. See what's changed, and try it on your next portfolio. For the full list of what's changing and how it works, see the Canvas Portfolio release notes on the Instructure Community.
Get started with the latest Portfolio features using these step-by-step guides:
How do I edit published Portfolios?
How do I add and edit assignment requirements in an Evaluation Portfolio?
How do I add assignment submissions to projects?
How do I add and edit submitted assignments in a Showcase Portfolio?
How do I add evidence to a Portfolio as a student?
