New Feature Preview available: Discussion Summaries 

Summary

Discussion Summaries is a new feature preview available in Canvas. Discussion Summarization uses a Generative AI model to provide instructors (not students) summaries of key points, questions, and ideas in a discussion thread.

When the Discussion Summary feature option is enabled, discussion threads have a “Summarize” button that will use generative AI to generate a summary of key points and questions in the discussion thread. Once generated, summaries may be refined by describing desired outputs (e.g., “concerns about grading policy”) or be regenerated. These summaries are only available to instructors and administrators (not students).

Explainer Video: Discussion Summaries 

Please follow these steps to enable Discussion Summaries in your course:

Summarize Button

  1. To summarize discussion threads, click the Summarize button at the top of the Discussion posts.
  2. Enter the desired area or topic to summarize.
  3. To generate a summary, click the Generate Summary button. To exit the discussion summary, click the Disable Summary button.



  4. A summary is created based on the topics the instructor asked about.