Enable and Use Canvas Discussion Summaries

Last updated on September 3, 2025

Canvas now offers AI-generated Discussion Summaries for instructors. This feature provides a quick snapshot of student engagement, helping you identify general themes in the conversation. This tool is not a replacement for thoroughly reviewing the discussion yourself, but it can be helpful for spotting trends, gauging participation, and getting a broad sense of the conversation’s direction.

Discussion Summaries also include an optional “Topics to focus on” field, which is intended to guide the AI’s attention. While it may slightly shape the results, it’s often inaccurate or too vague to surface specific insights. Additionally, the feature struggles to highlight anything about individual student contributions. 

Given these drawbacks, relying on it for grading or student-specific observations is strongly discouraged.

This tutorial will walk you through how to enable and use discussion summaries effectively.

Directions

[Length: 03:29, CC Available]

Enable Canvas Discussion Summaries 

This feature must be enabled for each course where you want to allow the use of discussion summaries. 

1. Log in to your Canvas Account.
2. Select the Course you’d like to work in.
3. Click Settings in the Course Navigation menu on the left.
4. Click the Feature Options tab (second from the right).
5. Scroll to find Discussion Summary in the list of feature options.
6. On the far right of the row, click the red x in a circle to enable it.
   • The toggle will display a green checkmark once enabled.

Use Canvas Discussion Summaries

1. Navigate to a Canvas Course where Discussion Summaries are enabled. 
2. Click Discussions in the navigation menu on the left. 
3. Click on the Discussion you would like to use the Discussion Summaries in. 
4. Click the Open Summary button.
5. Click the Summarize Discussion button located under the discussion prompt.
   • Note: To hide Discussion Summaries after they have been turned on, click the Close Summary button located under the discussion prompt.
6. Type a topic, theme, or phrase you would like the summary to focus on. Separate multiple entries with commas.
   • Note: The topic focus is optional. It is not required to create a discussion summary. 
   • Second Note: The optional topic focus often creates dubious results. It may cause the AI-generated summary to hallucinate sections. It cannot be relied on to summarize specific students’ contributions. 
7. Click Summarize.