Canvas Outage Highlights the Value of Canvas Insights for Instructional Continuity
Responding to a Global Canvas Outage
On May 7, 2026, CSUN was impacted by a global Canvas outage resulting from a cybersecurity incident involving Canvas’s parent company, Instructure. The disruption occurred during the final weeks of the spring 2026 semester and affected access to Canvas services across institutions nationwide.
During the outage, CSUN Academic Technology focused on helping faculty maintain instructional continuity and stay connected with students. While Canvas remained unavailable, several tools and support resources were available to assist faculty in accessing course information, maintaining email communication with students, and preparing alternate plans for finals and remaining assignments.
What Is Canvas Insights?
A few years ago, CSUN’s Information Technology developed a home-grown faculty tool, Canvas Insights, that provides access to gradebook information and personalized communication with students outside of the Canvas environment.
Canvas Insights, available only at CSUN, allows faculty to apply customizable filters to better understand student engagement and academic progress throughout the semester. Instructors can quickly identify students based on a variety of criteria, including course participation, assignment performance, missing coursework, and overall grade, based on the Canvas gradebook. Faculty can use these filters to view groups of students who are excelling, struggling, or may need additionaloutreach and support.
Once a group of students has been identified, Canvas Insights allows faculty to send personalized emails directly through the platform, making it easier to provide timely communication, encouragement, reminders, and targeted academic support.
How Canvas Insights Supported Continuity
During the Canvas outage, Canvas Insights provided an important continuity option because it stores gradebook-related data outside of Canvas. Canvas Insights pulls in gradebook data nightly, which meant that faculty who had been using the Canvas gradebook still had access to recent assignment data, score data, and running score information even while Canvas itself was unavailable.
This was especially important during finals. While many institutions affected by the outage had no easy way to access Canvas grade information when the system was unavailable, CSUN was fortunate to have Canvas Insights available as a locally developed continuity tool. It gave faculty an alternative way to review available grade information and continue planning for finals and end-of-semester communication.
Canvas Insights also supported continuity for faculty-student communication. Because the tool reflects current class enrollment, faculty could use it to email students even if they had not used the Canvas gradebook during the semester. This provided faculty with an alternate way to reach students when Canvas announcements, Inbox, and other Canvas-based communication tools were unavailable.
How Faculty Can Access Canvas Insights
Every instructor has access to Canvas Insights. During normal Canvas availability, faculty can find it directly in the Canvas course navigation panel under Canvas Insights.
During the Canvas outage, Canvas Insights could also be accessed through the CSUN Portal, allowing faculty to use the tool even when Canvas itself wasunavailable.
For more information on how to access and use Canvas Insights, visit the Canvas Insights webpage.
Learn More
Faculty who would like to learn more about Canvas Insights are encouraged to look for upcoming Canvas Insights workshops on the Academic Technology workshop calendar over the summer and in the fall. These sessions will provide an overview of how to access Canvas Insights, use filters to identify student progress and engagement patterns, and communicate with students through the tool.
Looking Ahead
The outage underscored the importance of having locally developed tools and continuity practices that can support instruction during unexpected service disruptions. CSUN was fortunate to have Canvas Insights in place, providing access to essential course-related data and student communication tools outside of the Canvas environment, and allowing faculty to continue supporting students during a critical point in the semester.