What is Smart Search?
Smart Search is an AI-enhanced option that can be activated by a teacher to enable course members to search course content using everyday language (e.g., “show me all assignments about climate policy”).
How is Smart Search activated in a course?
Smart Search is turned off by default at the course level. People with the teacher role can turn on Smart Search by doing the following:
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Click on the Settings link at the bottom of the course-level Navigation menu.
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Click the Feature Options tab.
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Under the State column, click the red circled X next to Smart Search to turn it on. When enabled the icon will present as a green check mark.
How does Smart Search work?
When activated, upon first search Canvas builds an index of all published course items. Searchable content includes all published pages, announcements, discussion prompts, and assignment descriptions. When a search query is made, behind the scenes it is converted into numbers (“embeddings”) that capture meaning which is then compared to the indexed content. Search results return a ranked list with a short snippet and a link. Course role permissions determine what is returned in the result. For example, students cannot open items they can’t already access.
What are some best practices for instructors when activating Smart Search?
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Plan for visibility. Searchable content includes all published Pages, Announcements, Discussion prompts, Assignment descriptions. If you routinely publish and unpublish course materials or use module completion requirements to control pacing, consider leaving Smart Search off.
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Use clear titles & headings in course content. Clear content structure improves search quality for students.
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Review for PII. Edit or remove personally identifying information and data that doesn’t belong in search results.
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Communicate with students. Inform students that Smart Search is available and explain what it can and cannot do.
What are Smart Search data privacy considerations?
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No student data is used for AI training. The AI model is pre‑trained. This means it only reads course content in order to build the searchable index.
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Anything written inside published content including personally identifiable information (PII) like names, emails, etc. will appear in search snippets.
Note: As with use of most AI tools, keep sensitive information out of Pages and Announcements.
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The searchable index is stored in the Middlebury Canvas database. This means nothing is stored on the AI model servers.
Can instructors exclude specific Content, Modules or Pages?
Not at this time. Smart Search indexes all published content in Pages, Announcements, Discussions, and Assignment descriptions. Any content that is discoverable by a Student can appear in search results. Be careful to un-publish or remove content that should not appear in a search result.
Can Smart Search be turned off after it has been turned on?
Yes. Smart Search can be enabled or disabled at any time. In the Canvas course click Settings, then click Feature Options tab and locate the Smart Search feature. Click green check mark under the State column next to Smart Search to turn it back off. The icon will change back to a red circled X.
Does Smart Search index student submissions or quiz questions?
Not at this time; only course authored content is included.
Is there multilingual support in Smart Search?
Yes. The AI model handles many languages, improving results in non‑English courses.
How to get additional help?
For more information visit Canvas’ Smart Search FAQs.
For technical support, contact Instructure Support by 24/7 phone [+1-833-890-4166] or email support@instructure.com. For pedagogical support schedule a consultation with a DLINQ team member.