Introducing more scalable writing transparency for academic institutions
In today’s AI-driven learning environment, instructors are working harder than ever to balance innovation with integrity. Institutions are more willing to thoughtfully adopt AI, but only if instructors and students can be on the same page for how to adopt it responsibly and effectively.
We launched Grammarly Authorship as a beta in Google Docs in October 2024 to address the growing lack of transparency between students and instructors on how AI was or was not being used in the writing process. We then launched a beta in Microsoft Word in April 2025 to ensure students could enable Authorship tracking wherever they prefer to write.
The response has been tremendous: Over a million Authorship reports have been generated in less than a year. Students appreciate having control over their own work and the ability to share their process with professors without the fear of being falsely accused of inappropriate AI use. And our Grammarly for Education customers are already seeing results, with one institution seeing a dramatic reduction in academic integrity violations after introducing Authorship across the English department.
But even with that success, we knew the solution was far from perfect. As we continually met with instructors and administrators over the 2024–25 academic year, we heard a mix of appreciation for the more balanced Authorship solution and skepticism that it could ever be embraced at scale without a fully integrated solution into Learning Management Systems.
That’s why we’re excited to announce a new Grammarly Authorship integration directly within Canvas LMS. With this launch, institutions gain a more scalable, seamless way to ensure transparency in student writing—making it easier than ever for instructors to see how work was created while letting students continue writing in the environments they know best.
What is Grammarly Authorship?
Grammarly Authorship automatically categorizes all sources of text in a Google Doc or Microsoft Word document, offering quick signals and detailed reports that show where writing came from—whether typed, AI-generated, copied, or rephrased with Grammarly’s generative AI.
Unlike traditional detection tools, Authorship emphasizes transparency and attribution with student consent. Students can demonstrate their authentic writing process, and instructors can focus on guiding learning instead of policing with uncertain or imperfect data.
Authorship’s new Canvas integration
Starting this fall, instructors can now require Authorship reports directly within Canvas assignments. Here’s how it works:
1. Instructor setup is easy
While creating an assignment, instructors simply check the new “Require Authorship Report” option in the Canvas submission settings.
2. Students keep writing where they always do
Whether in Microsoft Word (via the Grammarly Desktop App) or Google Docs (via the Grammarly Chrome Extension), students can enable Authorship tracking with a single click, and view their Authorship report anytime they wish. The report automatically attributes their sources of text if they use a generative AI tool or paste text from third-party sources. Because the tool is student-first, students can view their writing process data, but cannot manipulate it before sharing with their instructors, helping reduce information disparities and building two-way visibility into how students wrote and what text was attributed.
3. Sharing to Canvas is built-in
When ready to turn in, students select “Allow sharing to Canvas” in their Authorship report.
4. Automatic attachment
The Authorship report is attached to their normal assignment submission in Canvas—no extra uploads required.
5. Instructor insights at scale
Instructors gain a class-level view of Authorship reports, making it easy to focus attention on outliers while trusting that every student submission includes transparent attribution.
Why this matters
Educators want students to embrace writing as a process, not just a product. At the same time, institutions need scalable ways to maintain trust in student work in an era where generative AI use is increasingly common, and students are seeking out ways to use AI responsibly.
The Grammarly Authorship Canvas integration empowers all parties with the tools they need to drive learning in the AI era:
- For students, it’s a lightweight way to show their writing process, whether they use AI or not.
- For instructors, it makes it easier to require that students: a.) enable Authorship tracking before they start writing; and b.) submit their Authorship reports automatically with their assignments in Canvas. Most importantly, it prevents instructors from having to view individual reports one-by-one, and gives a class view into student text sources in a single Canvas view, helping them save valuable time as they review student work for integrity.
- For institutions, it’s a scalable, future-ready approach to maintaining academic trust this school year and beyond.
The Canvas Authorship integration is now available for Grammarly for Education customers on an institution-wide plan who also use Canvas. Administrators can install the LTI in a few steps by following the instructions here.
We’re excited to partner with Instructure and our school and university customers to make writing transparency a reality for the AI era.
To learn more or get started, visit Grammarly for Education.
