Student page: New Search Engine Launch in Canvas: Smartsearch

On Friday, 1 December, Karolinska Institutet will introduce Smartsearch, a new search engine in Canvas, replacing Atomic Search. This upgrade is designed to improve user-experience when searching all areas of Canvas. The Search function can be accessed from the "global menu" (purple menu) and via the course menu. Please note that global search is not available via the Canvas student app, however you can search your course via Search via the app.

Smartsearch upgrade 1 December

On Friday, 1 December, Karolinska Institutet will introduce Smartsearch, a new search engine in Canvas, replacing Atomic Search. This upgrade is designed to improve user-experience when searching all areas of Canvas. A few examples are:

Global and course-specific searches: Enables users to perform searches both across the entire Canvas platform and within individual courses. The search interface provides a more visual presentation with course icon allowing for easier identification of courses.
Comprehensive course search: Find information ranging from content and calendar events to discussions, messages, and assignments. Smartsearch enhances its search results list by presenting each item with an accompanying icon that indicates the type of item it is, such as a page, an assignment, etc. This visual aid improves user experience by making it easier to quickly identify the nature of each search result.
Role-Based Search Results: Smartsearch tailors search results to your specific role in Canvas, providing relevant information efficiently. For instance:
- Students can search for their own assignments. They can search for people. Search results will only show information about people that students are allowed to see.
- Teachers and administrators can filter search results by content status and access information tailored to their roles and rights.

Smartsearch’s search function is designed to be quick and responsive, with predictive search features that activate with only a few entered characters.

IMPORTANT! When you click on Search for the first time you will need to approve the the LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) connection in Canvas. Once you have done this you can use the Smartsearch search engine. Note that in the Global menu you will always see “Search”. In the course menu you will see either Search or Sök depending on the user’s language settings.

smartsearch authorize connection to canvas

Global search is not supported in the Canvas Student App

Please note that the Global Search function is not available in the Canvas student App. The course menu will allow you to search the course contents. We suggest that you if you want to use the Global Search that you open Canvas via your browser on your mobile.

Global Search

Select the Search option in the Global menu to search directly for calendar events, people or find your course by name. Depending on which of these you search for, you will see the search results listed on the page.

If you click on "I" you will see tips for searching:

Smart. Any words

Exclude. Take away words with minus

Either. Or using the pipe sign

Exact. Specific phrases

Image: Smartsearch features via global menu

Global Search examples

Search your calendar events via the Global menu:

Image: Global Search Calender

Search for people via the Global menu. Your role as student in a course will determine which information you see about the people in your search results:

Image: Global Search People

Search for your course via the Global menu. Once you have found your course you can select to go directly to the course OR to Search in that course:

Image: Search for your course via Global menu.

Search course content

When you search directly in your course, the search results will display icons indicating which type of content the search results have found. Smartsearch searches in pages, assignments, calender events, discussions and messages. Smartsearch enhances its search results list by presenting each item with an accompanying icon that indicates the type of item it is, such as a page, an assignment, etc. Note that as a student you will also see your own assignments that have not been submitted.

Image: Smartsearch course search showing types of content

Search all content or filter per type

You can select to search all the course content or you can use the filter to look for specific content, for example assignments etc.

Image: Search course content and filter per type of component