Downloading Word documents from Google Docs on Android

When students submit assignments into Instructure Canvas Student app for assignments done using the Google Docs app on a mobile device, the students have to use the Google Drive app to download the document. The document will by default be downloaded as a Portable Document Format file. If the instructor wants the document to be submitted as a Word file, then there are a couple extra steps that the student would have to perform. The following was done on an Android 12 rig with the Google Drive app installed. 

In the Google Drive app open the vertical ellipsis (three dot) menu.

Choose Save as Word (.docx). Note that this does not save a Word document to the mobile device, this saves the Word document as a copy in Google Drive.

The result is a Word file in Google Drive. That file can then be downloaded using the vertical ellipsis menu (not visible in the above screenshot) on the Word format document in Google Drive.

Downloading the Word document preserves the Word format at this point.

From here the .docx formatted file can uploaded into the Canvas Student app.