Rutgers.eduIn an effort to continually improve Canvas, Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, releases Canvas upgrades every three weeks along with Production Release Notes. Pertinent features and upgrades are listed below. You may view the full Canvas Production Release Notes for May 13, 2017 and its accompanying screencast. The next release will be on June 3.
New Feature
Color Overlay (Dashboard) – The Dashboard Settings drop-down menu allows users to switch between two views: Recent Activity and Course Cards. When Course Cards is selected, users also have the option to remove the color overlay from any course cards that include an image. Like all Dashboard options, this feature allows users to view course cards in the Dashboard according to their personal preference. Dashboard features cannot be enabled for an entire institution.
The Course Cards view displays the color overlay option by default. When a user choose to remove the color overlay option, the transparent course color is removed from any course card that contains an image. However, the color of the course card displays as a circle behind the card’s More Options icon. This option only applies to color over course images; it does not apply to the general color of a course card. Adding an image to a course card is a course-level feature option. When available, course images can be added by an instructor in Course Settings.
Please see the Production Release Notes for images that depict the changes.
Updated Features
Front Page Individual Setting (Pages) – In an individual page, the page settings menu supports the “Use as Front Page” option. This update allows a front page to be set from any individual page. A page can still be set as the front page by opening the Pages Index Page and selecting the page’s settings menu.
Section End Date and Past Enrollments (Sections) – In the Courses list, the Past Enrollment section displays courses with section end dates. This change aligns functionality with the end date in Course Settings, which was updated in the April 1 release. Previously, sections with override dates were only considered to be concluded if the end date accompanied the Users can only participate in the course between these dates (or Users participation) checkbox.
The Users participation checkbox restricts users from participating in the course, such as replying to discussions, submitting assignments, etc. If an instructor is using course or section dates to override term dates and prefers the course be placed in a read-only state after the course or section has ended, the Users participation checkbox should be selected. Otherwise, students can still participate in the course after the course end date.
Additionally, the Users participation checkbox affects courses that have been marked as a favorite and display in the Dashboard. If a course or section includes an override date and the User participation checkbox is selected, users cannot participate in the course after the end date, and the course will be removed from the Dashboard. However, if the User participation checkbox is not selected, the course will still display in the Dashboard as a favorite course after the end date since the course still allows participation.
Fixed Bugs
Please review the full Production Release Notes for Accessibility improvements and bug fixes.