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 June 3, 2017 and its accompanying screencast. The next release will be on June 24.
Updated Features
Course Home Page Recent Announcements Display (Courses) – In Course Settings, the show recent announcements option displays for any Course Home Page. Previously recent announcements only displayed when the Course Home Page was set to the Front Page.
Content Export Expiration (Settings) – After an initial content export, the export expires after 30 days and can no longer be downloaded. A new content export can be created at any time. Content exports are located in the content exports page in Course Settings, and the download assignment submissions page in User Settings.
Remote Version of Rich Content Editor and Sidebar Global Availability (Rich Content Editor) – The Rich Content Editor sidebar enhancements that exist in Pages and the Syllabus are available in all feature areas of Canvas, including Quizzes. The sidebar enhancements include a visual style update and pagination support. Currently the sidebar enhancements only display in Pages and the Syllabus.
Embedded Content Preview (Rich Content Editor) – When content is embedded through the HTML editor, switching back to the Rich Content Editor displays a preview of the iFrame content. Previously embedded content always displayed as a gray box and content could only be viewed once the page was saved. This change does not apply to media added through the Link to URL icon in the Rich Content Editor Menu.
Full Screen YouTube Link (Rich Content Editor) – In Pages, YouTube URLs linked in the Rich Content Editor support full-screen viewing. When users click the video thumbnail image, Canvas expands the video window to 425×344 pixels. To display the video in full screen, users can select the Full Screen option in the YouTube menu. This change allows users to view YouTube videos without having to open the video directly in YouTube.
Table Context Menu (Rich Content Editor) – When a table is added and selected in the Rich Content Editor, the table displays a context menu. This change allows for quicker table navigation and design access. Please see Canvas Production Release Notes for June 3, 2017 for a screen image.
Media Play Icon (Rich Content Editor) – When a user creates or uploads audio or video files using the Record/Upload Media icon, the Play button for the media file displays against the background with higher contrast. This change also improves accessibility for visually impaired users. This change does not apply to media added through the Link to URL icon in the Rich Content Editor Menu.
Bug Fixes
Bug fixes are not often highlighted in this digest of the Production Release Notes. Recent bug fixes of note are listed below.
Group Assignment Differentiated Due Dates (Previously created assignments can be changed to a differentiated group assignment) – Explanation: When a previously created assignment was changed to a group assignment, and differentiated group due dates were added to the assignment, the assignment could not be saved. Canvas code has been updated to allow an assignment changed to a group assignment to support differentiated due dates.
Scheduler Appointment Group Details Page – The Scheduler Group Details page always includes a row to add a new time slot. Explanation: When an appointment group was published and later edited from the Calendar, the Group Details page only included one empty row to create a new time slot. After the time slot was created, the page did not create any additional rows for additional time slots. This behavior affected appointment groups in the new Scheduler. Canvas code has been updated to always include a blank row to include a new time slot.
Announcements and Discussion Copies (Course Import) – This change was deployed to the production environment on May 16. Announcements and discussions from concluded courses are retained in course copies. Explanation: When a concluded course was copied to a new course, discussions and announcements were not included in the course copy and the import did not display any errors. Canvas code has been updated to retain previous discussions and announcements in course copies.
Blackboard lesson exports are imported into Canvas as a module page (Blackboard Lesson Exports) – Explanation: When a Blackboard export included lesson plans, only the title of the lesson plan was included in a module. Canvas code has been updated to import Blackboard lesson plans as a modules page.
Please view the full Canvas Production Release Notes for June 3, 2017 and its accompanying screencast for more information concerning accessibility improvements and other bug fixes.