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. In this production release, assignment group settings include an option to move all assignments to another assignment group, and instructors can view a label for inactive enrollments in groups. For instructors using the New Gradebook, the Grade Detail Tray indicates concluded student enrollments when concluded enrollments are visible. Small design updates have been made in the Canvas interface for the Dashboard and the Rich Content Editor, and Italian is a supported language in Canvas. Production release notes also include fixed bugs. You may view the full Canvas Production Release Notes for December 9, 2017, and its accompanying screencast. The next release will be on January 6.
Flash Content Reminder: Canvas displays Flash content as supported within major browsers. Microsoft Edge, Safari, Chrome, and Firefox default to HTML5 as the preferred method for displaying website content, which promotes a faster, more secure browsing experience. These browsers will eventually block all Flash content. For best performance in Canvas, course content should be designed to support HTML5. Recorded media content within the Canvas Rich Content Editor currently still relies on Flash and is being addressed by Canvas engineers. Any recorded content can still be accessed by manually allowing permission for flash content in the browser.
Updated Features
Assignments
Assignment Group Contents Move Menu
The Assignment Group Settings menu includes a Move Content option, which moves all assignment content items in an assignment group to another group. This functionality is designed for consistency with other Move-To menus in Canvas. Note: Move-To option for assignment groups has been renamed to the Move Group option. This change helps clarify functionality between moving an assignment and moving an assignment group.
When a user selects the Move Content option, the sidebar menu asks the user to select the new assignment group, then select the placement of all assignment group contents. If the Before or After option is selected, the user can select the placement of the assignments collectively within the assignment group. Any individual assignments that need to be moved within the new assignment group can be moved using drag and drop or using the Move-To option in the assignment’s Settings menu. Please view the full Canvas Production Release Notes for December 9, 2017: Assignment Group Contents Move Menu for images.
Groups
Student Inactive Status
Instructors can view the inactive label for students within a group. This change helps instructors identify inactive students in a group and move group memberships, if necessary. In the student Groups page, students can view the names of other students in their same group, even if a student is inactive. However, the inactive status is not identified to students. This change resolves a fixed bug in Canvas: When a student tried to join a self-signup group with a group limit, and the group included an inactive student, the group displayed one fewer member than was actually in the group. If the group was full, the group did not display a lock icon to students indicating the group was full, and attempting to join the group did not retain membership after the page was refreshed. Canvas code has been updated to display all usernames in the student signup group and display the full group count to students. For users with instructor roles, the inactive label displays for inactive students.
Please view the full Canvas Production Release Notes for December 9, 2017: Groups Student Inactive Status for images.
New Gradebook
Grade Detail Tray Concluded Enrollment Notice
This update applies to institutions using the New Gradebook. Canvas admins can enable this feature option in Account Settings and enable the New Gradebook on a course-by-course basis. For questions about the New Gradebook, please reference New Gradebook Users Group. When the New Gradebook displays concluded enrollments, all grades for those enrollments are read-only. The Grade Detail Tray cannot be opened for a concluded student. However, if the Grade Detail Tray is open for an assignment and an instructor switches to the concluded student, the Grade Detail Tray displays a message that the student’s enrollment has been concluded.
Other Updates
Canvas Interface
Design Updates
Small design changes have been made to the following Canvas feature areas:
- Dashboard: In the To Do List, divider lines are only placed below each section heading and not between each individual item.
- Rich Content Editor: The Rich Content Editor menu includes an updated Accessibility Checker icon.
Languages
Italian
Italian (Italiano) has been added as an available language in Canvas.
Fixed Bug
Please view the full Canvas Production Release Notes for December 9, 2017 Fixed Bugs Descriptions and its accompanying screencast for more information concerning accessibility improvements and other bug fixes. Below are some fixes that may have affected instructors:
Accessibility
There have been a number of accessibility improvements to increase screenreader functionality. Please view the full Canvas Production Release Notes for December 9, 2017: Accessibility for details.
Assignments
Group Assignment Submissions and Previously Uploaded Files
File Upload submissions previously uploaded to Canvas are associated for all group members. Explanation: When a student uploaded a file to Canvas and submitted that file as a group assignment file upload, the submission was only associated with the student who submitted the file and not the entire group. Canvas code has been updated to associate previously uploaded files for all members of a group assignment.
Peer Review Automatic Assignment Dates
Automatically assigned peer reviews distribute peer reviews on the assign date. Explanation: When an instructor tried to automatically assign peer reviews, the automatic process randomly failed when the assign date was within the next hour. Canvas code has been updated to confirm the assign date for peer reviews and assign them accordingly.
Calendar
Scheduler Appointment Groups
Calendar Scheduler appointment groups can be viewed by all students. Explanation: When an instructor created a Scheduler appointment group assigned to an entire course, and the same group was also assigned to individual sections in another course, the individual sections overrode the entire course option and did not allow some students to view the appointment group. Canvas code has been updated to display Scheduler appointment groups to all students.
Scheduler Future Appointment Availability
The next available appointment notification matches the date of the next available appointment group. Explanation: When a student viewed the Scheduler, future availability for appointment groups sometimes displayed a date in the past. Canvas code has been updated to confirm the date of the next appointment group and display the date appropriately.
Conversations Reply Limit
This change was deployed to the production environment on December 1. Canvas supports up to 100 users in conversation replies or conversations forwarded to other users. Explanation: When a user replied to a conversation and added a significant number of additional users, or if the user forwarded a conversation to a significant number of users, Canvas was unable to effectively process the conversation for all users in the group. Canvas code has been updated to only allow 100 users in replies or forwarded conversations. This behavior supports consistency in existing behavior where new conversations with more than 100 users are sent as individual messages to each user.