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 (April 21), graders can add excess points to outcome criteria in SpeedGrader. In Conferences, individual recordings can be individually deleted. The Rich Content Editor expands auto-open inline files to display the full file preview and includes a word counter within each editor window. And the Announcements page includes an updated icon for the Reply icon. This announcement lists pertinent updates that affect instructors and students and omits features that are not applicable for Rutgers Canvas. You may view the full Canvas Production Release Notes for April 21, 2018, and its accompanying screencast. The next release will be on May 12.
Upcoming Canvas Changes
IE11 Functional Support: On March 31, Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) will transition from a fully supported browser to a functionally supported browser. As future Canvas releases take place, Internet Explorer may begin to exhibit slight visual differences from other browsers, but these differences will not restrict product functionality or accessibility.
New Features
Conferences
Individual Recording Deletion
Conference recordings can be individually deleted. Previously, only the entire conference could be deleted, which would also remove all conference recordings. This change helps instructors who manage long-running conferences and create multiple recordings.
Additionally, concluded conferences display the date and time the conference was concluded.
Please see the Canvas Production Release Notes: Individual Recording Deletion for images.
Rich Content Editor
Inline Preview Document Height
When an auto-open inline preview file link is displayed in a Rich Content Editor browser window, the preview expands to a default height of 800px and displays the full file preview. Previously the preview only expanded to a default height of 400px.
Word Counter
The Rich Content Editor displays a word counter within the editor browser window. This change can help users know how many words they have typed in a discussion, page, assignment text entry, or other content location where the Rich Content Editor is supported.
The word counter calculates the number of words entered into the editor. A word is considered to be a single string of characters typed together without using the spacebar.
The word counter only displays for the user creating content in the Rich Content Editor. After the content is saved, the word counter is no longer visible unless the content is edited. Additionally, the total word count is not visible to any other user.
Note: The Rich Content Editor does not have a word count limit. However, word count is not the same as a total character count, which does affect the Rich Content Editor and can vary based on HTML content and the use of special characters.
Please see the Canvas Production Release Notes: Word Counter for images.
SpeedGrader
Outcomes Extra Credit
This feature requires the Allow Outcome Extra Credit feature option, which can be enabled for a course in course settings.
When an instructor grades a submission in SpeedGrader and uses a rubric for grading that includes outcomes, outcomes support excess points above the maximum point value. This change allows instructors to provide extra credit and award more points than allowed by the outcome.
Turning off this feature option does not affect excess outcome point values that have already been assessed in a rubric in SpeedGrader. When the feature option is not enabled, each outcome only supports the maximum criterion value. Any entries higher than the maximum value are not retained when the rubric is saved.
Note: Excess points for a rubric criterion can be awarded at any time and are not managed by the Allow Extra Credit Outcomes feature option.
Other Updates
Announcements
Reply Icon Update
In Announcements, the Reply icon has been updated to a Lock or Unlock icon, which displays according to the state of the announcement. Please see the Canvas Production Release Notes: Reply Icon Update for images.
Fixed Bugs
Please view the Canvas Production Release Notes for April 21, 2018 Fixed Bugs descriptions and its accompanying screencast for more information concerning accessibility improvements and other bug fixes.