Rutgers.eduIn an effort to continually improve Canvas, Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, releases Canvas upgrades every third Saturday of the month along with Release Notes. Pertinent features and upgrades are listed below. In this Canvas release (November 16), in the Course Card Dashboard, courses can be removed as favorites from the course card Options menu.
Feature Options
- The Microsoft Immersive Reader feature option adds accessibility and comprehension to Canvas pages for learners of all ages and abilities.
External Tools (LTI)
- For courses using the New Quizzes LTI, instructors can manually submit student in-process quiz attempts.
Previously, Rutgers Canvas notified users of upcoming changes that will result in enforced Feature Options including the New Gradebook and Mastery Paths. The enforcement will take place on January 18, 2020.
Monthly Release Notes also include API updates. 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 Production Release Notes (November 16), and its accompanying screencast. The next release will be on December 23, 2019.
Updated Features
Dashboard
Course Card Unfavorite Option
In the Course Card Dashboard, courses can be removed as favorites from the course card Options menu. This change allows users to quickly remove a course as a favorite without having to access the Courses page.
In the Course Card Dashboard, users can open the Options menu for a course card, click the Move tab, and select the Unfavorite option. Unfavoriting a course requires a confirmation before the course is removed from the Dashboard. Courses can be re-added as a favorite in the Courses page, which can be accessed from the Courses link in the Global Navigation Menu. Please see Production Release Notes: Course Card Unfavorite Option for image.
New Quizzes
In-Process Quiz Manual Submission
Instructors can manually submit student in-process quiz attempts. This change allows instructors to submit outstanding quiz submissions on behalf of their students, specifically for situations where a quiz will never auto-submit because it is missing a timer and/or due date.
If a student forgets to submit a quiz submission, or a quiz submission is otherwise displayed as in progress when a quiz needs to be graded, an instructor can open the Moderate page and view the number of attempts in progress. The attempts link can be viewed to display the name(s) of student(s) with in-progress submissions.
By default, all student names are selected. The instructor can manually submit attempts for all selected students, or the instructor can individually deselect attempts that should not be submitted. Please see Production Release Notes: In-Process Quiz Manual Submission for images.
Pages
The Microsoft Immersive Reader is being offered in Canvas as a trial feature that can be enabled by a Canvas admin as a feature option in Account Settings. To learn more about this feature, see the Microsoft Immersive Reader website. This feature creates a reading experience that adds accessibility and comprehension for learners of all ages and abilities.
Every Canvas page within a course displays an Immersive Reader button. Users can click the button to view the page using the immersive reader, which offers advanced learning features. Please see Production Release Notes: Microsoft Immersive Reader for images
Canvas Deploy Notes (2019-11-06 & 2019-11-20)
Canvas deploys contain code changes that are intended to fix bugs, improve performance, and prepare for new features, but they do not affect user workflows. These deploys take place every two weeks. Intended changes in workflow are noted in the Canvas Release Notes published monthly.
Deploy notes include notable fixed bugs and additional updates that do not affect user functionality. View the full Deploy Notes (2019-11-06) and Deploy Notes (2019-11-20).