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 (February 15), Gradebook import CSV files ignore reserved name columns as well as hidden and deleted custom columns. Additionally, Canvas provides a more responsive experience for content scrolling according to web accessibility initiative guidelines. Institutions that rely on custom JS/CSS should confirm their code with these recent changes.
External Tools (LTI)
- For institutions using Commons, favorited Commons items can be imported from Quizzes, Pages, Discussion, Assignments, and Modules.
- For institutions using New Quizzes, the New Quizzes button has been moved from the Assignments page to the Quizzes page. Additionally, the quiz creation process supports both New Quizzes and Classic (old) Quizzes.
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 (February 15), and its accompanying screencast. The next release will be on March 21, 2020.
As previously announced, Instructure will enforce the New Course Analytics for all courses on March 21, 2020. This enforcement will occur during the middle of the Spring 2020 semester. Instructors can expect user-interface changes and feature enhancements as described in the Canvas Release: Analytics Beta (Course Grade). Instructors may enable the New Course Analytics anytime through the feature options in course settings.
Updated Features
Commons
Favorites Import
Favorited Commons items can be imported from Quizzes, Pages, Discussion, Assignments, and Modules. This change allows users to import all favorited content from Commons into one of the five supported Canvas areas.
After favoriting Commons content, instructors can open Quizzes, Pages, Discussions, Assignments, or Modules in their course and import favorited items into the content area. Previously content could only be imported to a course directly from Commons. Embedded content can be any type, not just embedded file types.
When a user views a Canvas area and imports favorited content, the type of content supported by the area displays in the sidebar. For instance, selecting the Commons Favorites option from the Assignments page displays all favorited assignments.
After the content item is selected and the sidebar is closed, the item displays in the content area.
Favorited content can also be accessed from Commons via the Rich Content Editor’s LTI tools menu. However, while other content areas support any kind of file, the Rich Content Editor only imports embedded files. Please see Canvas Release Notes: Favorites Import for images.
Gradebook
Gradebook Import Reserved Names
Gradebook import CSV files ignore reserved name columns as well as hidden and deleted custom columns. For new custom columns, custom columns cannot have the same name as a reserved column. This change confirms data is uploaded correctly as part of the import and prevents grade conflicts from hidden or deleted columns.
When the Gradebook CSV file is imported to a course Gradebook, the image behavior ignores existing columns with reserved column names and non-active custom columns. A reserved column name is a column that is already being used by the Gradebook to manage user data. Reserved column names include the following: Student, ID, SIS User ID, SIS Login ID, Section, Integration ID, and Root Account.
A non-active custom column is a custom column that has been hidden in the Gradebook via the API or has been deleted from the Gradebook. For new custom columns, the Gradebook does not allow columns to have the same name as a reserved column name.
New Quizzes
Quizzes Page New Quizzes Button
The New Quizzes button has been moved from the Assignments page to the Quizzes page. Additionally, the quiz creation process supports both New Quizzes and Classic (old) Quizzes. This change helps instructors logically identify new and old quizzes and be able to create each type from the same location. In an upcoming release, users can choose to make a selected quiz type persistent.
Instructors using New Quizzes can view the Quizzes page to create a new quiz instead of the Assignments page. When an instructor selects the Add Quiz button, the page displays a window asking which quiz type should be used to create a quiz: Classic Quizzes or New Quizzes.
Once a quiz engine is selected, the page displays the quiz creation page for the selected tool. In both the Assignments page and the Quizzes page, quizzes created with New Quizzes or migrated to New Quizzes display a solid Quiz icon. Quizzes created with Old Quizzes display an outlined Quiz icon.
Students can also view New Quizzes in the Quizzes page, complete with the new and old icons to differentiate quiz versions.
Please see Canvas Release Notes: Quizzes Page New Quizzes Button for images.
Canvas Deploy Notes (20202-01-29) and (20202-02-12
Canvas deploys contain code changes that are intended to fix bugs, improve performance, and prepare for new features, but they do not affect customer workflows. These deploys take place every two weeks and 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 existing user functionality. View full Deploy Notes (2020-01-29) and Deploy Notes (2020-02-12).