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, assignment menus in the Gradebook include a link to SpeedGrader.
Feature Options
- The Mute Notifications by Course feature option displays a notifications button in the Course Home Page and allows users to mute all notifications for the course.
- The Limited Submission Attempts feature option limits the number of submissions that can be made for a Canvas assignment.
- The Confetti for On-Time Submissions feature option generates a virtual celebration when students submit assignments on time.
- The Rubrics in Course Navigation feature option moves the Manage Rubrics button from the Outcomes page to the Course Navigation Menu.
External Tools (LTI)
- For courses using New Quizzes, Multiple Answer questions allow instructors to award students partial credit with penalty if a student selects an incorrect response. This grading option will be the default for new Multiple Answer questions with an option to use Exact Match instead.
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 Release Notes (April 18), and its accompanying screencast. The next release will be on May 16, 2020.
New Features
Notifications
Mute Notifications by Course
Users can mute all notifications for a course where the user is enrolled.This change allows users to mute all notifications for a specific course.
When course notifications are enabled, the Course Home Page displays a View Course Notifications button. The icon in the button displays the status of the notifications: enabled or disabled.
Course notifications are enabled by default. In the Course Notification Settings page, users can choose to disable notifications for the course.
Note: When course notifications are enabled, notification preferences must be configured in the Notification Preferences page. Granular course notification settings can be configured in a future release. Please see Canvas Release: Mute Notifications by Course for images.
Updated Features
Assignments
On-Time Submission Celebrations
Canvas generates a virtual celebration when students submit assignments on time. This change helps students engage with Canvas and encourages students to submit assignments on time.
Celebrations take place in Canvas for on-time submissions, which include both an initial submission and any resubmissions for any file type before an assignment due date.
If students prefer to not have Canvas display any celebrations, they can choose to hide all celebration animations in their User Settings page.
Note: This feature option is included for all users. Students only need to adjust this feature option if students want to opt-out of the animations.
Please see Canvas Release: On-Time Submission Celebrations for images.
Limited Submission Attempts
Submission attempts can be limited in Canvas assignments. This feature allows instructors to limit submission attempts for students.
By default, assignments can be submitted an unlimited number of times. However, instructors can choose to limit the number of attempts a student can make for an assignment by using the Attempts menu.
When an assignment is limited in attempts, they’ll see the number of attempts they’ve made as well as the number of allowed attempts. Please see Canvas Release: Limited Submission Attempts for images.
Gradebook
Assignment Header Menu SpeedGrader Link
Assignment menus in the Gradebook include a link to SpeedGrader. This change helps graders access SpeedGrader more easily. This change does not affect the Grade Detail Tray, which also includes a link to SpeedGrader.
Each assignment menu in the Gradebook includes a link to SpeedGrader. When selected, SpeedGrader opens to the first student according to the filter set in the Gradebook. Please see Canvas Release: Assignment Header Menu SpeedGrader Link for image.
New Quizzes
Multiple Answer Partial Scoring
Multiple Answer questions allow instructors to award students partial credit with penalty if a student selects an incorrect response. This grading option will be the default for new Multiple Answer questions with an option to use Exact Match instead. This change allows instructors to award partial credit when Multiple Answer questions are auto-graded. This change also provides parity with Classic Quizzes behavior, contributing to a smoother migration to New Quizzes.
In addition to the Exact Match grading option for Multiple Answer questions, instructors can choose to award partial credit with a penalty. When this option is retained, students are awarded points for every correct answer selected and deducted points for every incorrect answer selected.
Clarification about each grading type is located in the Grading Help menu. Documentation about how to create a multiple answer question is also included in the Learn More reference link.
Existing New Quizzes Multiple Answer questions will retain the exact match scoring.
Newly created Multiple Answer questions will default to using partial credit but can be switched to exact match if desired.
Students are not directly shown the grading option used. However, along with their total score, they can view their selected answer(s) and any missed options in the question.
Please see Canvas Release: Multiple Answer Partial Scoring for images.
Rubrics
Course Navigation Rubrics Link
The Manage Rubrics button has been removed from the course-level Outcomes page and added to the Course Navigation Menu. This change allows course rubrics to be accessed more quickly. Additionally, the workflow is more intuitive as outcomes are not required within a rubric.
At the account level, the Rubrics button already exists in the Account Navigation Menu, but the Manage Rubrics button has also been removed from the Outcomes page.
Rubrics can be accessed through Rubrics in the Course Navigation Menu;
Instructors who open the Outcomes page no longer view the Manage Rubrics button.
Note: Rubrics can still be viewed in concluded courses but only in a read-only state.
Please see Canvas Release: Course Navigation Rubrics Link for images.
Canvas Deploys
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 for:
Ready Releases
Beginning 2020-03-28, Canvas teams began modifying the release process to include additional updates on a weekly basis. Features included in these additional releases are designed to provide immediate solutions to institutions and are all opt-in via feature options. Please see the Ready Release Features page for additional details.
Ready Releases are a temporary process until further notice and will be in addition to regular monthly Canvas releases. Additionally, during this unprecedented time, features introduced as part of a regular release date will be opt-in feature options until July 2020 if supported—some Canvas features do not support feature option functionality. On 18 July 2020, all previously introduced features will become default for all institutions, unless otherwise indicated.
View full Ready Release Notes for: