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 (June 20), Canvas Permission status options have been simplified to enable, disable, and lock to support grouped permissions. Additionally, the Pages – Add / Edit / Delete permission has been grouped into three separate permissions.
Feature Options
- For instructors using the Assignment Bulk Editing feature option, the page supports enhancements to select multiple assignments, batch edit dates, and improve date validation.
- For users using the Mute Notifications by Course feature option, the Course Notification Settings page supports granular notifications for the course.
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 (June 20), and its accompanying screencast. The next release will be on July 18, 2020.
Updated Features
Assignments
Bulk Editing Enhancements
Bulk Selection
The Edit Assignment Dates page supports enhancements to select multiple assignments, batch edit dates, and improve date validation. These changes provide faster management of assignment dates in a course. The Edit Assignment Dates page includes additional enhancements to help instructors manage assignment dates more quickly.
Each heading and assignment row includes a checkbox that can be used to select assignments. The checkbox in the heading can be used to select all assignments. The top of the page displays the number of selected assignments. If an assignment includes overrides (differentiated assignments), only the main assignment includes a checkbox.
Note: Checkboxes are grayed out for assignments that cannot be edited, such as if the assignment falls in a closed grading period.
Assignments can also be selected by choosing a specific date range.
Batch Edit Dates
Assignments can be managed in bulk by selecting the assignments and then selecting the Batch Edit Dates button. The batch edit feature allows multiple assignments to shift all dates by a specific number of days (including differentiated assignment overrides, if any). Assignment due dates can also be removed for the selected assignments.
The OK button applies the desired changes for the selected assignments, but changes are not applied to the course until the Edit Assignment Dates page is saved.
Assignment Changes
Any assignment that includes a date change includes a Remove icon. Icons display for both assignments manually updated or updated via batch edit. Changes can be reverted by clicking the Remove icon next to the applicable row.
Validation Errors
If the date validator discovers individual errors, the error is displayed immediately near the due or availability date with the error. Previously errors were displayed only after page updates were processed.
Please see Release Notes: Bulk Editing Enhancements for images.
Courses
Course-Level Notification Preferences
The Course Notification Settings page supports granular notifications for the course. This change allows users to specify notification preferences within an individual course.
The Notification Preferences page for a user’s account specifies the user’s notification preferences and communication channels for all courses, and preferences are automatically passed down to each course in the Course Notification Settings page.
If a supported notification preference is changed for a user’s account in the Notification Preferences page, that preference will also be reflected within each course as long as none of the notifications are manually changed.
The Course Notification Settings page only displays the following notification types:
- Course Activities
- Discussions
- Scheduling
- Conferences
Once a notification preference is changed at the course level, the course creates a notification override, meaning it is no longer associated with the preference set in the Notification preferences page. Any additional changes for that notification type must continue to be managed within the course. Notification preferences available within the course are identified by icon: notify immediately, daily summary, weekly summary, and notification turned off.
If SMS notifications are enabled for a user, the page also displays notification types that are not supported.
Please see Release Notes: Course-Level Notification Preference for images.
Permissions
Permissions Status Options Updates
Canvas Permission status options have been simplified to enable, disable, and lock. This change simplifies permissions options and supports future granular permission functionality.
All permission options in the Permissions page have been changed from four to three.
For each permission, the permissions option list formerly included four options: enable, enable and lock, disable, and disable and lock. The options have been simplified to enable, disable, and lock. The Lock option is independent and can be used with either status. When the Lock option is selected, a lock icon displays next to the status.
For grouped permissions that are partially enabled, neither the Enable nor the Disable option will be shown as selected. However, if a permission group for a user role is later changed to be fully enabled or disabled, the relevant option will also update with a checkmark.
Please see Release Notes: Permissions Status Options Updates for images.
Granular Pages Permission
The Pages – Add / Edit / Delete permission has been separated into three separate permissions. This change provides granularity among the three options to manage pages. This update does not affect the Pages API.
The three Pages permissions are grouped at the bottom of the permissions list in the Manage Pages permission.
As with other permissions, the row displays icons that represent the permission status for the user role. All three permissions within the group can be managed together by clicking the main icon for the user role.
To manage individual permissions within the group, the group can be expanded. Each granular permission that is enabled includes a check mark. Individual permissions for the group can be managed by selecting or deselecting the relevant permission. When the permission includes a mix of enabled and disabled permissions, the main permission status indicates the permission is partially enabled, using a half-filled green circle as the icon.
Please see Release Notes: Granular Pages Permission for images.
Platform/Integration
Browsers
TLS Protocol Changes
TLS Protocols 1.0 and 1.1 are not supported in Canvas. This change ensures all customers are using the highest encryption protocols to protect user interactions with Canvas. TLS 1.0 and 1.1 protocols support usage of ciphers that do not sufficiently secure web traffic by modern standards and can easily be decrypted.
Users who rely on browsers to interact with Canvas should test their applications using the beta environment to ensure correct functionality, as support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 are no longer available. Users who rely on TLS protocols should ensure they are using the latest version of each supported Canvas browser. Users may be affected if applications are parsing page content or using a script against Canvas APIs. Background regarding these changes can be found in Deprecating TLS 1.0 & 1.1.
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.