Canvas Release Notes (2020-10-17)

In 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 (October 17), New Analytics provides downloadable CSV files for missing assignments, late assignments, excused assignments, the class roster, and course activity data.

This announcement lists pertinent updates that affect instructors and students and omits features that are not applicable for Rutgers Canvas. The next release will be on November 21, 2020.

View Full Release Notes on Instructure Website (10/17/2020)

New Features

Global Navigation

Recent History

The Global Navigation Menu includes a Recent History link. This History link displays the most recent pages viewed in Canvas up to the last three weeks. Page content is displayed by title. This change helps users remember what page they last viewed in one or multiple courses.

Admins

Page history is identical to the information found in a user’s page views or the user access report. Acting as a student displays recent history for the student, not the page views created by the admin.

Instructors

Any pages that are removed from a course will remain in the history, but the link will no longer be valid. Course content should be completed and verified before the course is published for students. Page history is not supported in the beta or test environments. Accessing the Recent History link in either environment displays an individual link notifying users that Recent History is unavailable. The link directs to the Canvas Guides article about using the Beta or Test environments, respectively.

For full details about the Recent History feature, please see the Canvas Update: Recent History.

Notifications

Notification Preferences Interface Updates

These changes align the user interface for consistency, remind users about notification overrides at either the course or user levels, and improve navigation.

All Users

The user-level Notifications page has been updated to match the design of the course-level Notifications page. This page includes a banner reminding users that account-level notifications apply to all courses. The name of the Account Notifications page is also included in the breadcrumb trail for easier navigation. Additionally, for the Grades notification, the Send Scores in Emails option has also been added as a course-level notification preference.

Notifications for individual courses can be changed within each course and override user account notifications. The Course Notifications page also includes a banner notifying users about these overrides.

Click here for instructions on how to manage your Canvas notification preferences. See information about setting single course notifications. For full details about the notification preference interface updates, please see the Canvas Update: Notification Preferences Interface Updates.

Courses

MathJax Equation Improvements

The MathJax JS library has been improved to render equations in a more accessible format and promote ease of use. Math equations created anywhere in Canvas will be rendered as MathML. For both new and existing content throughout Canvas, equation rendering has been replaced by MathJax. Additionally, MathJax offers a context-menu providing functions for interacting with the equation.

For full details about the MathJax Equation Improvements, please see the Canvas Update: MathJax Equation Improvements.

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 last five full Deploy Notes: