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 (April 17):
- Course Availability Date Enhancements from March 2021 now enforced
- For institutions using New Quizzes, the New Quizzes Multiple Attempts menu includes an option to retain the first score for grading when multiple submission attempts are allowed.
This announcement lists pertinent updates that affect instructors and students and omits features that are not applicable for Rutgers Canvas.
View Full Release Notes on Instructure Website (4/17/2021)
Updated Features
Course Settings
Course Availability Date Enhancements Enforcement
The Participation menu includes an option to select course dates by term or course. This change offers clarification for how student participation is managed for a course.
Instructors
When an instructor views the Participation section in the Course Settings page, the Participation section displays a menu that defaults to Term dates for new courses. This option sets student course participation to the start and end dates defined for the term.
If preferred, instructors can change course participation to the Course option, where course participation is limited to the course start and end dates, which can be added in the course. Course dates override term dates; however, section dates that exist in the course override course dates.
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New Quizzes
Multiple Attempts First Score Option
The Multiple Attempts menu includes an option to retain the first score for grading when multiple submission attempts are allowed. This change allows instructors to allow students to retake a quiz but retain the first attempt score for grading.
Instructors
When instructors create a quiz using the New Quizzes engine, the Score to Keep menu includes a First option. Selecting this option retains the first score for a quiz, even if the quiz is retaken at a later time.
Students
When students view a quiz and are allowed to take multiple attempts, the quiz details show which attempt will be kept as part of their attempt history. This change helps students prepare for a quiz and know that the first attempt will be the score retained for their grade. However, students can still retake the quiz for a per-determined higher percentage or score (such as for a module prerequisite) or for later practice.
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: