2017 Release Notes

Canvas Tutorials 2017 Release Notes

December 10, 2017 Links to an external site.

  • Assignments, Assignment Group Contents Move Menu- The Assignment Group Settings menu includes a Move Content option, which moves all assignment content items in an assignment group to another group. This functionality is designed for consistency with other Move-To menus in Canvas.
  • Groups. Student Inactive Status- Instructors can view the inactive label for students within a group. This change helps instructors identify inactive students in a group and move group memberships, if necessary.

November 18, 2017 Links to an external site.

  • Course Settings, Navigation Move-To Menu Sidebar - The Move-To Menu within the Course Settings Navigation page has been changed to a sidebar and displays a nested structure of move options. This change helps improve consistency with other Move-To Menus in Canvas.
  • Gradebook, New Gradebook- See the new gradebook page for all details. 
  • Modules, Module Items Duplication- Assignments, graded discussions, and pages can be duplicated within a module. The duplication option is located in the Settings menu for every supported module item. When a module item is copied, the word Copy is added to the end of the item name.
  • Modules, Move-To Menu Sidebar- The Move-To Menu within the Modules page has been changed to a sidebar and displays a nested structure of move options. This change helps improve consistency with other Move-To Menus in Canvas.
  • Modules, MasteryPaths Refresh Page Message- When a course has enabled MasteryPaths and an assignment is processing, the Next button in the modules progression bar displays to refresh the page. This change helps notify students about progressing to the next module item.
  • Pages, Front Page Removal Option- Users can remove a page as the Front Page in a course. This feature allows instructors to remove the Front Page designation and allow the Pages Course Navigation link to direct to the Pages Index Page.Note:If a Course Home Page is set to the Front Page, removing the Front Page will automatically change the Course Home Page to Modules.
  • People, Move-To Menu Sidebar- The Move-To Menu for users within a group has been changed to a sidebar and displays a nested structure of move options. This change helps improve consistency with other Move-To Menus in Canvas.
  • Rubrics, Criterion Duplication- Criterions can be duplicated within a rubric. This feature allows instructors and course designers to easily copy and modify existing criterions.
  • Mobile App Update- The Teacher app for Android has been updated. Please read Canvas Teacher Release Notes (Android 1.2) Links to an external site.

October 28, 2017 Links to an external site.

  • Rich Content Editor, Accessibility CheckerThe Rich Content Editor Accessibility Checker assists instructors and course designers to maintain accessibility requirements in Canvas content. The Accessibility Checker is located in the Rich Content Editor menu bar. Depending on the size of the browser window, users may have to scroll the menu bar horizontally to view the Accessibility Checker icon.
  • Assignments, Move-To Menu Sidebar- The Move-To Menu within the Assignments page has been changed to a sidebar and displays a nested structure of move options. This change helps improve consistency with other Move-To Menus in Canvas.
  • Discussion Duplication- Discussions can be duplicated in the Discussions page or the Assignments page. The duplication option is located in the Settings menu for every available discussion. When a discussion is copied, the word Copy is added to the end of the discussion name.
  • Discussion, Move-To Menu Sidebar- Within Pinned discussions, the Move-To Menu has been changed to a sidebar and displays a nested structure of move options. This change helps improve consistency with other Move-To Menus in Canvas and applies to both course and group discussions.
  • DocViewer, Comment Expand and Collapse Link- When an annotated comment includes multiple content lines, the content box displays an ellipses notifying the user of additional content. This change helps minimize comments in a document and improve the number of comments that can be displayed within a page.
  • Gradebook, Gradebook History Filters- The Gradebook History page has been redesigned for improved performance and includes display filters for a specific student, grader, assignment, and start and end date. Previously the Gradebook History page only displayed the name of the assignment with a grade change. Additionally, this feature is redesigned based on existing data in Canvas, so displayed content is still retroactive.
  • Grades, Student Grades Table Design- To improve typography and design consistency across Canvas, the student Grades page includes updated CSS for the table display. Table content always displays with a white background except for assignments affected by a grade rule set in the Assignments page. Previously all graded assignments also displayed a gray background.
  • Rubrics, Criterion Icon Visibility- In the Create Rubric or Edit Rubric view, criterions visibly display all add, edit, and delete icons. Additionally, the Delete criterion column has been removed from the rubric table; the delete icon for each criterion is located above the criterion description.
  • Ratings Rubric Descriptions- When a user splits a rating, the rubric displays an Edit Rating window that includes the rating score, rating title, and rating description. Rating descriptions are not required, though any content in the description also displays as part of the rating in the rubric. Rating titles and descriptions are never truncated, though content should generally be short and concise.

October 7, 2017 Links to an external site. 

  • Assignments, Student Late and Missing Status Labels-The submission details page and student Grades page do not display labels for missing or late submissions. This change reverts the labels for students introduced in the Canvas Production Release Notes (2017-08-05) Links to an external site.and helps minimize confusion for students when their instructors create online assignments that can be submitted online or on paper in class. Canvas always marks online assignments as missing when no submission is made. 
  • Rubrics, Rubric Criterion Range- Rubric criterions can include a point range instead of just an individual point value. This feature is available in both account- and course-level rubrics. This will be available for previously created rubrics as well. 
  • Publish & Unpublish Icons- The Publish and Unpublish icons in Canvas have been updated in the Instructure icon library. Based on additional user testing of icons, weights, and styles, these icon changes enhance visibility and status clarity.
    Screenshot of the new publish icons

September 16, 2017 Links to an external site.

  • Conferences/Big Blue Button- There are several interface enhancements. For more details, please view the What's New with Conferences page. 
  • Course Import, Download Expiration- After a content import, the imported file displays as a file download in the Current Jobs section. The imported file expires after 500 days and can no longer be downloaded. Previously the files had no expiration date.

August 26, 2017 Links to an external site.

  • DocViewer Improvements, Point and Area Annotation Comments- To save an annotation, Point and Area annotations do not require comments. Comments can be added to the annotation like all other annotation types.
  • DocViewer Improvements, Session Expiration Warning- When a user creates annotations in DocViewer, Canvas will display a session expiration warning at 9 hours 50 minutes, followed by a 5-minute and 1-minute warnings until the 10 hour limit has been reached. This change helps users be able to save their work before the session automatically refreshes at 10 hours. A session can be restarted at any time by refreshing the submission page.
  • Rich Content Editor, Insert/Edit Media- The Rich Content Menu toolbar includes an option to insert or edit media. This change allows users to easily add online media content to a course without having to use the HTML Editor.

August 5, 2017 Links to an external site.

  • Assignments, Late and Missing Status Labels- The submission details page, student Grades page, and SpeedGrader display labels for missing submissions. Additionally, areas that already displayed labels for late assignments have been updated to reflect the same styling. Assignments cannot be identified as both missing and late. If an assignment has not been submitted by the due date, the assignment is identified as missing. If the assignment is submitted after the due date, the assignment is identified as late.
  • New Teacher App Links to an external site.- Available on iOS and Android. This app will replace the SpeedGrader app and teachers can do more tasks than just grading. Check out the release notes Links to an external site.
  • Canvas by Instructure Release Notes (iOS 3.18) Links to an external site.- Support more question types when students take quizzes.
  • Digital Assistant: Canvas Skill for Alexa Links to an external site.- The Canvas Skill for Alexa makes it easy for students and teachers to ask questions, perform quick tasks, and get information from Canvas on their Alexa-enabled devices. 

July 15, 2017 Links to an external site.

  • Assignment and Page Duplication- From the assignment and page index pages instructors can now duplicate assignments and pages. 
  • Course Home Page, Modules Course Home Page Default- In new courses, Course Home Page defaults to the Modules layout. This change replaces the Recent Activity Stream as the Home page default. Instructors are not required to use Modules for the home page and can choose another home page layout.NOTE:Fall semester courses will default to the course activity stream. To import content click Settings in the course menu. On the settings page on the right sidebar click Import Course Content. 
  • Canvas Icon Update- The icons throughout Canvas have been updated with a new Instructure-owned icon library. All new Instructure icons default as line vs solid icons. Some Canvas areas may display inconsistent icons, and Instructure designers will update these icons in the next release. See example below.
  • Icon Update- Below is example of how the new icons will look in a course. 

    2017-07-12_10-11-43.jpg

June 26, 2017 Links to an external site.

  • Blueprint Courses- Blueprint Courses makes it easy for administrators or designers to deploy, update, and maintain course design templates or components across any number of courses or instructors. For an individual institution, Blueprint Courses allows Canvas admins to create content and learning objects, lock specific settings or content items, and push updates to all associated courses through course syncing.NOTE:This will not be enabled on LLC Canvas until we develop a process for using this feature.

June 3, 2017 Links to an external site.

  • Canvas DocViewer- This update replaces the Crocodoc annotation tools in the SpeedGrader and document viewer whenever Word, PowerPoint, and PDF documents on linked in Canvas pages. From the June 3, 2017 release notes. Check out the DocViewer Plan page Links to an external site.in the Canvas Community to learn more about this feature. 
  • Table Context Menu (rich content editor)- When a table is added and selected in the Rich Content Editor, the table displays a context menu. This change allows for quicker table navigation and design access.
  • Content Export Expiration Clarification- After an initial content export, the export expires after 30 days and can no longer be downloaded. A new content export can be created at any time. 
  • Rich Content Editor, Sidebar Enhancements- This feature was previously introduced as a feature option in Canvas Production Release Notes (2017-01-07) Links to an external site.and made generally available in Canvas Production Release Notes (2017-06-03) Links to an external site.. These changes are noticeable in the right sided content browser when editing a page in Canvas.