Canvas Release Notes Highlights: Spring & Summer Updates

Canvas operates on a three-week release cycle through which features are added or updated; feature releases in the production environment take place on the third Saturday of every month. SUNY Geneseo’s EdTech team posts highlights from Canvas’s production release notes, a link to these notes, and other relevant content to our blog a few days before the production release, which usually occurs on Saturdays. Please contact the Canvas Support Team if you have any questions about an upcoming production release.

This blog post addresses the Canvas Release, and Ready Release, Notes from March through August. All features described below are available within Geneseo’s instance of Canvas.

Syllabus: Course Summary Visibility

  • The Syllabus page includes an option to remove the Course Summary section.

User Navigation: Mobile App Login QR Code

  • When users are in Canvas, their User Navigation Menu includes a QR for Mobile Login link.
  • This link generates a QR code and tells users they can use the code to log into their account from the Canvas app.

Commons: URL Sharing

  • When an instructor views a Commons resource, the page displays a Copy Resource Link button in the sidebar.
  • This button allows the instructor to copy the resource link and share it with another user.
  • When the button is selected, the link is copied to the user’s clipboard and can be pasted into the instructor’s preferred medium for sharing.

Assignments: On-Time Submission Celebrations

  • Celebrations will 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 not to have Canvas display any celebrations, they can choose to hide all celebration animations in their User Settings page.

Assignments: Limited Submission Attempts

  • 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, students see the number of attempts they’ve made as well as the number of allowed attempts.

Gradebook: SpeedGrader Link

  • Each assignment menu in the Gradebook includes a link to SpeedGrader.

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.

Courses: Instructor Publishing Improvements

  • The Dashboard, Courses menu, and All Courses page display both published and unpublished courses.
    • The Dashboard displays two sections: published courses and unpublished courses. Unpublished courses display at the bottom of the Dashboard. 
      • Note: The Dashboard only displays favorited courses for the current term or course dates.
      • Courses can be published directly from the Dashboard without having to open the course.
    • The Courses menu, from Global Navigation, also displays courses as published and unpublished.
      • Note: The Courses menu only displays favorited courses for the current term dates.
    • In the All Courses page, unpublished courses are identified with a gray background if they are within the current term or course dates and display at the end of the section.
      • Unpublished courses in past or future enrollments also display at the end of the section, but they are not indicated with the gray background.
      • Once the course is published, the gray background is removed.

Assignments: Bulk Editing Enhancements

  • The Edit Assignment Dates page includes additional enhancements to help instructors manage assignment dates more quickly.
    • Bulk selection: 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.
      • Assignments can also be selected by choosing a specific date range
    • Batch edit dates: 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.

Pages: Bulk Page Delete

  • The Pages Index page (View All Pages button) allows for multiple pages to be deleted at one time.
  • Pages can be multi-selected by selecting a checkbox next to the pages.
  • Note: The delete functionality is disabled for the page designated as the Front Page. To delete the page used as the Front Page, a new Front Page must be set.

User Navigation: Global Announcements Page

  • The User Navigation Menu includes a link to Global Announcements, which displays current and recent announcements for the institution.
    • This change allows users to view announcements that were previously dismissed from the Dashboard.
  • The Global Navigation link is located at the end of the User Navigation Menu.

You can find the full Canvas Release Notes documents for the March 28th through August 15th releases at the Canvas Release Archive, available from Instructure, within the Canvas Community. You do not need to log in to access this content.

Please contact Geneseo’s Canvas Support Team with your questions. Reach us by email (canvas@geneso.edu). Happy learning!

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