Upcoming Canvas Changes
New Canvas UI in Free-for-Teacher Accounts
On October 10, the New Canvas User Interface (UI) will be enabled for all canvas courses in Free-for-Teacher accounts. Additional information will be available in the next release. Learn more about the New Canvas UI.
New Canvas Notification IP Addresses
On October 10, we're adding four new Internet Protocol (IP) addresses to our notifications IP list. If your institution adds Canvas notification IPs to whitelists for your network firewall or email management system, please whitelist the new IP addresses by October 10 to ensure your users continue to receive Canvas notifications:
- 54.240.14.1 (existing)
- 54.240.14.2 (existing)
- 54.240.14.198 (existing)
- 54.240.14.199 (existing)
- 54.240.14.105 (new)
- 54.240.14.139 (new)
- 54.240.14.154 (new)
- 54.240.14.188 (new)
Please contact your Customer Success Manager if you have any questions or concerns.
In this production release (09/19), instructors benefit from added productivity tools in the classroom, students no longer see groups after a course has concluded, and admins have more options for customizing and managing their accounts.
Canvas New Feature Screencast (2015-09-19)
Next release schedule:
- Beta release and notes: September 28
- Production release notes: October 5
- Production release and documentation: October 10
Production release notes indicate Canvas updates that will be included with Saturday’s release and are subject to change. New features may differ from those available in your beta environment. Learn more about the Canvas Release Schedule.
- New Features
- Calendar
- Conferences
- Groups
- Updated Features
- Gradebook
- New Canvas UI
- People
- Permissions
- Theme Editor
- SpeedGrader
- Other Canvas Updates
- Gradebook
- Notifications
- Platform/Integration Updates
- Account Navigation
- APIs
- Fixed Bugs
New Features |
Calendar
Recurring Events
When creating a new calendar event for a course, instructors can choose to create multiple copies of the event every day, week, or month. Once created, recurring events are not linked together and are independent events. Therefore, if users need to modify an event, each event has to be modified individually.
Recurring Calendar Events is a course-level feature option. This feature must be enabled by a Customer Success Manager at the account level before it can be used for individual courses.
When a course has enabled recurring (repeating) calendar events, an instructor can add the event details, select the course, then click the More Options button.
The repeat button appears as part of the new calendar event. By default, events are repeated every week.
- Weekly events are replicated on the day of the week of the first event. For instance, if an event is created on a Monday and repeats weekly, the next instance of the event will appear on the following Monday, regardless of the actual date.
- Monthly events are replicated on the day of the month of the first event. For instance, if an event is created on July 6 and repeats monthly, the next instance of the event will appear on August 6.
Users can also choose to select the Count option, which adds a number to the end of each event title (e.g. Event 1, Event 2, etc.)
This feature was originally suggested by the Canvas community.
Conferences
Polling
Presenters can create polls for participants to use during a conference. Polls can be created ahead of time, such as during a presentation, or created as part of an informal discussion.
Because of a distributed rollout for this feature, many institutions may already be able to see polling in their production environment. However, the beta environment should always be used to test new features if admins or instructors are uncertain about functionality or performance.
Presenters can create a poll at the bottom of the presentation window. Polls can be Yes/No, True/False, or letter responses up to six answer choices (A through F).
Presenters can also create a custom poll where they can specify their answer choices.
Polls can also be created automatically from a presentation slide. Conferences is able to read the slide and automatically include polling options that match the polling options.
For the conference participants, the polling options appear on the page automatically.
Once a poll is started, presenters can see the participant responses as they are made in real time.
Presenters can also see if one or more participants in the conference have not responded. However, polls are always anonymous and voting is not required.
Presenters can publish poll results to appear for all conference participants at any time. They do not have to wait for all participants to vote.
Groups
Conclude Groups at Course Conclusion
When a course concludes in Canvas, groups in the course also conclude. Concluded groups do not appear in the Courses & Groups menu. Users can still access their previous and current groups in the Groups page.
Note: Currently groups still appear on the Courses page and will be addressed in a future release.
This feature was originally suggested by the Canvas community.
This change resolves a fixed bug in Canvas:
Explanation: Users were not able to be removed from a course group unless an admin or instructor manually removed the student from the group. This behavior occurred because groups were not associated with the course status. Canvas code has been updated to show courses groups as concluded in the Groups page and remove associated groups from the Group favorites list.
Updated Features |
Gradebook
Muted Assignments
When an instructor mutes an assignment, scores are muted from the student’s Total score, but not the instructor’s Gradebook. When an instructor mutes an assignment in the Gradebook, the Total column will display a warning indicating that the total score is different than shown to students.
Note: To better associate warning messages, in the next release the warning icon will be changed to the mute icon.
New Canvas UI
The New Canvas User Interface (UI) is an account-level feature option, which can be enabled by any Canvas admin in Account Settings. Enabling the New UI affects the user interface for the entire Canvas account. Adjustments to the New UI will be made throughout the upcoming year.
The New Canvas UI will be an account opt-in feature until approximately mid-2016. Watch the release notes for more details and updates on this feature.
Admin Navigation
In the Admin link, Admins can access all their managed accounts. The All Accounts link shows the accounts page, which is specifically helpful for admins who manage more than 10 accounts and subaccounts.
Login Page Layout
When the new Canvas UI is enabled, the Canvas login page has a new layout, which allows for customization in the Theme Editor.
This change does not affect multi-user authentication or account sign-up screens, which still display in the lighter color scheme. By default, there is no login background image.
People
SIS Enrollments and Remove from Course Option
On the People page, admins can remove users from a course who have SIS-created enrollments.
This change resolves a fixed bug in Canvas:
Explanation: When an admin opened the People page and viewed the settings for a student, the Remove from Course button was not available regardless of whether the student was enrolled via SIS or manual enrollment. This behavior occurred because Canvas changed confirmed the SIS enrollment type and only allowed manual enrollments to be removed. Canvas code has been updated to allow admins to remove students from a course regardless of SIS enrollment. Instructors cannot remove a student from a course unless the student was manually enrolled or unless the instructor also has admin permissions. This fix was deployed to production on September 9.
Permissions
Rubrics
A user can view and manage course rubrics with the Create and Edit Assessing Rubrics permission.
This change resolves a fixed bug in Canvas:
Explanation: When an admin tried to manage rubrics through a course, they received an unauthorized error if the Manage Courses permission was disabled. This behavior occurred because rubrics would not allow users to manage rubrics without the Manage Courses permission. Canvas code has been updated to allow rubric management without the Manage Courses permission.
Global Announcements
The Manage Global Announcements permission is enabled for root accounts only and is not shown as a permission for subaccounts.
This change resolves a fixed bug in Canvas:
Explanation: When an admin granted a subaccount admin permission to manage global announcements, subaccount admins were not able to view the global announcements tab. This behavior occurred because global announcements can only be used by root account admins. Canvas code has been updated to remove the Manage Global Announcements permission from subaccounts.
Theme Editor
The Theme Editor is used in conjunction with the new Canvas User Interface (UI) feature option. Enabling the New UI affects the user interface for the entire Canvas account.
Subaccount Customization
The Theme Editor can be used to customize subaccounts. Contact your Customer Success Manager to enable this feature.
K12 Theme Template Access
In the Theme Editor, the K12 Theme is only available as a template if the K12 Styles feature option is enabled in Account Settings.
Login Customization
As part of the New Canvas UI, Admins can customize elements of the login page for their institution including body background images, logos (or other graphical images), border options, and button customizations.
The image below shows login page components that match with the customization label fields in the Theme Editor. You can view changes to the login page directly in the Theme Editor.
SpeedGrader
Manual Quiz Question Grading
In a manually graded quiz question, instructors no longer have to remove the dashes in the point field. Once an instructor starts typing a score, the dashes are removed automatically. However, if no value is entered and dashes are still present, the question is still considered ungraded.
This feature was originally submitted by the Canvas community.
This change resolves a fixed bug in Canvas:
Explanation: When an instructor opened a manually graded quiz in SpeedGrader and clicked the dashes in the points field, any scores typed in the field were inserted around the dashes instead of remove them completely. This behavior occurred because the points field was not focusing correctly on the dashes. Canvas code has been updated to remove the dashes when points are entered in the field.
Hiding Names in Anonymous Surveys
When grading an anonymous survey (quiz) in SpeedGrader, instructors can view the Hide Student Names checkbox in SpeedGrader settings, but the checkbox cannot be disabled. Anonymous surveys require names to be hidden.
Other Canvas Updates |
Gradebook
Post Grades to SIS Button
For institutions that use the Post Grades to SIS feature, the Post Grades button has been moved to the top of the Gradebook.
Notifications
Notification Styles
Canvas Global Announcements have been updated for both the current and new Canvas UI. The colors and icons have been updated to match the new look and feel of Canvas. Dashboard notifications have also been updated to match global announcements. '
For New Canvas UI users, the Theme Editor primary color is associated with information, question, and calendar notifications. However, warning and error colors cannot be changed.
Platform/Integration Updates |
Account Navigation
Developer Keys
Admins can create developer keys for root accounts. This feature requires an account-level permission. Admins can use this permission to grant access to an IT or development group to create and manage developer keys for their institution.
Required fields include key name, owner email, tool ID, redirect URI, and icon URL.
Any existing developer keys that may exist for an organization will be moved to this page in a future release.
APIs
SIS Integration API
In the SIS Integration API, the description field is not returned for any assignment.
Submissions API
In the Submissions API, submissions are ordered by user ID.
Outcome Results API
In the Outcome Results API, users can request SIS user IDs using the format user_ids[]=sis_user_id:1234.
Previously the ID for an OutcomeResult object was always returned as a string. To maintain consistency with other object IDs, the value returned is now an integer by default.
Fixed Bugs |
Accessibility
Account Settings
Keyboard users can access selection menus in the Permissions tab.
Announcements
Screen readers can access when an announcement has been successfully deleted.
Course Navigation
In the New Canvas User Interface (UI), course navigation links are hidden from keyboard users unless the menu is open.
Course Settings
In the Navigation tab, the Move option is not read unless it is selected in the settings menu.
Discussions
Screen readers can access when a discussion has been successfully deleted.
Global Navigation
Keyboard users can view lists of courses, accounts, and groups in Global Navigation.
Pages
The Pages Front Page shows focus on disabled menu items.
Quizzes
Screen readers can access and edit quiz questions and question groups.
Screen readers can read all links to manage quiz questions.
The hidden image next to the Save it Now button includes a null ALT attribute.
Rich Content Editor
Keyboard users can access Rich Content Editor drop-down fields.
Rubrics
Scope has been added to the Rubric creation table.
SpeedGrader
Screen readers can access the file attachment and media comment buttons in the Add a Comment section.
Theme Editor
The Theme Editor includes multiple additions for accessibility:
- Added an alt attribute to preview images
- Added a heading element for image names
- Added aria-hidden attribute to duplicate labels for image upload inputs
- Changed accessible label for image upload inputs to include the name of the image
- Removed duplicate label text (for screen readers) for JS/CSS upload inputs
- Added accessible button label for Reset button for JS/CSS uploads
- Added aria-hidden attributes to icons for JS/CSS uploads
User Settings
The User Settings displays a color contrast of 3:1 for the default Canvas interface and 4.5:1 for high contrast profiles.
APIs
User Observee API
In the User Observee API, removing a user observee also removes all observer enrollments.
Explanation: When an observee was added to a user via the User Observee API, the observer was automatically enrolled in all of the observee's courses. If the observee was deleted from the observer through the API, the enrollments remained. This behavior occurred because the API was not confirming enrollments with user roles. Canvas code has been updated to dissolve all relationships between observers and observees.
Assignments
Admin Role
Admins enrolled as students can submit assignments.
Explanation: When an admin was enrolled as a student, admins were unable to submit assignments. This behavior occurred because of a regression in the Assignment submission page. Canvas code has been updated to allow assignment submissions for all student user roles. This fix was deployed to production on September 9.
Calendar
Description Content
The new calendar events window always displays the close icon.
Explanation: If a calendar event’s description had enough lines, when the item was clicked, the content was larger than the window’s height. This behavior occurred when viewed on small screens. Canvas code has been updated to adjust calendar window for smaller screen sizes.
Everyone Due Dates
The Calendar shows due dates for Everyone on the Calendar.
Explanation: When an assignment included multiple due dates, an Everyone due date was not displaying on the Calendar. This behavior occurred because the Calendar was not associating the correct due date when more than one date was used. Canvas code has been updated to include the original calendar event date unless all sections in a course include a varied due date.
Conferences
Adobe Connect and Conferences Index Page
The Conferences page always loads regardless of conferencing tool.
Explanation: When users use the Adobe Connect conferencing tool and the configuration is unavailable, the Conferences index page failed to load. This behavior occurred because the plugin was associated with the conferences page, causing the index page to also fail. Canvas code has been updated to always load the Conferences page even if Adobe Connect’s connection is unavailable.
Course Imports
Deleted Enrollments and Sections
Deleted enrollments also remove any associated sections.
Explanation: When a user used an SIS import to delete a section with enrolled students, the enrollments were left in the course but were no longer enrolled in a section. This behavior occurred because Canvas wasn’t coded to associate deleted sections with enrollments. Canvas code has been updated to mark enrollments as deleted when their associated section is deleted.
Course Settings
Course Reset and Integration IDs
Canvas resets courses correctly when used with an integration ID.
Explanation: When a course included an integration_id (used in the Courses API), and a user attempted to reset the course, Canvas generated a page error and did not reset. This behavior occurred because Canvas did not recognize the integration ID. Canvas code has been updated to include integration IDs as part of course resets.
Dashboard
Peer Review Icons
Peer Review assignments only display one Peer Review icon in the To Do sidebar.
Explanation: When a student was assigned more than one peer review, additional Peer Review icons appeared in the sidebar To Do list. This behavior occurred because of a misalignment with the peer review element link. Canvas code has been updated to only display one icon per peer review assignment.
Discussions
Deleted Discussions
Students cannot participate in deleted discussions through email notifications.
Explanation: When students received discussions via notifications and replied to discussions, students were able to participate with the discussion even if the discussion had been deleted. This behavior occurred because of a state verification error. Canvas code has been updated to not generate discussion notifications for deleted assignments.
ePortfolios
Uploaded Files and Embedded Images
Uploaded files and embedded images appear in downloaded ePortfolio Pages.
Explanation: When a file was uploaded to a page in an ePortfolio and later downloaded, the file appeared as a separate file in the ZIP folder but was not appearing in the HTML page. Additionally, the same behavior occurred for embedded images. This behavior occurred because the ePorfolio page was not able to associate the correct files for the page view. Canvas code has been updated to show uploaded and embedded files in downloaded ePortfolio pages.
Grades
Invalid Characters and Graded State
Entering an invalid character in the Gradebook or SpeedGrader does not alter the state of the assignment.
Explanation: When an instructor entered a non-grade character (such as an ampersand or parenthesis), the grade was set to null and the state of the assignment showed as graded. This behavior occurred the state of the assignment changed with grade entries in either SpeedGrader or the Gradebook. Canvas code has been updated to disregard invalid characters in changing the assignment state.
Groups
Course Conclude
When a course concludes in Canvas, groups in the course also conclude.
Explanation: Users were not able to be removed from a course group unless an admin or instructor manually removed the student from the group. This behavior occurred because groups were not associated with the course status. Canvas code has been updated to show courses groups as concluded in the Groups page and remove associated groups from the Group favorites list.
New Canvas UI
Dashboard Recent Feedback in Firefox
In the New Canvas User Interface (UI), excessive characters in the Recent Feedback section does not adjust the sidebar layout.
Explanation: When viewing the New Canvas UI in the Firefox browser, when an assignment comment included more than 50 character, the Dashboard content was pushed to the left. This behavior occurred because of undefined style restrictions for the feedback section. Canvas code has been updated to preview comments up to 50 characters as shown in other browsers.
Pages
Links and Escaped Characters
Pages render linked character text correctly.
Explanation: When a user created a link in a Page with non-alpha characters (such as a parenthesis or ampersand), the characters were escaping the link. This behavior occurred because of improper character decoding in the Rich Content Editor. Canvas code has been updated to render linked characters correctly.
Permissions
Rubrics
A user can view and manage course rubrics with the Create and Edit Assessing Rubrics permission.
Explanation: When an admin tried to manage rubrics through a course, they received an unauthorized error if the Manage Courses permission was disabled. This behavior occurred because rubrics would not allow users to manage rubrics without the Manage Courses permission. Canvas code has been updated to allow rubric management without the Manage Courses permission.
Global Announcements
The Manage Global Announcements permission is enabled for root accounts only and is not shown as a permission for subaccounts.
Explanation: When an admin granted a subaccount admin permission to manage global announcements, subaccount admins were not able to view the global announcements tab. This behavior occurred because global announcements can only be used by root account admins. Canvas code has been updated to remove the Manage Global Announcements permission from subaccounts.
Quizzes
Question Banks with More than 51 Quiz Questions
Users can move or copy paginated questions in a question bank with more than 51 quiz questions. Additionally, editing a question does not create a duplicate.
Explanation: When a user created a question bank with more than 51 quiz questions, the question bank could not be moved or copied. These behaviors occurred because of pagination restrictions to properly associate all questions in the question bank. Canvas code has been updated to properly associate all quiz question IDs in a question bank regardless if more items are loaded on the page.
Term Dates and Auto-submission Quizzes
Quizzes do not auto-submit with a course end date listed in the past.
Explanation: When a term had an end date of whenever and the course had an end date listed in the past (without selecting the Students can only participate during these dates checkbox), quizzes were auto-submitting as soon as a student clicked to take a quiz. This behavior occurred because the quiz was not verifying the term date associated with the enrollment. Canvas code has been updated to use term dates for a course unless the course has course date overrides and the participation checkbox is selected. This fix was deployed to production on September 10.
SpeedGrader
Manual Quiz Question Grading
In a manually graded quiz question, instructors no longer have to remove the dashes in the point field.
Explanation: When an instructor opened a manually graded quiz in SpeedGrader and clicked the dashes in the points field, any scores typed in the field were inserted around the dashes instead of remove them completely. This behavior occurred because the points field was not focusing correctly on the dashes. Canvas code has been updated to remove the dashes when points are entered in the field.
