Remove colour overlay from course cards that have an image

[stuart_ryan]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

Howdy all,

Firstly I have to say the new course cards image feature is awesome and a great leap forward. I have been using it a bit now and have a small request for a future revision.

When a course is given an image for the course card on a user's dashboard, I would really like to see the colour overlay removed (so that the image does not looked washed out with the user selected colour).

Ideally, I would love to see this configurable on an account level rather than an individual course level, but that is just from an administrator's perspective.

Just to visualise this more, the current behaviour with a couple of different colours:

And the ideal/requested behaviour:

Additional thoughts:

I do realise the colour is important for a few different areas in relation to the course, so perhaps the bottom bar could be extended as a border around the entire card (just as one example).

Many thanks  team,

Keep up the awesome work!

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the Canvas Production Release Notes (2017-05-13) 

[bgibson]

No, we are not...   Remember, Mom wants us all home for Thanksgiving;-)

[rgibson1]

Colored overlayed turkey just doesn't sound appealing this year....

[stuart_ryan]

/dances This feature idea is currently under review by product and has moved into the Gathering Info stage.  Bookmark this idea to be notified of an official response.  Expect a response within the next 30 days.

[laurakgibbs]

Thanks for the update! I just shared this discussion page with the Canvas Community for our school; we just switched to Canvas from D2L this semester (soft roll out; everyone will be on Canvas next year), and it was really encouraging to see this process in action. I finally gave up even reporting problems with D2L because it seemed like user feedback didn't matter at all. I really appreciate the opportunity to contribute feedback this way!

[cms_hickss]

Out of curiosity, are you asking to have the color overlay removed from the course card for all users of the course or for just the person who puts the image in the course card?

Because the calendar uses the course card color for users (these colors are now the same and the same for when a user os on the mobile app) and if you overwrite that then there is a good chance your students will have calendar entries that look all the same no matter what class they are looking for.

[rgibson1]

Susan, I think what most people are requesting is to remove the color overlay for all users [for that course]. However, if you'll scroll up this thread you'll see what many of us believe to be the resolution: Include a card color are a line. Several options have been mocked up. I beleive that would maintain the color in the calendar as well. As it happens, that is what they showed us at InstructureCon and what we expected to see. Imagine our surprise when that's not what they released.

[laurakgibbs]

Re: calendar color-coding. I think that was the big mistake to begin with: the card color overlay should NEVER have been tied to the calendar display color for assignments. I think students should be able to color-code their calendar however they want. In fact, that is essential. What if, by chance, they have all their classes in purple? Or what if they hate purple? And so on.

So:

Let students configure the calendar display color.

And please please please let us just choose not to have any color overlay for our class images cards, or a color overlay if we want.

Choices. And cuique suum!

[jbrady2]

I am all for choice, as well, except for where and when my choices may impede or confound the choices of another, in this case the choice to pursue an education.  As the institution for which I work, as well as many others, continue to push for more distance/online education, I have to realize that some if not many of the students I serve may not have access to or can afford the wonderful bandwidth that I have access to on my mobile devices, at school, and at home.  Unfortunately, the digital divide is still a thing not only for socioeconomic reasons but also often due to geographic location.  For this reason, I believe that it is incumbent upon me to do my part to ensure equal access for all of my students by eliminating any unnecessary/extraneous images, videos, and content in general that might increase the time required for webpages to load, content to download, etc.  I realize that this comes into direct contradiction to another movement in modern education to provide as much media and interaction as possible to keep the students engaged, so I believe there has to be a balance struck to provide the best learning experience possible while still taking into account some of the hurdles that students face in reaching their goals.

In addition, accessibility does not only apply when it comes to access to adequate bandwidth but also for those students for whom my choices as an instructor might impede their ability to learn due to a disability.

Just my two cents.

[laurakgibbs]

Agreed. I see choice as the best and really only way to accommodate the full range of students: letting them choose course materials, types of assignments, types of assessment, and so on. That's why I love teaching online. Unlike a classroom, where there is a lot of one-size-fits-all going on, the online space is finally an opportunity to deliver the full range of educational opportunities that can meet students' needs.

[jmonaco]

Would it be madness to suggest the opposite feature to solve the issue? Instead of color overlay, could this be implemented as Image Overlay? So, whenever we add an image, it overlays the picture on *top* of the color chip. This would be a minimal element-order change, and would allow the existing color border overlap to function as usual.

In this way, users could still apply whatever color they want to each course box, and yet the course image would not be rendered un-viewable by an incompatible color choice. Additionally, the faculty could possibly set the image opacity in the course details area (next to "choose image") if they wished to permit color blending and felt that the image they had chosen looked alright with the blend.

Usability-wise, I *do* see some benefit to only allowing something like a "partially transparent" checkbox that sets to 60% rather than full opacity control. A dashboard filled with images blended at many different opacity levels is not fun. Regardless, though--Image Overlay instead of color overlay? Good, evil?