Student app enable landscape view

Currently the SCORM modules are launched through external tools under submission tab in the student app.

 

When the external tool is clicked a new window is opened. Unfortunately the new window only launches in portrait mode. If the external tools can be enabled to work both landscape / portrait , it will be great for various reasons.

 

For e.g. the storyline modules can be accessed via external tools and would work brilliantly in landscape mode.

 

This sort of feature works in all other popular apps like Twitter. The main twitter stream is always portrait, but when you click on a tweet with an external link, the new window will work in both portrait / landscape mode.

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas
20 Comments
rseilham
Community Champion

Thanks for sharing  @szw151 ‌ - I didn't realize the accessibility aspect of this!

khaled_al-ankar
Community Participant

Hello Community,

I have recently been signposted here as I tried to create an idea request similar.

Allow me to add my 2 pence.

I have been using Canvas for quite some time and I love how the canvas teacher app has evolved. My request or idea that I would like to put forward is that you offer the same functionality for students as teachers.

Currently, the teacher app has the ability to turn landscape on iOS iPhone and iPad. Allowing the user to rotate their phone to landscape. This is really useful when looking at content and using external tools. However, I have only just realised that this functionality is missing from the primary target, the Learner! 

if your, not 100% sure what I'm talking about I have got a video of what I mean.

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(view in My Videos)

This is a great idea:

To get Canvas to add the rotation function to the Canvas Student App to make it an all-round better experience for learners.

 

It seems like a relatively easy thing to implement. So please vote up.

 

BTW not in an aggressive voice but I'm taking this to twitter.

@khaledal_ankar

Thank you for your time

.

kerstin_jarosc1
Community Participant

This feature is so urgently needed Smiley Happy

cstammerjohn
Community Explorer

I just discovered this also. Landscape in the Teacher app but not in Student. So it can be done! Seems odd it doesn't work in both.

Laveryj
Community Novice

I am a graduate student who is constantly only Canvas to review and complete assignments and access materials (hybrid-online). Since I need to study a lot, I have tried to use canvas on my phone as a means to study wherever I am at (efficiency and convenience).  I believe it would be valuable for students like myself to have the ability to rotate my phone so that I could see the app in a landscape view for several reasons: viewing instructional videos like PowerPoint presentations embedded in Canvas on a FULL SCREEN and not a 1” x 2” portrait mode (iPhone 8), viewing standard documents, and it is something that most apps are capable of doing nowadays as a means of convenience in viewing preference. If you choose not to make the entire app capable of being viewed in landscape, then the least you could do would be to make videos and documents optional for a full-screen/landscape view. 
Thank you for taking the time to read this suggestion! 

639DBE71-D9FE-4616-BBC8-9A43FF27E5D7.png

eskinb
Community Member

I am a professor who is taking an asynchronous course in Interaction Design on Canvas. I spend 8 hours a week teaching on Zoom, plus many more hours of preparation time, so I wanted to get away from the computer and am trying the Canvas Student app. 

The PDFs embedded in modules are too small to read on my phone. Some text pages do not reflow on mobile, so I have to drag back and forth horizontally to read text.

The failure for PDFs, text pages, et al. to rotate in Canvas is a barrier to accessibility for students exhausted by sitting at a desk or who do not have a working computer.

This seems like a critical flaw in Canvas and it is disappointing to discover that this has been a known issue for at least two years. 

Worst of all the course is an introduction to the fundamentals of interaction design, and the experience in Student Canvas runs counter to what is being taught in the course.

 

Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
Status changed to: Completed
 
Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
Comments from Instructure

 

Landscape mode is supported in the Canvas Student app. For more information, please read through the  Canvas Student Release Notes (iOS 6.11).

KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
Status changed to: New
 
KristinL
Community Team
Community Team
Status changed to: Completed