What is up with this new canvas update?

[CoralField]

With all due respect to the designers of canvas, this new update is completely unnecessary, and makes it 10x harder to get through the school year. The previous design was perfect: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!! The fact that you can’t mark assignments as done, and especially that when it is past the due date (even when you didn’t submit yet) it marks the assignment as complete has costed me many grades so far. Canvas is usually extremely organized and has great updates, I have been a loyal canvas user for over 6 years- but this update is truly making me rethink this. 

Could we make a petition or something to return to the original version? Im new to this community page so im not sure how things exactly work, but this new update is pretty irritating and unnecessary. Thanks so much.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi there, @CoralField ...

I'm not sure exactly which update you are referring to.  Instruture (the folks that make Canvas) push out updates to Canvas every month (typically the third Saturday of the month per this Guide: What are the release schedules for beta, productio... - Instructure Community - 242411.  Also, there are Deploy releases that are pushed out more frequently (but are probably less noticeable than a monthly release).  You can find these located at:

Canvas Releases - Instructure Community

Is there something specific from one of the Release Notes or Deploy Notes documents included in the above link that you're specifically asking about?  You had mentioned something about marking an assignment as done.  Have you followed the instructions in this Guide?  How do I mark a module item as done for a module requirement?  Pay special attention to the information in the light blue box ... as your instructor may not have module requirements configured for your course.

Also, you mentioned making a petition to return to the original version.  Canvas really doesn't do "versions" (like you'd find with software on your computer or apps on your phone) since everything is cloud based.  That being said, there is a space here in the Canvas Community website where you can make suggestions for improvements to the Canvas LMS (Learning Management System).  Just know, however, that the entire idea process is going through some changes at the moment, and I'm not exactly sure when a new voting system will be in place.  But, I can direct you to the following documents:

• Turning Your Feedback into Better Prioritization and Release Processes: Our Path Forward
• What is the feature development process for Instructure products?
• How do Ideas work in the Instructure Community?
• What are the guidelines for submitting a new idea?
• How do I create a new idea in the Instructure Community?

I suggest reading through the first link first, and then read through the four links on ideas after that.

I hope this will be of some help to you.

[jmontgomery1590]

Good evening @Chris_Hofer,

What Coral is referring to is the most recent Canvas mobile app update that was pushed. Whether intentionally (misguided if so) or unintentionally, it changes to the way that the mobile/tablet To Do List tab operates, which has been received fairly negatively. Apple App Store shows 50+ one-star/negative reviews just since Friday. It used to provide a weekly/biweekly (however the learning institution had their modules/groupings set up) list of items due, specifically assignments, quizzes, tests, etc, within that time period. It would only list those items that are specifically due during that time period, and would automatically remove them from that list as students submitted those assignments, and in cases such as quizzes or exams where no deliverable is to be submitted, the item could be manually removed from the list. It would also provide persisting and dynamic push notifications through the app to our mobile devices indicating how many items we had left in our To Do List to complete. 

Since the update, it has completely reworked how the To Do List operates, listing ALL items that need to be submitted for the rest of the semester/school term, as well as events and random items from groups or other things our institution added us to, even if it does not pertain to us. This is compounded by the fact that we cannot manually remove any items from the To Do List anymore. So it has essentially turned a highly valued and relied on tracking tool into a giant list of all deliverables, assessments, events, etc for the entirety of the school term, made worse by the fact that it no longer provides any push notification indicator of what is due during that set cycle.

Many institutions using Canvas, such as Georgia Tech where I am a grad student at, don't release a lot of their assignments/projects to be available to begin working on until the specific weekly/biweekly period they are due in. So those items are persisting in this list with no way to view as they are locked, and it causes a lot of frustration when that tool was used as a very helpful reminder/tracking tool on what is specifically due when.

[JessicaErvien]

THIS!!! I am having this issue that you so eloquently described.  I am a full time student with 5 classes, this update has made it impossible to track my assignments. This update is detrimental to students. 

[Chris_Hofer]

@jmontgomery1590 ...

Thank you for your reply.  I had not thought about the mobile app, as I typically respond to questions about the desktop/laptop experience of Canvas.  I would still like to hear from @CoralField, though, to know if the both of you are referring to the same thing.  Sometimes, people do think that Canvas has "versions" for the desktop/laptop experience, and this is not the case...especially if a school is using a paid, cloud-based version of Canvas.  So, that is why I provided the information that I did (above).

I'm also glad to see that @clpatter has chimed in and posed that this is a known issue, but that Instructure is currently working on a fix.  You might want to browse this portion of the Community site to see if it is listed there: Known Issues - Instructure Community.

I hope this helps in some way.  Thanks again for your reply.

[CLSO_Tech_Dir]

As our district's Canvas Administrator, I have verified the ever increasing district-wide reports of the Canvas iOS app not marking, and not allowing manual marking, of assignments as complete. Students are also not able to dismiss to-do tasks. These issues appear to begin after students apply the latest release. 

[Chris_Hofer]

@CLSO_Tech_Dir ...

I'm not 100% sure, but is this Known Issue related at all to what you and others are experiencing?  [OPEN] [iOS] Student | To-do list is showing items up until year 4001 

Again, I do not know if this applies or not, but I wanted to at least provide you and others a link to this known issue that is currently open.

I hope it helps in some way.

[clpatter · Accepted solution]

I put a ticket in with Canvas yesterday, and they said it's a known bug, and that they're working on a fix.  They didn't give any kind of timeline, but at least it is going to be fixed.

[CLSO_Tech_Dir]

Did they reference a known issue number in their response? I have not found anything listed regarding this particular app behavior in the published listing.
https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Known-Issues/tkb-p/issues

[clpatter]

This is the known issue about the To-Do list, though it doesn't cover all the issues with the To-Do list (completed items not being removed and no ability to remove items manually).

[OPEN] [iOS] Student | To-do list is showing items up until year 4001