Feature Q&A: Canvas Release Notes (2023-06-17)

[InstContentTeam]

Looking to discuss these features from the 2023-06-17 Release Notes? Post a reply and start a conversation!

New Features

• Modules: Bulk Publish and Unpublish Module Items 

Feature Options

• New Quizzes: Rich Content Editor in New Quizzes 
• New Quizzes: Rich Content Editor Supports Third-Party Apps
• New Quizzes: Zero-Point New Quiz in Gradebook Checkbox

Other Updates

• LTI 1.1: Beta Environment Launch URL Update

ADD FEEDBACK FOR THESE FEATURES IN Q&A TOPIC

• This topic is for feature discussion only—Please share use cases, best practices, questions, clarifications, etc. regarding this feature.
• Please thread replies as possible to keep posts organized. This will help everyone to track discussions and to participate.

ADDITIONAL FEEDBACK—WHERE TO POST IDEA SUGGESTIONS AND SUBMIT BUG REPORTS

• Idea requests for the Product Team to consider should be submitted in ideas.canvaslms.com . This is the best way to ask for additional or alternative functionality than what is included in the release. Linking to the related idea here so others can find it is encouraged!
• Bug reports should be submitted to Canvas Support. This way, cases can be connected and uniform updates can be provided to those involved. Bugs will not be triaged in this thread

[chriscas]

Can the "LTI 1.1 - Beta Environment Launch URL Update" item be clarified a bit?  Is this referring to the launch URL as part of the LTI configuration?  I'm having trouble wrapping my head around what's going on with this, as the launch URL to the tool wouldn't generally be changed based on the Canvas environment (in my experience).  I think I must be misunderstanding the update.  If an example could be provided, that would be super helpful!

-Chris

[AlexisNast]

Hi @chriscas 

Great question, and sorry this was confusing! When an LTI 1.1 tool has a value in the configuration for the "environments" parameter (see documentation here), we previously would go through every single content link when copying from prod to beta and update the launch to use the domain specified in that parameter. This change makes it so that instead of going through this processing intensive step, we will now update the launch URL when the content is launched from Beta. The end result to the user is the same - when that parameter is set, we launch to the domain specified. But the mechanics of how it happens have changed, and we wanted to provide transparency around that. There has been no change to any behavior when that parameter isn't set in the tool configuration.

I hope this helps to clarify, please let me know if you have any further questions!

Alexis

[ProfessorBeyrer]

It's nice to have the option for zero-point New Quizzes not to be shown on the Grades page. I did some testing and am glad to see that a zero-point New Quiz set as a module requirement does allow the "score at least" option, though in practice that is the same as "submit the assignment" for New Quizzes that have all auto-graded questions.

Zero-point New Quiz set as a module requirement

Since students might be confused by seeing a requirement to score at least 0, I will advise faculty who choose to select not to show in the gradebook to use the "submit the assignment" option if they want to use it as a module requirement.

[BrendaKeller]

Has anyone else been having problems with migrating a New Quiz from a previous course into a new course, particularly ones that have pictures imported into the New Quiz?  It is NOT working for me.  I can't even "Send To" a colleague anymore.  Something happened with this 6/17/23 release.  New Quizzes I created BEFORE that date move over just fine, pictures and all. 

But New Quizzes I've created AFTER that date (6/18/23 or later) are not moving over easily from my sandbox to the actual course (as this artlcle says they will: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-copy-a-quiz-to-another-course-in-New-Qu... ) and when they do, the imbedded pictures do not go along with them.  The only way I have found to even HOPE to get the New Quiz moved into another course is to duplicate it first in the sandbox course, and then "Copy To" the course I want it placed in.  But even then, the pictures are not loading. 

Instructure Support has told me that is something for "engineers" to take care of, however I'm not having any luck escalating this issue up the chain of command or to an "engineer."  There is definitely something different happening since the 6/17/23 Release as it relates to New Quizzes.  Any help/advice would be appreciated.

I would send some screenshots, but when I try to upload them I get this message:  "You do not have permissin to upload images."

[audra_agnelly]

Can I get clarification on this message that is now coming up in New Quizzes? It was reported to me by a teacher and they are receiving it when they create a question in New Quizzes that has an image in the stem but not if images are only in the answer choices.

They are also working on questions in Item Banks and received a similar message:

I understand that users can't access course links in courses where they are not enrolled, but how does that play in with New Quiz questions and Item Banks ... what happens to an image in the stem when you copy that content to a another course via course import, blueprint, or other sharing method? Other embedded links automatically update to the new course ID when courses are imported/copied. @TamasBalogh I assume this is part of the new RCE update but I have not been able to find any documentation about this message.

[audra_agnelly]

Some additional information: the questions in New Quizzes where the teacher is getting the error are question that were brought in from an Item Bank (not from-scratch questions within the editor). The source for the image in the item bank points to the course ID of their sandbox and after inserting into the quiz the url does not dynamically update to the course ID of the course he is building the quiz in. Looking at some other images in the same item bank I see a source links that point to S3 buckets: <img src="https://quiz-api-production-s3-uploads-9bc92eovor5s.s3.amazonaws.com/item_media/b9e70366-6e67-4729-a..." alt="34 + 52" width="216" height="59">

Why do some images use Canvas links and others use S3? The teacher is building master content that will be shared across the district and he is concerned that images will be broken when teachers use the quizzes with their students.  

[MPioRoda]

Thanks for your patience!

To provide more context, these Item Bank warnings appear under the following conditions when either adding rich content to an item bank (1) or when editing rich content in an item bank (2):

• The user authors an item with rich content (1) or the user edits an Item belonging to an item bank with rich content (2)
• That rich content contains links or URLs to Course-level resources
• The user adds the Item to a Bank (1) or saves changes to the item (2)

To answer your first question on "what happens to an image in the stem when you copy that content to a another course…", assuming that this image is a course file, copying a course doesn't automatically change the links in an item bank so when you add a question from an item bank in the new course, the links would still refer back to the original course.  The link to that file does not get updated because in NQ we don't consider item banks as belonging to a course, so there would be no way for it to update to the current course.

In Classic Quizzes, question banks could either belong to a course or account - that's why they had been using course links in their course banks. In NQ, item banks do not belong to courses, a change that was made to make sharing and management of item banks more efficient. For example, you could search for item banks in your sandbox or in a course. When a course copy occurs in new quizzes, Item Banks and their associated questions are not copied to the new course. Instead, the bank is shared with the new course.

If someone wants to put an image in item bank content (as part of a question), they are either loading it from their user files or from their course files.  If they are loading the image from their own user files, as long as they set a user file as readable, then the links will work in item banks when they copy a course. The warning appears only if it is course linked content, so if they remove it as a course file and move to a user file then the warning should not come up. 

To answer your second question "Why do some images use Canvas links and others use S3? ", S3 is for anything uploaded via old RCE, while Canvas links are uploaded via new RCE. In Canvas if you insert an image it does not use an s3 url.

[audra_agnelly]

@MPioRoda "To answer your first question on "what happens to an image in the stem when you copy that content to a another course…", assuming that this image is a course file, copying a course doesn't automatically change the links in an item bank so when you add a question from an item bank in the new course, the links would still refer back to the original course.  The link to that file does not get updated because in NQ we don't consider item banks as belonging to a course, so there would be no way for it to update to the current course."

If the item bank image remains in the old course, students in next year's course would not have access to images in a prior year course. This would completely prevent teachers from reusing Item Banks from year to year and would not be able to share with a colleague whose students do not have access to the original teacher's course. If that's the case, that is a huge problem. If images do not copy to the new course then Item Bank images should never be tied to a course in the first place, they need to default to the user's account or some other setting where they can remain visible and don't hinge on enrollment in a prior course. It takes a long time to build Item Banks and I think that sharing/reusing them is a common expectation. Am I misunderstanding something here?

"S3 is for anything uploaded via old RCE, while Canvas links are uploaded via new RCE" -- by old and new you are referring to the New Quizzes RCE before and after the June 2023 update? If those image were uploaded to S3 are they still tied to the course settings or are they tied to the users settings.

I have made several requests for a user guide/resource that explains the recommended workflow to share New quizzes with Item Banks with colleagues or to reuse from year to year. Where do the images need to reside? How and where should Item banks be built so that they can be shared with colleagues without errors. I understand that there are institutional banks, but how do all the Algebra II teachers in a high school develop an item bank to share with one another's courses? How does one staff member develop an item bank that they can share with colleagues?