Features Q&A: Canvas Deploy Notes (2025-06-04)

[InstContentTeam]

Looking to discuss these features from the 2025-06-04 Deploy Notes? Post a reply and start a conversation!

Updated Features

• Admin Tools: View Notification Interface Update
• Analytics: New Course Analytics LTI 1.3 Upgrade
• Sections: Separate Fields for Date and Time
• People: View Linked Observers in User Profile
• SpeedGrader: Studio Media Comment Screen Capture and Auto Captioning Feature Option

Other Updates

• Accessibility Updates: Enhanced Structural Clarity
• Accessibility Updates: Improved Error Feedback
• Accessibility Updates: Improved Visual Clarity and Semantic Structure
• Accessibility Updates: Streamlined Navigation and Keyboard Accessibility
• Accessibility Tools: Removal of Redundant Partner Content Statement

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

[theJBRU]

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@InstContentTeam wrote:

Other Updates

• Accessibility Updates: Enhanced Structural Clarity
• Accessibility Updates: Improved Error Feedback
• Accessibility Updates: Improved Visual Clarity and Semantic Structure
• Accessibility Updates: Streamlined Navigation and Keyboard Accessibility

 Once again, and still, looking for additional detail about these updates. Any customization we create relies heavily upon the structure of the HTML provided by the Canvas system. Some of the accessibility issues described in broad terms in these updates have already been addressed by our customizations. If these are no longer needed, it would be useful to know that. Also, if any changes are modifying the HTML structures knowing what is changing and where those changes are occurring allow us to proactively modify things to avoid impacts to our users. Please treat these updates with the same care and detail as you do for others.

For example, the information about "Removal of Redundant Partner Content Statement" provides enough detail to know if this will impact any of the work we may have done. Please provide at least this level of detail for the other accessibility changes.

[crafte]

There does not seem to be an option to edit the automatically created captions. The captions cannot be downloaded either to enable instructors to edit and reupload captions. The only option seems to be to delete the captions and to create new captions using a third-party application. 

[jlee16]

In upgrading New Course Analytics from 1.1 to 1.3, a New Analytics link now shows at the bottom of every course menu in our entire instance.  Is it possible to hide it by default, as we usually do via Developer Key for other 1.3 LTI's?

[jdurancal]

Hi,

We've noticed that, since the recent update, syncing from the Blueprint course causes activity items to be moved to the 'Imported Assignments' group in the associated course. Could you confirm whether this change was intentional?"

Attached is a chart showing the number of synchronizations (blue line) and the point at which the 'Imported Assignments' group began to appear (red line). This occurred without importing any courses, only through Blueprint synchronizations.

Thanks

[LMUCTLE]

 I am sharing at the behest of my CSM. This update introduced New Analytics to all course menus by default, including concluded courses, without prior disclosure of the change in placement behavior. We have a detailed, dedicated template. Our institution already provides access and trains instructors to use to New Analytics from the homepage, so this unannounced addition disrupted our standardized course template. We follow Canvas’s own best practices by limiting the course menu to specific tools only and instructing faculty not to add items.

Removing it from "Course Navigation" via the App Placements section as we were directed, also removes the Home Page button, which is not documented. Disabling the feature at the account level forces instructors to re-enable it manually, which is not a viable solution. Managing this via API is also not acceptable for a core Canvas tool, especially when the recommended tool (Chrome Postman) is deprecated.

A change of this magnitude should have been transparently communicated in the Upcoming Changes page and tied to a major roadmap date like July 19, with proper labeling and impact detail. We need clearer release notes and a more reliable process for understanding how feature rollouts affect course environments. This is not the first time something has been forced onto the menu that can be facilitated somewhere else with not enough disclosure beforehand, including courses that are concluded. 

@InstContentTeam

[jenn_stevens]

Agreed! When I look at the 6/4 deploy notes about New Analytics, I don't see any heads-up that there will be a non-working button in our left hand navigation. We had not yet enabled New Analytics, so now faculty click the button and contact us wondering why they are seeing a message that "New Analytics Feature Flag is not enabled for this account". Their (understandable) thinking is that if there is a button then it should work. As a result, we're moving to New Analytics much sooner than planned and with less notification of faculty than we would have liked.

[dbrace]

Thank you for raising this, @LMUCTLE.

I have a question. Where has Instructure communicated that Postman is (or is going to be) deprecated?

I am asking because, at least as of right now, the guide below is on the  Canvas Studio Guide - Instructure Community  page under "Studio Admins".

 

How do I set up Studio OAuth with Postman? - Instructure Community - 602949

-Doug

[LMUCTLE]

You are most welcome Doug @dbrace. To my knowledge, this has NOT been communicated by Instructure. I also pointed this out to my CSM weeks ago and have received no response. 

Here is further reading on the depreciation: 

https://forum.codewithmosh.com/t/postman-is-now-deprecated-what-to-use/25112

https://www.postman.com/lunar-sunset-838826/test-1/collection/jhkifro/postman-api-deprecated

[chriscas]

Hi @LMUCTLE,

Just to chime in on Postman...  I don't think the official Postman program or website are deprecated at all.  it looks to me like what ius deprecated may have been some sort of unofficial Chrome extension.  Some of the posts in the links are over a year old, and I have used postman successfully much more recently than that.  I'm also not sure that Instructure actually recommends using Postman, but I know they reference it heavily in the Canvas Certified Technical Admin program. There are a lot of options out there for working with the Canvas API (the live API, cURL, Postman, python, etc...) and you should be able to use whichever one you're most comfortable with.

-Chris

[LMUCTLE]

Thanks @chriscas! I was told to use the Chrome extension, which I know is deprecated, that’s why I mentioned it. My CSM specifically asked me to share this here, but the info I was given was based on another admin’s work within the Community, not something I believe is built or endorsed by Instructure.

I’m glad you’ve used it successfully. Thank you for sharing with us! I’m aware there are other options and don’t expect one tool to be favored by everyone, but the guidance I received was outdated and that needs to be clearer in what Instructure's team sends out, posts, or recommends with depreciated instructions archived.

This New Analytics piece is something so basic I don't feel API should even have to come into play here 😞 

[dbrace]

Thank you @LMUCTLE  and @chriscas.

From what I can see when doing a Google Search for "postman deprecated" (https://www.google.com/search?q=postman+deprecated, attached below, with some aspects removed for clarity), Postman itself is still available but the extension for Chrome is no longer available.

-Doug