Features Q&A: Canvas Release Notes (2024-07-20)

[CanvasDocTeam]

Looking to discuss these features from the 2024-07-20 Release Notes? Post a reply and start a conversation!

New Features

• Discussions: Ungraded Discussions Assign To
• Navigation: Analytics Hub
• Inbox: Add Signature to Messages
• Inbox: Add Auto Response to Messages
• Intelligent Insights: Analytics and AI
• Modules: Module and Assignment Differentiation
• Pages: Assign To Feature Available

Updated Features

• Assignments: Assign To Interface Update

Feature Options

• Admin Analytics: Navigation Updates
• Navigation: Removal of Legacy Account Analytics [Added 2024-07-09]
• Rubrics: Redesign Phase 1

Other Updates

• Analytics: Admin Analytics and Course Analytics migration to Data Access Platform (DAP) [Course Analytics migration Delayed as of 2024-07-19]
• Announcements and Discussions: Enforcement of Discussion/Announcement Redesign
• Discussions: Create and Edit Page is updated to InstUI
• Navigation: Removal of Legacy Account Analytics [Delayed as of 2024-07-19]
• New Analytics: Enforcement of New Course and User Analytics Feature Option [Delayed as of 2024-07-19]

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

[audra_agnelly · Accepted solution]

I'll start by saying that I'm very excited to finally have the option to assign modules, pages to individual students or sections. We have some use cases where this will really benefit our staff.

That said, I see 2 areas where we're going to get pushback:

1) the time fields have changed from a customizable entry to a drop-down that limits selections to on the half hour. Those limitations are not in alignment with our bell schedule or school day and staff should not be forced to use specific times.

2) On the assignment screen, staff need to click the Manage Assign To link to open the assign to panel. In most settings, an assignment's due date is a required entry, it populates the assignment on student's Canvas calendars and To-Do lists, it determines placement in a grading period, and it drives the behavior for "missing" and "late" statuses. With this update "due date" is a hidden field on the Assignment Settings screen and users have to click a link to see/update those fields. The interface needs to be updated back to a workflow where the default "assign to: Everyone" and the due date field is clearly visible to the instructor, maybe that means auto-launching the new sidebar. At our institution, we already run into numerous issues caused by instructors forgetting to add assignment due dates. Hiding that field on the assignment screen will only exacerbate those problems.

[AllisonHowell]

@audra_agnelly I think you're aware based on your activity in the blog post that we are updating designs based on the excellent points you and others brought up about the design on the assignment edit page. We will document in the community when that update is going out. 

Regarding your first point, you are able to type in the exact time, but I take your point that it doesn't appear like that's possible. I'm sharing that feedback with our team that designs these components. I'm curious if it would be helpful in the interim to adjust the drop-down selections to smaller increments? 

[PallaviJalakam]

I share similar concerns regarding the hidden fields, especially Due Dates, under the Manage Assign To link. While it may seem obvious that the Manage Assign To link is clickable, many instructors might overlook it.

Although I liked the slide-out tray, the previous design was more user-friendly since it required no extra clicks to access the Assign To and Dates fields.

I liked having the "Assign To" shortcut on the Assignments/Discussions/Quizzes screen without needing to enter the edit screen. This streamlined the process of setting different due dates for individual students or sections later in the semester.

I encountered a blip with the module unlock dates that I found frustrating.

when I try to lock a module or schedule a release date for a module, it defaults to the current time instead of 12:00 AM.

I understand the quick solution and the flexibility to schedule module releases/unlocks. However, in similar fields such as the Availability from setting for Assignments/Discussions/Quizzes and the Start Date in Course Settings, the default availability date is set at 12:00 AM. While adjusting the time is convenient, it introduces an extra step that was previously unnecessary.

Thanks!
P Jalakam

[emg0039]

I would like to second the concerns in point 2 here. 

Every single assignment and quiz I create for my classes has a due date, and one of the things that faculty at my institution are asked to do in pretty much every teaching focused faculty development workshop is to put the due dates in Canvas so that our students can benefit from the to-do list.  Requiring instructors to go through extra click-links and wait for a side-bar to open in order to set the due date and time is actually very burdensome.  It adds at least 30 seconds of unnecessary (and new) work to the creation or modification of every single quiz/assignment.  When we have hundreds of these each semester, this adds up to significant frustration and not a trivial amount of time lost.  

One of the key things we teach our undergraduate students in engineering is to identify ways to streamline a process and remove barriers for the system user to accomplish their required tasks.  Hiding the assignment due date menu does the exact opposite and adds a barrier that, in it's least-bad case adds work time and frustration to instructors trying to use the platform, but as the original author noted may also cause some instructors to leave off this information entirely which is a great disservice to students in most cases.

[tchilt]

I'll also second number 2 here. Please don't hide the due date fields behind a link. It makes the interface less usable.

[BethSmithvuw]

Noticed a bug with the "Modules: Module and Assignment Differentiation" where by when adding in requirements for elements of a module if there is a text header in the module it 'bombs out' the settings window. logged a support ticket about it. #10907133

[venitk]

I have major concerns about using the new rubrics while grading. 

1. When using traditional view, unless the instructor is using a large monitor, they cannot see the assignment with the rubric open. In other words, the rubric covers the entire assignment. I used by laptop and I couldn't see anything. Admittedly, my resolution is slightly higher on my laptop because of my middle-aged eyes, but many of my instructors also set their laptops to a higher res. Even in your video, which presumably was set to a normal resolution, you can see that the rubric hides much of the assignment. 
2. If the rubric has more than 5 criteria (which would necessitate using the traditional view), instructors will need to reference the rubric and the assignment while grading. They won't be able to remember all those criteria and how the submission does for all of them. 
3. For all view modes, it seems as though the rubric opens in a tray over the speedgrader interface, not next to the interface as the current rubric system does. This prevents the instructor from being able to see some of the annotation tools. For example, when using the point annotation tool, the box to write a note connected to the point is under the rubric tray.
4. If I close the rubric without clicking "submit assignment" (say, if I'm only partway done with grading and want to look at the assignment to see how I would grade a criteria), my previous notes are not saved. The instructor could click "submit assignment" to save their progress, but then there's a chance the student might see an incompletely graded assignment, correct? Most of my instructors don't use the manual posting option because it's confusing. 

Respectfully, although I like the improvements made to the build side of the rubrics, the way this tool interfaces with Speedgrader is not ready to be released even as a feature option IMO. These behaviors make it basically unusable on a laptop (IDK how it would work on mobile), and only halfway useable on a larger monitor. Not a programmer, but to me the obvious solution would seem to be to have the rubric open not on a tray but instead in the speedgrader interface itself, as current rubrics do, which I assume would change a lot about how the tool is built on the back end. 

I will look into submitting these concerns to my CSM, since I know this is a Q&A forum, but I wanted to add these thoughts here just in case I can't get through to the CSM.

[RaviKoll]

Thank you for taking the time to provide such detailed feedback on the new rubric redesign in Canvas LMS. Your insights are incredibly valuable to us.

We are aware of some of the limitations you've highlighted regarding the redesigned rubrics in SpeedGrader and are actively working on improving the experience. We acknowledge that the current experience is not perfect, but please know that we are committed to making the necessary refinements. Your feedback plays a crucial role in helping us prioritize these improvements.

If you have any further concerns or suggestions, please feel free to reach out. We appreciate your patience and support as we work to enhance the Canvas LMS experience.

Thank you again for your valuable feedback.

[audra_agnelly]

Can we get more clarification on the rules for Archive function for Rubrics? My interpretation is that this would be used in lieu of Deleting when a Rubric is attached to a graded assignment (like archiving grading schemes). I attempted to archive some rubrics in a test course but I get a popup message that just says "Error Archiving Rubric" with no additional clarification as to why. I was only able to archive Rubrics where the "location used" column was empty. When Location Used lists 'courses and assignments' I get this error, but if archiving is not available for rubrics used in courses and assignments, why is the Archive menu item even a selectable option? The option to delete is disabled for those rubrics, I would expect the Archive option to be disabled as well if the rubric can't be archived..

[RaviKoll]

This seems to be a bug. If you continue to experience this issue, please reach out to your CSM, and we will promptly investigate it.

[audra_agnelly]

Thanks @RaviKoll , I can do that, but my question wasn't really answered. What is Archiving supposed to do and when would a teacher Archive a rubric? Is the bug that Archive is enabled in the drop-down menu, or is the bug that I get an error when I try to archive a linked rubric linked to assignments? The release notes don't provide any details about this feature and as of this morning the Canvas guides for Rubrics have not been updated to reflect this weekend's release.

[LauraCira]

Regarding the Assignments: Assign To Interface Update feature, I agree very much @audra_agnelly that the the Assign To block is crucial enough to warrant placement on the assignment settings page without the need to open a new window to access it. Most of the time, assignments/tests will have one date range and it is simpler to have this necessary feature surfaced for efficiency. If the instructor needs to post additional time frames, that would be when the new flyout is most useful. 

Additionally, I would like to request that we allow due dates (and Module availability) to be able to be set for course groups as well as sections or by student. Many courses create ad hoc groups for projects or different learning tracks, and assigning things like a unique Module or Assignment or Test to these groups is critical for clarity in a large class. Giving these groups their own availability and due dates is often very useful, as well. 

[audra_agnelly]

@LauraCira thanks for lifting up Groups. I think that's a whole other conversation too since Groups are used by instructors to differentiate instructions, but the Group feature itself is designed for Group work and as a result it doesn't work for some things (ex. External Tool Assignments).

But also, take a look at the discussion on the post The Latest on Releasing Modules to Students and Sections, there's a whole conversation there about the Assign To changes in Assignments and some updates from Instructure. 

@AllisonHowell is anyone at Instructure monitoring and responding to questions in the Release/Deploy notes Q&A anymore?

[AllisonHowell]

@audra_agnelly Thank you for calling out that we missed these questions. We're getting on this right away! 

@LauraCira Yes, we are looking into what it would take to assign to groups as we understand this would be extremely beneficial! And we are also going to adjust the design based on the feedback we received. This change will be documented in the release/deploy notes when it goes out. We are working on it now though I can't give an exact date yet. 

[kailey]

With the 7/20 release, the Announcements tool now has multiple references to 'Discussions' that shouldn't be there. I had originally reported this issue to Instructure (case 10923016) on July 2, 2024. The code that introduces these multiple bugs to Announcements was originally supposed to be part of an earlier deploy that was postponed. My CSM informed me that it was postponed so that Instructure had more time to address these issues. You have now released the new code to production, while knowing about these issues and bugs. It is truly frustrating that Instructure relies on their customers to QA their system and even when we do share feedback about discovered bugs and usability issues, Instructure still continues to release code that introduces these bugs. As you can see in my screenshots, there are a number of problems with the Announcements tool now.

1. When editing an existing announcement, a message displays saying, "Students have already submitted to this discussion, so group settings cannot be changed."
   • The message uses 'discussion' instead of 'announcement'. 
   • No student has left a comment on this announcement, so the message shouldn't be appearing at all.
   • What are "group" settings? It's not clear if it's referring to the "Post To" field, but I have not entered a specific section. The announcement is at the default - All Sections. 
2. When an error message comes up (second screenshot), it also refers to 'discussion' instead of 'announcement'. 
3. Parts of the page refers to 'Participants' while the message uses 'Students'. This is inconsistent and could cause confusion. 

When can we expect these issues in Announcements to be fixed?

[SamGarza1]

Hi @kailey 

Thank you for raising this issue. We've resolved the first two points already and the fixes will be on production 7/31/24. I will pass this on to the team for the inconsistent language, and we will work to make it consistent. 

[MeazellOUHSC]

We have an additional issue where an instructor edits announcements and gets a notification. They see all that above and then get a notification each time they edit the announcement, even though it's post-dated. I've reported it via a ticket, but I thought I'd add that here.

[PallaviJalakam]

I've encountered the same warning messages while editing announcements that do not have any comments/submissions and was wondering if I've overlooked something.

I hope that this issue will be resolved before our faculty return from their summer vacation to avoid any potential concerns or frustrations.

[emg0039]

I have run into a surprising result with the implementation of the "Assign To" button that we can now access without actually editing the whole assignment.

For assignments that have a submission type that is "external tool" - I don't have the "Assign To" button at the top of the page (before clicking the edit button) like I do for quizzes and assignments where the submission type is a file upload in Canvas.  I have not created separate assignments for every submission type to get the full list of which submission type assignments do and do not have the " Assign To" button before editing the assignment- the only assignment types I have this semester are file upload and external tool so those are the two I have checked.

I have attached images of the assignments with and without the "Assign To" button.

I think this might just be a bug or error in the programming, even when there is an external tool linked for the assignment submission I still always set the due date and time in Canvas so it shows up in the to-do list.

[PallaviJalakam]

I can confirm that the "Assign To" shortcut is accessible for all submission types except for External Tool.