In this Canvas release (March 9), discussion topics can be searched by author name in addition to title.
Feature Options
External Tools (LTI)
Release notes also include small non-functionality changes, API updates, and fixed bugs.
Release notes describe upcoming Canvas functionality and are subject to change.
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Feature OptionsThe following feature options are addressed in this release:
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Updated Features |
This feature is used in conjunction with an existing feature option in Canvas. Please view the content below for additional details. For more information about feature options, please see the Canvas Release Notes FAQ.
Location to Enable Feature | N/A |
Configuration Details | |
Affected Canvas Areas | SpeedGrader |
Affects User Interface | Yes |
Affected User Roles | Instructors |
Summary
As part of a moderated assignment, the Assessment Audit section displays automatically within SpeedGrader for any user with permission to view the moderated grading audit log.
Change Benefit
This change removes the Anonymous Moderated Marking Audit Trail feature option and no longer requires this feature option to be enabled separately when creating moderated assignments.
Affected User Roles & Behaviors
Instructors
Instructors with the Grades - view audit trail permission can act as an auditor for a course and always view the Assessment Audit section in SpeedGrader. Auditing also displays any changes made for moderated assignments that are also anonymous. All details about the Assessment Audit section are included as part of the Canvas Release Notes (2018-12-08).
Feature Idea Contributions
Canvas features are always welcome to feedback. Product teams may make adjustments at any time via the Canvas Feature Idea process.
- View existing Anonymous & Moderated feature ideas
- For new ideas, please tag the idea with anonymous&moderated
These features are used in conjunction with an external tool (LTI) in Canvas. Please view the content below for additional details. For more information about LTI tools, please see the Canvas Release Notes FAQ.
Location to Enable Feature | Commons LTI |
Configuration Details | Resource Previews has been removed as an opt-in account setting and is enabled for all accounts |
Affected Canvas Areas | Commons LTI Any area with imported content |
Beta/Test Environment Support | Functionality affects content in the beta environment only; New/updated features not available until production deploy |
Permissions | Course Content - add / edit / delete Discussions - view Assignments and Quizzes - add / edit / delete |
Affects User Interface | Yes |
Affected User Roles | Admins, Instructors |
Summary
Resource cards display the number of times a resource has been downloaded or imported and the number of times a resource has been favorited. Users can also sort search results by Most Favorited and Most Downloaded.
Change Benefit
This update allows instructors to easily view how many times a resource has been favorited and downloaded. It also allows instructors to sort search results by Most Favorited or Most Downloaded.
Affected User Roles & Behaviors
Instructors
The resource card displays the number of times a resource has been favorited and downloaded, allowing instructors to easily find content in Commons. Instructors can also sort search results by Most Favorited or Most Downloaded.
Summary
When viewing the resource Details tab in Commons, users can view filtered search results that only display resources from their specific institution.
Change Benefit
This update allows users to find resources from the same institution as the resource they’re currently viewing.
Affected User Roles & Behaviors
Instructors
When an instructor views the Resource Details tab for a resource in Commons, they can click the Institution name to view filtered search results that only display resources from that institution.
Summary
This update includes several changes to the interface of resource cards in Commons search results. The updated resource cards now show updated icons, resource type, grade level, and the number of times a resource has been downloaded and added as a favorite.
Change Benefit
This update simplifies the information displayed on the resource card.
Affected User Roles & Behaviors
Instructors
The updated resource card displays in the Commons search results and in the Favorites page.
Summary
Commons resources no longer include a section to tag resources with K-12 Federal or State outcome standards. Resources with existing associated outcomes will not be affected. This change only applies to tagging and searching outcomes in Commons and does not affect rubrics and outcomes linked to assignments, discussions, and quizzes shared from Canvas.
Change Benefit
This change simplifies resource management and allows instructors to import resources and add the outcomes that are specific to their teaching needs.
Affected User Roles & Behaviors
Instructors
Instructors sharing a new resource or editing a resource will no longer be able to tag resources with outcomes within Commons. This only applies to the Federal and State K12 outcomes standards and does not apply to rubrics and outcomes created within Canvas and linked to assignments, discussions, and quizzes.
Any resource that has an existing associated outcome still displays the resource in the details page and in the resource card.
Feature Idea Contributions
Canvas features are always welcome to feedback. Product teams may make adjustments at any time via the Canvas Feature Idea process.
- View existing Commons feature ideas
- For new ideas, please tag the idea with commons
Location to Enable Feature | Discussions |
Configuration Details | N/A |
Affected Canvas Areas | Discussions |
Beta/Test Environment Support | Yes |
Permissions | Assignments and Quizzes - add / edit / delete Discussions - view Discussions - moderate Discussions - create Discussions - post |
Related APIs | Discussion Topics API |
Affects User Interface | Yes |
Affected User Roles | All Users |
Summary
Users can search discussion topics by author name in addition to title.
Change Benefit
This change restores previous author search functionality within the Discussions page.
Affected User Roles & Behaviors
All Users
When viewing the Discussions page, users can use the search field to search for a discussion by title or author. The Search field help text has been updated to specify the search options.
Any discussions that have been copied from a previous course do not include an author.
Feature Idea Contributions
Canvas features are always welcome to feedback. Product teams may make adjustments at any time via the Canvas Feature Idea process.
- View existing Discussions feature ideas
- For new ideas, please tag the idea with discussions
This feature is used in conjunction with an existing feature option in Canvas. Please view the content below for additional details. For more information about feature options, please see the Canvas Release Notes FAQ.
Location to Enable Feature | New Gradebook |
Configuration Details | |
Affected Canvas Areas | New Gradebook |
Related APIs | Custom Gradebook Columns API |
Affects User Interface | No |
Affected User Roles | Instructors |
Summary
When the Final Grade Override feature option is enabled, any entries in the Override column display in CSV Gradebook exports. However, override grades are not valid as part of Gradebook uploads.
Change Benefit
This change adds override grades to Gradebook exports.
Affected User Roles & Behaviors
Instructors
Instructors can enable the Final Grade Override feature, add override grades, and view the override grades in the Gradebook CSV export file.
The Gradebook download file includes override grades for the entire course. If a course includes grading periods, override grades are included in the download for the selected grading period.
Canvas features are always welcome to feedback. Product teams may make adjustments at any time via the Canvas Feature Idea process.
- View existing New Gradebook feature ideas
- For new ideas, please tag the idea withgradebook_new
These features are used in conjunction with an external tool (LTI) in Canvas. Please view the content below for additional details. For more information about LTI tools, please see the Canvas Release Notes FAQ.
Location to Enable Feature | Quizzes.Next Assessment Items |
Configuration Details | |
Affected Canvas Areas | Assignments |
Beta Environment Support | No |
Affects User Interface | Yes |
Affected User Roles | Instructors, Students |
Summary
Quizzes.Next supports enabling on-screen calculators for assessment questions.
Change Benefit
This feature allows students to use a basic or scientific calculator when answering assessment questions.
Affected User Roles & Behaviors
Instructors
Instructors can enable an on-screen calculator with basic or scientific functions from the Options menu of any question type.
On-screen calculators are best used for assessments presented in One Question at a Time mode. If a calculator is enabled in an assessment where students can view all questions on the same page, students can use the calculator to answer any question.
A warning message allows instructors to enable One Question at a Time mode within the question after the on-screen calculator is enabled.
Students
If the calculator is enabled, students can open the calculator by clicking the Calculator icon.
Basic calculators include the functions to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Scientific calculators include all basic functions in addition to several scientific functions.
Feature Idea Contributions
Canvas features are always welcome to feedback. Product teams may make adjustments at any time via the Canvas Feature Idea process.
- View existing quizzes.next feature ideas
- For new ideas, please tag the idea with quizzes.next
This feature is used in conjunction with an external tool (LTI) in Canvas. Please view the content below for additional details. For more information about LTI tools, please see the Canvas Release Notes FAQ.
Location to Enable Feature | Rich Content Editor |
Configuration Details | |
Affected Canvas Areas | Commons LTI, Rich Content Editor |
Beta/Test Environment Support | Functionality affects content in the beta environment only; New/updated features not available until production deploy |
Permissions | Course Content - add / edit / delete Discussions - view Assignments and Quizzes - add / edit / delete |
Affects User Interface | Yes |
Affected User Roles | Instructors |
Summary
Instructors can view and import content from their Commons Favorites list directly in the Rich Content Editor in Canvas.
Change Benefit
This feature allows instructors to import favorite content from Commons directly in their Canvas course.
Affected User Roles & Behaviors
Instructors
Instructors can use the Commons Favorites button in the Rich Content Editor toolbar to import favorite content from Commons.
Any supported content added to the Favorites list in Commons are available for import in the Rich Content Editor. Users can search for items or filter by content type within the sidebar. Users can only import embeddable content types (documents, videos, audio, and images).
Canvas features are always welcome to feedback. Product teams may make adjustments at any time via the Canvas Feature Idea process.
- View existing Commons feature ideas
- For new ideas, please tag the idea with commons
Other Updates |
This feature is used in conjunction with an external tool (LTI) in Canvas. Please view the content below for additional details. For more information about LTI tools, please see the Canvas Release Notes FAQ.
Location to Enable Feature | Commons LTI |
Configuration Details | |
Affected Canvas Areas | Commons LTI |
Beta/Test Environment Support | Functionality affects content in the beta environment only; New/updated features not available until production deploy |
Affects User Interface | Yes |
Affected User Roles | Instructors |
Summary
The Remove from Favorites confirmation message has changed from an animation on the resource card to a confirmation message in a separate browser window.
Change Benefit
This change improves accessibility within Commons.
Affected User Roles & Behaviors
Instructors
When instructors remove a resource from their Favorites, the confirmation message displays in a separate browser window. No functionality has been affected.
Location to Enable Feature | N/A |
Configuration Details | N/A |
Affected Canvas Areas | Card View Dashboard |
Affects User Interface | Yes |
Affected User Roles | All Users |
Summary
The icon class displayed in course cards defaults the icon display in a slightly smaller size.
Change Benefit
This change provides consistency for icons in both the Card View Dashboard and the List View Dashboard.
Affected User Roles & Behaviors
All Users
Users who have enabled course cards in the Dashboard can view the course card icons in a slightly smaller size than previously displayed. No functionality has been affected.
Platform/Integration |
Adjustments have been made to the following APIs as noted in the API Documentation change log:
SIS Imports API
Users API
Fixed Bugs |
As part of deleting a section, content is read as Remove User from Section to screen readers.
Uploaded audio files are tagged as audio files.
The Course Link Validator does not consider quiz answer comments with rel attributes as broken links.
Submissions that are automatically assigned grades through a Missing Policy include a graded_at date indicated in the Courses API.
Explanation: When a grade was automatically assigned through the Missing Policy in the New Gradebook, the score was entered in the New Gradebook, but the graded_at date was not updated within the API. This behavior also affected SIS grade passback efficiency, as grades can only be passed back if a graded_at date is included. Canvas code has been updated to update the graded_at date in the API for submissions updated via the Missing Policy.
In the Canvas API Index page, the API Terms of Service link displays the intended page.
Explanation: When a user clicked the API Terms of Service link, the link displayed a not found page. Canvas code has been updated to correct the API Terms of Service link.
The Search API does not duplicate search results for group conversations.
Explanation: When a group conversation was created in Canvas, the Search API duplicated each member in the given context according to each member’s total number of enrollments. Conversations paginated only 20 results, which truncated the list of possible recipients and would occasionally omit some group members. Canvas code has been updated to not duplicate group members in conversation messages.
Rubric associations are updated in Blueprint Course syncs after creating a copy of a rubric.
Explanation: When a rubric was edited with multiple associations to other assignments, a copy of the rubric was made and added to the assignment. However, additional Blueprint syncs were not updating the assignment’s new rubric association. Canvas code has been updated to retain rubric associations after a Blueprint Course sync.
Conversation messages include the file name of any media file uploaded or recorded within a message.
Explanation: When a media file is uploaded or recorded in a conversation message, Canvas would name the media file as undefined, even if a specific file name was included. Canvas code has been updated to retain file names of media files.
Changing an assignment workflow_state does not affect the plagiarism platform association.
Explanation: When a published assignment was unpublished and included no submissions, the plagiarism review settings were not retained and set back to None. Canvas code has been updated to retain the tool associations if the workflow state of the assignment is changed.
Deleting a course LTI tool does not affect the display of the Apps page.
Explanation: When an LTI tool was installed in both an account and a course, and the course-level tool was deleted, the Apps page loaded a blank page. Additionally, if multiple installations of the same LTI were included, deleting the top-most LTI caused it to break. Canvas code has been updated to prevent deleting course LTI tools from affecting the Apps page.
Changes to non-graded discussions sections are displayed in Modules.
Explanation: When section changes were made to a non-graded discussion, the updates were not displayed for affected students in the Modules page. Canvas code has been updated to display updated changes in the Modules page.
This change was deployed to the production environment on February 28.
External apps can be accessed in the Rich Content Editor when browser extensions are enabled in Chrome.
Explanation: When an external app was installed in the Rich Content Editor, the app displayed a launch error if browser extensions were installed, such as Dragon or Grammarly. This behavior affected Chrome browsers. Canvas code has been updated to fix external app launches when browser extensions are installed.
Anonymously graded assignments do not prevent data from being passed back via LTI Grade Passback.
Explanation: When an assignment was anonymously graded, and an LTI tool returned an outcome service message, Canvas displayed a user lookup error. Canvas code has been updated to allow tool or quiz IDs to be included in moderated or anonymous assignment audit information and provide the correct details for LTI tools.
Attachments from deleted discussion posts do not display in SpeedGrader.
Explanation: When a discussion post was deleted that included an attached file, the file was not removed when the discussion was viewed in SpeedGrader. This behavior affected instructors as they could see the file but not the post where it belonged. Canvas code has been updated to remove attachments from deleted discussion posts.
Date | |
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2019-03-01 | Added—Fixed Bugs
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2019-02-25 | Release Notes Published |
On Wednesday, February 27th, join other Community members as we review the Release Notes! RSVP to Release Notes (2019-03-09) Collaborative Chat for updates! New collaborators are always welcome.
Hi Canvas ..
Could the Canvas Commons - Details area identify if any LTIs have been associated with the cartridge file?
This is needed for Modules and Courses, as it possible to override administrator settings and install LTIs that require no key/secret.
Mark.
Can we have some insight into how the keys that ended up on the calculator ended up there? From someone who has taught math for a long time, they seem kind to hold onto legacy keys that are used very little while omitting some functionality that is used.
Finally, are the keys that show up configurable? Some are grayed out, but the documentation doesn't mention anything about how to configuring what keys show up. Are there templates for which scientific calculator we can use? I know I've seen requests in the community for a calculator that matches the calculator that students get to use on their local state assessments.
I see that 'Gradebook Export CSV Final Grade Override Column' was added this release. As far as I can tell, it adds columns to the grades export, but does not make an update to the true final grade that is being pushed to our SIS. Is this new column supposed to address the Grade Sync functionality that does not work with the current Final Grade Override settings in production or is there something more in the works?
Thank you,
Shane
Hi, Shane,
SIS functionality has been completed and will be available next release.
Thanks!
Erin
Hi, Mark,
Glad you're interested in the changes! I'd recommend letting our product team know more about your enhancement idea and your use case by posting in Canvas Studio with the tag canvas.next.
Thank you,
Erin
Hi, James,
I've asked one of our product managers to take a look at your comment and see if she can help answer your questions.
Thanks!
Erin
I was disappointed, but not surprised, to find in my testing, that the "search by author" function just searches the Topic and not replies. Since for most of our sites that use discussions, topics are initiated by a Teacher, that kind of search is not terribly useful, whereas the ability to search by author through Students' replies from the Discussions page would be very useful. It seems to me there use to be a feature request for this, but I don't see one now. (My own track record for getting uptake on requests I submit is so poor, that I'm no longer inclined to make the effort. Often a moderator informs that there's already such a request, and archives mine, though that may mean that there is another similar request, but one that differs from mine in significant respects.)
I've added my idea here for anyone interested:
https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/13693-canvas-commons-identify-ltis-in-items-details
Thanks for the update Erin. We'd love to see Sync Grades to SIS feature as soon as possible. It would be great if it could make it into this release, so that we could give instructors the override option in time for the end of our Winter quarter.
Hi ~ Here is the 2019-02-27 Chat Archive from our collaborative discussion! Our Notes were very brief this time, but it was still a worthwhile collaboration! Hopefully, you will be able to join us for the Release Notes (2019-03-30) Collaborative Chat!
Hi Peter Hess,
Within each discussion topic, you can already search by author. I like the feature as an easy way grab all the similar entries; if it searched across discussion topics I fear I wouldn't know what topic the response was associated with and I'd get befuddled with response overload.
Cheers - Shar
Sure, but sometimes it can be very informative to see all of a students responses over a number of topics. I think there are valid reasons for having both a "global" and a "local" search by user that would include replies. And I know it's something our faculty members have requested. The part that I find annoying is that it isn't clear in the interface that search doesn't work that way. More generally, a response I get from Canvas is "we have 'this', so we don't need 'that'", when both 'this' and 'that' though they may be similar are not the same, and both may have merit.
Regarding Outcomes Removal:
Please rethink this.
@ptart ,
Sorry for any confusion caused by our wording above, but to clear things up, this feature removal only removes the ability to tag and search for federal and state K12 common core outcomes standards within Commons. Rubrics/outcomes linked to assignments, discussions, or quizzes are still attached to that content when they get shared to Commons and will still import into the course when the resource is imported from Commons. I hope this helps!
Thanks,
- Nathan
Just to echo Peter, there seems to be a lack of logic for this search function. When you search something the expectation I would say is that it is searching through all the information that lies beneath. So the top level search does not go far enough, but the individual thread search does make sense. So, it's not as useful as it should be. I have come to expect the highest level of logic in the Canvas interface, but this time you are sadly below that.
jim
Hi Gradebook Export CSV Final Grade Override Column, it doesn't seem to be working properly in Beta. It doesn't download any changes you make after the initial download. I've reported this to support.
Bethan
Hi @b_w_reid , thanks for testing this thoroughly. Definitely a scenario I would see happening with our instructors. Can you describe the process you went through?
I tried this for myself just now in our beta instance and it does appear (for me) that the changed override grade came out in the second export file. Here was the process I followed: 1) Added override grades in the Grades tool 2) Selected export gradebook, downloaded file, and confirmed override grades 3) Changed the override grade in the Grades tool 4) Selected export gradebook, downloaded file, and confirmed that the override grades had changed.
Let me know if you followed a different process. If I can recreate the issue, I'd like to get a ticket into Support to help your case. I don't know if it might have contributed to the issue, but I did notice that there was a decent lag today when updating the override grades. It took several seconds before the green confirmation box appeared for each change that said "Grade Saved". Now it seems to be popping up more quickly.
Huge sigh of relief @nathanatkinson . Thanks for the update.
Patrick
Hi, Bethan,
I hope that Todd's suggestion was able to help you out. If you still aren't able to get the CSV to download, make sure to submit a support case so our team can investigate into your account.
Thanks!
Erin
Hi, Peter,
We're sorry that you've been frustrated in the past by the Canvas feature process. Our intent for this change was to restore the previous functionality of searching authors within discussion topics, which was suggested in the feature idea referenced with the update—our product team does care about your feedback, I promise!
I did a quick check to see if anyone has suggested this idea for more granular searching, and I wasn't able to find one that I could reference to you. If you still feel it's important, I'd encourage you to create that idea so that others have the option to vote. Perhaps the functionality being restored to the search field may cause others to feel the same way about the search that you do.
In the meantime, I can suggest to our engineering team that we update the wording to clarify the search functionality within the topic level.
Thanks!
Erin
Hi, everyone,
Just as a matter of clarification, the Commons features for this release were intentionally not designated as being associated with the Enable Resource Previews account setting, as they will be visible within Commons regardless of the setting's current state. Therefore, our team will also be removing the Previews setting in the Commons Account Settings page as part of this weekend's release.
This Account Settings change does not affect any of the messaging we've provided about the functionality coming to the Commons environment as part of this release and what Commons users can expect to see. We wanted to provide transparency about this Account Settings page change, and we have also made the clarification in the Admin User Summary document for this release as well.
Our team is appreciative of the positive feedback related to the Commons features and hope you will let us know how the changes continue to improve your user experience.
Thank you!
Erin
Hi vanzandt, I've retested this and now appears to be working fine. I followed the same process that you mentioned above. I think also the lag you described may have been causing this. I didn't notice any of the 'grade saved' pop ups last time, but they are appearing today. I'll get in touch with support and ask them to close the ticket. Thanks for your help!
That's great news. That would have been a significant problem! And the 'grade saved' pop-ups do seem a little more responsive today, so I'll bet that could have been it.
@CanvasDocTeam , where I can I find a help page that explains to instructors how to enable on-screen calculators? I don't want to refer instructors to release notes to learn how to use a feature, since the release notes are packed with extraneous information. I looked everywhere but couldn't find a relevant tutorial. Thanks in advance for the help!
...and upon further checking, 538b2fa8965d0a35076d47b01ee0a336c344953e342c21c84755df3fb83de749, I see that instructions for enabling the On-Screen Calculator have also been added to the other lessons for the relevant question types.
Awesome, thanks stefaniesanders! I guess I didn't think to look in the question-specific tutorials, but that works!
Hi
I am a little bit late to the party. I was testing Blueprint Course. Not sure if i have misunderstood, but changes to the rubric do not trigger the syncing. meaning you have to make a bigger edit to the assignment for the Blueprinting tool to say, ahh there has been a change. once this happens the rubric is updated. Am i wrong in pointing this out, sometimes i'm not totally sure what the updates mean. JIm
The download count on the Commons cards is great! I didn't think much about it when I originally read over the release notes, but looking in Commons now, it's really helpful as an Admin to see what district resources have been getting used by our teachers.
Hi, James!
The fix related to making a copy of an existing rubric within an assignment. Changes to an individual rubric itself won't trigger a change.
Erin
oops
No worries! Thanks for being willing to ask questions.
Erin
Hey, James,
We created that tool through a third-party partnership, and we've reached out to their team with some specific questions based on your feedback. Should we be able to make any adjustments, we'll note them in a future release notes document!
Thanks,
Erin
Hi, everyone,
The notes for our March 30 release have been published: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-16250-canvas-release-notes-2019-03-30
Thank you!
Erin