Canvas Release Notes (2020-05-16)

[#1]

Upcoming Canvas Changes
Feature Enforcements
During this unprecedented time, features introduced as part of a regular release date will be opt-in feature options until July 2020 if supported—some Canvas features do not support feature option functionality. On 18 July 2020, all previously introduced features will become default for all institutions, unless otherwise indicated.
2020-06-20
End-of-Life functionality related to Enrollments API (see Canvas Platform Breaking Changes)
End-of-Life functionality related to TLS Protocols
   
   
For more information, please see Upcoming Canvas Changes
                             

In this Canvas release (May 16), All SMS notification types are deprecated except Announcements and Grading notification types. Users should transition to the Canvas mobile apps. This change will be enabled on Saturday, May 2.

Feature Options

• The Confetti for Valid Links feature option displays confetti for instructors who run the link validator on a course and no issues are found. If enabled for their institution, instructors can choose to disable celebrations in User Settings.

Release notes describe upcoming Canvas functionality and are subject to change.

• Follow the Canvas release notes space to be notified of updates
• For all release changes to this document, view the Release Notes Change Log
• If you notice any contrary functionality compared to the outlined behavior in these notes, please file a Canvas support case according to your institution's support protocol
• Deprecations and end-of-life announcements related to Canvas Platform Services (APIs, GraphQL, Canvas Data) are located in the Canvas Platform Breaking Changes page.
• Other questions? View the Canvas Release Notes FAQ

• Updated Features
• Course Settings
• Link Validator Celebration
• Notifications
• SMS Notification TypesDeprecation

Release Notes Change Log

Updated Features

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Course Settings

Link Validator Celebration

This feature can be enabled in Canvas through a feature option in Account Settings. Please view the content below for additional details. For more information about feature options, please see the Canvas Release Notes FAQ.
                        

Configuration Details	Confetti for Valid Links Feature Options doc
Affected Canvas Areas	Settings
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Instructors
Feature Enhancement Ideas	View existing Course Settings feature ideas
Specified Tag for Feature Ideas	Course settings
Community Idea Contributions	https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/16613-celebration-animation-for-0-errors-in-link-validator
Feature Video

Summary

Canvas generates a virtual celebration when instructors run the link validator and no issues are found.

Change Benefit

This change provides validation to instructors after they’ve verified and resolved course links.

Affected User Roles

Instructors

Celebrations take place in Canvas when the Link Validator finds no errors.

If instructors prefer to not have Canvas display celebrations, they can choose to hide all celebration animations in the User Settings page.

Note: This User Settings feature option is included for all users and defaults to off. Instructors only need to adjust this feature option if they are seeing celebrations in the link validator page and they want to opt-out of the animations.

Notifications

SMS Notification Types Deprecation

Feature Availability	2020-05-02
Affected Canvas Areas	Notifications
Beta/Test Environment Support	Not supported
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	All Users
Feature Enhancement Ideas	View existing Notifications feature ideas
Specified Tag for Feature Ideas	notifications
Feature Video

Summary

On 2 May, all SMS notification types are deprecated except Announcements and Grading notification types. Remaining notification types can be enabled through other communication channels.

Change Benefit

This change provides a better communication experience for all user roles. Other notification types are more consistent and reliable for Canvas users. The timing for this change is affected by COVID-19. Resources regarding other communication channels can be found in the Upcoming Canvas Changes Feature Clarifications page.

Affected User Roles

All Users

When users open their Notification Preferences page, all SMS options are disabled except announcements and grading notification types. 

• Announcements notifications include new announcements in a course
• Grading notifications include assignment graded and submission grade changed

Any unsupported notification type includes a tooltip that notifies users appropriately.

Users can set up other communication channels according to their preference and also use the Canvas mobile apps.

Release Notes Change Log

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Date
2020-04-27	Added New Feature Video links
2020-04-20	Release Notes Published

[adehart]

For the "Link Validator Celebration" option, I don't see an option for this feature to be disabled at the account level.  I only see the option to disable this feature when I view a user's individual settings.  Also, why is this feature defaulted to be ON and not Off?  Thanks!

[Chris_Hofer]

 @adehart ...

I don't see an option for this feature to be disabled at the account level.

I can see where this wording can be a bit confusing.  In the above description, "This feature can be enabled in Canvas through a feature option in Account Settings."  I don't think that it means the overall school "Account" settings page.  It is referring to the user "Account" >> "Settings" page.  This is further explained by the sentence, "Note: This User Settings feature option is included for all users and defaults to off."  I just checked my "beta" environment, and it is turned "off" by default.  Not sure why your toggle switch would be turned "on".

[adehart]

Sorry, my toggle was off.  What I really meant was why does a user have to choose to "Disable" this feature by turning on the toggle? 

[lezonl2]

Does anyone actually read the feedback from the community? It is kind of insulting to higher ed. that there is yet more confetti that cannot be disabled at the system level, especially after expressing our concerns in the last release. In the midst of a worldwide crisis this is the not the stuff admins need to wasting time on when clearly our concerns aren't being heard or considered. Is this really deemed as essential functionality?  

[axelsena]

Why is the "SMS Notification Types Deprecation" which is happening on May 2nd being announced in the May 16th release notes?  Shouldn't that have been announced previously?  This is a pretty major change to the students who may have been using this / relying on it.  I would ask that this is delayed until the summer to not impact the end of the Spring semesters!

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Aaron,

The change was previously announced in the Upcoming Canvas Changes page earlier this month. Additionally, the notice was included in these notes since the actual change is not aligned with the Canvas release, which can happen occasionally. The Upcoming Canvas Changes page includes a link to additional details about the timing of this change.

Thanks,

Erin

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Lisa,

Our product manager for this feature has posted a detailed blog and a couple of replies that I'd encourage you to take the time to read, if you haven't yet: Rule 32: Enjoy the Little Things—Encouraging Student Success.

Thanks,

Erin

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Angela,

We want the individual user to choose his or her own Canvas experience. Feedback in designing this feature indicated that many people are delighted with the functionality. Anyone user who does not want it enabled can opt out of the feature.

Thanks,

Erin

[jonna_radegard]

The change regarding SMS came as a big surprise for us and will affect us tremendously. Less then a months notice is not good! We started with Canvas last fall and have removed the ability for our observers to register their email but encouraged them to add their cellphone number  to be notified. The Canvas app for parent doesn't work for us at all since the focus on points and percent don't work well with the swedish scholarsystem. We can not use email as Canvas sends out the whole message in the email and not just a notification. Email is not a secure way to communicate and is not compliant with GDPR. 

[cdoherty]

Erin,

Please define what 'many people' means in this context. The feature request had 7 upvotes. Why is Instructure wasting time on something with so little interest and little impact when other critical requests that have in the neighborhood of 300-500 votes and continuing requests over the years fail to get attention? Do engineers just have to pick something easy to knock out so Instructure can keep up the pretense of caring about user requests?

[michellemeazell]

Yes, totally agree and still have the same feelings that Lisa below stated. 

[scarniol]

We have so many essential improvements needed in Canvas; I cannot believe they waste programmer's time with something like this.

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Jonna,

Please reach out to your CSM, who will be able to assist you.

Thanks!

Erin

[kirsten_ryall]

Hi there, should we be seeing that SMS tooltip in Beta right now? Kirsten

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Kirsten,

Yes, that change has been enabled in the beta environment to prepare for Saturday's release.

Thanks,

Erin

[erc2]

Yes, for example, more-granular roles and permissions so that we could give undergraduate TAs access to grade specific assignments in SpeedGrader without their also having access to the gradebook and exams. According to Instructure employees with whom we have met multiple times at Penn State, many institutions have been requesting such improvements for YEARS. And yet...?

[kirsten_ryall]

Hi there, I just went hunting for the link validator confetti feature option, and could not locate it in production. I spent some time with the lovely agents in canvas chat to find out that this is a CSM enabled option. I'm confused by these notes because this wasn't clear to me. It says, 'Feature Options The Confetti for Valid Links feature option displays confetti for instructors who run the link validator on a course and no issues are found. If enabled for their institution, instructors can choose to disable celebrations in User Settings.'  Why is this something that a CSM needs to turn on, but other 'celebrations' do not require CSM involvement? I'm finding the roll-out of celebrations to be rather confusing and possibly inconsistent, making it rather difficult to keep on top of them. Perhaps some kind summary is required stating whether it is optional or not, what the feature is called, where it is located and who can enable/disable them. 

[b_w_reid]

I just did exactly the same thing. We've spent time testing the functionality and then looking for it in production. It would be great if the feature name could be specified exactly as it appears and whether it's a CSM option too in the specifications table in the release notes. 

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Kirsten,

Feature options are managed by our engineering team, and sometimes they don't like to do what they're told. This feature option decided to turn itself off so nobody can access it. But it's been allowed back now, so admins can enable it as they'd like for their institutions.

Feature options that are available in Canvas are linked within each release notes document; the full page can be found here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-15124 

Thanks!

Erin

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, all,

Release notes for June are available and posted here: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-26857-canvas-release-notes-2020-06-20 

Thanks,

Erin