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Canvas Release Notes (2020-10-17)

Canvas Release Notes (2020-10-17)

In this Canvas release (October 17), users can view a list of recently visited pages in the Global Navigation Menu. Additionally, the user-level and course-level notification pages have been updated for design simplification in managing notifications in each location.

 

For all resources and feedback information related to this release, see the Release Resources section at the end of this document.

Related Links

 

New Features

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Global Navigation

Recent History

 

Affected Canvas Areas

Global Navigation Menu

Beta/Test Environment Support

No—page views are not supported

Permissions

N/A

Affects User Interface

Yes

Affected User Roles

All Users

Feature Video

Global Navigation: Recent History (2020-10-17 Release)


Summary

The Global Navigation Menu includes a Recent History link, which displays recently visited pages in Canvas.

Change Benefit

This change helps users remember what page they last viewed in one or multiple courses.

Affected User Roles

All Users

The Global Navigation Menu includes a Recent History link. This History link displays the most recent pages viewed in Canvas up to the last three weeks. Page content is displayed by title.

Recent History Link in Global NavigationRecent History Link in Global Navigation

 

Admins

Page history is identical to the information found in a user’s page views or the user access report.

Acting as a student displays recent history for the student, not the page views created by the admin.

 

Instructors

Any pages that are removed from a course will remain in the history, but the link will no longer be valid. Course content should be completed and verified before the course is published for students.

Page history is not supported in the beta or test environments. Accessing the Recent History link in either environment displays an individual link notifying users that Recent History is unavailable. The link directs to the Canvas Guides article about using the Beta or Test environments, respectively.

Recent History Link in Test EnvironmentRecent History Link in Test Environment

 

Updated Features

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Notifications

Notification Preferences Interface Updates

 

Affected Canvas Areas

Account Notifications, Course Notifications

Beta/Test Environment Support

Yes

Permissions

N/A

Affects User Interface

Yes

Affected User Roles

All Users

Feature Video

Notifications: Notification Preferences Interface Updates (2020-10-17 Release)


Summary

The user-level Notifications page has been updated to match the design of the course-level Notifications page. Additional enhancements have been added to clarify notifications between each level.

Change Benefit

These changes align the user interface for consistency, remind users about notification overrides at either the course or user levels, and improve navigation.

Affected User Roles

All Users

The user-level Notifications page has been updated to match the design of the course-level Notifications page. This page includes a banner reminding users that account-level notifications apply to all courses. 

The name of the Account Notifications page is also included in the breadcrumb trail for easier navigation.

Additionally, for the Grades notification, the Send Scores in Emails option has also been added as a course-level notification preference.

User Account Notifications PageUser Account Notifications Page

 

Notifications for individual courses can be changed within each course and override user account notifications. The Course Notifications page also includes a banner notifying users about these overrides.

Course Notifications BannerCourse Notifications Banner

 

Other Updates

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Assignments

Student Enhancements Production Availability


The Student Enhancements Beta Feature can be allowed by a Canvas admin in the production environment. Previously this feature was only available in the beta environment.

For details about this feature, please see New Student Enhancements User Group.

 

Courses

MathJax Equation Improvements 


Summary

The MathJax JS library has been improved to render equations in a more accessible format and promote ease of use. Math equations created anywhere in Canvas will be rendered as MathML. 

Change Benefit

This change improves accessibility for equations throughout Canvas. Previously, equations were treated as an image and included title attributes and alternative text and were not available to keyboard users. Additionally, image views varied by browser and screen readers, equations could not be copied, and alternative text could be inadvertently changed or removed. 

Affected User Roles

All Users

For both new and existing content throughout Canvas, equation rendering has been replaced by MathJax.

Additionally, MathJax offers a context-menu providing functions for interacting with the equation.

erinhallmark_0-1601068537633.png

 

 

Change Log

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2020-10-15

Updated Features—Added Recent History feature clarification for admin and instructor roles

2020-09-28

Updated Features—Added Feature Video Links

2020-09-21

Other Updates—Added Courses: MathJax Equation Improvements

2020-09-21

Published Release Notes

 

Release Resources

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User Summaries

Release features are summarized for individual roles in the User Summaries page.

Canvas Chat

Want to chat with other customers about any of these features? Sign up to view and join our Collaborative Release Chats in the CanvasLIVE Calendar. Chats take place ten days after these notes are published. 

New Feature Screencast

View a screencast of all the updates included in this release in the New Feature Screencast page.

tl;dr Podcast & Blogs

Features in this release may be included in product blogs and our product podcast, the Canvas tl;dr. For related links, check the Canvas Release Archive for this release date.

Feature Enhancements

The release notes indicate available functionality for a feature. If you want to see any future development planned for any features included in these notes, please visit the Roadmap. Have an idea you don't see prioritized in the next three months? Visit the Idea Conversations page.

Feature Support

All items listed in the release notes are immediately available for testing in the Canvas beta environment, unless otherwise indicated. If functionality in the beta environment does not match the functionality shown in the release notes, please submit a support case through your institution's preferred method as shown in your Global Navigation Help Menu. The Canvas Support Team can help escalate behaviors that may need to be resolved before they are deployed to the production environment, which takes place on the date of these release notes. When submitting a case, please indicate that the behavior is occurring in the beta environment.

Change Log

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