Ready Release Notes (2020-04-11)

[#1]

Upcoming Canvas Changes
2020-05-02
End-of-Life functionality for all SMS Notifications except Announcements and Grading
                   
For more information, please see Upcoming Canvas Changes‌
                   

The following features will be available in the production environment on 2020-04-11:

Account: Canvas Admin Product Tour

• User Role: Admin
• Opt-in: Yes

Courses: Canvas Student Product Tour

• User Role: Student
• Opt-in: Yes

Notifications: Slack Integration

• User Role: All Users
• Opt-in: Yes

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

• Follow the Ready Release Features document 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.

• New Features
• Notifications
• Slack Integration
• Updated Features
• Accounts
• Admin Product Tour
• Courses
• Student Product Tour

Release Notes Change Log

New Features

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Notifications

Slack Integration

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	Slack Notifications Feature Option
Affected Canvas Areas	User Settings, Notifications
Beta/Test Environment Support	Yes
Permissions	Account-level settings - manage Feature Options - enable / disable
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	All Users
Feature Enhancement Ideas	Existing Account Settings feature ideas
Idea Contributions	Slack and Canvas Integration Slack Bot
Specified Tag for Feature Ideas	Account Settings

Summary

Users can enable Slack as a contact method to receive Canvas notifications. This integration requires an existing Slack account. A user with admin access to a Slack workspace must set up the Slack integration before it can be used for all users in a Canvas account.

Change Benefit

This change provides an additional communication medium for users to receive Canvas notifications. 

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Admins

A user with admin access to a Slack workspace can create and install a Slack App for all users with accounts in the workspace. This process must be completed before Slack can be enabled as a communications method in Canvas for all users. For more details about setting up Slack as a Slack account admin, view the Canvas Slack App Installation Guide. 

All Users

Once a Slack workspace has been enabled for a Canvas account, the Slack Email communication option displays for all users. Any user with a Slack account can register their Slack email address as a contact method. 

Users must activate the communication channel by entering a four-character confirmation code that will be sent via message from the Slack App set up by a Slack admin.

Once the code has been entered and the channel is verified in Canvas, Slack notifications should be personalized in the Notifications Preferences page. By default, all Slack notifications are set to never be sent.

All notifications are received via message from the Slack App. Notifications include the name of the course and the notification type (e.g. new assignment, submission comment). Users must access Canvas directly to view the full information.

Updated Features

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Accounts

Admin Product Tour

As of 2020-04-09, Canvas engineers are adjusting this feature to only be available to Account Admin roles. This update should be in the production environment on or before April 18. Release notes will be updated along with development progress.
   

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	Product Tour feature option
Affected Canvas Areas	Dashboard, Global Navigation, Help Menu
Beta/Test Environment Support	Yes
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Admins
Feature Enhancement Ideas	Existing tutorial feature ideas
Specified Tag for Feature Ideas	tutorial

Summary

Canvas provides a welcome tour for admins that guides them through transitioning their institution for online learning.

Change Benefit

This change displays a welcome tour to orient admins to Canvas and guide them toward Canvas best practices and resources.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Admins

After logging in to Canvas, admins view a short welcome message that gives them a quick tour through setting up people and courses to Canvas, sharing course content and templates with teachers, setting up video conferencing and other tools, and finding training resources and more help. Each tour area includes links to specific how-to lessons about accomplishing each task.

Admins can close the welcome tour at any time. They can show the welcome tour again from the Canvas Help Menu.

Courses

Student Product Tour

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	Product Tour feature option
Affected Canvas Areas	Dashboard, Global Navigation, Help Menu
Beta/Test Environment Support	Yes
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Students
Feature Enhancement Ideas	Existing tutorial feature ideas
Specified Tag for Feature Ideas	tutorial

Summary

Canvas provides a welcome tour for students that guides them through getting started with a Canvas course.

Change Benefit

This change displays a welcome tour to orient students through their courses in Canvas.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Students

After logging in to Canvas, students view a short welcome message that gives them a quick tour through finding their courses, contacting their instructors, downloading the Canvas Mobile App, and getting help with Canvas.

Students can close the welcome tour at any time. They can show the welcome tour again from the Canvas Help Menu.

Release Notes Change Log

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Date
2020-04-08	Release Notes Published

[ellen_peters]

This Admin product tour is really not a good idea. We have a lot of account roles, and almost all of these roles - apart from the main account admin - do not have permission for the items mentioned in this tour (such as add courses, and in our institution we don't even add people manually to Canvas). So this tour will only create confusion. For now we can keep the Product tour feature disabled, and this really should remain a feature option after 18 July.

[venitk]

This is a problem for us, as well. It's fine if we can keep it off after July, but beyond that it will cause confusion if it's forced on. We add students automatically though the SIS, and instructors cannot create courses in the SIS environment. Roles actually have different abilities depending on the subaccount in our instance. For example, I can add students in one subaccount but not another. 

[straussi]

Second and Third  @ellen_peters ‌ comment! We almost solely use data integration to our SIS for courses and enrollments, as well as using template courses and not Blueprints. This feature must remain as opt-in only.

[carpenter]

This is one better answered by erinhallmark, but I would venture to guess that the Admin Product Tour would be only available for those with the Canvas Admin role.

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Shari,

I'm confirming the details with our engineers. Thanks!

Erin

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, all,

We are making an adjustment so the admin product tour only displays to users with an Account Admin role. This is the default admin role in Canvas. Other admin roles will not be able to view the product tour. This behavior adjustment is now in development and will be in production on or before April 18. I will let you know when this functionality has been added to the beta environment.

Thanks for your feedback!

Erin

[vancej]

Am I missing something, but I do not see an Instructor Tour? 

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Jason,

Our instructor tour was introduced last week, https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-20097-ready-release-notes-2020-04-04 

Thanks!

Erin

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, all,

This behavior is in the beta environment; our code checks to ensure the admin tour appears for users with the Account Admin role.

Thanks,

Erin

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, all,

Ready release notes are posted for what is coming on Saturday: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-26658-ready-release-notes-2020-04-18 

Thanks!

Erin