RCE Updates - Fall 2020

This blog from the Instructure Product Team is no longer considered current. While the resource still provides value to the product development timeline, it is available only as a historical reference.

peytoncraighill
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
72
16416

Hi!

You’ve got that stressed look on your face and my little boy is suddenly in preschool, so I guess fall start has begun! Here’s a quick update on the new RCE.

Things are going well. I mentioned losing sleep over the new RCE in my last post. Well, it’s a lot better now than it was then, thanks to your feedback and the work of a lot of people. Here are just some of the changes we’ve made in the last two months:

  • Added recently-used LTIs, LTI favorites, and the LTI toolbar group. In addition to lowering barriers to LTI tools in the editor, we’ve also allowed schools to hide the Canvas Media options in the toolbar to avoid confusion with other media tools.
  • Added split buttons to content input toolbar group. So now each of the content input buttons has a default action on the left side (insert external link, upload photo, upload media, upload document), and the dropdown which already existed on the right side. This means one less click for the default actions. Split buttons look like this:

Screen Shot 2020-09-07 at 11.04.05 PM.png

  • Added memory to the link navigator. Though the sidebar still collapses after a link addition, it remembers where you were last time when it reopens. (More on this below.)
  • Rearranged the toolbar to optimize for less-than-full-width screens. The placement of toolbar buttons now hopefully better reflects the priority of the average Canvas user. In short, bold is more common than LTIs are more common than tables. As screens shrink, we want truncation to reflect those priorities.
  • Made the menu bar always on. I admit this is prioritizing function over form, but it's also better than it was.
  • Removed auto-resizing and increased the default height of the text area. If you're still experiencing pain related to RCE resizing in beta, say so, because as far as I've seen we're solid now.
  • Dozens of bug fixes (and more incoming!)

These things are in varying states of release so keep your eyes peeled for the notes, but they’re all complete from a development perspective. Compared to where we were a couple of months ago, we've got a less clicky, easier to use, more accessible editor, and we're very excited about that! 

There are a few more things we’re in the process of working out.

  • Math in new RCE. We plan to expand our use of a library called MathJax in the new RCE to ensure that the math equations we render are easier to work with and more screen reader friendly than what we currently offer to people using the math editor. The current math editor outputs an image of an equation with alt text describing the image in LaTeX formatting, which is less-than-awesome for everybody working with that equation. To improve this situation, we plan to use MathJax to render math equations created in the math editor as MathML.
  • Extending the reach of new RCE. With a little bit of work, tools that aren’t a part of “core Canvas” -- namely our new quizzes tool -- could also make use of the Canvas RCE to provide a more consistent content creation experience across the platform.
  • Sidebar, slidebar, drawer, tray improvements. We’re still figuring out how to reduce unnecessary clicks in some sidebar flows. And we will figure it out -- it’s just a lotta ins, lotta outs. File search is also still pending.

If you hadn't already heard, the enforcement date for the new RCE was moved from December to January to avoid conflicts with finals. Our hope is that this provides a buffer for schools to plan for the best time to switch it on over the holidays if they haven’t done so already.

As usual, keep the feedback and bug reports coming because it’s your tool. Our oldest bug ticket that isn’t in progress was reported last week, so we’re doing what we can to respond quickly.

Feel free to ask all your questions and provide feedback in our New Rich Content Editor Beta Users Group.

 

Tags (2)

This blog from the Instructure Product Team is no longer considered current. While the resource still provides value to the product development timeline, it is available only as a historical reference.

72 Comments
tft
Community Explorer

Thanks for this update @peytoncraighill, and especially for looking into math accessibility.  Regarding that specifically, if I'm not mistaken you're already deploying MathJax; you just aren't using it effectively.  When a math equation is added via the RCE, the output rendered to the Canvas page, as you mentioned, includes an image with LaTeX as alt text. However, the image is accompanied by the formula in MathML. Here's example code, showing the Quadratic Formula (simplified for purposes of this illustration):

<p>
  <img class="equation_image" alt="LaTeX: x=\frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}">
  <span class="hidden-readable">
    <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML">
      <!-- math formula goes here -->
    </math>
  </span>
</p>

The "hidden-readable" class positions the math formula off-screen to the left so it's hidden from sighted users but accessible to screen reader users. If I remove that class in my browser's HTML inspector, the math formula becomes visible, and it is indeed rendered using MathJax.  If I right click on the formula, a MathJax menu appears, from which I can (among other things) select "About MathJax" to see that you're using MathJax v2.7.5.

The visible formula, rendered as it is with MathJax, has a variety of features that make it far superior than an image for rendering math.  And for screen reader users, they can already access the MathML but it's currently obstructed by the image. Advanced math students may know LaTeX, but for those who don't, the alt text is extremely confusing and users often don't get past what they perceive to be noise in order to discover the accessible MathML formula. 

From my perspective, since you're already producing MathML + MathJax as output, the solution might be as simple as this:

  1. Remove the image.
  2. Remove the "hidden-readable" class from the <span> that contains the math formula, so everyone can see it.

 

MattHanes
Community Champion

The same RCE (and math editor) for New Quizzes and core Canvas? Music to my ears! My math teachers will be very happy to see some attention given to the equation editor. 

dianelee
Community Participant

How does the new RCE handle subaccounts using different LTIs? We have certain LTIs are that are available in the root account but not in our subaccount and vice versa. How can we make sure the users in our subaccount see only the LTIs available to them? We would not want to see a favorited LTI that is not available in our subaccount and we (at the subaccount) would want to be able to favorite the LTIs that are only available in our subaccount. 

peytoncraighill
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

@tft Thanks for the reply! I think we're on the same page. We're working on a proof of concept right now and we'll run it by you for validation.

@MattHanes 

pcraighill_0-1599755763978.gif

@dianelee We're in the process of adding LTI favoriting to sub-accounts so that root accounts can set default favorites (like a K-12 district with a common set of tools at all locations) and sub-accounts can override the default (like a nursing school that has a specific LTI that isn't relevant to other sub-accounts). 

dianelee
Community Participant

thanks @peytoncraighill ! this is really fantastic news. do you have any sense of timing? i'm worried that it will not be in place before january when we are forced to enable the new rce. 

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

Hello. This is the engineer working on the new RCE here. I'd like your feedback on the direction I'm exploring for editing math equations.

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

A little update to the previous comment. When the equation image is the active element in the RCE, you'll get a popup button to edit the equation.

Screen Shot 2020-09-11 at 1.32.41 PM.png

phillip_mills
Community Participant

Thanks so much for this work you're doing @eschiebel. It really is very helpful for those of use who are working in the mathematics education area. I'm by no means a mathematician but got involved in this by way of working with accessibility needs, where support for learning maths in the LMS space has traditionally been pretty awful.

The ability to use MathJax in Canvas has been something I noticed a while ago by accident, so it's great to see that it's not going to go away anytime soon. I was worried about that because it's very much an undocumented feature! 

It would be good to provide feedback on the maths editor (which I believe is MathQuill) more directly than via these forums. Is there a way that we can collaborate on the development more closely with you and @peytoncraighill ? Thanks again for all the work you're doing.

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

@phillip_mills, you are mostly correct about the equation editor. The basic view is MathQuill, while the advanced view is just a textarea for you to enter LaTex or mathml. Updating the editor is in our work queue. If you have any ideas, @peytoncraighill and I would love to hear them.

dr_adam_marshal
Community Explorer

This looks very good.

Can I just check something (which is a common request here at Oxford). Our maths dept would like to be able to paste text with in-lined LaTeX, eg, ".. we see that $$y$$ is equal to $$\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2} dx=\frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2}$$ ...."

Can this be pasted into the 'textarea'? If not I'd say that would be a strong requirement.

Allowing this would (presumably) also mean that big chunks of text and latex could be pasted into the editor.

I suspect a lot of people would like to be able to cut and paste from existing latex documents which would save a lot of time

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

@dr_adam_marshal that's not currently possible, but I'll add it to the wishlist of features for the upcoming new equation editor dialog. Thanks for the input.

wkylephillips
Community Participant

@eschiebel 

Two things.

1. Is there any way to use this in the multiple question formats in quizzes? I would love to be able to render equations in the various formats: fill in the blank, drop down menu, category questions, etc...This would allow us math teachers to really use all the resources the new quiz engine has to offer. Currently, we are limited to only using question options which grant us access to the RCE. I know adding the RCE to every question is a stretch, but just adding the option to render equations would be a HUGE HELP!!! Every math teacher who uses Canvas is begging for something like this.  

2. In order for Canvas to continue in its pursuit of educational LMS dominance, there needs to be a question option of "math response". This would work just like a short answer question, only the student would answer with a math expression or equation. When typing their response they should be typing in the equation editor and then Canvas renders the equation as the image you mentioned in your video; however, Canvas grades the latex code. Is this possible? The ability for students to submit answers such as x^2+7x+12, and their response look like a math expression, and Canvas grade it... we are talking complete dominance of the competition. Something to this degree would push Canvas way out in front of the other LMSs. There really is no way for the students to submit true math responses currently. 

I, along with all other math teachers, am begging for something like this to be added to Canvas. 

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

I've passed your comment on to the quiz engineers, and got this response

New quizzes already supports math equations in question options (in most question types, probably not dropdown though). And while we certainly don't support any kind of auto-graded equation answer (this would be incredibly difficult to build and support), it's already possible to build essay questions (manually graded) that allow students to respond with an equation.

Not fill in the blank, matching, or categorization

dr_adam_marshal
Community Explorer
@wkylephillips totally agree with your point number 1.
wkylephillips
Community Participant

@eschiebel 

Sorry to make you the middle man with the quiz engineers, but I’d like to make an edit to my point #2. 

If student responses with a full equation is too difficult to build and support, what if there was just a math fill in the blank. I’m hung up on this idea of Canvas doing all the grading. 🙂  It would work the same as it currently does, but the response was just recorded using a math font. This way equations and expressions wouldn’t look like (3x^2 +4x+5)/(x^2 +2), but rather would look like B8FDFE25-6DD5-4212-B691-7203104AA1D4.jpeg. The student doesn’t need access to the full equation editor, their responses just need to be written in a math font. Canvas would not have to grade any latex code, it would just be grading the equation the student wrote, the response is just in a different font, which handles basic math expressions. Would something along these lines make it easier to build and support? 

tami_echard
Community Member

Love the additions to RCE.  Two suggestions...

We have 3300+ questions in our AP Calculus item banks.  Several of these are free response items that must be graded by instructors.  Because GRADING NOTES does not have the RCE, teachers must "verbalize" the answer to a calculus question for their grading.

Again for math specifically, it would  be very helpful if the feedback areas allowed for the RCE so instructors can add images or equations to help explain material.

Would be very helpful and hope you're considering these additions!

lnorth1
Community Participant

The New RCE enhancements are looking good, keen to see what is next 🙂

@peytoncraighill regarding External Tool Favourites (a great step to reducing clickiness!) - it would be fantastic if these could be determined by User Role.

As a use case example, we'd love our Course Designers to be able to access design tools easily (reduced clicks), but these design tools are not available (or useful) to other Roles, whereas Students and Teachers would want different tools as Favourites. 👍

James
Community Champion

As much as it makes sense to use the same equation editor everywhere, there are advantages to the equation editor in New Quizzes. Namely the ability to inline LaTeX by using \( and \) and speed in rendering (last I checked, New Quizzes uses KaTeX instead of MathJax).

One huge downside for student use is that there is no advanced mode preview for math content. This would be solved using the suggested approach, but the ability to insert math content without going into the equation editor should not be lost.

If I remember correctly, and it's been a rough month so I may not, You can currently use \( and \) inside Canvas for pages that have MathML. This might have been a Chrome thing, but since Chrome can't display MathML, Canvas loaded MathJax on pages that have MathML and then you can use the benefits of MathJax on the page in other places.

I set up a sub-account for my classes this semester and added MathJax to it via the theming for the subaccount and the global JavaScript file. I checked to see if MathJax was already loaded by Canvas before I did this, but I still ran into problems. When you go to edit a page using the RCE, Canvas was picking up my MathJax that got loaded but it didn't have all of the properties that their MathJax has and loading the equation editor from the RCE broke things terribly. I had to further refine the pages where I tried to install MathJax.

@eschiebel is right that MathJax doesn't like to handle dynamic content, but there is a page devoted to it on their website. You need to call MathJax.typeset() or MathJax.typesetPromise(). I don't know what version of MathJax that became available in. I do know that even though I know what LaTeX I'm typing, I still get it wrong occasionally and having a preview without having to save the page would be awesome.

Many years ago, a classroom response system I was using had the ability to support math content, separated by backticks. You would go along and be editing and it would preview until you were inside the backticks and then you could edit the LaTeX or ASCIIMath or whatever and once you left the backticks, it went back to preview mode. 

Do something like that with the \( and \) for inline LaTeX and then you would really have something useful.

 

James
Community Champion

@dr_adam_marshal 

MathJax defaults $$ to be displaymode math, not inline math, so I can't get on board with using the $$ delimiter for inline since that would be a major departure from what people may be used to with MathJax. \( and \) are used for inline math mode with MathJax. For hopefully obvious reasons, the single $ delimiter is not supported.

Inline pasting of LaTeX is supported with \( and \) provided that there is existing MathML on the page and that you're using Chrome. Since Chrome doesn't support MathML, Canvas loads MathJax to display it. But then that allows you to use LaTeX in other places as well.

Unfortunately, if you're using a browser that supports MathML (Firefox and Safari), then it doesn't load MathJax and your inline content is not rendered.

If Canvas would load MathJax on any page that has math content rather as is being proposed, then we should be able to use the delimiters that MathJax supports as a side effect.

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

@James

This is good input. Canvas will load MathJax if it detects math on the page. How we do that needs to be improved to detect user-entered LaTex.  Currently, canvas looks for a <math> element on the page, but unfortunately only if it's a descendent of an element with the "hidden-readable" class name.

When the update to math rendering hits beta/prod, turn on the new Updated math equation display  and canvas will also look for the existence of an element with the class "math_equation_latex", so wrapping your LaTex like that will soon become a possible workaround. 

Some inside baseball:

The RCE inserts an image of the equation into your content. With the Updated math equation display flag on, that image gets replaced with

<span class="math_equation_latex">\\(your latex here\\)</span>

on the fly as it's returned to canvas in the final (not-rce-editing) page, so it will render inline. (The RCE continues to use the image as before.) This has the nice side-effect of improving the rendering and accessibility of all existing content with equation images.

I will work to make detecting math on the page more robust.

James
Community Champion

@eschiebel 

Having to wrap all of your user-LaTeX in a span is not user friendly. The whole point of allowing inline LaTeX is to make it fast to type and going into the HTML view to do that isn't fast. New Quizzes already supports it, which is why I am worried about loss of functionality with replacing the New Quizzes equation editor with the existing one.

Wrapping one of the elements that way might be doable, but it's going to be a hassle if you have to do it for all of them. In fact, as part of my quest for clean and consistent HTML, I have a macro that goes through and removes all spans because the use of a span within the RCE is normally a hack or work around for something.

If I understand what you're saying is that you're using the span.math_equation_latex to determine whether or not to load MathJax. I guess actually you didn't say there needed to be a span, just that the class needed to exist, so I could put it in a div.

Once MathJax is loaded on a page it doesn't require the span, it's only looking for the \( and \) or other defined delimiters.

I borrowed my code to detect math on the page from the MathJax documentation in the  section Loading MathJax Only on Pages with Math. I removed the check for $ because I don't want $ to signify math (maybe if I was the only person using it, but not if anyone else has the ability to create content -- and students do). I use the regex.test() instead of string.match(), but there doesn't appear to be much of a speed difference.

If you're into optimizing, then it does take longer to scan for \( and \) than to look up a classname. How much longer depends on the the amount of content, but in my very limited testing of 25 paragraphs of lorem ipsum text, it was under 0.25ms to scan and under 0.02ms to use getElementsByClassName. That's when there was no math content on the page - don't konw what the lorem ipsum guys were thinking when they didn't include any math tags.

A more substantial change could be to add a class to the body element to identify that this page contains math content and then the loading of MathJax could begin sooner and be ready by the time the content is displayed to minimize the amount of time that the LaTeX is visible before being rendered. One has to consider that MathJax might be ready before the content is in this case. Nothing is ever easy.

williare2
Community Participant

Here is my input on the RCE and HTML sizing:

Ideally it would resize to the full size of your page upon opening the RCE (so that you dont immediately have to drag it open) but also there would be a quick way of getting to the < / > and save.  Having them only located at the bottom means you have to scroll down that far...but if you are making changes up high on a longer page (and most of my pages are longer than the current RCE edit window size- thats my preference working with elem kids- less next button, and more read down the page) means you are constantly fiddling with the RCE size and scroll bar.  

I had been writing this up as a concern when someone pointed out it belonged here-

We recently lost a quick shortcut - the RCE doesnt size correctly and everytime I edit the first thing I do is open it up wider...why does it open so small?  There was a workaround- go to HTML editor and it would resize to the size needed for RCE...so then switch right back.  Worked like a charm and was helpful...but now its been fixed I guess ;). So we have to take the time to drag open the RCE everytime we go to make a change. bummer. 

But here is my concern - say you are editing a page and its a long one.  you are editing at the top. the save button and the HTML button both require long scrolls to get to them...as i type I am wondering-  are there shortcut buttons for them?  if not, could those buttons be somehow placed on the screen so it would always be easy to get to them?  no scroll needed?

williare2
Community Participant

alternatively- if you dont want to automatically resize to the full page...could there be a size to page button?

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

@williare2 

> could there be a size to page button

I can't make any promises, but keep your eyes open.

The RCE sizing itself was pretty problematic and we've removed that behavior in favor of creating the RCE a bit taller to start with.

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

The new MathJax equation rendering, replacing the image-of-an-equation is on beta if you turn on the Updated math equation display feature option for your site.

dr_adam_marshal
Community Explorer

I dont see this setting, where is it?

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

@dr_adam_marshal I misspoke. It's a site admin setting, and it has been turned on in beta for everyone. You should see MathJax-ified equations in beta now.

williare2
Community Participant

@eschiebel  - I am not noticing the RCE start at a longer size - seems the same as before.  Here is an example of what I see- is this as expected?  My name is 24pt font.  

Screen Shot 2020-09-28 at 11.12.28 AM.png

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

The rce, from top of the menubar to the bottom of the content editing area should start at 400px tall. It's hard to tell from the screenshot, but that does look a bit short.

dr_adam_marshal
Community Explorer

I am so sorry @eschiebel but can you please give some sort of explanation as to what one needs to do to see MathJax-ified equations?

I have gone onto beta, set the RCE enhancements to be on in my course, added an equation using the equation editor but see nothing different to what I would have seen last week. The equation is an image and the alt text still isnt of any use.

 

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

@dr_adam_marshal that should be all you need to do.  The mathjax equation is not in the RCE while you're editing, but will show up after you save. Have you saved yet?

dr_adam_marshal
Community Explorer

I can replicate what you demonstrate in your screen cast when using Assignments but dont see the same behaviour when authoring a Page. 

wkylephillips
Community Participant

@eschiebel 

In an early reply you mentioned that you passed my comments along to the quiz engineers. I was wondering if there was a page monitored by the new quiz engineers? 

James
Community Champion

@dr_adam_marshal 

I do not see the behavior for pages, either. My equations are showing up as images.

@eschiebel 

I did test that adding an element with a class of math_equation_latex will allow you to do inline LaTeX on a page.

This code shows a √x twice. The first time is an image and the second time was rendered using MathJaX.

 

<div class="math_equation_latex">
<p><img class="equation_image" title="\sqrt{x}" src="https://richland.beta.instructure.com/equation_images/%255Csqrt%257Bx%257D" alt="LaTeX: \sqrt{x}" data-equation-content="\sqrt{x}" /></p>
<p>\(\sqrt{x}\)</p>
</div>

 

That is, sometimes it works. Sometimes I get nothing.  In testing, it seems that it is related to whether MathJax is available in the browser's cache. If I force a reload or disable the cache, then I get nothing. If I just reload the page, then it works.

If I force a reload, then everything within the div.math_equation_latex is missing, including any text, not just the math content.

That means that it does more than look for the math_equation_latex class on the page, it processes everything within it. I did find out that if you put the LaTeX content outside the div, then it will show to everyone, but will just show the \(\sqrt{x}\) to people who didn't already have MathJax loaded in the browser's cache.

However, you cannot put a blank div as the editor will strip it. But this works:

<p><img class="equation_image" title="\sqrt{x}" src="https://richland.beta.instructure.com/equation_images/%255Csqrt%257Bx%257D" alt="LaTeX: \sqrt{x}" data-equation-content="\sqrt{x}" /></p>
<p>\(\sqrt{x}\)</p>
<div class="math_equation_latex" style="display:none;">This page has math content on it. If it does not show, then refresh the page.</div>

I tried putting in a non-breaking space instead of the message, but without the display:none; it left space for it. The message is meaningless, so it's just kind of a comment to myself. 

I could have left the non-breaking space and used the display=none, except that my macro that cleans up code also removes non-breaking spaces since they don't belong in most of what I write and Canvas used to be really bad about putting them in there (at least with the old RCE - I don't use the new one except for the beta instance).

dr_adam_marshal
Community Explorer

The October Canvas Release Notes do indicate that the improved equation editor will be available throughout Canvas (not just in Assignments), however, it would be useful for that to be confirmed here. 

The Release Notes contains this: "This change improves accessibility for equations throughout Canvas."

Adam

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

@dr_adam_marshal The intent is for MathJax to be processing equations throughout Canvas. The issue with the Pages page is a bug and is being addressed. 

I assure you, we appreciate your finding problems and letting us know. This is the value of soaking a new feature in beta.

So, thanks!

karen_rubinstei
Community Explorer

Hi @peytoncraighill  My suggestion is for the media tool icon.  It seems a bit small and busy.  I would suggest just leave the "play button" that everyone is used to -- and take off the musical notes.    

Also, related to the media capabilities.  Any chance of getting an easy way to get auto-captions on media?

media toolmedia tool

Thanks!

gulick_24
Community Participant

@eschiebelEvery time I make a change to the text while editing in the new RCE, my pages scrolls back up to the top. This is a real pain when editing pages, as every single time I edit text, I have to scroll way back down. Any help would be seriously appreciated... editing is taking forever this way.

debbie_ellis
Community Participant

@peytoncraighill, I'm happy to see that you are looking at how to get the new RCE into the New Quizzes engine. I just heard from one of my users that it will make a huge problem for him if this doesn't happen because he relies heavily on using HTML in several of the courses he is developing.

I would be thrilled to see this be prioritized in the list of to-do items.

 

peytoncraighill
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

@karen_rubinstei 🤔I'm guessing the intention here was to symbolize both audio and video media types, but I agree with you that the icon looks small and busy. I'll pass this feedback to our design team; they're always looking at ways to improve the InstUI icons. Auto-captioning is available in Canvas Studio.

@gulick_24 This sounds like a bug, though I'm not seeing it in my sandbox on beta or prod. If you wouldn't mind submitting a ticket if you haven't done so already, we'd be happy to investigate.

@debbie_ellis Thanks for the feedback!

Status update for people interested in math:

  • Check out your beta environment now (or prod starting tomorrow) to see the difference in math rendering for equations created in the math editor. It's awesome. You'll notice that equations are no longer rendered as images once your rich content is saved. 
    • There's a bug where math still renders as an image on Canvas Pages. We already have a fix but the fix is fighting its way through a Jungle of Conflicts(TM) on its way to deployment, mired in acrid pits of failing automated tests and and jungle slime.
  • We're pretty close to allowing LaTeX entered inline in the RCE to be rendered as pretty math on save.
    • You can sorta kinda try this on beta today: enter a math equation using the math editor, and then enter an equation in LaTeX, like this (fingers crossed inline video works):
  • The math editor itself is still quite ugly. It functions, so updating it isn't pressing, but we think it'd be nice if it were less ugly.
venitk
Community Champion

@peytoncraighill @erinhmcmillan , Would it be possible to get an confirmation or updated timeline for New RCE implementation? New RCE enforcement is not on the roadmap for January and I'm still seeing major changes coming out in the releases, so I'm guessing the enforcement is being pushed back? However the timeline in the New RCE user group still says Jan 16, 2021. If the enforcement is NOT being pushed back, when do you anticipate the major changes to "clicks" will be finished? 

I'm asking because if the New RCE is being enforced in January, I need to train my faculty on how to use it, but I can't develop that training until the tool functions basically as it's going to and icons look the way they're going to look. (I don't want to train them on something that's going to change.) I will also need to go through all 100+ of my courses to update any directions for students on how to upload videos, add attachments, etc. 

It would be ideal for us if any major new or updated features were basically completed at least 6 months before enforcement to give us time to prepare our courses and our users, especially with Canvas Support as busy as it is at the moment. 

erinhmcmillan
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

Hi @venitk 

We will have the user group updated by the end of the month with everything you need.

Thanks,

Erin

venitk
Community Champion

That's wonderful, @erinhmcmillan, thank you so much.

gulick_24
Community Participant

@peytoncraighill I've noticed the "full screen" option in the RCE editor now--super awesome! But, then I lose the "save" button on the bottom right corner of the page. I don't see it anywhere else on the page, and I couldn't figure out how to save the content without a save button. Had to close the page and re-do all my edits. (I'm in Firefox.) Where does the save button go?

EDIT: Thank you @williare2 for the ESC button trick. Perfect!

williare2
Community Participant

I just saw I could use the escape key to get out of full screen mode...

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

@gulick_24 The menubar is still on-screen, so you can also select View > Fullscreen to exit fullscreen mode.

crafte
Community Champion

The October updates supposedly included a new MathJax equation editor. I have inserted equations into a page, but I do not see the MathJax menu when right-clicking the equation. Am I missing something?

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

@crafte 

  1. Did you use the RCE's equation editor it include the equation, or did you type the LaTex  code for the equation?
  2. When you say "into a page", do you mean a course's "Pages" page, or were you speaking more generically? We are having trouble with Pages and MathJax is does not enabled there yet.
crafte
Community Champion

@eschiebel - I used the equation editor in the RCE to insert the equation into a Canvas page. 

eschiebel
Instructure
Instructure

@dr_adam_marshal I finally figured out the issue with math on Pages. Sorry that took so long but sometimes the hardest problems to find are the ones you caused yourself. Look for it in beta by the end of November 🤞