Do you use Canvas release resources? We want to hear from you!

[erinhmcmillan]

Hello, Canvas admins and instructors!

On behalf of the Canvas product team, I’m reaching out with a simple request: Will you help us know what release resources help you improve your experience with Canvas? We want to make sure that the resources we are providing are meeting your needs. If we provide resources that aren’t helpful to you, we want to put more time into resources that do.

We would sincerely appreciate if you would take 8–12 minutes of your time to complete the following survey for us depending on your user role:

• Canvas Admin Survey
• Canvas Instructor Survey
  

To say thank you, we will send you a $5 Amazon gift card to the email address you include in the survey.

Canvas Release Resources

[Jeff_F]

Hello - there is a question in the survey that hints at the possibility of increasing the frequency of releases.  As in more frequently than once a month.  Did I read that correctly and is that actually being considered?

To share, I much prefer the current monthly update vs. the previous three week cycle.

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi @Jeff_F 

We're just trying to get a general feel for feedback and are exploring a lot of options. Thanks for your thoughts!

Erin

[kburkes]

I am a top-level admin for our Canvas system.  I realize that this is past time for the feedback on your survey, but I want someone to know that your system of deploy notes, release notes, community blogs about system changes, etc. are a full time job to keep up with. 

Seems like, when we switched to Canvas in 2017-2018, I would get one simple email that contained all the updates that would be happening that month, and what to look out for in future months.  I didn't have to check a thousand web pages.  It was all simple and in one spot. 

We have been caught unawares several times this last year because we didn't check the "right" page to see a change, and half the time I cannot find something that should be there.  I'm in here today trying to find information on what will be updated in August -- and I cannot locate it.

We are not full-time tech people -- and could care less what the difference is between a deploy and a release.  I do not need another social media community to hang out in.  I don't have time to browse blogs to piece together information.  I just want the straight up facts about what will be changing on our Canvas system, especially what will affect faculty and students.  Keep it simple.

I am frustrated and tired of fooling with your complex community system where I can't find what I need..  Just give me a list of ALL the system changes for that month in one place, dates it will happen, and links to more information -- that's all I need

Thanks.

[kirsten_ryall]

What a timely comment @kburkes. We recently fed very similar experiences back to Instructure when interviewed by them for a Customer Listening Journey. It is my job to try and stay across what is coming, when, and what impact it will have on our way of 'doing Canvas'. And it is not supposed to be a full-time role but often I feel like it is too. Just yesterday my team asked me for details on what I needed to do to prepare for August release, and I was unable to give them a detailed answer. It was more along the lines of all that you mentioned above. Plus be ready to respond if I miss something in one of the deploys, issues, fixes, releases, user group updates, idea conversations, release Q&A's etc (I suspect I have missed something). Long story short, I feel your pain 🙂

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, all,

Thanks for the feedback. We're acutely aware of the need to simplify—for all our sakes! We're working on some ideas and are hoping to introduce some adjustments soon.

Thanks,

Erin

[Sandie]

well said @kburkes 

Also, sometime when there is something released some other features disappear for no reason. This time is the "course add" disappeared while the "course reset" is added. Not sure if this is on purpose or just something that the developer have missed. 

 Canvas Deploy Notes (2021-07-07) - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

[erinhmcmillan]

Hello @Sandie 

Course - add was a inadvertent behavior that was corrected in the Canvas Deploy Notes (2021-09-01) 

Thanks,

Erin 

[Sandie]

Thanks @erinhmcmillan 

I think the wordings in " What it does" still need to change as "courses - add" still there.

[audra_agnelly]

I appreciate that the deploys get stuff out to Canvas faster than waiting another month for the next update, particularly with the product feature updates (C4E, New Quizzes) that are happening right now. I do think there is confusion around what a deploy is and what a release is. Deploys used to primarily roll out bug fixes and backend items in preparation for a feature release, but there have been times where something major has come out in a deploy and it's been missed by admin. I'm pretty on top of the release notes, but I also have the entire month the catch up with them, it's can be hard to keep up with the deploys, especially during peak times.

I've also found that moving the release conversations to individual per-item pages has made it really challenging to follow the conversation around a certain feature. There have been times when I read through the release notes and didn't notice any red-flags, but in the conversation around the notes another admin has pointed out a bug in Beta or some other concern about the release that hadn't occurred to me in my reading of the notes. Now I have to navigate to each page to see if there's commentary, AND I have to do that throughout the month to see if additional comments have been made. It was much simpler to check the release notes once or twice a week to see if any additional comments had been shared. 

[jsowalsk]

I second @audra_agnelly that having the user groups and finding the other updates in other areas has really filled up my subscription feed and has caused great confusion on where to look for things and understand updates. It would be better to have a one-stop shop (remember less is more). Also, if it is possible to see deploy work in beta or test before it pushes to production that would be awesome too. Lastly, for testing things -- having the ability to test things out such as new analytics and other items before they are released to production would be also helpful. Trust me we appreciate all of the work you are putting into this.

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi @Sandie 

Sometimes the permissions UI updates are slightly behind. They'll be updated in the 15 September deploy.

Thanks,

Erin

[erinhmcmillan]

Everyone,

Thanks for your feedback. We have some changes coming that we hope will alleviate some concerns.

Thanks!

Erin