When we first started working on this initiative, we identified 4 phases to deliver the editor and make the Bulk Migration Tool available. In phase 1, we included the features that were already present in the old tool and/or were needed for the migration tool. I’m happy to announce that we not only delivered phase 1, but phase 2 features as well with the beta release on November 21, 2022.
The new Rich Content Editor is already in the Beta environment and available for use, with no need to turn on any feature flags. You can check it out right away. As you try things out, we’d be happy to hear some feedback from you in the comments on this post. After the Beta testing cycle, the changes will be made to the Production environment as well.
Known issues
We have two known issues to fix in beta, before moving to production. Our engineering teams are working on these now.
Spell Check
When using the Essay Question type to build a quiz, instructors can determine if they want students to have access to the spell checker or not. The Rich Content Editor uses the browser’s built-in spell checker, regardless of the setting selected so quiz takers are able to use it during the quiz. Our solution is to ensure the question level setting takes preference.
Word count
The Rich Content Editor has its own Word Count functionality, while instructors can set a word count and word limit functionality for quiz takers in the settings for Essay Question type. At the moment Word Count can’t be disabled for the RCE, so this causes feature duplication and a bit of confusion for end users.
Content incompatibility and workarounds
The content from the old Rich Content Editor has some compatibility issues with the new editor. The content themselves are rendering fine for quiz takers, but in some cases if instructors would like to edit the content, they may need some manual workaround.
Math Equations
Math Equations created in the old editor won’t be rendered in the editor, but will be the same as in the old one. This has no effect on the quiz at all. One will only need to follow these steps if they’d like to see the old math content rendered in the new editor.
The user will need to highlight the equation and click on the Insert Math Equation button:
The Equation Editor will pop-up with the rendered equation.
Click on Done and the equation is rendered in the editor as expected.
Videos
Videos will be rendered with the old media player and additional video settings can’t be edited. This has no effect on viewing, but may be confusing for quiz takers. If this causes issues, the media could be downloaded from the Editor and reuploaded as new content:
Click on the kebab menu in the bottom right corner of the video.
Then click on Download. This will download your video which you can immediately upload again.
After this, you can delete the old video and edit the new one.
Next Steps
The team is going to continue delivering features to bring the full potential of the Rich Content Editor to New Quizzes. With the help of other teams, we have already started the work on Phase 3, which will allow users to use third party apps inside the Rich Content Editor in New Quizzes.
Also, institutions that use custom CSS in their Canvas theme won’t see this reflected in the new editor in New Quizzes yet. We’ll start the work needed to make this adjustment soon as well.
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