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On a technical level, what you say is correct. But usability does matter and unfortunately (IMO) entering non-ASCII range characters in U.S. Windows and some other platforms is much more complicated than it needs to be. I've seen this comment from multiple instructors in this thread who all indicate the complexity interferes with learning basic language writing skills. This lack of usability is the reason that other LMS/WYSIWYG editing systems DO include character entry panels - which means there is code out there that could be utilized. And lots of web developers like Branah.com (https://www.branah.com/spanish) DO have online utilities that let users enter in different characters more easily. It would be easy to restrict assignments to Canvas. Or just as likely, the student could use a simplified Canvas palette to copy and paste characters into Word. If everyone was on a Mac, I would agree that a special tool wouldn't be needed because typing accents involves using an extra key in easy to remember combinations. Asking first-level students to remember random numeric ALT keys or activate a custom keyboard utility in the settings or find 10 characters in a sea of thousands of characters on a Character Map is daunting.  For other operating systems, a palette with a reduced character set could be helpful, especially in the beginning. Should students in advanced classes learn the other methods? Of course. But by then students will probably more committed to working on a best solution for their operating system. ... View more

Accented letters aren't just for foreign language classes. English words with accented letters occur in almost every discipline, particularly the humanities. As students take more advanced courses, the more accented spellings are going to be expected. Appendix:English words with diacritics - Wiktionary  ... View more

I would like this as a setting for instructors. It would be helpful for me since I do reveal assignments gradually over the semester (I even have my modules in reverse chronological order). But if you have the entire set of assignments open, having them in chronological order would make more sense. Having the ability to hide the Assignment list in the syllabus would also be helpful. I end up splitting my syllabus in two parts so that that students see the policy info on one page and the list of assignment deadlines on another. If it's one doc, the deadlines get buried at the bottom of the policy info. My 4¢ ... View more

I agree with Carol. Keep in mind that typing in a foreign language in the U.S. is not like typing the same language in its native territory. For instance, the default option in the U.S. Windows set up for inserting accented letters in Windows is a set of numeric ALT codes or using the Character Palette. There  is nothing "fluent" about either process. Yes, you can activate better utilities on any machine, but if a student is not at their computer (e.g. they are in a lab or at their parents house), then there is no guarantee that they will have access to these utilities. A built-in palette in the HTML editor can be very helpful. I've seen it used in other HTML editors, so I don't think it's hard to implement. P.S. In a perfect world, U.S. keyboards would make inserting special characters available by default and easier to do...but we're not there yet. ... View more

A lot of faculty want this feature, particularly if they have a profile page with a photo. I would rather WYSIWYG tools enable this with accessible code. ... View more

I like the idea of being able to export a CSV but would prefer a layout closer to a traditional grade book. That is Student First name Student Last name Student emaiil or institution ID (NOT the Canvas numeric ID) Dates in columns from earliest to latest Status (including "unmarked) in each cell ... View more

Thanks for the clarification. I did hear this second hand. ... View more

The problem with using an ungraded quiz/survey is that the Item Analysis report does not tell you how students responded on each choice. It only tells you if students got an answer "right" or "wrong". For a survey or poll, you need to see how many students pick each choice. ... View more