Ideas and Themes is a way for community members and Instructure to identify trends, determine priority, and collaborate on high value solutions. This is a replacement of the previous process known as Idea Conversations.
This Theme is dedicated to functions and features which would help admins customise their student facing Catalog pages, without using custom JS/CSS.
What value could this provide to users?
Admins would like to customise/brand their Catalog main page, course cards, course details, registration page and links and buttons - this will be available without any use of custom JS/CSS and external development or designer resources.
Improved Studio Media functionalities and new features
What value could this provide to users?
Able to use a Studio Chrome Extension for quick screen/web cam recordings
Able to add Vimeo Showcases
Able to use both Standard embed and Video Guiz embed tabs
Able to change default settings from comments toggled on to downloads
Able to add timestamps in the video description field
Why was this theme chosen to open for voting?
April 2023 • Video-based learning content improves student engagement. We are focusing on simpler ways to create and manage this type of content.
Why was this theme not chosen for prioritization?
June 2023 • While we have delivered on select ideas within this theme, we won’t be able to deliver on the key outcomes in this larger theme and plan to break it down into smaller themes targeted at specific needs and problems.
There are currently gaps in the criteria available for targeting messages to students in the "Message students who" functions for gradebook and analytics. Adding more options to these tools will allow messages to get to the correct group of students so that they can respond to a call to action from their instructors.
What value could this provide to users?
Message students who is available for more than 1 assignment at a time
Ability to send a custom message in new analytics
Message students who, Haven't logged in over the past week or haven't viewed the graded content
Institutions do not have a systematic way to manage old/stale data; certain objects they'd like to have deleted after some period of time so that it doesn't clutter their interface.
What value could this provide to users?
Admins can provide a data retention policy for various Canvas objects (ex: users/courses/files)
Objects that "expire" can be automatically deleted from the Canvas database
Admins have a grace period and UI to review objects that Canvas has slated for future deletion
A user that is slated for deletion can see that their user will be deleted; admins can customize the message that the user sees so that the user can notify them if it seems to be a mistake
A course that is slated for deletion will show a prominent message stating that it will be deleted on XYZ data; admins can customize this message for the call to action in case someone thinks the course shouldn't be deleted
Why was this theme chosen to open for voting?
April 2023 • As customers continue to use Canvas for longer durations, their data will grow. We want to enable better data management as well as compliance with privacy and security standards.
Why was this theme not chosen for prioritization?
June 2023 • In researching this theme and potential approaches to solve it, we identified cross-system dependencies which require more evaluation. However, we recognize the value in supporting data retention capabilities and plan to reconsider this for priority in the first half of 2024 while we continue our product and technical discovery.
Several workflows related to group membership and assignments can result in time-consuming manual work for instructors and cause confusion for students.
What value could this provide to users?
Group membership reflects the current course roster
Group membership changes are automatically synced across Canvas
Instructors can set more parameters when enabling group self sign-up
There are many settings that are currently only on or off; we aim to reduce the time it takes to configure settings for sub-accounts and courses by adding a "lock/unlock" or "use default" setting for various settings.
What value could this provide to users?
Overhaul the account,sub-account, and courses UI (architecture enablement)
Each setting now has an on/off/lock/use default setting (like our permissions)
UI is clear which settings have been inherited vs. overridden
A growing number of institutions want additional tools in building their competency/outcomes-based courses.
What value could this provide to users?
Canvas Outcomes can be tied to additional content in Canvas
Why was this theme chosen to open for voting?
April 2023 • As more institutions move toward competency-based education models, we want to ensure that we support a more seamless learning platform that works end to end.
Why was this theme not chosen for prioritization?
June 2023 • Support for competency-based education initiatives is critical to our strategy; however, this theme does not fit without our capacity for 2H as we continue to deliver on our core roadmap and is something we will evaluate in further quarters.
Certain integration or auditing use cases are impossible due to missing API endpoints, or API fields
What value could this provide to users?
Too many to list, but generally just making the API more robust so that better integrations can be built, or admins can get data for various audits and investigations
Users accessing LTI tools want the experience to be seamless so that they do not need to track which service they are using at any given moment, they can just accomplish their work efficiently. The focus of this theme is on enabling tool providers to create smooth user experiences when working between the tool and Canvas.
What value could this provide to users?
Making more data available to tool providers so that they can appropriately mirror Canvas experiences.
Ensuring the data made available to third party tools matches the data that Canvas uses.
In order for instructors and admin to best support learners, they need to be able to gather data about what learners are currently experiencing and the effects it has. This theme is focused on empowering admin and teachers in these decisions by providing them with necessary data.
What value could this provide to users?
Data about student-to-student and student-to-teacher interactions
Data about student usage of Canvas
Data about student responses to teacher interventions
Teachers and Admins feel that students are missing important information related to their courses, or are confused my having too many; it's difficult to help students get the right notification configuration for a productive learning experience.
What value could this provide to users?
Enable/Disable Notifications for Select Courses and Sub-accounts at Admin Level
Student Notifications Automatically Turned On For Crucial Messages and Comments
Reduce notification noise by giving teachers the ability to mute notifications for specific activities or timeframes
Ability to set default notifications at role/account/sub-account/course level
Admins can disable individual users/courses conversation capabilities
Entering a description when marking "Notify users that this content has changed"
Instructors need more options for assignment dates, deadlines, and rules to meet their own teaching goals, improve the student experience, and to comply with institutional policies.
What value could this provide to users?
Instructors have more options to encourage quality, on-time submissions, such as adding a "start by" date, making the "available date" more clear, and nudging students to submit
Dragging assignments on the Calendar updates the "available until" date and reflects when an assignment should be started
Instructors can place limits on assignment submissions, such as the length of the video or the number of files
Increased customization for assignment group weights by section
More flexible options for assignment rules that can be automatically applied to save time
Changes to the user interface that make it easier to parse for instructors and students
Admins spend a lot of time configuring LTI tools and are limited in their ability to set up, view, and customize them, often resulting in time spent removing and reinstalling.
What value could this provide to users?
More UI options to configure or modify LTI tool configurations
Greater flexibility in LTI tool configuration; specifically around tool visibility and access
Why was this theme chosen to open for voting?
April 2023 • As we continue to develop our LTI 1.3 solution, we want to ensure we’re meeting user needs and making installation and configuration as seamless as possible.
Why was this theme not chosen for prioritization?
June 2023 • We are prioritizing work on Dynamic Registration, which is a precursor to the LTI flexibility improvements. We will be creating a report which will enable administrators to find all enabled developer keys in a system as well as the permissions they have been granted (including for inherited keys.) Release notes on this will be coming soon. Although we’re not able to commit to the theme as a whole, as we have capacity we will do our best to make small improvements in this area, as we recognize it is important to our users.
Teachers need better ways to make point adjustments and better prompts to remind them of the differentiation between assignment points and question points. Teachers need specialized settings for subsets of students with special requirements.
What value could this provide to users?
Quiz settings make it possible to control when a student sees their results and what they can see
A Practice quiz would not count as an assignment
Quiz setting to allow subsequent quiz attempts to build on the last attempt only with questions that were incorrect
Instructors want additional controls to encourage student-led, self-paced learning in their courses.
What value could this provide to users?
Rubrics are more accessible for students and students can act as their own peer reviewer
Instructors have more control over how a student progresses through a course (e.g. the To Do List can be disabled to encourage students to follow the appropriate path)
Instructors are able to create student pathways via module requirements based on student choice and other differentiating factors
Students have additional tools that encourage progression and course completion (e.g. a checklist for staying organized)
There are certain important backend data elements that are not readily exposed. This theme encapsulates feature ideas that aim to expose backend data more readily in the API, UI, or reports.
What value could this provide to users?
Make it easier to see backend data in the frontend.
Make it easier for integrations to view critical backend data.
Different student groups have different needs, including those with different abilities, gender identities, learning styles and other characteristics. The goal of this theme is to facilitate inclusion of these students within Canvas.
What value could this provide to users?
Improve visibility of user’s selected pronouns to instructors
Tools can’t afford to write separate integrations for every platform and every difference between our platform and others increases the cost to tool providers to serve our customers. This includes work to follow LTI specifications as well as other development standards.
What value could this provide to users?
Reducing integration costs by increasing uniformity makes more tools available in our ecosystem so that customers can leverage more tools to improve learning.
Administrators and instructors need additional options for efficient scheduling and syncing of events in course and account level calendars.
What value could this provide to users?
Users have more control over scheduled events, allowing them to do things such as edit or lock appointments, block times, or assign times to specific students or groups
Users are able to more efficiently create calendar events, with capabilities to create multi-day events and recurring appointment slots
Admins are able to automatically add account level calendars for select users
Users are able to save time by adding events to multiple calendars at one time
Users are able to import events and sync events across calendars
Students need more notification and information to submit peer reviews. Instructors want to use peer reviews in calculating grades. Students need better resources to make use of group homepages or templates for planning
What value could this provide to users?
Peer Reviews are more valuable when they can be used for grading
Peer Evaluations for team members on group projects
Peer Reviews are easier with a better-designed UI that shows rubrics and other reference information on the screen
Sub-accounts often need different settings, permissions, themes, and feature options. This theme focuses on expanding the customizations that are available for sub-accounts.
What value could this provide to users?
Expanding root-level account settings to be available at the sub-account level
Ability to copy permissions sets between sub-accounts
Improved customization and flexibility enhanced reporting and analytics, and more granular permissions and controls for course listing and enrollment management
What value could this provide to users?
Admins have more flexibility in listing management to more easily order, duplicate, and correct listing details and catalogs as well as hide currency values for non-charged courses.
Admins can restrict Catalog courses after 'days to complete' have expired
Admins need better communication when there are changes in course enrollment (e.g. drop, reached cap, etc)
Admins want more reporting flexibility to understand performance based on time period, financial refunds based on enrollment changes, and a way to export listing reports
Catalog Analytics needs more flexibility in administrative management to add / edit Able to add/edit email addresses
Admins want the ability to add metadata to course listings such as the start and end date year,
Admins want flexibility in managing student enrollments through better tools to manually add, edit, correct, and remove enrollments
Admins want more granular permissions to manage and restrict enrollments and registrations and their associated metadata on a subcatalog level
Admins want a simplified user experience for Catalog mobile that reduces redundant and time-consuming tasks
Admins want enhanced automation to update listing titles and paths based on changes to Canvas course names and codes, enable automated notifications to users, and auto-enroll participants into programs.
Automated notifications to inform end users and admins of changes to listings and enrollments
Admins want flexibility in supporting promotional codes to support multiple listings and gifts as well as notifications when new promotions are created.
Admins want more permissions to initiate the process of creating multiple subcatalog payment gateways
Admins want flexibility in Certificate of Completion development including the ability to use RCE, design multiple Certificates of Completion at a sub-catalog or catalog level at the root level as well as restrict editing.
Admins want more waitlist flexibility in order set a custom time frame for waitlisted learners to claim an open spot and to be able to accept waitlist spots and continue to payment
Admins want additional customization tools to manage catalog headers, colors, and fonts
Admins want better synchronization between Canvas and Catalog to keep enrollment data up to data as well as send automated notifications of changes
Why was this theme chosen to open for voting?
April 2023 • Catalog plays an important role when it comes to managing course listings and enrollments. By identifying opportunities to support additional flexibility, we can provide admins with more robust tools to both understand enrollment performance and better support the course listing management lifecycle.
Why was this theme not chosen for prioritization?
June 2023 • While we are investing in improving flexibility in Catalog listing management and reporting via efforts such as our storefront customization (in the roadmap), we will not be able to address the outcome of this theme in its entirety and plan to break down this theme into smaller themes per the feedback we’ve heard.
Between permissions, assignment settings, and gradebook settings, there still is not enough flexibility to give the correct level of access and control to certain individuals.
What value could this provide to users?
Separate various permissions and/or assignment/gradebook settings for further control of read/write/edit access
Control over who can edit or post grades and when
Allow for grading activity without allowing full gradebook access
Increased anonymity for rubrics/outcomes and other grading features
Create a more true simulation of student experience by being able to support all relevant student use cases
What value could this provide to users?
Student preview tool will support: • Ability to view all modules and artifacts regardless of being published • View all assignments without having to remove pre-requisites or fulfill specific requirements • View external tool functionality (eg lockdown broswer, LTI tools) • View only option for specific student in order to troubleshoot individual issues based on current progress • Expand test student capabilities to test differentiation • Toggle to view mobile option (simulate app) when using preview • Create observer view similar to student view
Streamline the ability for observers to log-in, and see only the relevant information, and see it easily.
What value could this provide to users?
Easily get to the information about the student they are observing, without having access to anything they shouldn't, however, the course is configured
Instructors want additional inbox functionality and settings to customize messaging among course participants.
What value could this provide to users?
Provide functionality that is similar to what users would expect to see in email tools, such as signatures, RCE, scheduling of messages, auto-reply, and trash folder
Update the interface to allow for easy access to common actions, such as archive and delete
Provide additional clarity around recipients, such as showing custom section names and which student an observer is connected to
Allow for messaging of multiple classes at one time
There are certain desirable features in the web version of Canvas that people want on the Mobile Apps.
What value could this provide to users?
Do more things on mobile that can currently only be done on the web.
Why was this theme chosen to open for voting?
April 2023 • As users become more adept at using their mobile devices to learn, they are voicing their additional needs. Understanding our users’ needs by modality will allow us to make more informed decisions about our mobile and web strategy.
Why was this theme not chosen for prioritization?
June 2023 • While we plan to address some ideas within this theme, our Mobile team will not be able to commit to the theme at large given other roadmap priorities.
Instructors need to search, group, and add questions from item banks in different ways.
What value could this provide to users?
Refine a search by using a filter in the item bank then generate a random number of questions so that I can define a subset of questions that can all be used, randomized, or specify a set # of questions that can be randomized.
Use key word search to easily locate a question in a large list
Why was this theme chosen to open for voting?
April 2023 • Instructors rely on Item Banks as repositories for quiz questions. To facilitate the transition to New Quizzes, we want to maximize what instructors can do with their questions so that they can access, share, and copy their most important items.
Why was this theme not chosen for prioritization?
June 2023 • Given our current roadmap for New Quizzes, we will not be able to prioritize this specific theme at the current time beyond the work that is already communicated on the roadmap in the New Quizzes Hub.
Instructors often want to be able to visualize data about their students' performance within the gradebook. This theme is around providing more view options.
Increased property options and editing functionalities, frequent learner progress updates
What value could this provide to users?
Able to have a multi select property type in custom badge properties, so that I can select more than one from the predefined property options.
Able to re-order custom metadata fields as part of the editing functionality, so that I can re-arrange these fields even after submission.
Able to see a larger image of the badge on the description page, so that I can differentiate between institutional brand and credential level.
Able to change between automatic and manual awarding of a badge, so that I can have greater control and fewer issues that comes with deleting and recreating.
Able to receive badge awards right away once progress has been made, so that I can be sure I did everything well.
Why was this theme chosen to open for voting?
April 2023 • With the rise of digital badging issuance and sharing, both issuers and learners are looking for more robust and flexible badge management capabilities.
Why was this theme not chosen for prioritization?
June 2023 • We have delivered on the multi-select in custom badge properties idea, our focus for 2H will be in key roadmap commitments such as Blueprint / course copy support.
There are certain areas of Canvas where the lack of default controls makes management of various objects impossible or inefficient. By adding new default behaviors and controls, we can simplify the admin experience and reduce repetitive efforts.
What value could this provide to users?
Ability to Reorder Pronoun Options so that users can select them more efficiently
Add SIS IDs to default sections as part of course creation so that they can be managed with the change_sis_id.csv
Ability for Admin to set Student/Teacher/TA/Designers Term End dates to "whenever" so that teachers can have access indefinitely after the term ends
Ability to create Account Roles at the root-level without making them available at the sub-account level so that roles intended for the primary account don't clutter the sub-accounts
If empty course end date, then automatically use term end date so that the list of active courses is more manageable and accurate
Expanded quiz creation and editing functionalities, more flexibility for user controls, improved feedback mechanism, and always available usage insights.
What value could this provide to users?
Able to rewatch Studio quizzes without retaking a quiz, so I don't need to take the quiz every time I want to watch only the video.
Able to edit quizzes and auto-update grades accordingly after students have taken the quiz so that I don't need to recreate the whole quiz because of a mistake.
Able to use a rich content editor and open-ended questions in Studio quizzes, so that I have flexibility while writing questions and comments.
Able to receive immediate feedback on the question that I answered in Studio quiz so that I don't need to wait to find out if my answer was correct until all the questions were asked.
Able to add more levels of replying in Studio Quizzes, so I can help promote discussions.
Able to access insights in all kinds of Studio videos, so that I can always know how viewers interact with and view my media.
Able to prevent students fast forwarding studio quiz videos the first time they are seeing it so that I can make sure they watch the video at least once before answering any questions
Out of band communication between admins, teachers, and students is limited due to gaps in messaging or notifications functionality. By improving controls for notifications and communications, we can provide a more streamlined communication and notifications experience.
What value could this provide to users?
Ability to brand Canvas notifications
Allow admins to be contacted directly or CCd in messages
Improve automatic notification to include more descriptive course information in the subject
Instructors want to exercise more control over student permissions to help facilitate positive course collaboration and prevent unwanted content from being viewed.
What value could this provide to users?
Instructors have the option to moderate discussions, preventing students from seeing inappropriate content
Close existing loopholes for attaching documents to discussions, even when prohibited in Course Settings
Add additional controls over student ability to Conferences and Collaborations in Course Settings
There is a need to either split existing permissions, or add new ones, so that admins can create roles that can do their jobs without extraneous permissions.
What value could this provide to users?
Moderate discussions is split into separate permissions for add/edit/delete
Calendar event management is split into add/edit/delete permissions instead of 1
Instructors want to print specific content within Canvas to facilitate in-class instruction, save for their records, or to meet accreditation requirements.
What value could this provide to users?
Instructors can download and print a printer-friendly version of the Syllabus and People page
Communication between instructors and students can be downloaded and printed
Students need to know all the details about the quizzes they are about to take and about each attempt they make. Students need to have the right information while they are taking the quiz
What value could this provide to users?
Quiz metadata is important for students to know what is expected when they open the quiz and confirm information once it is submitted.
Timers and warnings will help students keep within the limits of quiz-taking.
Performing bulk course tasks can be repetitive, time-consuming, and error-prone.
What value could this provide to users?
Admins and instructors can share content and announcements to multiple courses at the same time
Blueprints are refined, cleaning up the copy and delete workflows to make them easier to use
Add bulk delete, select, edit functionality where possible (e.g. batch edit for assignment due dates)
Admins and instructors have more granular control over what is copied/imported when copying/importing content in a course, reducing clean up in the destination course
There are certain times that specific data needs to be pulled out of Canvas for investigative purposes or to isolate specifc objects that need attention. These efforts will expand functionality of account reports, analytics, admin tools, gradebook exports, and page views to address specific common use cases.
What value could this provide to users?
New columns in existing Account Reports
New account level reports
Custom reporting framework (if possible, in New Analytics)
More data available in Page Views
More data available about users and how enrollments were created
Instructors want more versioning in Canvas so they can have greater visibility into feedback given if content changes, as well as revert to previous versions if needed.
What value could this provide to users?
Instructors can see previous assignment version history and revert to prior versions
Rubrics are versioned so that admins and instructors can tie feedback given to specific versions of the Rubric
Enable templates, customizations, support new content types to create engaging courseware
What value could this provide to users?
Instructional designer:
Able to use a SCORM as a plug-in in the RCE toolbar and add it as an assignment in all the courses
Able to use image editing options and add responsive images to the RCE
Able to choose from pre-templated content themes in the RCE
Able to add an option to set the border collapse tag to collapsed or separate in border properties, so users can make use of cellspacing without needing to edit HTML codes.
Able to use a native course evaluation tool in Canvas
Able to export a text version of a course outline in Modules
Able to set a front page for every module as a dynamic home page
Able to add internal prerequisites within modules based on completion of all the activities under headers
Able to add pre-designed native HTML elements in the RCE that can be readily slotted into pages
Error message only displays when there is truly an error that blocks the user going forward Error message includes clear description of what the error is/ what input is causing the error Error message includes recommended user actions to fix the incorrect input
Clear indication of when a page is still loading (a function is still processing - e.g. listing courses, completing a search, etc.) so the user knows not to navigate away from the page and that it is not an error.
What value could this provide to users?
Visual indication of page loading (and ideally, a progress bar)
Themes that are Open for Voting are available for Community users to give feedback,
vote, and discuss with product managers and other Community users. Themes are opened for voting twice a year.
Prioritized Themes have gone through the voting process and are now being prioritized
and added to the official Instructure product roadmap when applicable. Updates on changes and progress will be
added to the prioritized theme, the official roadmap, and product release notes.
Teachers need reports that are easy to manipulate, full of useful information, and efficient to access
What value could this provide to users?
Quicker responses when accessing quiz and item analysis reports
Item Analysis, Student Analysis, and Outcomes reporting would be easy to download and in a format that is easy to manipulate
More information would be available in reports to help track progress or gaps
Why was this theme chosen to open for voting?
April 2023 • Quiz reports are key components to help customers understand outcomes and student performance. Reporting should be responsive, easy to manipulate, downloadable, and include the data necessary to help teachers and administrators make sound decisions on effectiveness and mastery.
Why was this theme chosen for prioritization?
June 2023 • While we will not be able to prioritize all ideas within this theme in the second half of the year, we will focus our efforts on improving the Item and Student Analyses.
Improved interactions and flexibility in settings for discussions encourage deeper discourse, leading to more meaningful exchanges and opportunities to learn with and from other class participants.
What value could this provide to users?
Provide for more flexibility in viewing preferences
Update workflows to be more efficient and limit clicks
Improve the interface to include clear calls to action and improved usability
Improve student interaction and timelines for participation through added capability of multiple due dates or checkpoints
Improved grading and feedback workflows
Additional reporting options to understand user activity and edit history
More granular settings and role permissions within discussions
Better default controls and actions
Why was this theme chosen to open for voting?
April 2023 • We know there is room for improvement with the Discussions Redesign, and through deeper discovery, we would like to better understand users’ needs when it comes to more meaningful discourse.
Why was this theme chosen for prioritization?
June 2023 • Improving the user experience with discussions continues to be one of the top requests among our users as well as a major UX/UI pain point. In addition to being ranked within the top 3 themes in this round of voting, internal team members report that questions about the redesign and missing functionality that requires users to partner with 3rd party vendors are topics on nearly every client call with clients in HE and International regions. While we won’t be able to address every idea in this theme, we believe we can deliver value to enable more meaningful discourse.
Rubrics are a powerful tool for helping students understand expectations and better ensure that scoring is accurate, unbiased, and consistent. Improving the creation workflow and usability will save instructors time and enhance student outcomes.
What value could this provide to users?
Provide additional editing capabilities that save the instructor time in creating and updating rubrics.
Simplify the management and workflow for connecting and disconnecting from artifacts.
Improved interface, default settings, and formatting options.
Added flexibility in viewing preferences.
Export capabilities
Why was this theme chosen to open for voting?
April 2023 • Rubrics are a widely used powerful assessment tool. We’ve heard feedback from our Community and customers directly that by Improving the current experience, we can make our instructors’ and students’ lives easier.
Why was this theme chosen for prioritization?
June 2023 • Rubrics are a powerful assessment tool and are used by many of our users. The UI/UX improvements to rubrics come up frequently on customer calls, and this was the top-voted theme.
Instructors need more flexibility through Canvas’ course-building tools to provide students with differentiated instruction based on their teaching goals and institutional initiatives.
What value could this provide to users?
Instructors can differentiate learning journeys and expectations across Canvas based on students’ learning needs
Instructors can control access to content across Canvas based on a predetermined set of criteria
Students can see content that’s relevant to their personal learning journey
Why was this theme chosen to open for voting?
April 2023 • As the educational landscape has continued to shift, institutions are more committed than ever to providing high-quality, personalized learning experiences for their learners. We want to support institutions and instructors seeking to leverage technology for this purpose by streamlining content differentiation in Canvas.
Why was this theme chosen for prioritization
June 2023 • Educators want a simple way to allocate content to specific learners or groups of learners so that they can provide content that’s relative to their personal learning journey. We continue to hear from our customers that they want to provide high-quality, personalized experiences, but are pressed for time and lack the flexibility needed to effectively differentiate. While we will not be able to prioritize all ideas within this theme in the second half of the year, we will focus on releasing modules to individuals or groups of individuals. A new theme will be created for additional ideas related to differentiated assignments and other content types.
