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Canvas Production Release Notes (2016-08-27)

Canvas Production Release Notes (2016-08-27)

In this production release (August 27), admins can customize the default Help links in the Global Navigation Menu for their institution. Instructors can add images to Dashboard course cards (if allowed by their institution) and easily move an existing event to another calendar. All users can enable a new option in User Settings to underline all Canvas links without relying on High Contrast Styles.

Instructors and students also benefit from design improvements to the Assignments, Conferences, Modules, and Quizzes pages. Other features include additional improvements.

Starting on September 10, instructors and other course conference moderators can use live captioning in Conferences. Desktop sharing functionality will also be changed to run as a Java application to support all browsers, including Chrome. These features will be rolled out to all Canvas regions over the next few weeks, beginning in North America.

Production release notes also include fixed bugs.

watch-screencast-red.png

Canvas New Feature Screencast (2016-08-27)

Next release schedule:

  • Beta release and notes: September 6 (in observance of Labor Day in the United States)
  • Production release notes: September 12
  • Production release and documentation: September 17

Production release notes indicate Canvas updates that will be included with Saturday’s release and are subject to change. New features may differ from those available in your beta environment. Learn more about the Canvas Release Schedule.

  New Features

  < BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS

Course Settings

Dashboard Course Images

This feature is used with the Enable Dashboard Images for Courses feature option, which can be enabled by an institutional admin in Account Settings.

Course cards on the Dashboard can contain an image as uploaded through Course Settings. Images can be dragged and dropped into the browser window or uploaded from a computer. Accepted images include JPG, JPEG, GIF, and PNG files. Larger images may take a few seconds to process. Images can also be added from Flickr; the search field displays image results with a Creative Commons public domain license.

After an image has been uploaded, the image automatically displays in the Course Details page. The image display shown in Course Details is true to size; for best practice, images should be approximately 262 pixels wide by 146 pixels high.

Course-Settings-Image.png

Once the Course Details page is saved, the Dashboard image displays in the course card behind the course color. As with all courses shown in the Dashboard and Calendar, instructors cannot control the course color. Colors are automatically assigned by Canvas, though users can change the course color at any time.

Course-Settings-Dashboard-.png

release-notes-feature-idea-icon.png Canvas Community contributions: use pictures for courses

User Settings

Underline All Links Feature Option

This feature is used with the Underline Links feature option, which can be enabled by any user in User Settings.

Users can view all Canvas links without having to enable high contrast mode. When enabled, this feature underlines hyperlinks in Global Navigation, the Dashboard, page sidebars, and text links.

Note: Currently, the high contrast option also generates underline links, but this functionality will be removed in a future release.

User-Settings-Underline-Feature-Option.png

  Updated Features

  < BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS

Account Settings

Customized Default Help Links

Account-level features are not available in Free-for-Teacher accounts.

Admins can disable and reorder default help links in Canvas. Available at the account level only, this feature enables admins to better customize the Help menu for their institutions.

To move an available link up or down in the menu list, click the up or down arrow. To delete an available link, click the delete icon. For each link, faded icons mean the link item cannot be changed, so some actions may not be available. For instance, custom links can be edited, but default links cannot be renamed.

  • Ask Your Instructor a Question (students only) Search the Canvas Guides, and Report a Problem links can be deleted and re-added at any time.

  • Ask the Community (instructors and admins only) and Submit a Feature Idea links always appear at the end of the menu. These links currently cannot be deleted or moved.

  • The Help menu links also display when a user accesses the Help link in the Login page. However, even when enabled, Ask Your Instructor a Question and Ask the Community links are never part of the Help menu in the Login page since the Login page does not associate a user by role.

Account-Settings-Help-Menu-Options.png

Links that are deleted from the Help Menu can be added back to the menu at any time. Available links display in the Add Link menu. Links that are in gray text are already included as part of the menu listing.

Account-Settings-Help-Menu-Links.png

release-notes-feature-idea-icon.png Canvas Community contributions: edit order of help menu links

Calendar

Calendar Event Edits

After an event has been created, instructors can move the event from one calendar to another. To move an event, open the event in the calendar, click the Edit button, and select the new calendar in the Calendar drop-down menu.


Notes: In the Edit menu, calendar changes cannot be made for section-specific events, assignments, and Scheduler appointments.

Calendar-Move-Event.png

release-notes-feature-idea-icon.png Canvas Community contributions: move calendar events

Conferences

Conferences updates are not available for testing in the beta environment. Beginning on September 10, updated features will be rolled out to all Canvas regions, beginning with North America.

Live Captioning

The Conferences interface allows conference moderators to support live captioning during a session. A moderator (such as a stenographer) can enter captions for one or more languages, though each language can only support one moderator. Students can select a language that has been made available and view the live captions. Conference recordings display the captions as subtitles.

conferences-captioning.png

Desktop Sharing Improvements

The Conferences interface offers faster desktop sharing with full-screen capturing. The presenter can also pause or resume desktop sharing. Additionally, the desktop sharing process has changed to run as a Java application to support all browsers, including Chrome.

conferences-desktop-sharing.png

Global Navigation

Help Menu Placement

The Help icon displays as the last item in the Global Navigation menu instead of being placed at the bottom of the page. This update helps users be able to view the Help icon as part of the entire Global Navigation Menu and be accessed more easily. Additionally, to align with other Global Navigation features, the Help icon displays a navigation menu instead of a modal window. Help links are not affected and display according to the links set for the Canvas account.

Global-Navigation-Help-Menu.png

release-notes-feature-idea-icon.png Canvas Community contributions: custom menu options and help menu placement

Global Navigation Width

The Global Navigation Menu has been redesigned for smaller screen resolutions. This update helps the Global Navigation Menu be more adaptive to future enhancements. When the browser window size is reduced to a tablet width, the Global Navigation Menu narrows and the icon menu names are hidden.

  Other Updates

  < BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS

Account Settings

Button Updates

The buttons for adding an account feature in Account Settings match similar button styles throughout Canvas. Updates are included in the sidebar for adding a new course or user, as well as in the Settings, Admin, Announcements, and Apps tabs.

Account-Settings-Button-Update.png

Assignments

Index Page Style Update

The Assignments index page includes an updated design. Instead of all assignment data being grouped in columns in the same content line, data has been reorganized for easier readability. No functionality has been affected.

  • Individual assignment items include a larger icon and additional whitespace.

  • All page content is responsive within a browser window. Assignment names are no longer truncated; long assignment titles wrap to the next line. Assignment content, such as module name, availability dates, due date, and point value, has been moved below the assignment title.

  • For instructors, published assignments also include a green bar for easier recognition.

Assignments-Index-Page-Update.png

Conferences

Index Page Style Update

The Conferences index page includes an updated design. Instead of all conferences data being grouped in columns in the same content line, data has been reorganized for easier readability. No functionality has been affected.

  • Individual conference items include additional whitespace.

  • All page content is responsive within a browser window. Conference names are no longer truncated; long names wrap to the next line. Conference content, such as the conference date and description, has been moved below the assignment title.

Conferences-Index-Page-Update.png

Modules

Index Page Style Update

The Modules index page includes an updated design. Instead of all module data being grouped in columns in the same content line, data has been reorganized for easier readability. No functionality has been affected.

  • Individual module items include a larger icon and additional whitespace.

  • All page content is responsive within a browser window. Assignment names are no longer truncated; long assignment titles wrap to the next line. Module content, such as assignment availability dates, due date, and point value, has been moved below the content item title.

  • For instructors, published module items also include a green bar for easier recognition.

Modules-Index-Page-Update.png

release-notes-feature-idea-icon.png Canvas Community contributions: allow wrap-around text for content items

Quizzes

Index Page Style Update

The Quizzes index page includes an updated design. Instead of all quiz data being grouped in columns in the same content line, data has been reorganized for easier readability. No functionality has been affected.

  • Individual quiz items include a larger icon and additional whitespace.

  • All page content is responsive within a browser window. Quiz names are no longer truncated; long quiz titles wrap to the next line. Quiz content, such as availability dates, due date, and point value, has been moved below the content item title.

  • For instructors, published quizzes also include a green bar for easier recognition.

Quizzes-Index-Page-Updates.png

Rich Content Editor

Keyboard Shortcut Icon

The keyboard shortcut icon has been changed to a keyboard icon. This icon complements the keyboard icon shown in the Gradebook and in SpeedGrader.

Rich-Content-Editor-Keyboard-Shortcut-Icon.png

Sidebar Updates

This update applies to institutions using the Use remote version of Rich Content Editor and Sidebar feature option, which currently only affects the sidebar in Pages and the Syllabus.

The sidebar feature option has currently been disabled for institutions also using the Require Usage Rights for Uploaded Files feature option; more information will be available in a future release.

In the Rich Content Editor sidebar Links tab, the Wiki Pages link has been renamed to Pages. This update helps align terminology throughout Canvas. Additionally, pagination in each content section has been increased from 10 to 50 content items.

Rich-Content-Editor-Sidebar.png

release-notes-feature-idea-icon.png Canvas Community contributions: consistent naming in Canvas

Rubrics

Button Placement

The Cancel and Create/Update Rubric buttons have been moved to the left side of the Rubrics page.

Assignment-Rubric-Details-Window.png

release-notes-bug-fix-icon.png This change resolves a fixed bug in Canvas:

When a user created or updated a rubric with a large number of ratings, the Create or Update Rubric button overlapped into the sidebar. This behavior occurred for users who created or updated rubrics in small browser windows. Canvas code has been updated to move the rubric buttons to the left side of the rubric window.

  Platform/Integration

  < BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS

API

For details about using Canvas APIs, please see the Canvas API Policy page.

Courses API

In the Courses API, users can return both the public description and course time zone using the include parameters, and both are also now available as additional parameters when creating or modifying a course via the API.

Additionally, users can view if a course has enabled the multiple grading periods feature option as part of a current grading period. When the current grading period scores argument is passed, the course includes the multiple_grading_periods_enabled attribute. This argument is ignored if the course is configured to hide final grades or if the total_scores argument is not included.

release-notes-feature-idea-icon.png Canvas Community contributions: allow course time zone in API

Assignments API

In the Assignments API, users can filter unsubmitted and ungraded assignments. For an individual student, the API shows which assignments have not been submitted by the student and which assignments have not been graded by the instructor.

Calendar Events API

In the Calendar Events API, users can set a course timetable, get course timetable, and create or update events directly for a course timetable.

Developer Keys

Multiple Redirect URIs

Account-level features are not available in Free-for-Teacher accounts.

Developer keys can have multiple redirect URIs (legacy redirect URI and multiple redirect URIs).

Developer-Key-Redirects.png

LTI

External Link Launch

Users can set LTI links in Course Navigation and embedded in the Rich Content Editor to launch into a new tab.

  • Links embedded in the RCE via Content Item specifying to open in a new tab would open in a new tab, but include the Canvas chrome. This behavior has been modified to only open the LTI content in the new tab.
  • Tools that use course navigation placements can specify the launch behavior to open into a new tab by adding the following in the XML configuration:

"<lticm:property name="windowTarget">_blank</lticm:property>"

release-notes-feature-idea-icon.png Canvas Community contributions: LTI links open to new tab/window

  Fixed Bugs

  < BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS

Accessibility

Announcements

Announcement links are focused left to right, starting with the author.

Conferences

The New/Edit Conference window displays the title of the window to screen readers.

Discussions

The state of a discussion, subscribed or unsubscribed, displays to screen readers.

Grades

The aria-label for Gradebook tooltips do not escape from the page.

Rich Content Editor

The keyboard shortcut icon has been changed to a keyboard icon.

Syllabus

The mini calendar can be accessed by keyboard users.

Media recorded in Canvas supports closed captioning and other functionalities available in other Canvas pages.

Account Settings

Account Admins

Admins removed from an account via SIS are completely deleted from Canvas.

Explanation: When a user is removed via SIS as an account admin, the user’s SIS and login information is removed from Canvas but the user is still shown as an admin in Account Settings. Canvas code has been updated to delete the account membership when removed as an admin via SIS.

Analytics

Student Analytics and Table View

In Table View, the Student Analytics page updates data when a different student is selected.

Explanation: When an instructor viewed the Student Analytics page in the Table View and viewed another student, the table data was not updating to display the data for the next student. Canvas code has been updated to update user data for the student being viewed.

API

Analytics URL

When a user makes a call with an include parameter, the link header analytics_url is only returned once.

Explanation: When a user made a call with an include parameter, the link header returned analytics_url multiple times. Canvas code has been updated to only return the analytics_url once.

Assignments

Download Submissions and Anonymous Grading

The Download Submissions button in the Assignments page does not include student names if Anonymous Grading is turned on.

Explanation: When a user downloaded all submissions for an assignment and submissions were graded anonymously, the downloaded ZIP file displayed the names of all students. Canvas code has been updated to respect anonymous grading in assignment downloads.

Turnitin Submissions

When a student submits an assignment through the Turnitin LTI, Canvas retries Turnitin attempts up to 14 times over a 24-hour period for both the submission and the originality score.


Explanation: When a student submitted a Turnitin assignment through the Turnitin LTI, Canvas waited five minutes to attempt to receive the submission and originality report information. If the submission could not be retrieved, Canvas would fail silently. If the originality score could not be retrieved, Canvas would try 10 more times over the next hour. This behavior still sometimes resulted in not being able to retrieve the information before the submission was ready for processing. This behavior only affected institutions using the Turnitin LTI. Canvas code has been updated to retry Turnitin attempts up to 14 times over a 24-hour period for both the submission and the originality score.

SIS Index Icon

When the Post Grades to SIS feature option is enabled for a course, the Post to SIS icon displays in the Assignments page.

Explanation: When the Post Grades to SIS feature option is enabled for a course, the Post to SIS icon was not displaying in the Assignments page. However, if an individual assignment was edited and selected to be sent back to the SIS, the icon would appear in the index page. This behavior did not affect the Quizzes page. Canvas code has been updated to display the SIS icon when enabled.

Authentication

Google and Community Login

When Google is set up as the default authentication provider for an institution, users can authenticate and log in to the Canvas Community.

Explanation: When an institution set up Google as the default authentication provider (first position in the authentication page), users who tried to log in to the Canvas Community were not able to authenticate. Canvas code has been updated to correct logins for authentication methods set in the first position.

Calendar

Event Detail Window Placement

When a user clicks the link to a calendar event, the event detail window displays directly above the event.

Explanation: When a user clicked the link to an event from the Calendar (or from another page that displays events, such as the Syllabus), the event detail window displayed in the top left corner of the Calendar. Canvas code has been updated to position the event detail window next to the calendar event.

Conversations

Submission Comments and Muted Assignments

Submission comments display in assignments for muted assignments.

Explanation: When a student added a comment to an assignment, and the instructor later muted the assignment, the student’s comment was not displaying in the Conversations Submission Comments filter. Canvas code has been updated to always show comments regardless of the assignment’s grading status.

Course Imports

Schoology Files

Schoology imports retain links for files.

Explanation: When a course was imported from Schoology, file links were not being retained to display previews. Canvas code has been updated to add referenced files to the course.

Moodle Assignments and Floating Integers

Moodle imports create assignments with grades containing floating integers.

Explanation: When a course was imported from Moodle, assignments that included floating integers were not able to be imported. Canvas code has been updated to include a more recent Moodle dependency.

Announcements/Discussions and File Attachments

Attachments in announcements and discussions are included as part of a course copy.


Explanation: When a user copied a course and chose to select specific content, selecting an announcement or discussion that included an attachment was not importing the attachment, unless it was specifically selected to be imported from Files in the same import. Canvas code has been updated to always copy attachments for assignments and discussions.

Dashboard

Student To-Do List and Trust Institutions

Students can view To-Do items even if the courses they are enrolled in originate in a different account.

Explanation: When students tried to view their Dashboards, they were unable to view all course items in the To-Do list. This behavior affected students who were enrolled in courses located in another account through a trust setup. Canvas code has been updated to populate To-Do items for all courses.

Instructor To-Do List and Concluded Courses

In concluded courses, assignments do not appear in an instructor’s To Do list.

Explanation: When an instructor participated in a course that had concluded by course or section dates, previous assignments were appearing in the To Do list. Canvas code has been updated to correct assignment To-Do list items for concluded courses.

Grades

Gradebook Export and Enrollment Status

The Gradebook export CSV file honors enrollments shown or hidden in Gradebook settings.

Explanation: When an instructor exported the Gradebook, the CSV file always displayed inactive enrollments. Canvas code has been updated to include enrollments if shown in the Gradebook settings.

Groups

Account-level Groups and Pages

Users in an account-level group can view pages in the group.

Explanation: When a user in an account-level group tried to view a page in the group, the link generated a page error. Canvas code has been updated to correct page links to account-level groups.

Student Groups and Unpublished Courses

Student group enrollments are not displayed until the associated course has been published.

Explanation: When a user was enrolled in a group in an unpublished course, the Groups menu displayed the name of the course group. Trying to access the group generated an authentication error. Canvas code has been updated to verify the state of the course and only show groups for published courses.

Modules

Differentiated Assignments and Single-Section Courses

If a course only includes one section, differentiated assignments indicate the assignments have multiple due dates.

Explanation: When a course only included one section, differentiated assignments with multiple due dates did not show in Modules that the assignment included multiple due dates. Canvas code has been updated to support showing multiple due dates in courses with only one section.

Notifications

SMS Confirmation Codes

Users can view SMS Confirmation codes to verify SMS contact methods.

Explanation: When a user tried to set up SMS (text) messaging as a contact method, the notification was not sending the confirmation code. Canvas code has been updated to send confirmation codes. This change was deployed to production on August 18.

Grading Scores Checkbox

If the scores opt-in checkbox is disabled at the account level, students cannot view the option in Notifications to opt-in to grading scores.

Explanation: When an admin disabled the option to allow students to opt-in to receive scores in email notifications at the account level, the Notifications page displayed the information about the setting in the tooltip. Canvas code has been updated to remove all mention of the opt-in scores checkbox when the option is disabled.

People

Empty Group Sets

Instructors can view the Groups tab for courses that don’t have any group sets.

Explanation: When an instructor tried to view the Groups tab for a course that did not contain any group sets, the page generated an error. Canvas code has been updated to redirect to the groups page.

Quizzes

Manage Assignments and Quizzes Permission

Instructors can view Quizzes if they do not have the Manage Assignments and Quizzes permission.

Explanation: When an instructor without the Manage Assignments and Quizzes permission tried to view a quiz, the quiz displayed a message saying the quiz was currently locked. Canvas code has been updated to grant read-only access to Quizzes if they do not have the Manage Assignments and Quizzes permission.

Rich Content Editor

YouTube Videos

Embedded YouTube videos use iFrames for playback.


Explanation: When a user pasted a YouTube video link into the Rich Content Editor, the link embedded correctly but was not able to be played. This behavior occurred in the Chrome browser. Canvas code has been updated to play embedded YouTube videos in iFrames.

File Links

File links retain existing file names and highlighted text.


Explanation: When the remote version of the Rich Content Editor and sidebar account feature option was turned on, if a user highlighted text in the Rich Content Editor and uploaded a new file in the sidebar, the highlighted text was unchanged and did not create a link. Additionally, if a user uploaded a new file with no text already highlighted, the file appeared as a link in the bottom of the text area with only the word Link. Canvas code has been updated to create links to files according to the file name, regardless of whether the file is new or previously uploaded. If text is already highlighted, the highlighted text is retained and linked to the selected file. If no text is highlighted, the Rich Content Editor creates a link using the entire file name. This change was deployed to production on August 24.

Rubrics

Rubric Ratings and Sidebar

The Create or Update Rubric buttons are located on the left side of the rubric window.

Explanation: When a user created or updated a rubric with a large number of ratings, the Create or Update Rubric button overlapped into the sidebar. This behavior occurred for users who created or updated rubrics in small browser windows. Canvas code has been updated to move the rubric buttons to the left side of the rubric window.

SIS

Completed State in SIS Enrollments

Users can import SIS enrollments set to a completed state.

Explanation: When a user imported an SIS enrollment with the completed state, the SIS import was not able to process the enrollment. Canvas code has been updated to allow completed enrollments through SIS imports. This change was deployed to production on August 9.

SpeedGrader

Private Comments in Group Submissions

Private student comments posted to group submissions are not visible in SpeedGrader.

Explanation: When a student in a group submission posted a private comment to the instructor, the comment was displaying in the SpeedGrader comments until the page was refreshed. This behavior occurred after instructors or TAs make a public comment to the entire group in SpeedGrader, causing the instructors or TAs to think comments were disappearing from submissions. Canvas code has been updated to always hide private comments in group submissions.

Theme Editor

K12 Themes and Global Navigation

When the K12 Specific Features feature option is enabled, Global Navigation icons display the set branding color.

Explanation: When a customer success manager enabled the K12 Specific Features feature option for an institution, and an admin created a K12 theme in the Theme Editor, Global Navigation icon colors were not able to be updated. Canvas code has been updated to allow K12 Global Navigation icons to be branded in the Theme Editor.

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Comments

After moving an entire quarter's worth of calendar events using copy/paste from a (rather cranky) instructor's personal calendar to his course calendar, can I just say hallelujah for the ability to move events to a different calendar in the edit window.

Sorry, Instructure. I just don't get the color overlay on top of the image. Why? And what purpose does it serve? It screws up the image AND the color card. You showed us a COOL feature in Colorado, and in less than a month made it something not worth activating. <SMH>

What a nice hidden gem this release. Thank you!

Download Submissions and Anonymous Grading

The Download Submissions button in the Assignments page does not include student names if Anonymous Grading is turned on.

Explanation: When a user downloaded all submissions for an assignment and submissions were graded anonymously, the downloaded ZIP file displayed the names of all students. Canvas code has been updated to respect anonymous grading in assignment downloads.

Is "Enable Dashboard Images for Courses" going to be a feature option like it is on Beta now?  Will it continue to be a feature option?  Rolling this out one week into classes would be confusing to students, so I want to ensure that we can decide if/when to roll out the dashboard images. 

Thank you!

Joni

I previewed the new Help link on my institution's beta site. As an admin I have a "Customize this menu" link that links to /accounts/1/settings and redirects me to https://cluster25.beta.instructure.com/login/canvas​ -- this appears to be broken.

The interface for editing these links in the settings could be improved. "Ask the Community" and "Submit a Feature Idea" cannot be moved, edited, or removed but clicking on the links to move, edit, or remove them does not bring up any error messages. The icons are gray, but there is no in-context explanation present.

Also, I don't see why we shouldn't be able to move, edit, or remove those links. Maybe it's just me, but I don't see our users creating Canvas Community accounts to submit features. To suggest that they can do so easily but then require an additional login is just frustrating, they will call us with their suggestions instead.

We remove the "Ask the Community" and "Submit a Feature Idea" links with some custom CSS code applied with our branding file. I'm happy to share the snippets we've tested and will apply on Sunday with you.

Yes - we will continue to use our override file to hide these entries. Sigh.

The course[time_zone] addition to Courses API does allow modifying a course time zone by PUT, at least in beta. Clarifying this because the release notes specify "view", which is also available (GET).

YES! The help icon has moved and the Modal box is gone. Well done, this is something that will be a better help to Help.

As an FYI - Images look washed out with the color overlay even when set to white (#ffffff).  Faculty may have difficulty finding a hex code for a color that best compliments the image.  There also seems to be no way to make the color transparent or easily control the opacity.  The color picker only allows 6 characters which wouldn't allow for values like (#00ffffff) transparent white.

beta_dashboard.png

Agreed. I was doing some research to see if that color overlay comports with ADA requirements for contrast.

I agree - it'd be great if all of the items were editable, at least the labels and visibility.  Even with this update we still will end up modifying the menu items via Javascript, which is a disappointment.

The 'Customize this menu' link is broken for me as well - I reported it last week, but haven't heard back from support since they confirmed they are aware of the problem and working on it. I'm surprised this is announced as going out into production if this still isn't resolved!

It's great to be able to add images to course tiles, however even though you say there's an optimum resolution for images to be used, it doesn't appear as if the images get compressed or resized at all when I inspected the code in my browser. I know there's going to be some dumb staff member(s) in my school who upload an image a few MB in size and massive resolution, and loading times for those images is unnecessary use of data.

Could a warning near the image upload area specify an optimum resolution and/or file size, or can a file size cap on the image upload be implemented to stop this happening? It's commonplace on many websites to do this when images are being used in thumbnail scenarios.

I like the idea of being able to add images to the course tiles.  I know some faculty who will enjoy this feature.  I also don't think it matters about color matching to the image as I believe individual users can change colors on their own dashboards, so whatever the instructor sets the overlay color to does not mean the individual users won't change the appearance anyway.  Perhaps this could be turned into an extra credit design/art project: What color would you overlay on the course image? Would you use a complimentary or contrasting color? Smiley Happy

Anyway, just my two cents.

It is my understanding that no matter what COLOR the instructor chooses for the course card, Canvas will automatically override and select the color for the student's course card.  That is how it currently works...same with the nickname for the course....it is for the USER preferences only. 

The new image addition is being added in the settings of the course, so it will be on the dashboard course card for every student in that course.

For the Underline All Links feature option: Users can view all Canvas links without having to enable high contrast mode. When enabled, this feature underlines hyperlinks in navigation menus, the Dashboard, page sidebars, and text.

I activated this in my Beta environment and it does NOT underline the links in the course navigation menu.  It DOES underline the links in the Global navigation.  Is this the correct functionality?  If so, the documentation should clarify.

Thanks, Rob. We clarified the writeup in the notes!

Erin

Hi, Joni,

If a feature is included in beta as a feature option, it will be available in production as a feature option. (We do recognize there have been one or two rare exceptions, but for the most part our team designed it to be feature option for a reason.) So you're good to enable it (or not) on your own timetable.

Thanks,

Erin

Thanks, Lesley. I've corrected the navigation information as only Global Navigation. I'm checking with our engineers to clarify whether Course Nav should have been included, though it appears that they aren't treated as actual links and more like buttons.

Thanks,

Erin

Hi, Martha,

If there's ever a case where something we're working on isn't going to be resolved before production, we won't include it in the production notes. The menu customization link is now fixed in beta. Smiley Wink

Thanks,

Erin

Hey, Jimmy,

We've passed this on to our product team, thank you!

Erin

Hi, cherdt​,  @buellj ​​, and 50581462​,

The Ask the Community and Submit a Feature Idea links are incorporated differently into Canvas than the others and weren't part of the initial feature update. One of our engineering teams will work on adjusting those so that custom CSS isn't required in the long run.

Also, the Customize link has been corrected in beta.

Thanks,

Erin

Hi, everyone,

For those of you who were following the Canvas Beta Release Notes (2016-08-15), we had a lot of comments there as well about course card images. Our teams are always listening to your feedback and appreciate your interest in new Canvas features. Every bit of feedback is important; please know that just because a feature may not include any changes from the beta notes to production notes doesn’t mean it can't be adjusted in the future. If this feature receives any updates, we will always be happy to include them in an upcoming set of release notes.

Thank you,

Erin

Awesome, thanks.

Thank you - this will be very helpful. I am enjoying how short our override files are getting and am looking forward to eliminating that piece.

I am not sure when it happened but the Post to SIS shortcut on the assignments index page has disappeared. It is still available in Quizzes. However, I noticed in the redesign above that the shortcut is not shown on either the assignments or quiz index pages. Is this feature going away? Please say no. It has been a huge lifesaver and timesaver for our teachers instead of having to go into each assignment and turn on and off as needed.

 @shane_ohara ​, do you keep the 'search the guides' link?  I am more curious than anything as to how your users access the resources of the community if the links are not on the help menu?

Yes, we do keep "Search the Guides" available for users.

With the changes to the Sidebar Updates, which look great, the ability to create links to new pages is gone.  Is it possible to bring this function back?

Hey, Bill,

Sorry about that! We probably just need to tweak something. I'll let our teams know.

Release notes images just convey the feature as available for the majority of our users, which is why the SIS icon wasn't included.

Thanks,

Erin

Hi, Robert,

This feature change was mentioned in Canvas Production Release Notes (2016-08-06)​. Please see the relevant comment thread.

Thanks,

Erin

Thanks Erin. Hope this comes back soon.

Agreed - I don't think I'll turn it on in our institution because I think people will be dismayed by the color overlay. If it was a straight up image, our faculty would be over the moon about it!!

I am super excited that it can be animated gifs though! Maybe next semester.

Hi, all,

Just as a matter of information, we've updated the notes to include a few additional fixed bugs under the Course Imports and the Rich Content Editor headings.

Thanks,

Erin

I love all the work being done with the RCE. It would be so cool if Canvas would white list "data-*" attributes for our use in the RCE.

I see that some one has opened up an idea for it here:

It would be so cool to see that come to life!

Matthew

I was excited to see the ability to add a Dashboard course image but then not so much after I noticed the image displayed behind the color that Canvas automatically assigns. It would be more helpful if:

1) Canvas didn't use the color when the picture is used. 

2) The instructor was allow control the color like they can the image.

I don’t want to appear ungrateful. I like the ability to add the picture but forcing a random color to be layered over the image is not helpful. 

I find a lot to like here! None of these things represent issues that made me throw up my hands and exclaim "how can I work under these conditions??!?!?!!" but there are many minor irritants that are going away: the problem of creating calendar events in the wrong calendar accidentally, the difficult-to-read assignments and quizzes index pages, the name "Wiki Pages" in the RCE that didn't match "Pages," and most of all, the phantom "to do" items from concluded courses . . . I'll be very happy to never see one of those again. I'm wondering if I'll be able to use a dashboard course image. Will check out my settings and see what my institution has turned on.

Also, as someone who has submitted many feature ideas, I like seeing the notations about which ideas were suggested by the community.

Thanks!

I'm really excited about customizing the Help links, but was wondering if it would be possible to make it where we could add more than just the one icon with links. For example, I currently have custom JS that has allowed me to add an additional folder in global navigation that contains frequently visited links our students use. I would love to have the option of adding multiple items to the global navigation so I wouldn't need the JS. It would be great to customize the Help link along with a few others to make student navigation even easier.

Thanks!

I tried Downloading Submissions from an Anonymous assignment in Beta and still see the students named appended to the documents. I tried downloading from both the Assignment page and the Gradebook. My understanding was the students names would not be appended to their files within the zipfile, but maybe I am misunderstanding the bug.

60640769​, the production release incorporating that fix is scheduled to go into effect on 8-27-2016; you can currently test the feature in your Beta instance.

So I did test this fix in Beta and was unable to achieve the desired result. My understanding is I should be able to:

  1. Go into SpeedGrader and make the assignment anonymous (By clicking the wheel icon and clicking the "Hide Student Names in SpeedGrader" box).
  2. When at least one student submits an assignment, I should be able to Download Submissions (either from the Assignment or the Gradebook)
  3. The zipfile which contains the student documents should have their names removed from the title of the document. I understand the names are appended for use in the re-upload feature.

Either this feature is not working properly or I am misunderstanding the bug fix.

 @jcannon1 ​,

I like your suggestions. You might want to submit those as a feature idea.

In the meantime, here is a little CSS that removes the color from the images on the dashboard. If you are the admin for your account, you can add this to your current CSS file.

.ic-DashboardCard__header_image .ic-DashboardCard__header_hero {

    background:none !important;

}

This currently works on the beta site, so I think it will also work in production after this weekend.

-DISCLAIMER-

This was made because I'm trying to be helpful. It is not supported, maintained or expected to work perfectly all the time. It is highly recommended that you have someone on staff who can implement and maintain it.

-END Disclaimer-

I hope this helps.

Have a super day!

Will it perpetuate to the student's view?  Or still only apply to the instructor's view as is the case currently with the color selection?

Excellent. Thanks for the code and for the suggestion to submit as a feature idea.

Joleen Cannon

Associate Director Course Production for UF Online

University of Florida

341 Tigert Hall

Gainesville, FL

352-294-7838

http://ufonline.ufl.edu/

Hi, Daniel,

After some more testing, the fix is working as correctly in beta. Canvas only refreshes the anonymous setting periodically, so you probably tried to download the files too soon as part of your testing. Essentially, after enabling anonymous grading, you'll have to wait at least an hour for the cache to clear, otherwise Canvas doesn't know you changed the setting and will still give you the student names. One of our engineers is looking at improving this process so that the cache will refresh if the anonymous grading setting is changed.

Hope that helps,

Erin

I held out hope that the Bug Fix for file links in the newer rich content editor with sidebar feature option that I raised an issue about was indeed fixed.  I would say that about 90% of it was.  That said, I found that creating a new Page with a link to a Word document uploaded while editing the page (via the Files tab and Upload a new file) will NOT display the box file previewer.  I have updated my earlier discussion (linked in the first sentence) to reflect this.  I was likewise dismayed that that this "Feature Option" was enabled on our Canvas installation even though it was disabled previously.  This is very un-Instructure-like to enable something without many advance notices, even though I realize it was mentioned in earlier releases that this was getting rolled out on a campus-by-campus basis.  I have some screen captures showing what I found (so far) on the Discussion page.  Perhaps it is just a temporary fluke.

We disabled it for now....

Hi, Ken,

I checked out the discussion that you've referenced. The feature option is not supposed to be a significant change, which is why it was enabled after the linked behavior was resolved. I am sorry you have been frustrated by these changes and our engineers are resolving any additional tickets that come in as quickly as they can. You are free to disable the feature option at any time.

Thanks,

Erin

Understood, erinhallmark  My concern was that it was automatically enabled from the very beginning for everyone as it was deployed to the various campuses (so far as I can tell), with the link behavior not acting properly.  I saw this for myself in several workshops and it was only when I traced it back to some of the conversations on the various Production Notes that I realized it was not the RCE but rather the sidebar that was causing the issue and immediately shut it off.