Canvas Release Notes (2019-04-20)

[#1]

In this Canvas release (April 20), the BigBlueButton Conferences interface has been redesigned using HTML5 for improved usability.

Feature Options

• The Content Security Policy allows institutions to enable a content security policy that restricts custom JavaScript for an institution’s Canvas account and whitelist up to 50 domains.
• For institutions using the New Gradebook, the Final Grade Override option is treated as a course setting and is persistent for all graders in the course. And in account-level Reports, the New Gradebook Final Grade Override scores are included in the Grade Export and Multiple Grading Periods Grade Export reports.

External Tools (LTI)

• For institutions using the Commons LTI, the Filter window in the Search page includes wider spacing between icons and for search filters. Additionally, status banners have been updated or removed for messaging clarification.

Release notes also include API updates and fixed bugs.

Release notes describe upcoming Canvas functionality and are subject to change. Follow the Canvas release notes space to be notified of updates For all release changes, view the Release Notes Change Log If you notice any contrary functionality compared to the outlined behavior in these notes, please file a Canvas support case according to your institution's support protocol Other questions? View the Canvas Release Notes FAQ

Feature Options The following feature options are addressed in this release: Account: Content Security Policy (added) Course: Final Grade Override

• Feature Options
• New Features
• Account Settings
• Content Security Policy
• Updated Features
• Conferences
• BigBlueButtonInterface Redesign
• New Gradebook
• Final Grade Override Setting Persistence
• Reports
• Final Grade Override Column
• Other Updates
• Commons
• Filter Tray
• Status Banners
• Course Import
• Pages Terminology
• Platform/Integration
• API
• API Change Log
• Plagiarism Detection Platform
• LTI Tool Assignment Associations
• Fixed Bugs
• Accessibility
• Course Import
• Dashboard
• ePortfolio
• Grades
• Grading Schemes
• Rubrics
• Theme Editor
• API
• xAPI with LTI Tools
• Authentication
• Authentication Refresh Tokens
• Browsers
• Firefox ESRMinimum RequirementBanner
• Commons
• Copyright Resource Additional Info Tooltip
• Course Import
• Copy a Canvas Course Option and Future Restricted Courses
• Rubrics
• Edge Page Jumps
• SIS Import
• Timestamp Update
• Abort SIS Import updates the updated_at column.

Release Notes Change Log

New Features

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Account Settings

Content Security Policy

This feature can be enabled in Canvas through a feature option in Account Settings. Please view the content below for additional details. For more information about feature options, please see the Canvas Release Notes FAQ.
                                        

Feature State	Beta
Location to Enable Feature	Account Settings
Configuration Details	Contact Customer Success Manager
Affected Canvas Areas	Account Settings - Security Tab
Beta/Test Environment Support	Yes
Permissions	Account-level settings - manage
Related APIs	Content Security Policy Settings (beta)
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Admins

Summary

Admins can enable a content security policy that restricts custom JavaScript for an institution’s Canvas account and whitelist up to 50 domains. Subdomains can inherit the policy and whitelist from the main account or create their own policy.

Change Benefit

This change allows admins to manage their own content security policy and domain whitelist.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Admins

When enabled, Account Settings displays a Security tab that manages an account’s content security policy and manage the whitelist. The whitelist can be enabled and disabled by the admin at any time.

Each policy includes a Whitelist section that can support up to 50 individual domain names. Using wild cards within a domain is recommended. Canvas and Instructure domains are included automatically and do not count against the 50 domain limit.

Domains from installed LTI tools are automatically added to the whitelist and also do not count against the 50 domain limit. To remove a domain for an LTI tool, the LTI tool must be removed from the account or subaccount. Associated tools are only listed once in the list of whitelisted tool domains, even if they have been installed in multiple subaccounts.

Subdomains can inherit the policy and whitelist from the main account or create their own policy.

Any courses that reside in a domain or subdomain with an enabled content security policy display a Content Security Policy checkbox. This checkbox can only be managed by a Canvas admin and can be used to disable the policy for selected courses.

Feature Idea Contributions

Canvas features are always welcome to feedback. Product teams may make adjustments at any time via the Canvas Feature Idea process.

• View existing Account Settings feature ideas
• For new ideas, please tag the idea with account settings

Updated Features

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Conferences

BigBlueButton Interface Redesign

Location to Enable Feature	Conferences Interface
Configuration Details	Conferences
Affected Canvas Areas	Conferences
Beta Environment Support	test.bigbluebutton.org
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	All Users

Summary

The BigBlueButton Conferences interface has been redesigned using HTML5 for improved usability.

The new Conferences interface is not supported on Internet Explorer or Edge browsers. For best results, BigBlueButton recommends using Firefox or Chrome on desktop and Safari or Chrome on mobile devices.

Premium tier customers can choose to opt out of the new interface by contacting BigBlueButton support. All other Canvas users with questions about using the new interface should contact their Customer Success Manager.

Change Benefit

This change makes the Conferences interface faster and easier to use and removes the requirement for extensions or plugins.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

All Users

The new BigBlueButton Conferences interface provides improved usability and performance for all users. Users can still participate in a conference using their computer microphone and webcam, communicate using public and private chat, share notes, and annotate presentations using the multi-user whiteboard. Users can select between viewing the presentation area or displaying webcams only.

Shared Notes includes additional functionality for formatting notes text. Users can also export their notes to an HTML, TXT, DOC, PDF, or ODC file. There is now a single Shared Notes window; opening additional notes windows is no longer supported.

The Conferences interface supports a Settings menu that includes new features for improved usability. Users can now enable icon animations that highlight conference participants who are speaking and audio and popup alerts for chat notifications. The Settings menu also includes options to disable webcams and desktop sharing to improve bandwidth. These data saving options are intended for use on mobile browsers but can be enabled on any device. Additionally the Settings menu includes previously-available options to select a default language and fault size.

The Settings menu also includes an option to enable closed captioning in a conference. Closed captioning options are not currently supported in the HTML5 client of the Conferences interface. These features will be supported in a future release.

Presenters

Presenters can upload a YouTube video to a conference. When the video is playing, all users will see the same playback time and speed that is selected by the presenter. However, users can enable their own captions. Shared YouTube videos will not appear in conference recordings.

When uploading a presentation file, presenters can upload multiple files at the same time.

Screen sharing is only supported through WebRTC. Previously, presenters could select to use WebRTC or Java for screen sharing. Screen sharing is only supported in Chrome and Firefox browsers on desktop.

Users may experience errors if the screen that is shared includes the Conferences interface. To correct these errors, simply share another window or application that does not display the Conferences interface.

Poll results are now only viewable to presenters after results have been published. Previously, poll results would display to presenters in real time.

Feature Idea Contributions

Canvas features are always welcome to feedback. Product teams may make adjustments at any time via the Canvas Feature Idea process.

• View existing Conferences feature ideas
• For new ideas, please tag the idea with conferences

New Gradebook

Final Grade Override Setting Persistence

This feature is used in conjunction with feature options in Canvas. Please view the content below for additional details. For more information about LTI tools, please see the Canvas Release Notes FAQ.
                                        

Location to Enable Feature	New Gradebook, Individual Gradebook
Configuration Details	New Gradebook Feature Option Final Grade Override Feature Option
Affected Canvas Areas	New Gradebook, SpeedGrader, Student Grades
Related APIs	Enrollments API
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Instructors

Summary

The Final Grade Override option in the New Gradebook is treated as a course setting and is persistent for all graders in the course. When enabled in the New Gradebook, the Override column displays for all other instructors who view the New Gradebook or the Individual View Gradebook.

Change Benefit

This change provides viewing consistency for all graders in the Gradebook.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Graders

When a grader such as an instructor or TA enables the Final Grade Override option in the New Gradebook Settings Menu, the setting is applied for all graders in the course. All other graders who view the New Gradebook will see the Override column if it has been enabled by another instructor. Likewise, the Override column will be hidden if disabled as an option by another instructor.

Feature Idea Contributions

Grade Override as a course feature

Canvas features are always welcome to feedback. Product teams may make adjustments at any time via the Canvas Feature Idea process.

• View existing New Gradebook feature ideas
• For new ideas, please tag the idea with gradebook_new

Reports

Final Grade Override Column

This feature is used in conjunction with feature options in Canvas. Please view the content below for additional details. For more information about LTI tools, please see the Canvas Release Notes FAQ.
                                        

Location to Enable Feature	Account Settings - Reports
Configuration Details	Reports
Affected Canvas Areas	Reports
Beta/Test Environment Support	Yes
Permissions	Courses - View Usage Reports
Related APIs	Account Reports API
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Admins

Summary

New Gradebook Final Grade Override scores are included in the Grade Export and Multiple Grading Periods Grade Export reports. Grades are displayed in the override_score column.

Change Benefit

This change helps admins view final grade overrides in grading reports if the Final Grade Override feature option has been allowed or turned on in an account.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Admins

When the Final Grade Override feature option has been allowed or turned on in an account, the Grade Export and Multiple Grading Periods Grade Export reports include the override_score column.

Feature Idea Contributions

Canvas features are always welcome to feedback. Product teams may make adjustments at any time via the Canvas Feature Idea process.

• View existing Reports feature ideas
• For new ideas, please tag the idea with reports

Other Updates

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Commons

These features are used in conjunction with an external tool (LTI) in Canvas. Please view the content below for additional details. For more information about LTI tools, please see the Canvas Release Notes FAQ.

Location to Enable Feature	Commons LTI
Configuration Details	Commons LTI
Affected Canvas Areas	Commons LTI Any area with imported content
Beta/Test Environment Support	Functionality affects content in the beta environment only; New/updated features not available until production release
Permissions	Course Content - add / edit / delete Discussions - view Assignments and Quizzes - add / edit / delete
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Instructors

Filter Tray

Summary

The Filter window in the Commons Search page includes wider spacing between icons and for search filters.

Change Benefit

This change improves accessibility with an updated design.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Instructors

When searching Commons, instructors can more easily filter resources with the updated filter design.

 

Status Banners

Summary

Status banners have been updated or removed for messaging clarification.

Change Benefit

This update simplifies and clarifies existing banner messages and removes redundant messages in Commons.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Instructors

Various messages have been updated or removed from the interface.

• Messages do not display for sharing a new resource or when an instructor views a resource that is still processing, including messages for successful and failed sharing.
• Success and Failure messages still appear in the Preview area while a resource is processing.
• Import status banner message text has been updated for clarity.

Course Import

Pages Terminology

Location to Enable Feature	Course Import
Affected Canvas Areas	Course Import
Beta/Test Environment Support	Yes
Permissions	Course Content - add / edit / delete
Related APIs	Content Migrations API
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Instructors, Admins

Summary

In the Course Import Tool, Wiki Pages terminology has been changed to Pages.

Change Benefit

This change aligns consistency with Pages terminology throughout Canvas.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Instructors, Admins

When an instructor or admin uses the Course Import Tool and selects specific content to import or copy, the Wiki Pages section heading has been renamed to Pages.

Platform/Integration

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API

API Change Log

Adjustments have been made to the following APIs as noted in the API Documentation change log:

• Submissions API
• Users API

Plagiarism Detection Platform

LTI Tool Assignment Associations

Location to Enable Feature	N/A
Configuration Details	Plagiarism Detection Platform API
Affected Canvas Areas	Assignments
Beta/Test Environment Support	Yes
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Instructors, Admins

Summary

LTI tools that use the plagiarism platform in an account retain associations with assignments if the tool is removed and re-added at a later date.

Change Benefit

This change helps instructors save time from having to individually edit existing assignments and re-associate the LTI tool.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Instructors, Admins

Admins or Instructors who remove and re-add an External Tool (LTI) that uses the plagiarism platform will not have to edit any assignments to re-associate the LTI tool.

Fixed Bugs

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Accessibility

Course Import

The Content Import page error text and error report link can be read by screen readers.

Dashboard

Dashboard View menu items are read to screen readers according to their menu position.

ePortfolio

Keyboard users can add submissions to ePortfolios.

Grades

The Hide/Show Details button in the student Grades page does not include a custom aria-relevant label.

Grading Schemes

Grading scheme buttons include contextual labels for screen readers.

Rubrics

The Outcomes ratings table has been refactored as a data table for screen readers.

Theme Editor

The Create Theme Based on menu button can be read by screen readers.

The Delete This Theme window retains focus until either Delete or Cancel are selected.

API

xAPI with LTI Tools

Links within the xAPI with LTI tools documentation direct to their intended location.

Explanation: When a user accessed a link within the xAPI with LTI tools documentation, the links generated an error. Canvas code has been updated to correct the links within the page.

Canvas open source contributions: Update xAPI links

Authentication

Authentication Refresh Tokens

Newly generated refresh tokens return the correct access_token value.

Explanation: When a refresh token was generated multiple times within five seconds, a null access_token value was returned on subsequent calls after the first. Canvas code has been updated to return access_token values correctly.

Browsers

Firefox ESR Minimum Requirement Banner

The browser minimum requirement banner only displays for Firefox ESR browsers older than version 60.

Explanation: When a user accessed Canvas in a browser older than version 64 in Firefox, the browser displayed a banner noting that the browser did not meet the minimum requirements for Canvas. This behavior occurred intentionally to more closely aligned browser alerts with supported versions. To avoid alerting users of Firefox ESR, which is not officially supported but is used by some customers, Canvas code has been updated to only alert versions before Firefox 60. This change does not affect the supported versions in Canvas but removes the banner to improve the user experience. The banner will continue to alert users of Chrome versions older than 66, as Chrome does not have a specific ESR version designation.

Commons

Copyright Resource Additional Info Tooltip

In the Resource Details page, the license info for a copyrighted resource displays additional info in a tooltip.

Explanation: When a user hovered over the license info in the Resource Details page for a copyrighted resource, the additional info did not display. Canvas code has been updated to display tooltips for copyrighted resources.

Course Import

Copy a Canvas Course Option and Future Restricted Courses

The Copy a Canvas Course option uses active term dates to display available courses in the drop-down list.

Explanation: When a course was copied using the Course Import Tool, future courses that instructors did not have access to displayed in the drop-down list. Attempting to import content from a future course caused the import to fail. Canvas code has been updated to use active term dates to display available courses and disregard future courses. This behavior does not affect courses whose term dates have ended or future courses where instructors have access before the start date.

Rubrics

Edge Page Jumps

In the Edge browser, scrolling down a page with a rubric open retains the location of the page scroll.

Explanation: When a user was viewing a rubric and scrolled down the page using the Edge browser, the page jumped back to the top every five seconds. This behavior affected Edge version 42. Canvas code has been updated to retain the location of a page scroll when viewing a rubric.

SIS Import

Timestamp Update

Abort SIS Import updates the updated_at column.

Explanation: When an SIS import was aborted, the timestamp was not updated and did not show the time of import. Canvas code has been updated to update the updated_at timestamp.

Release Notes Change Log

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Date
2019-05-07	Removed—Fixed Bugs Files: Google LTI Upload State
2019-04-25	Added—Fixed Bugs Browsers: Firefox ESR Minimum Requirement Banner	Changed—Fixed Bugs Course Import: Copy a Canvas Course Option and Future Restricted Courses Clarified that future courses are defined as courses that instructors do not have permission to access
2019-04-10	Added—Fixed Bugs SIS Import: Timestamp Update
2019-04-08	Release Notes Published

[Chris_Hofer]

In our "Beta" environment, I am noticing that links within the global menu slide-outs for "Account", "Admin", "Courses", and "Help" are now all underlined...even though I do not have the "Underline Links" Feature Option turned on within my own Canvas profile.  Was this an intended change?

[rmurchshafer]

I'm seeing the same.

[ptart]

Will the update to Conferences be pushed to BETA/TEST or do our users have to go to http://test.bigbluebutton.org/ to get familiar with this? We have many year-round schools that will go until June 28 using this tool. It is very intuitive but people still need time getting use to it. 

Thanks,

Patrick Tart

[straussi]

If we enabled the Content Security Policy, would we have to whitelist any items contained in our account and sub-account theme JavaScript? Or does the policy only apply to courses?

[sonya_mcchristi]

Experimented with the Content Security Policy as I thought this would enable us to embed, for example, Twitter widgets on pages, but the page still strips out the script part of the embed code - "platform.twitter.com" added to the whitelist.

[cjr201]

Good to see allowing all people who can view the gradebook to be able to see the override column to avoid confusion in classes that use it.

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Chris,

Will you please submit a support case for that change?

Thanks,

Erin

[Chris_Hofer]

Sure thing!  Ticket submitted ... #04234972.  Initial reply from Support is, "Okay in this case I am we are not seeing any reason for this behavior. I will be sending this ticket to my team to look into further. They will contact you when they have more information."

[Sylvia_Ami]

Course Import Copy Canvas Course – Restrict List of Terms to Only Active Terms

This is going to cause major problems for all our faculty. They need to be able to copy from past terms (even after the term has ended) as well as future terms.

Example for Past Term - Often our faculty want to copy from a Canvas course from a past term, even though the term has ended. For example, I taught Math 205 in Summer 2017. I am teaching it again Summer 2019. I need to be able to copy from the 2017 term into this Summer’s term.

Example for Future Term - We also still need the functionality of copying a Canvas course from a future term into another Canvas course. Here’s an example:

1. I am teaching 2 Art classes this summer. The term start date is June 1.
2. I copy my Spring Art course into one of my Summer course shells.
3. Then I want to copy that Summer Art course into the other Summer Art course shell.

With this new release, I won’t be able to do that until the term start date. I need to have the course populated before the term start date because students start their online course on the first date of the term.

Am I understanding the new release description correctly? Does anyone else have a problem with this?

[Sylvia_Ami]

I am experiencing the same thing. I just submitted a report case too. Thank you  @Chris_Hofer ‌ for bringing this to our attention.

[Chris_Hofer]

Thank you for posting this,  @Sylvia_Ami .  I would have missed it in the notes.  This may have an impact on our instructors as well.  I wanted to test this out for myself in Beta masquerading as an instructor.  Although the chances may be small or reduced that instructors would want to copy content from a course that is more than a couple years old, I could still imagine a scenario like this at our Technical College.  Further, I discovered that if a course/term is not displayed in the drop-down list, I was not able to type in the course number in the text search box to the right of the drop-down list.  It did not find the course in my search results ... probably because the course/term was now hidden from that view.

[rmurchshafer]

This is going to be a major issue for us too and if it remains we will likely need to remove all term dates ☹️, or at least set the "teacher can access from" dates to be a very wide window (years......).  But I'd rather not do that because those dates help manage removing courses from the dashboard of teachers.  We have some courses that only get taught once every two years so it's very important for teachers to still be able to import content from older courses.  I'm hoping this was an oversight that gets changed before being put into production.  

[straussi]

Agreed, thanks for catching that,  @Sylvia_Ami ‌. We don't use Terms at all, so I hope this doesn't change any of the definitions of 'Default' Term or 'Active' Term. Our look-ups and reporting are always done on 'Default' Term. 

[Sylvia_Ami]

 @straussi ‌ - I think if your Default term is set so Teachers can access from "whenever" to "term end" and if the term end is "whenever" then you'll be OK. The Default term would be considered "active." There's just a problem when you have term end dates in the past and term start dates in the future.

[straussi]

It is interesting, and certainly we hope nothing changes in our definitions. Here's is the way the 'Default Term' is defined, with all calendars in the edit being blank (we have never defined Term at all) ...

Term Runs from 

whenever  to whenever

Students can access from  

term start to term end

Teachers can access from  

whenever to term end

TAs can access from  

whenever to term end

Designers can access from  

whenever to term end

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Patrick,

BigBlueButton is deploying their updates on April 20, along with the Canvas release. Their testing link will let you test all of their new features!

Thanks,

Erin

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Sonya,

This feature is different from the HTML whitelist, which is not affected by this feature. It's for letting specific courses use page content outside your organization that may contain JavaScript, such as computer science courses. Some instructors do not want to allow JavaScript into their courses since JavaScript can be used for malicious purposes.

Hope that helps!

Erin

[Sylvia_Ami]

 @straussi ‌ I have the same settings in our Default term. You should be fine. I put our training courses and development courses (Sandboxes) in the Default term.

All the courses in our official schedule go into Fall, Spring, and Summer terms for teach year. Those terms have specific start and end dates. That's when we'll run into problems with the Course Copy drop-down menu only showing active terms.

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, all,

Just a kind reminder that if you're seeing something contrary to what you expect from a feature, please submit a support case so your specific workflow can be reviewed by our support team. If something is amiss, we're happy to make it right. If it's intended, your feedback is important for our product team to consider adjustments by posting your thoughts in Ideas.

Thanks so much!

Erin

[Chris_Hofer]

I've submitted a Help Desk ticket per the recommendation from erinhallmark‌ about the Course Import Tool issue.  If you would like to reference my ticket, it is #04238326.  Hope this helps.

[millerjm]

Does this only affect users that have access to < 100 courses?  We've been on Canvas long enough that our teachers have to use the search box to find the course because they may have subaccount access or they just have a lot of past courses. 

Does it only affect how the drop down is populated vs. the actual ability to copy the course?  I'm trying to figure out who to masquerade as in order to test this...

Thanks!

Joni

[Chris_Hofer]

I masqueraded as two different instructors in both our "Production" and "Beta" environments.  Both instructors have well over 100 courses.  In "Production", they do not have the drop-down to select a course to import content from.  However, in "Beta", the drop-down has returned...and I'm guessing this is because there are less courses to display since only a few recent terms are displaying.  My earlier comment still stands about not being able to use the search text box to find a 2+ year-old course to copy.  For example, I tried inputting course numbers from courses in Spring 2015 and Fall 2016, and Canvas could not find them.

[chriscas]

Hi  @Sylvia_Ami ‌,

Thanks for noticing this...  This will be a *huge* issue for us too.  Restricting the course list for imports to just active terms makes absolutely no sense.  At the minimum past courses need to be included, but, as you and others pointed out, there are plenty of use cases for importing from a future course as well.  Instead of restricting the course list, I'd suggest fixing whatever code is causing import from future courses to fail, as that seems the much better route to go here.  This may seem like a minor change to Canvas engineers, but it's a major change for faculty, and one we won't even be able to provide a workaround for.  I'll submit a ticket to support too.

-Chris

[andrew_abercrom]

Hi,

In Speedgrader the highlight annotation doesn't seem to work. Thanks.

[andrew_abercrom]

When I click on the Technical Support button in Help the computer tries to launch Outlook, which my company does not use. How else can I request support? Thanks.

[sonya_mcchristi]

Hi Erin, thanks for your reply, that's how I thought it should work, but the Javascript for the Twitter embed code is still being stripped out in my testing.  

[Stef_retired]

 @andrew_abercrom ‌, the Technical Support link is attempting to launch a prepopulated email. I've sent you a message with the email address to use to contact Technical Support at your school.

[Chris_Hofer]

I received the following e-mail from Emily at the Canvas Help Desk about my above case number and wanted to share here:

This email is in regards to the feature update surrounding course copies, specifically "Copy a Canvas Course Option and Future Restricted Courses".

I received clarification as to what this entails from my next level of support, as it serves to be a fix to an issue rather than be a hindrance. Previously when a course was copied using the Course Import Tool, future courses would be displayed in the drop-down list (future courses as in courses that instructors did not yet have access to). When attempting to import content from a future non-accesible course, it would cause the import to fail, as instructors did not have the authentication to modify that course as of yet.

This will not affect courses whose term dates have ended, as instructors will still be able to enable the option to view concluded courses when searching for a course copy. This will also not affect future courses that instructors have access to and are working to build before the start date. This only applies to courses that the instructor has yet to gain access to, and does not appear in their courses list. These courses, though hidden elsewhere on teachers accounts were appearing incorrectly during course copies, causing confusion and errors.

I hope this clears up any misunderstandings as to what this update is intended to resolve, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns and we'll be happy to help!

For us, our instructors do have access to future courses.  For example, I masqueraded as a nursing instructor in our "Beta" environment, and I am able to access her seven up-coming Fall 2019 courses.  I can go to the "Course Import Tool" and select content to copy.  I cannot, however, select content from 2+ years ago...nor can I input the course number to search for that course.  I tried to provide more detail about this when I replied to her e-mail.

[chriscas]

Hi  @Chris_Hofer ‌,

I received a similar response to my support case.  In our case though, support is right, and I was just completely overlooking the "show completed courses" checkbox.  Once I checked that box while masquerading as a faculty member in beta, I was able to find and import from previous semester courses just as I can right now.  It seems that the course list prior to this change always included prior term courses, regardless of whether the "show completed courses" option was selected.  This bug fix seems to have fixed that bug too.  I also did note "future" courses (summer 2019 for us) were available too, as faculty already have access to them.

erinhallmark‌, would it be possible to update the release notes to clarify that "future courses" only refers to courses that faculty don't yet have access to at all, and also include a bit about the "show completed courses" checkbox now functioning correctly, since that will actually be an impactful change for a lot of people?

Thanks!

-Chris

[rmurchshafer]

chriscas‌,

Thanks for pointing out the "show completed courses" button.  I've been using Canvas for 8 years and never used that because it's never done anything.  This will be workable but is going to take some communication.  It seems like the release notes should reflect this change though since in the past checking that box was not needed.  

Rick

[Chris_Hofer]

chriscas...

Oh man...I must have really glanced over the "Include Completed Courses" check-box.  I see it now.  This will definitely be something we will have to let our instructors know about ... making sure to check that option if need be.  Thanks!

[millerjm]

LOL a coworker just reminded me of that checkbox.  

I'm going to have to do some testing on future courses, though...

[Sylvia_Ami]

Course Import Copy Canvas Course – Clarify “Active Term Dates”

I’m satisfied now that Teachers will still be able to copy from a Canvas course that is both from a past term as well as a future term.

• Past term – If the teacher has access to a course in a past term, they can check the “Include completed courses” box and get the past course in the menu list.
• Future term – If the teacher has access to a course in the future, then they will see the term and course in the menu list.

I tested this in Beta for the two scenarios. I was confused because of the phrase "active term."

I’d like to suggest to erinhallmark to make sure the Guides clarify “active term dates” in the statement “The Copy a Canvas Course option uses active term dates to display available courses in the drop-down list.” Because “active term dates” really means if the user role has access to a course in the term. I don’t know how to best word this and be succinct at the same time. Any suggestions?

Thanks for sharing your experience and findings  @Chris_Hofer ‌, chriscas‌,  @millerjm ‌, and  @rmurchshafer ‌.

[KristinL]

Hi! We had an awesome Release Notes (2019-04-20) Collaborative Chat! Here is the Chat Archive and the Chat Notes. Hopefully, we'll see each other again at the Release Notes (2019-05-11) Collaborative Chat!

[mzimmerman]

I'm trying to get a clearer idea of what the new Content Security Policy might impact if we enable it.  Right now, the only JS that I know of that we're using is in the themes.  We no no longer allow teachers to add their own apps/LTIs, but there are some that we've set up at sub-account and course levels.

I know that the RTE blocks JS from being included in text areas.

Am I missing some function that might get broken if we enable this feature, or does it just allow us to whitelist things that might currently be blocked by default?

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Michael,

You're correct in that it will allow you to whitelist things that might currently be blocked by default. 

Thanks!

Erin

[fosterl]

 @Sylvia_Ami ‌, thanks for bringing this up, I didn't even think of this work flow, but it is common among our faculty!

[b_w_reid]

I've probably just missed something, but our beta view now shows 5 courses across in tile mode as opposed to just 3. It looks like the page has been increased to use 100% of the space. I can't find this documented anywhere in the release? Does this happen on anyone elses beta?

[straussi]

No changes here. Are you still showing To Do and Coming Up?

[b_w_reid]

Thanks  @straussi , Yeah.... I've got production open in another window and it's only showing three per row. If you're not experiencing it, it must be something local?

[straussi]

I think I found the answer. Check this ... Note: If your institution has enabled the Course Setup Tutorial, the Dashboard course cards are responsive to the full width of the browser. Depending on a user's browser's resolution, the Dashboard course display more than three course cards in a single row.

We don't use the Tutorial, but maybe it's on in your Beta instance?

https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12880 

[b_w_reid]

   That must be it. Thanks  @straussi ‌!

[ProfessorBeyrer]

Thank you  @b_w_reid ‌ and  @straussi ‌ for your back and forth. That bugged me too and I had asked about it but not enough. Now I know the answer!

[sendres]

I see that, effective with today's 2019-04-20 release, Canvas now gives an annoying warning in Firefox ESR (extended support release, which is the mass deployment version of Firefox). It reads, "Your browser does not meet the minimum requirements for Canvas. Please visit the Canvas Community for a complete list of supported browsers." The warning appears on every page load and cannot be dismissed.

We are aware that Instructure has unfortunately made it clear they will not support Firefox ESR. Be that as it may, it has worked just fine for us until today. Now all of a sudden, the system is throwing this warning for all of our Firefox users.

Instructure, a heads-up would have been nice. This was not disclosed in the release notes. Furthermore, we noted this behavior in beta earlier this week and filed a ticket attempting to get an answer. Now I've got a mess on my hands.

Anyone else feeling the pain?

[kmeyer]

Hello all! Has anyone experienced broken JQuery accordion functionality with this release? I am trying to understand what possible change may have done this so I can adjust our scripts accordingly. 

[mjennings]

I am getting this as well. Would definitely love some insight.

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Katie,

Any functionality in the style guide has been deprecated in favor of InstUI, Instructure's component library (see the InstUI blog post). If you choose to use elements in the style guide and creating scripts, I'd recommend checking your scripts in the beta environment each release, as style guide functionality is no longer being updated. If you're not already, I'd also recommend joining the Canvas Developers Community Group to join like-minded customers with similar situations.

Thanks!

Erin

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Steven,

The banners you see in Canvas for outdated browsers are manually managed by a file that hadn't been kept up to date. The documentation that notes supported browsers is always current—even if that backend file is not. This release, our engineers updated that file to tell Canvas specifically what browsers are and are not supported; the file originally noted Firefox 34 (yikes!) to Firefox 64, which is why the banner now displays to you.

We recognize we need to improve keeping that file more current along with our documentation, which will make the banners less of a surprise as they were to you this weekend. We will make sure we do so in the future.

Thanks,

Erin 

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Andrew,

Any Canvas functionality that doesn't seem to be working is best reported to our Canvas support team for further investigation. If you wouldn't mind, click the Help menu in your Canvas Global Navigation Menu, and look for an option that says to contact support. If you do not see that option, you may see an option to contact your institution's support team instead; please reach out to them and they can help you out.

Thanks!

Erin 

[sendres]

Hi erinhallmark‌,

I am grateful for your explanation, which led me to the following thoughts:

Usually, if an unsupported browser is being used, it's worthwhile to show a warning so the end user can install an updated version. However, Firefox ESR is intended for institutional deployments. We have it installed on virtually all of our classroom, lab, and faculty/staff machines. Our users don't have control over which browser is installed; it's just pushed out to them, and they don't have an option to update.

My suggestion would be to let those of us who use Firefox ESR vote whether or not to show the warnings for this browser. You could:

1. See which domains have a bunch of Firefox ESR traffic.
2. Send a poll to the Canvas admins of those domains asking if they want the warning or not.
3. Based on the results, keep your list of unsupported browsers as-is or, if most of us admins want to, change the file to exclude Firefox ESR from the warnings.