Canvas Release Notes (2025-05-17)

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Upcoming Canvas Changes

2025-06-21

• Feature Enforcement: New Course and User Analytics

For more information, please see Upcoming Canvas Changes.

Release notes outline upcoming customer-impacting changes that are expected to display in beta and/or production environments. Please note that features considered for future development are not included in the notes.

Unless otherwise stated, all features in this release are available in the Beta environment on 2025-04-21 and the Production environment on 2025-05-17.

All Resources | Features in this release may be included in product blogs and other content areas. For all related links, view the 2021-11-20 Community tag.

• Institutions are responsible for conducting thorough evaluations of their custom CSS/JS with each release and deploy to assess potential impacts.
• Subscribe to the Canvas release notes to be notified of updates.
• For general questions related to this release, see the Canvas Release Notes FAQ
• Looking to discuss the features in the Release Notes? Post a reply in the Features Q&A: Canvas Release Notes (2025-05-17)

Table of Contents

• Upcoming Canvas Changes
• 2025-06-21
• New Features
• New Quizzes
• Text Block
• Discussions
• Permalink for Discussion Entries
• Other Updates
• Accessibility Updates
• Enhanced Structural Clarity
• Improved Error Feedback
• Gradebook
• Gradebook Icon Update for LTI Assignment and Grade Service

New Features

Back to Table of Contents

New Quizzes

Text Block

Instructor

Beta Environment Availability	2025-04-22
Location to Enable Feature	None
Subaccount Configuration	None
Account/Course Setting to Enable	None
Permissions	None
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Areas	New Quizzes
Related Ideas	None

Summary

In New Quizzes, instructors are able to provide students additional context with standalone text or prompts that are not tied to questions on a New Quiz.

Change Benefit

This update allows instructors to add sections to their quizzes that do not require a question to include instructions or other information to guide the student. In addition, it also improves ease of migration from Classic Quizzes to New Quizzes.

Feature Workflow

New Quizzes: Add Content

To add a text block to a quiz, click the Add button in a quiz.

New Quizzes: Add Text Block

Click the Text Block button.

New Quizzes: Edit Text Block

In the Title field [1], add a text block title. In the Content field [2], add Text Block content using the Rich Content Editor. To add content to an item bank, click the Add to Bank button [3].

Discussions

Permalink for Discussion Entries

All Users

Feature Option to Enable	N/A
Enable Feature Option Location & Default Status	N/A
Subaccount Configuration	N/A
Account/Course Setting to Enable	None
Permissions	Inherent to user role
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected Areas	Discussions
Related Ideas	[Discussions] Allow teachers and students to get URL for specific posts

Summary

In Discussions, each reply includes a copyable permalink allowing users to share a direct link to that specific reply. If the reply is part of a thread, the thread will expand to reveal it.

Change Benefit

This update makes it easier to navigate and reference specific replies in a discussion.

Feature Workflow

Discussions: Permalink for Discussion Entries

Click the Options [1] icon, then select the Copy Link [2] option to copy the permanent link.

Other Updates

Back to Table of Contents

Accessibility Updates

Over the coming months, a series of updates will be introduced to enhance Canvas's accessibility, intuitiveness, and equity, with a focus on improving usability for assistive technology users. These updates will include changes in the following areas:

Enhanced Structural Clarity 

Refined semantic markup in the user interface to improve communication of content relationships and hierarchy.

Improved Error Feedback

In the user interface, improved error messages in forms and interactive elements provide clearer and more accessible feedback. Error messages were added to required fields that previously lacked them, while existing error states were updated to follow a consistent pattern. Focused states for missing or incorrect fields ensure a uniform experience for all users, whether using a mouse, keyboard, or screen reader.

Gradebook

Gradebook Icon Update for LTI Assignment and Grade Service

Instructor

Account/Course Setting to Enable	N/A
Permissions	Inherent to user role
Affects User Interface	No
Affected Areas	Gradebook
Related Ideas	None

Summary

The activity progress values for Started and In Progress in tools using the LTI Assignment and Grade Service are updated. These statuses no longer trigger the Needs Grading icon in the gradebook.

Change Benefit

This update reduces confusion in the gradebook.