Ready Release Notes (2020-03-28)

[#1]

Ready Releases introduce new and updated features or adjusted user functionality that will be available in the production environment on Saturday. All features are opt-in feature options unless otherwise indicated.

The following features will be available in the production environment on 2020-03-28:

Blueprint Courses: Courses associated with a Blueprint course can be published as part of the initial Blueprint sync.

• User Role: Admin
• Opt-in: Yes

Courses: New Instructor Canvas tutorials have been updated with revised content and links.

• User Role: Instructor
• Opt-in: Yes

User Navigation: Students can use a QR code to log in to the Canvas Student App.

• User Role: Students
• Opt-in: No (Opt-in functionality is not available for web features directly associated with the Canvas mobile apps)

Release notes describe upcoming Canvas functionality and are subject to change.

• Follow the Ready Release Features document to be notified of updates
• For all release changes to this document, 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
• Deprecations and end-of-life announcements related to Canvas Platform Services (APIs, GraphQL, Canvas Data) are located in the Canvas Platform Breaking Changes page.

• Updated Features
• Blueprint Courses
• Blueprint Association Course Publishing
• Courses
• New Instructor Tutorials Content Update
• User Navigation
• Mobile App Login QR Code

Release Notes Change Log

Updated Features

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Blueprint Courses

Blueprint Association Course Publishing

Location to Enable Feature	Blueprint Associations
Configuration Details	Allow Blueprint Publishing After Association Feature Option
Affected Canvas Areas	Blueprint Courses, Associated Courses
Beta/Test Environment Support	Yes
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Admins
Feature Enhancement Ideas	View existing Blueprint Course feature ideas
Specified Tag for Feature Ideas	Blueprint

Summary

Courses associated with a Blueprint course can be published as part of the initial Blueprint sync.

Change Benefit

This change allows admins to choose if they want to publish all associated courses as part of the sync process.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Admins

Courses associated with Blueprint courses may be taught by instructors who are not the creator of the course content. When admins associate courses with a Blueprint Course, admins may choose to ensure that courses are published as part of the association sync by selecting the Publish Upon Association checkbox. However, admins can choose to disregard this checkbox and publish courses using another method.

Courses

New Instructor Tutorials Content Update

Location to Enable Feature	N/A
Configuration Details	New User Tutorials Feature Option
Affected Canvas Areas	Announcements, Assignments, Collaborations, Conferences, Discussions, Files, Grades, Course Home Page, Course Import, Modules, Pages, People, Quizzes, Settings, Syllabus
Beta/Test Environment Support	Yes
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Instructors
Feature Enhancement Ideas	Existing Tutorial feature ideas
Specified Tag for Feature Ideas	tutorial

Summary

New Instructor Canvas tutorials have been updated with revised content and links.

Change Benefit

This change assists instructors using Canvas for the first time and helps them become familiar with Canvas.

Affected User Roles

Instructors

When enabled for an account, New Instructor Tutorials display for instructors in newly created courses. These tutorials can be accessed by an icon at the top of the page and explain the purpose of the page and what to do next. 

The course setup tutorial is shown to new Canvas instructors in new courses. New instructors are defined as users with instructor roles created in an account after the new tutorial feature has been enabled. The course setup tutorial can be collapsed from view and is persistent across Canvas pages, so if the tutorial is collapsed in one page, it will stay collapsed until expanded again.

Note: When the New Instructor Tutorials feature option is turned on, it replaces the traditional Course Setup Checklist.

Instructors can end the tutorial series in any page using the Don’t Show Again button. However, ending the tutorial in one course applies to all other courses. Instructors can view the tutorial in new courses again at any time by accessing their User Settings page and enabling the Course Setup Tutorial user feature option.

This user feature option only displays for users enrolled as instructors. For instance, a user enrolled as an admin wouldn’t see the feature option unless the user were enrolled in a course with an instructor enrollment.

User Feature Option & Existing User Access

Once the New User Tutorial feature option is enabled for an account, the Course Setup Tutorial feature option displays in each instructor's User Settings page. Existing instructors can view the tutorials in new courses by enabling this user feature option at any time. User feature options cannot be managed by admins.

User Navigation

Mobile App Login QR Code

Location to Enable Feature	N/A
Configuration Details	N/A; opt-in functionality is not available for web features directly associated with the Canvas mobile apps
Affected Canvas Areas	User Navigation
Beta/Test Environment Support	Yes
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Students
Feature Enhancement Ideas	View existing Canvas login feature ideas
Specified Tag for Feature Ideas	login
Feature Idea Contributions	https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/14674-login-to-canvas-using-qr-code

Summary

Students can use a QR code to log in to the Canvas Student App.

Change Benefit

This change helps students more easily log in to the Canvas Student App without having to know their institution’s Canvas URL.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Students

When students are in Canvas, their User Navigation Menu includes a QR for Mobile Login link. This link generates a QR code and tells students they can use the code to log in to their account from the Canvas Student app.

Canvas Student App version 6.7 is required to view the QR code, which will be enabled in the app on 2020-03-28.

Release Notes Change Log

BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS

Date
2020-03-25	Release Notes Published

[amdaigle1]

Does anyone know whether Blueprint Association Course Publishing will work between a blueprint course in an account and a course in a subaccount (say, the blueprint in a College of Letters & Science and an associated course in English or History?)?

[dbrace]

How does the "Blueprint Association Course Publishing" feature relate to blueprint associations that are made via CSV/API?  I do not believe that there are any changes at How do I format CSV text files for uploading SIS data into a Canvas account?.

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Douglas,

We didn't make any adjustments to CSV/API files. Perhaps that is something that can be refined in a future release if you can help out our product managers by adding it as an idea in our Ideas‌ space.

Thanks!

Erin

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Allain,

You can associate courses in the same or lower subaccount than where the blueprint course resides. See https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-11638-4214758989 

Thanks,

Erin

[dbrace]

Thank you, erinhallmark.

Personally, I would prefer the CSV/API stay the same and it is good to see that it will.

When the craziness is over, maybe I will consider adding it as an idea.

[amdaigle1]

Hi Erin,

Thanks for your reply and confirming about the associations. We don't have the feature enabled in our beta yet, and this might be a silly question, but what I was hoping to confirm was whether the Publish on initial sync would work when a blueprint course is associated with a course in a lower subaccount. Thanks so much!

Best,

Allain

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Allain,

I may not entirely understand what you're asking, but I believe the answer is yes. Eventually that checkbox will be part of the associations page by default.

Thanks!

Erin

[jayde_colquhoun]

Hi there erinhallmark 

With the QR code not being able to be fully tested by institutions until the student app release scheduled for 28/03 - Can you please confirm the student experience in using this code to log into the app?

1. Do students scan the code off the web browser when trying to log into the app? 
2. 2. Will the QR log-in option appear on the first screen when opening the app as an additional button (alongside the find my school etc.) 

Is it possible to share the student perspective or students guides for this, so we can communicate to our students that this is coming? Please share the link if already available? 

Thanks

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Jayde,

Yup, the student experience is noted in our mobile release notes posted yesterday:

Canvas Student Release Notes (iOS 6.7)‌

Canvas Student Release Notes (Android 6.7)‌

Thanks!

Erin

[jayde_colquhoun]

Thanks, Erin! We missed that - appreciate the link. 

[tltoffice]

This release changes the way we have been successfully associating blueprints ever since they were released a few years ago. We originally had our bps in "Manually Created" subaccount and as long as we fed the correct SISID, the bp was associated without issue across all of our other same level subaccounts (various schools and colleges). Last year we created a "BP only" subaccount at the same level as Manually Created (to cleanup the mess in Manually Created), shifted all BPs into that subaccount and everything still associated just fine. The 3/28 release broke that and our BP is no longer associating. Now what??? BPs are critical for creating a uniform course delivery across the university!

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, sounds like you could benefit from some in-depth review here by our support team. Would you mind submitting a support case so they can get more details on what you've been doing and can help troubleshoot?

Thanks!

Erin

[vancej]

With the new update to Blueprints, will this publish courses when they are being created from a blueprint? 

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Jason,

If you select that checkbox as part of the association, yes. If you don't want to publish them at that time, skip the checkbox and you can publish them elsewhere.

Thanks!

Erin

[jcaione]

Erin,

We have - unfortunately this release did have this unexpected change to blueprint associations. It's a real issue for us as we use one blueprint for a university-wide template.