At the end of Q2 2022 we are going to sunset the Portfolium CNAME support. 

A Canonical Name or CNAME record is a type of DNS record that maps an alias name to a true or canonical domain name. When a user attempts to access a domain name that is actually an alias, the DNS system substitutes the real domain name — known as the Canonical Name — for the alias. A few institutions have set up a custom version of Portfolium on their school’s website for this purpose which after Q2 2022 will not be supported any more. 

We're discontinuing this feature because we've noticed that very few of our users are getting value out of it and it also raises some security risks. Unless institutions replace this custom version of Portfolium with another site, it will behave as a non-existing website and show an error message. 

All schools currently leveraging this tool should have received an email with details on their specific URL. If you have any further questions or concerns about CNAME, please let your CSM know about it. 

Captions have long been a key topic both when creating or viewing content. We prepared a survey around this and we'd greatly appreciate your feedback!

Announcing a new update on New Quizzes - New Quizzes End of Quarter Update - Q1 2022. Read on to learn about our Q1 achievements and Q2 Objectives, then join us by subscribing to the Quizzes Transition User Group to provide feedback and stay up to date on future developments.

Hear details of a new calculation method coming to Canvas and how to choose the right option for how you think about mastery of a standard or outcome. 

Announcing a new feature preview available in Canvas courses. Read on to learn about Course Pacing and join us in the Course Pacing User Group to provide feedback and stay up to date on future developments.

The Google team is releasing several updates to the Google Assignments LTI 1.3 tool over the next several months.

The Canvas mobile applications just like any other application (even web pages in the web browser) store data on the local device for various reasons. Mostly for performance and speed benefits, but even distance learning considerations can play a role here like preparing the applications for offline usage. 

The today released Media Insights page is not only a redesigned view with some fancy new metrics. It is the foundation to better understand correlation between media usage and student success.

Any virtual or automated chat should exist to enhance the customer experience, not diminish it

Ever wondered why internationalization is essential? Come and hear from our New global PM and her focus on improving localization and translations as part of her role. 

Icon Maker is coming to the Canvas RCE!

Next Catalog improvement: Bulk Purchases and Enrollments

The Catalog Team spent the beginning of the year tweaking and fine-tuning the Shopping Cart and improving receipts. The team has also started building a new feature: Bulk Purchases and Enrollments. This feature enables individuals to purchase multiple seats in a single listing and distribute those seats by inviting students to enroll in that listing for free. This feature can also be used to enroll multiple students in free listings Users can view historical payments and enrollments by accessing the Purchases and Enrollments page from the Catalog menu.

Similar to the Shopping Cart feature rollout, the Bulk Purchases and Enrollments feature will be released in multiple phases to Beta, but in one batch to Production. 

A new button will soon be added to the Details (Listing) page to allow institutions ample time to adjust their custom CSS/JS code. In the beginning, the button will not work and I apologize for this limitation, but we would like to make sure that institutions have time to adjust any customizations, if necessary. Our goal is to have this new feature finished by the end of Q1 2022 and have the first Beta release next week. 

Please stay tuned, I will update this thread after each Beta release. 

UPDATE: We will need a little bit more time to complete all the requirements for bulk purchase and enrollment so it's not going to be finished by the end of Q1. I will keep this post up-to-date and let you know about the upcoming Beta release dates. 

UPDATE2: May 23 we released another major part of bulk purchase and enrollment to Beta. We are going to have a few more Beta releases before releasing the new functionality to Production. 

Announcing a new feature preview available in Canvas gradebook. Read on to learn about our new enhanced gradebook filters and how to enable the preview, then join us in the Gradebook Filters User Group to provide feedback and stay up to date on future developments.

We’re adding the capability to control calculation methods and rating levels for individual outcomes in Improved Outcome Management!

Have you ever wondered why some states have more than one publication? What standards is my state in the process of revising? Does my state have Financial Literacy standards? Or maybe you want to know how standards are related to other standards. Read my blog to learn how to find answers to most of your questions about standards.

When you open the Canvas mobile apps, they keep you logged in, even if you put the app to the background or close it completely. This behavior adds convenience for the users and is typically what we expect from a mobile application in 2022. But many times convenience comes with sacrifice.

First, a big THANK YOU to all who have completed the CD2 survey. I was really excited to see how this number has been growing day by day, a number that shows a great interest in what we are building. The amount of responses will guide us in the product decisions to ensure Canvas Data 2 meets your needs. We are also using the results to validate some of our assumptions and anticipate future improvement needs.

Course description text is cut off the home screen when dynamic text is enabled. (Impact on user: Users may not be able to see the text that describes the course where they are enrolled. This could be confusing for users with neurological or intellectual disabilities, especially when they are enrolled into multiple, similarly named courses. 

It has always been possible to enter “Special Characters” in Canvas, but there has never been a “Special Character” button. So how does it work if there is no dedicated button?

A personal diary-like post. My closing on ‘21 and what’s going on with Studio now.

New user management tools allow for more control over individual account access for web and mobile.

What do you do if your school or district changes courses at the end of the semester, but your MasteryConnect Tracker is set up to measure student progress for the entire school year? We have a solution, link that Tracker to a different course. 

The MasteryConnect team was hard at work in 2021. Check out some of the features we are most proud of sharing with you.

“I am the Ghost of Christmas Past.”

“Long Past?” inquired Scrooge . . .

“No. Your past.”

                                     - “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens

In early 2022, Impact (formerly EesySoft) users will be able to create customizable walkthroughs to help guide faculty and students through any process or task.

This is the second part of my thoughts regarding student annotations in the mobile apps.

We could all (hopefully!) agree that students should not struggle to identify how they can be successful in a learning setting. So...how can educators ensure that students understand how to succeed and with that knowledge, have the ability to take charge of their own learning? Let’s dive into the powerful practice of crafting student and parent-friendly language based on standards, sometimes called learning targets or learning objectives, as one important answer to this question. We’re bringing the ability to create these statements that often start with “I can…” to Canvas as an “Outcome Friendly Descriptions” feature within Improved Outcome Management!

The MasteryConnect Teacher App works as the perfect companion for mastery-tracking both around the classroom and away from your computer. The Teacher App is available on both iOS and Android!