Canvas Release Notes (2018-10-27)

In this production release (October 27), the Developer Keys Management and Scoping feature option has been enabled for all institutions, which allows admins to create and manage API tokens created for third-party tools.

For students, the List View Dashboard displays a summary for course events, and course links within the Grades menu direct to the Grades page instead of the home page. Additionally, in the Card View and Recent Activity Dashboard sidebars and the Course Home Page sidebar, the Coming Up section has been removed for students. In both the dashboards and sidebars, the Pages icon has been updated.

Feature Options

For institutions using Anonymous Grading, student names do not display in the Gradebook History if an assignment was graded anonymously.
For institutions using the New Gradebook, the search filter supports searching by SIS ID.
For institutions using Moderated Grading, graders can access SpeedGrader in a read-only state after the maximum number of graders for a moderated assignment has been reached.
For institutions using Student Context Cards, cards display initials for students without profile pictures.

External Tools (LTI)

For institutions using the Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365 LTIs, students and instructors can view the status of assignment submission file uploads.
For institutions using the Commons LTI, admins can add instructors as curators, customize search filters, and identify content as approved for the institution.

Upcoming Features (Beta Only)

For video recordings in the Rich Content Editor, HTML5 can be used instead of flash in Firefox and Chrome browsers.

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: Student Context Card
Course: Anonymous Grading, New Gradebook, Moderated Grading

Release Notes Change Log

New Features

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Analytics

Analytics Beta LTI

Location to Enable Feature	Course Navigation
Configuration Details	Analytics Beta LTI
Affected Canvas Areas	Course Navigation - Analytics Beta Link
Beta/Test Environment Support	Beta Environment
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Admins, Instructors, Designers, TAs

Summary

Analytics Beta is an LTI tool that provides improved analytics for tracking student data using an interactive chart or table. Analytics Beta will eventually replace current course and account analytics. However, Analytics Beta and the current course Analytics functionality can be used concurrently.

Change Benefit

This feature allows admin, instructor, TA, and designer roles to view improved analytics functionality and provide functional feedback for additional analytics development.

LTI Rollout Schedule

Analytics Beta LTI will be added to all production environments on Monday, October 29.

Admins who do not want this tool enabled for their institution’s production account can uninstall the LTI tool in the Account Settings Apps tab after the indicated rollout date.

Additional Details

For full details about Analytics Beta LTI, please see the Canvas Release: Analytics Beta (Course Grade) document.

Feature Idea Contributions
Related Canvas Studio Link: Priority: Analytics Beta
Canvas features are always welcome to feedback. Product teams may make adjustments at any time via the Canvas Feature Idea process.
View existing Analytics Beta feature ideas
For new ideas, please tag the idea with analytics2new

Updated Features

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Assignments

Google Drive and Microsoft Office Assignment Submission Status

Location to Enable Feature	Assignments
Configuration Details	Microsoft Office LTI, Google Apps LTI
Supported in Beta Environment	Yes
Affected Canvas Areas	Assignments, SpeedGrader, Gradebook
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Instructors, Students

Summary

Students and instructors can view the status of Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365 assignment submission file uploads.

Change Benefit

This change informs students and instructors of assignment file upload status.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Students

Students can view the status of a file upload from the assignment details page. Successful submissions display a link to download the document. Unsuccessful submissions display an Upload Failed icon. Submissions that are queued for upload display an Uploading icon.

Upload status in the Student assignment details page

Students can also view the status of a file upload from the Submissions Details page. Successful submissions display a link to download the document. Unsuccessful submissions display an Upload Failed icon. Submissions that are queued for upload display an Uploading icon.

Upload status in the student submission details page

A student’s grades page also displays the status of an assignment submission. The score column displays a submission icon for successful upload, an Upload Failed icon for failed uploads, and an Uploading icon for queued submissions.

Upload status in the student grades page

Instructors

Instructors can view the status of a student’s assignment submission in the Gradebook. The score column displays a submission icon for successful uploads, an Upload Failed icon for failed uploads, and an Uploading icon for queued submissions.

Upload status in the instructor gradebook

Upload Failed icons also display in Gradebook Comments for failed submission uploads.

Upload status in the instructor gradebook comments

The DocViewer window displays an Upload Failed image for unsupported file types and failed submission uploads. Additionally, SpeedGrader displays an Upload Failed icon for failed submission uploads.

Example of an upload fail in SpeedGrader

DocViewer displays an Uploading image for queued submissions, and SpeedGrader displays an Uploading icon next to assignment upload name links.

Example of assignment submission upload in SpeedGrader

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 Google Drive feature ideas and view existing Office 365 feature ideas
For new ideas, please tag the idea with google drive and/or office 365

Commons

Approved Content

Location to Enable Feature	Commons LTI
Configuration Details	Commons LTI
Affected Canvas Areas	Commons LTI
Beta/Test Environment Support	Functionality affects content in the beta environment only; New/updated features not available until production deploy
Permissions	Course Content - add / edit / delete
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Admins, Instructors

Summary

Content uploaded to Canvas can be approved by account admins or curators. Approved content is indicated by a banner and image, both of which can be customized by an administrator.

Change Benefit

This change allows admins to manage approved content and customize what users see in search results. Approved content is easily identifiable with custom branding.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Admins

Admins can allow content to be displayed as approved for their institution. Content can be marked as approved when uploading new content or by editing the resource.

In Account Settings, admins can also customize image branding for approved content and choose to prioritize approved content in search results.

Commons Account Settings option for allowing approved content in an account

Instructors

Instructors can easily find and import content approved by their institution by looking for the assigned image in the content card.

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 Commons feature ideas
For new ideas, please tag the idea with commons

Curator Permission

Location to Enable Feature	Commons LTI
Configuration Details	Commons LTI
Affected Canvas Areas	Commons LTI
Beta/Test Environment Support	Functionality affects content in the beta environment only; New/updated features not available until production deploy
Permissions	Course Content - add / edit / delete
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Admins, Instructors

Summary

Admins can add users as content curators in Commons. Curators and admins can mark resources in Commons as approved.

Change Benefit

This change allows admins to add users as curators to assist in the content approval and management process.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Admins

Admins can add or remove users as curators in account settings. Both curators and admins can approve content and manage approved content.

Admins can add curators in Commons account settings

Instructors

Instructors added to Commons as a curator can manage and upload approved resources.

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 Commons feature ideas
For new ideas, please tag the idea with commons

Default Search Filters

Location to Enable Feature	Commons LTI
Configuration Details	Commons LTI
Affected Canvas Areas	Commons LTI
Beta/Test Environment Support	Functionality affects content in the beta environment only; New/updated features not available until production deploy
Permissions	Course Content - add / edit / delete
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Admins, Instructors

Summary

Admins can configure default search filters in Commons. Search settings include showing only approved content and filtering content based on grade/level or publicity settings.

Change Benefit

This change allows admins to manage approved resources and customize what users see in search results. When users search for content, the customized search filters make approved and relevant content easier to find.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Admins

Admins can configure search results to filter specific content. Search settings can be configured in account settings to show approved content first, filter by grade/level, and filter by the content publicity settings. Admins can also add custom branding for approved resources.

Instructors

Automatically filtered search results make it easier to find approved content or content from a specific grade/level or a specific institution, consortium, or group.

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 Commons feature ideas
For new ideas, please tag the idea with commons

Dashboard

List View Dashboard Calendar Event View

Location to Enable Feature	N/A
Configuration Details	N/A
Affected Canvas Areas	List View Dashboard
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Students

Summary
In the List View Dashboard, the link for an event displays a summary window that includes the event date, location, and event details.

Change Benefit
This change allows students to quickly view details for an event without having to view the event directly in the Calendar.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors
Students
When course events display as part of the List View Dashboard, students can click the event and view a summary window that includes the event’s date, location, and any details provided by the instructor. Students can still access the event in the Calendar by clicking the name of the event in the window.

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 Dashboard feature ideas
For new ideas, please tag the idea with dashboard

List View Dashboard Grades Link Update

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Location to Enable Feature	N/A
Configuration Details

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Canvas LMS Release Notes

Comments

snugent

I am not seeing the rce media option for HTML 5 in beta. I have enabled it in the admin and I just get the Flash option. Is there something I am missing?

Stef_retired

snugent‌, make sure you're trying it out in beta in one of the currently supported content types (Assignments, Announcements, Discussions, SpeedGrader comments) and on a fully-updated and supported browser (Chrome, Firefox). The first time you try, you might be asked to allow your camera and microphone.

snugent

Yes I was trying in the supported areas. I just switched over to Chrome and it works fine. I can't get it to work in Firefox.

Stef_retired

It's launching for me in Firefox as well, snugent‌. You might need to allow the popup from the address bar.

snugent

I tried that but it still bring up Flash. I noticed we are still on 59.0.2 so I may need to get this updated

Stef_retired

That could well be the issue, snugent‌. I updated Firefox to 62.0.3 before I tested this.

Bobby2

I'm so excited about this becoming a reality. Doing a jig.

tiffany_morgan

Same here. I'm on Version 67.0.3396.87 (Official Build) (64-bit) and Firefox 62.0.3 (64-bit) and have tried in both announcements and assignments in beta. Each time I get just a canvas spinning status wheel, no prompt to enable camera/mic access and no prompt in my browser bar to allow pop ups (which are enabled already). Any recommendations?

Jeff_F

Clear cookies/ cache. I had the same thing happening yesterday and today it is working great.

tiffany_morgan

Thanks for the recommendation. That did correct it in Firefox but not Chrome. I'll keep troubleshooting and see what I can come up.

Boekenoogen

There are a lot of nice updates I this. I can't wait to test most of them!

vanzandt

The ability to search the new Gradebook based on SIS ID is a welcome and helpful addition. I'm confused though, since it mentions that this development was done based on the feature idea for:New gradebook sort on secondary ID That seems like a whole different feature, and definitely one that we've been asking for since the initial phase 0.5 roll out. Just wondering if that will come soon as well, or if it's just that the wrong feature request was linked here by chance.

erinhmcmillan

Hi, Todd,

That's correct. The New Gradebook has a sort feature and a filter feature. This one is for being able to search for a user in the search field via SIS ID and have results display in the New Gradebook. However, the search field requires 3 characters before it will display any results.

Previously some users were able to get search for SIS ID but not consistently as the search field wasn't specifically coded to search for that value.

Hope that helps,

Erin

Jeff_F

Regarding the HTML5 Media Recorder, what will Internet Explorer and Safari users see?

dholton

Here is a feature request to add captioning support to the media recorder: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/11615-auto-captioning-with-rich-content-editor-media-tool

It looks like though for videos with captions you either need to purchase and use Arc, or of course use a 3rd party video tool instead like YouTube.

holmer

Just curious who is responsible for reading ideas and translating them to the engineers. The new feature "SIS ID Filter" was added based on an idea called "New gradebook sort on secondary ID ".

The people at Instructure do understand the difference between sorting and searching, right??

erinhmcmillan

Hi, Todd,

We had a misunderstanding with the functionality of this feature. We've removed that feature idea for now.

Thanks!

Erin

erinhmcmillan

We've removed the feature idea as we had a misunderstanding about the functionality.

Thanks!

Erin

PSU_Tony

There are definitely some good things in here. I have been waiting FOREVER for the html 5 recording option. @cjradm ‌ Can't wait to dig through these!

Jeff_F

re: Rubric sizing.... this improvement helps a great deal !!

thanks

unknown

Same happened to me too...grrr, have you had any luck in chrome yet?

tiffany_morgan

Unfortunately I still haven't been able to get it to work in Chrome.

Kristin Lundstrum

There was a pretty good group that participated in the Release Notes (2018-10-27) Collaborative Chat. Here are our 2018-10-27 Release Notes Chat - Notes and our Chat Archive. See you at the next Collaborative Chat!! :smileygrin:

tiffany_morgan

This was brought on the collaborative chat. Just wondering if there was any feedback from the developers on this? thanks! Smiley Happy

erinhmcmillan

Hi, Jeff,

IE and Safari use flash. However, you have to specifically enable flash within the browser. Otherwise, the recorder cannot be used as there is no other option.

Thanks,

Erin

fosterl

Please add a link to the API Change Log in the Release Notes. I have to go google it every time....

ptart

Similar thread. I'm curious if our Safari and IE users will experience a different workflow once enabling this feature option. I'd like to give them a heads up before enabling this HTML 5 feature.

Thanks,

Patrick Tart

erinhmcmillan

Hi, Lindy,

We've included a button at the top of the release notes that directs over to the API change log. Is that helpful to you?

Thanks,

Erin

erinhmcmillan

Hi, Patrick,

The feature option doesn't affect IE or Safari users. So they won't notice any difference with the update.

Thanks,

Erin

unknown

During our testing we found one issue.

Student Dashboard Sidebar Updates - the Coming Up section is still there for students.

Has anyone been able to test this?

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