Canvas Release Notes (2019-03-09)

erinhmcmillan

In this Canvas release (March 9), discussion topics can be searched by author name in addition to title.

Feature Options

For institutions using Moderated Grading, the Moderated Grading Audit Trail feature option no longer has to be enabled separately. Any user who has permission to view the moderated grading audit log will be able to view it for a moderated assignment at any time.
For institutions using the New Gradebook, the Final Grade Override column is included in Gradebook CSV export files.

External Tools (LTI)

For institutions using the Canvas Commons LTI, when viewing the Resource Details tab in Commons, users can view filtered search results that only display resources from their specific institution, and resource cards display the number of times a resource has been downloaded or imported and the number of times a resource has been favorited. Federal- and state-level outcomes can also no longer be added to resources. Additionally, the Rich Content Editor allows instructors to view and import content from their Commons Favorites directly in Canvas.
For institutions using the Quizzes.Next LTI, on-screen calculators can be used in assessment questions.

Release notes also include small non-functionality changes, 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: Moderated Grading Audit Trail (Removed)
Course: Moderated Grading, New Gradebook

Release Notes Change Log

Updated Features

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Assignments

Moderated Grading Audit Trail Enforcement

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

Location to Enable Feature	N/A
Configuration Details	Moderated Grading Feature Option
Affected Canvas Areas	SpeedGrader
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Instructors

Summary

As part of a moderated assignment, the Assessment Audit section displays automatically within SpeedGrader for any user with permission to view the moderated grading audit log.

Change Benefit

This change removes the Anonymous Moderated Marking Audit Trail feature option and no longer requires this feature option to be enabled separately when creating moderated assignments.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Instructors

Instructors with the Grades - view audit trail permission can act as an auditor for a course and always view the Assessment Audit section in SpeedGrader. Auditing also displays any changes made for moderated assignments that are also anonymous. All details about the Assessment Audit section are included as part of the Canvas Release Notes (2018-12-08).

SpeedGrader assessment audit view

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 Anonymous & Moderated feature ideas
For new ideas, please tag the idea with anonymous&moderated

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 Resource Previews has been removed as an opt-in account setting and is enabled for all accounts
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 deploy
Permissions	Course Content - add / edit / delete Discussions - view Assignments and Quizzes - add / edit / delete
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Admins, Instructors

Favorites and Downloads Sorting

Summary

Resource cards display the number of times a resource has been downloaded or imported and the number of times a resource has been favorited. Users can also sort search results by Most Favorited and Most Downloaded.

Change Benefit

This update allows instructors to easily view how many times a resource has been favorited and downloaded. It also allows instructors to sort search results by Most Favorited or Most Downloaded.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Instructors

The resource card displays the number of times a resource has been favorited and downloaded, allowing instructors to easily find content in Commons. Instructors can also sort search results by Most Favorited or Most Downloaded.

Commons download and favorites icons and indicators Filter Commons results by most favorited and most downloaded

Institution Search Results

Summary
When viewing the resource Details tab in Commons, users can view filtered search results that only display resources from their specific institution.

Change Benefit
This update allows users to find resources from the same institution as the resource they’re currently viewing.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors
Instructors
When an instructor views the Resource Details tab for a resource in Commons, they can click the Institution name to view filtered search results that only display resources from that institution.

Filter Commons results from a specific institution

View Commons filter by institution

Resource Card Improvements

Summary

This update includes several changes to the interface of resource cards in Commons search results. The updated resource cards now show updated icons, resource type, grade level, and the number of times a resource has been downloaded and added as a favorite.

Change Benefit

This update simplifies the information displayed on the resource card.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Instructors

The updated resource card displays in the Commons search results and in the Favorites page.

Updated Commons resource card

Outcomes Removal

Summary

Commons resources no longer include a section to tag resources with K-12 Federal or State outcome standards. Resources with existing associated outcomes will not be affected. This change only applies to tagging and searching outcomes in Commons and does not affect rubrics and outcomes linked to assignments, discussions, and quizzes shared from Canvas.

Change Benefit

This change simplifies resource management and allows instructors to import resources and add the outcomes that are specific to their teaching needs.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Instructors
Instructors sharing a new resource or editing a resource will no longer be able to tag resources with outcomes within Commons. This only applies to the Federal and State K12 outcomes standards and does not apply to rubrics and outcomes created within Canvas and linked to assignments, discussions, and quizzes.

Any resource that has an existing associated outcome still displays the resource in the details page and in the resource card.

Commons resources with and without associated outcomes

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

Discussions

Author Search Functionality

Location to Enable Feature	Discussions
Configuration Details	N/A
Affected Canvas Areas	Discussions
Beta/Test Environment Support	Yes
Permissions	Assignments and Quizzes - add / edit / delete Discussions - view Discussions - moderate Discussions - create Discussions - post
Related APIs	Discussion Topics API
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	All Users

Summary
Users can search discussion topics by author name in addition to title.

Change Benefit
This change restores previous author search functionality within the Discussions page.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors
All Users

When viewing the Discussions page, users can use the search field to search for a discussion by title or author. The Search field help text has been updated to specify the search options.

Any discussions that have been copied from a previous course do not include an author.

Feature Idea Contributions
https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/12662-reinstating-ability-to-filter-discussion-topics-by-author

Canvas features are always welcome to feedback. Product teams may make adjustments at any time via the Canvas Feature Idea process.
View existing Discussions feature ideas
For new ideas, please tag the idea with discussions

New Gradebook

Gradebook Export CSV Final Grade Override Column

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

Location to Enable Feature	New Gradebook
Configuration Details	New Gradebook Feature Option
Affected Canvas Areas	New Gradebook
Related APIs	Custom Gradebook Columns API
Affects User Interface	No
Affected User Roles	Instructors

Summary

When the Final Grade Override feature option is enabled, any entries in the Override column display in CSV Gradebook exports. However, override grades are not valid as part of Gradebook uploads.

Change Benefit

This change adds override grades to Gradebook exports.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Instructors

Instructors can enable the Final Grade Override feature, add override grades, and view the override grades in the Gradebook CSV export file.

The Gradebook download file includes override grades for the entire course. If a course includes grading periods, override grades are included in the download for the selected grading period.

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 withgradebook_new

Quizzes.Next

On-Screen Calculators

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	Quizzes.Next Assessment Items
Configuration Details	Quizzes.Next LTI
Affected Canvas Areas	Assignments
Beta Environment Support	No
Affects User Interface	Yes
Affected User Roles	Instructors, Students

Summary

Quizzes.Next supports enabling on-screen calculators for assessment questions.

Change Benefit

This feature allows students to use a basic or scientific calculator when answering assessment questions.

Affected User Roles & Behaviors

Instructors

Instructors can enable an on-screen calculator with basic or scientific functions from the Options menu of any question type.

On-screen calculators are best used for assessments presented in One Question at a Time mode. If a calculator is enabled in an assessment where students can view all questions on the same page, students can use the calculator to answer any question.

A warning message allows instructors to enable One Question at a Time mode within the question after the on-screen calculator is enabled.

Enable calculator in Quizzes.Next

Students

If the calculator is enabled, students can open the calculator by clicking the Calculator icon.

Student use of calculator in Quizzes.Next

Basic calculators include the functions to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Scientific calculators include all basic functions in addition to several scientific functions.

Quizzes.Next calculator

Feature Idea Contributions
https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/7754" modifiedtitle="true" title="Calculator available for quiz questions

Canvas features are always welcome to feedback. Product teams may make adjustments at any time via the Canvas Feature Idea process.
View existing quizzes.next feature ideas
For new ideas, please tag the idea with quizzes.next

Rich Content Editor

Commons Favorites Importing

This feature is 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	Rich Content Editor
Configuration Details	Commons LTI
Affected Canvas Areas	Commons LTI, Rich Content Editor
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 <SPAN style="font-size: 11pt; color:

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Comments

Kristin Lundstrum

Release Notes Chat

On Wednesday, February 27th, join other Community members as we review the Release Notes! RSVP to Release Notes (2019-03-09) Collaborative Chat‌ for updates! New collaborators are always welcome. Smiley Happy

mvandevelde

Hi Canvas ..

Could the Canvas Commons - Details area identify if any LTIs have been associated with the cartridge file?

This is needed for Modules and Courses, as it possible to override administrator settings and install LTIs that require no key/secret.

Mark.

James

Can we have some insight into how the keys that ended up on the calculator ended up there? From someone who has taught math for a long time, they seem kind to hold onto legacy keys that are used very little while omitting some functionality that is used.

What is the use case for Rand and why is it capitalized when the other functions are not? The use of a rand key is going to make it hard to grade anything that the student comes up with. Maybe it's to assist in guessing?
Where is the E, ee, or 10^x key for entering values in scientific notation? You have ln and e, which are inverse functions. You have the common log (base 10), but you don't have it's inverse. You don't have anything for allowing students to enter a number in scientific notation other than perhaps the x^y key, but that's clumsy. No one wants to enter 6.022 * 10 x^y 23. You might counter that people can enter e on the keyboard for scientific notation. My experience with students using online calculators is that they want to click on keys and won't go to the keyboard to find stuff that's not on the on screen display.
The hyperbolic trigonometric functions are rarely used. When they are, they are often invoked with a HYP key followed by an existing sin, cos, or tan key. Our college uses the Texas Instruments graphing calculators and the hyperbolic trig functions are buried so deep (you have to go to catalog to find them) that very few of our students even know they exist. If you have plenty of space, there's not anything wrong with putting them there, but some other things seem to be missing that would be a better use of the space.
Another key that could be gotten rid of if you're looking to save space is the cube root key. You have the nth root. You have a cube root, but no cube.
Maybe because I don't use one of these calculators, I'm not sure what the matrix key is for without other functionality to use them such as determinants and inverses (you have 1/x, but matrix division is undefined)
The purpose of the 2nd key is confusing. The two uses I've seen for a 2nd key are 1) to act like a shift, but then you need have a second symbol on the button itself so people know what they're getting, and 2) to act like an Inverse (INV) key, but except for the circular and hyperbolic trig functions, most of the keys either don't have inverses or have inverses that already have keys there.

Finally, are the keys that show up configurable? Some are grayed out, but the documentation doesn't mention anything about how to configuring what keys show up. Are there templates for which scientific calculator we can use? I know I've seen requests in the community for a calculator that matches the calculator that students get to use on their local state assessments.

shane_ohara

I see that 'Gradebook Export CSV Final Grade Override Column' was added this release. As far as I can tell, it adds columns to the grades export, but does not make an update to the true final grade that is being pushed to our SIS. Is this new column supposed to address the Grade Sync functionality that does not work with the current Final Grade Override settings in production or is there something more in the works?

Thank you,

Shane

erinhmcmillan

Hi, Shane,

SIS functionality has been completed and will be available next release.

Thanks!

Erin

erinhmcmillan

Hi, Mark,

Glad you're interested in the changes! I'd recommend letting our product team know more about your enhancement idea and your use case by posting in Canvas Studio with the tag canvas.next.

Thank you,

Erin

erinhmcmillan

Hi, James,

I've asked one of our product managers to take a look at your comment and see if she can help answer your questions.

Thanks!

Erin

hesspe

I was disappointed, but not surprised, to find in my testing, that the "search by author" function just searches the Topic and not replies. Since for most of our sites that use discussions, topics are initiated by a Teacher, that kind of search is not terribly useful, whereas the ability to search by author through Students' replies from the Discussions page would be very useful. It seems to me there use to be a feature request for this, but I don't see one now. (My own track record for getting uptake on requests I submit is so poor, that I'm no longer inclined to make the effort. Often a moderator informs that there's already such a request, and archives mine, though that may mean that there is another similar request, but one that differs from mine in significant respects.)

mvandevelde

I've added my idea here for anyone interested:

https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/13693-canvas-commons-identify-ltis-in-items-details

vanzandt

Thanks for the update Erin. We'd love to see Sync Grades to SIS feature as soon as possible. It would be great if it could make it into this release, so that we could give instructors the override option in time for the end of our Winter quarter.

Kristin Lundstrum

Hi ~ Here is the 2019-02-27 Chat Archive from our collaborative discussion! Our Notes were very brief this time, but it was still a worthwhile collaboration! Hopefully, you will be able to join us for the Release Notes (2019-03-30) Collaborative Chat!

Shar

Hi Peter Hess,

Within each discussion topic, you can already search by author. I like the feature as an easy way grab all the similar entries; if it searched across discussion topics I fear I wouldn't know what topic the response was associated with and I'd get befuddled with response overload.

Cheers - Shar

hesspe

Sure, but sometimes it can be very informative to see all of a students responses over a number of topics. I think there are valid reasons for having both a "global" and a "local" search by user that would include replies. And I know it's something our faculty members have requested. The part that I find annoying is that it isn't clear in the interface that search doesn't work that way. More generally, a response I get from Canvas is "we have 'this', so we don't need 'that'", when both 'this' and 'that' though they may be similar are not the same, and both may have merit.

ptart

Regarding Outcomes Removal:

We need the outcomes when exporting to Commons so that other teachers in our district do not have to go back and associate every objective per assessment AND with Quizzes.Next every question.

Please rethink this.

Nathan Atkinson

@ptart ,

Sorry for any confusion caused by our wording above, but to clear things up, this feature removal only removes the ability to tag and search for federal and state K12 common core outcomes standards within Commons. Rubrics/outcomes linked to assignments, discussions, or quizzes are still attached to that content when they get shared to Commons and will still import into the course when the resource is imported from Commons. I hope this helps!

Thanks,

- Nathan

j_c_turner

Just to echo Peter, there seems to be a lack of logic for this search function. When you search something the expectation I would say is that it is searching through all the information that lies beneath. So the top level search does not go far enough, but the individual thread search does make sense. So, it's not as useful as it should be. I have come to expect the highest level of logic in the Canvas interface, but this time you are sadly below that.

jim

BethanReid

Hi Gradebook Export CSV Final Grade Override Column, it doesn't seem to be working properly in Beta. It doesn't download any changes you make after the initial download. I've reported this to support.

Bethan

vanzandt

Hi @b_w_reid , thanks for testing this thoroughly. Definitely a scenario I would see happening with our instructors. Can you describe the process you went through?

I tried this for myself just now in our beta instance and it does appear (for me) that the changed override grade came out in the second export file. Here was the process I followed: 1) Added override grades in the Grades tool 2) Selected export gradebook, downloaded file, and confirmed override grades 3) Changed the override grade in the Grades tool 4) Selected export gradebook, downloaded file, and confirmed that the override grades had changed.

Let me know if you followed a different process. If I can recreate the issue, I'd like to get a ticket into Support to help your case. I don't know if it might have contributed to the issue, but I did notice that there was a decent lag today when updating the override grades. It took several seconds before the green confirmation box appeared for each change that said "Grade Saved". Now it seems to be popping up more quickly.

ptart

Huge sigh of relief @nathanatkinson . Thanks for the update.

Patrick

erinhmcmillan

Hi, Bethan,

I hope that Todd's suggestion was able to help you out. If you still aren't able to get the CSV to download, make sure to submit a support case so our team can investigate into your account.

Thanks!

Erin

erinhmcmillan

Hi, Peter,

We're sorry that you've been frustrated in the past by the Canvas feature process. Our intent for this change was to restore the previous functionality of searching authors within discussion topics, which was suggested in the feature idea referenced with the update—our product team does care about your feedback, I promise!

I did a quick check to see if anyone has suggested this idea for more granular searching, and I wasn't able to find one that I could reference to you. If you still feel it's important, I'd encourage you to create that idea so that others have the option to vote. Perhaps the functionality being restored to the search field may cause others to feel the same way about the search that you do.

In the meantime, I can suggest to our engineering team that we update the wording to clarify the search functionality within the topic level.

Thanks!

Erin

erinhmcmillan

Hi, everyone,

Just as a matter of clarification, the Commons features for this release were intentionally not designated as being associated with the Enable Resource Previews account setting, as they will be visible within Commons regardless of the setting's current state. Therefore, our team will also be removing the Previews setting in the Commons Account Settings page as part of this weekend's release.

This Account Settings change does not affect any of the messaging we've provided about the functionality coming to the Commons environment as part of this release and what Commons users can expect to see. We wanted to provide transparency about this Account Settings page change, and we have also made the clarification in the Admin User Summary document for this release as well.

Our team is appreciative of the positive feedback related to the Commons features and hope you will let us know how the changes continue to improve your user experience.

Thank you!

Erin

BethanReid

Hi vanzandt, I've retested this and now appears to be working fine. I followed the same process that you mentioned above. I think also the lag you described may have been causing this. I didn't notice any of the 'grade saved' pop ups last time, but they are appearing today. I'll get in touch with support and ask them to close the ticket. Thanks for your help!

vanzandt

That's great news. That would have been a significant problem! And the 'grade saved' pop-ups do seem a little more responsive today, so I'll bet that could have been it.

JamesAshby

@InstContentTeam ‌, where I can I find a help page that explains to instructors how to enable on-screen calculators? I don't want to refer instructors to release notes to learn how to use a feature, since the release notes are packed with extraneous information. I looked everywhere but couldn't find a relevant tutorial. Thanks in advance for the help!

Stef_retired

I found it here, 538b2fa8965d0a35076d47b01ee0a336c344953e342c21c84755df3fb83de749‌: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-15073-4152780606

Stef_retired

...and upon further checking, 538b2fa8965d0a35076d47b01ee0a336c344953e342c21c84755df3fb83de749‌, I see that instructions for enabling the On-Screen Calculator have also been added to the other lessons for the relevant question types.

JamesAshby

Awesome, thanks stefaniesanders‌! I guess I didn't think to look in the question-specific tutorials, but that works!

j_c_turner

I am a little bit late to the party. I was testing Blueprint Course. Not sure if i have misunderstood, but changes to the rubric do not trigger the syncing. meaning you have to make a bigger edit to the assignment for the Blueprinting tool to say, ahh there has been a change. once this happens the rubric is updated. Am i wrong in pointing this out, sometimes i'm not totally sure what the updates mean. JIm

audra_agnelly

The download count on the Commons cards is great! I didn't think much about it when I originally read over the release notes, but looking in Commons now, it's really helpful as an Admin to see what district resources have been getting used by our teachers.

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