Category Archives: Uncategorized

July 13 Canvas Release

Posted on July 11, 2019 | Leave a comment

Canvas is updated every third Saturday with new features and fixes. The Macomb CTL posts new release highlights to our blog at emacomb.com.  Please contact us at ctlsupport@macomb.edu if you have questions about Canvas releases.

July 13 Release

Please watch the New Feature Screencast for a review of the updates in this release:

New Grade Posting Policies

This release introduces significant changes to the way grades are managed and viewed.  These changes are intended to replace the behavior of the popular Mute Assignment function from the previous Gradebook.

The new Grade Posting Policies are viewable from the Gradebook Settings menu (gear icon in upper right of Gradebook).  The default policy is Automatic – students will see grades as soon as you post them.  To begin “muting” the grades, choose “Manually Post Grades.”

When you set the grading policy, it will apply to all assignments created after that time.  However, you still have the ability to change individual assignments to either grading policy by clicking the three-dot icon in the assignment heading.

The unfilled eye icon indicates that the assignment has been set to Manually Post Grades.  The solid orange eye icon indicates that you’ve begun entering grades for an assignment, but they are still hidden from students (muted).

To “unmute” these grades you would post them from the assignment menu in the gradebook:

The orange dot indicates which students’ grades will be posted when you click Post.  You may choose to post grades for all students – including those who have not submitted the assignment – or only for students who have submitted the assignment and received a grade.   When all grades for an assignment have been posted, the eye icon will disappear.

You may always use the three-dot icon to change a posted grade back to a hidden grade and vice-versa.

Clicking on the individual student’s grade will also verify whether that student’s grade is posted or hidden.  A “Hidden” icon will display in the Grade Detail Tray:

How will students experience these changes?  Students will see the eye icon on their Grades page when you’ve graded a Manual assignment, and will only see the actual grade once you post grades for that assignment, as described above.

 

 

The complete production release notes for this release are available on the Canvas Community.

The next Canvas production release will be available Saturday, August 17, with release notes available Monday, July 22.

 

Images on this page are from the Canvas Guides and Release Notes, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Agreement.

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June 22 Canvas Release

Posted on June 20, 2019 | Leave a comment

Canvas is updated every third Saturday with new features and fixes. The Macomb CTL posts new release highlights to our blog at emacomb.com.  Please contact us at ctlsupport@macomb.edu if you have questions about Canvas releases.

June 22 Release

Please watch the New Feature Screencast for a review of the updates in this release:

 

Gradebook: Student Groups Filter

The Gradebook now allows you to apply a filter based on Student Groups.  To activate the filter, click to View > Filters > Student Groups.  This will add a Student Group filter menu directly above the gradebook, which will let you show students from all groups, or from individual groups.  (You may also activate all four filters at once: Assignment Groups, Modules, Sections, and Student Groups.)

Click within the drop-down menu to choose the student group you want to display:

To see the full effect of this update, be sure to toggle Group under Secondary Info in the Student Name column (click three dots in Student Name heading cell):

This will list all groups the student belongs to underneath their name.

 

Discussions: Student Interface Update

If you have disabled the ability for students to edit or delete their discussion posts, that now reflects in the student’s view of the discussion.  Clicking the Settings menu (three dots) within a post will clearly show the student that their Edit and Delete permissions have been disabled.  This provides more transparent communication to the student that the instructor has disabled editing or deleting posts for this course.

Recall that you may activate or disable the Student Settings for Discussions under Discussions > Discussion Settings (gear in upper right) > Student Settings:

 

The complete production release notes for this release are available on the Canvas Community.

The next Canvas release will be deployed Saturday, July 13, with release notes available Monday, July 1.

 

Images on this page are from the Canvas Guides and Release Notes, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Agreement.

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June 1 Canvas Release

Posted on May 31, 2019 | Leave a comment

Canvas is updated every third Saturday with new features and fixes. The Macomb CTL posts new release highlights to our blog at emacomb.com.  Please contact us at ctlsupport@macomb.edu if you have questions about Canvas releases.

June 1 Release

Please watch the New Feature Screencast video for a review of the updates in this release:

 

Message Students Who – Names Sorted Alphabetically

The Message Students Who feature has been updated to sort the available students alphabetically by last name.

Recall that you may use Message Students Who by clicking the arrow in the heading of an assignment column within the Gradebook.

Gradebook column

There are four criteria you may choose from:

message students who options

(Image courtesy of Penn State IT Learning and Development.)

After you choose a criterion, the applicable students’ names will be updated and sorted in alphabetical order:

Message Students Who

Please see the official Canvas help document for more information about the Message Students Who feature.

 

The complete production release notes for this release are available on the Canvas Community.

The next Canvas release will be deployed Saturday, June 22, with release notes available Monday, June 10.

 

Images on this page are from the Canvas Guides and Release Notes, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Agreement.

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May 11 Canvas Release

Posted on May 9, 2019 | Leave a comment

Canvas is updated every third Saturday with new features and fixes. The Macomb CTL posts new release highlights to our blog at emacomb.com.  Please contact us at ctlsupport@macomb.edu if you have questions about Canvas releases.

May 11 Release

Please watch the New Feature Screencast video for a review of the updates in this release:

 

New Gradebook: Student Context Card displays Final Grade Override

The Student Context Card has been updated to show the Final Grade Override, if the Override feature has been activated for the Gradebook.   Click the student’s name in the Gradebook to bring up the Context Card pane on the right.  This update ensures that the Override grade is consistently displayed acr0ss various areas of Canvas.

context card override grade

 

Files: Sharing Permissions Interface Update

The interface for setting sharing permissions on in your Canvas Files area (Account > Files) has been simplified.

File sharing permissions

Though Published and Unpublished are the most common permissions for a file, instructors can also set files to:

  • Not visibile in student files – only available to those with direct link
  • Schedule student availability – make file available in course for a specific period of time

restricted files

No functionality has been changed – this is only a design change in the user interface.

 

Internet Explorer 11 End of Support: August 3

Please be advised that on August 3, Internet Explorer 11 will no longer be supported as a Canvas browser.  You may still use Internet Explorer, but some features may not work as intended.  Chrome, Firefox, or Safari are recommended as alternatives.

 

The complete production release notes for this release are available on the Canvas Community.

The next Canvas release will be deployed Saturday, June 1, with release notes available Monday, May 20.

Images on this page are from the Canvas Guides and Release Notes, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Agreement.

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March 30 Canvas Release

Posted on March 28, 2019 | Leave a comment

Canvas is updated every third Saturday with new features and fixes. The Macomb CTL posts new release highlights to our blog at emacomb.com.  Please contact us at ctlsupport@macomb.edu if you have questions about Canvas releases.

March 30 Release

Please watch the New Feature Screencast video for a review of the updates in this release:

 

New Gradebook Override Column

This release improves the functionality of the Override Column, which was introduced to the New Gradebook several months ago.

Currently, instructors may enter a percentage grade, which will correspond to the appropriate grade in your Grading Scheme.  The letter grade will then display in the Override column.

Previously, instructors had to input a letter grade, which was automatically converted to the lower percentage of the grade range:

 

New Gradebook Drop-In Sessions at Macomb

As Canvas strives to improve usability for faculty, there will be a significant update made to the Gradebook that adds new functionality and changes access to the SpeedGrader and how grades can be viewed.

The new Gradebook will be deployed on May 9, 2019, after the end of the Winter semester.  At the current time, you are able to turn on the new Gradebook to get a sneak peek of these updates.

For an overview of what to expect with the New Gradebook, please visit the New Gradebook Resource page in the Faculty Center. (Macomb login required)

The CTL’s Instructional Technology team has prepared some helpful resources and scheduled regular drop-in sessions to help with this transition.  These sessions provide an opportunity for hands-on training with the New Gradebook and cover common tasks such as:

• Add Points/Comments
• Access SpeedGrader
• Mark Assignments as Late/Missing/Excused
• Apply Late Policies
• Sort and Curve Assignments, Message Students
• Mute Grades and Download Assignment Submissions

Registration is not required, but cordially recommended so we know who is planning on attending.  Please see times, locations, and registration link below.

Drop-In Session Registration

April
Friday, April 5  –  1 pm  –  Online (Zoom meeting)
Wednesday, April 10  –  11 am  –  Center C-130
Thursday, April 11  – 1 pm  –  South J-104
Wednesday, April 24  – 11 am  –  Center C-130
Thursday, April 25  – 1 pm  –  South J-104

May
Friday, May 3  –  1 pm  –  Online (Zoom meeting)

Content Link Error Notification

A new option has been added to Notifications.  Instructors may now choose to be notified by text and/or email when a student clicks on a broken link within a course.  This notification will activate if the link is either broken, unavailable due to student permissions, or links to an unpublished page.   The notification defaults to daily frequency, but like all other notifications, you may set it to immediately, weekly, or off.

This change is intended to improve the process of finding and resolving inaccessible links in a course.

 

Groups: Warning for Removing Students

The wording of the message has been strengthened to clarify what exactly will be lost if an instructor chooses to remove a student from a Group.

This language underscores the risks of removing a student from a group or adding a new student after group assignments have already been submitted.  This Canvas Document gives further clarification:

You can move students within groups. However, changes should be made before assigning a group to an assignment.

If a student is added to or removed from a group after receiving submissions, the submissions and grades may not align correctly. If a student is added to a group after the group submission, any re-submissions will overwrite the original submission; all previous grades will remain but the Gradebook will show the assignment was resubmitted since last graded. If you want to move a group member with a graded submission, you may want to clone the group set instead.

Note: In group assignments, all students should be assigned to groups before the assignment is published. Grades and submissions may be affected for students who were not in a group at the time of assignment submission but who were later added to a group.

 

The complete production release notes for this release are available on the Canvas Community.

The next Canvas release will be deployed Saturday, April 20, with release notes available Monday, April 8.

 

Images on this page are from the Canvas Guides and Release Notes, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Agreement.

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March 9 Canvas Release

Posted on March 8, 2019 | Leave a comment

Canvas is updated every third Saturday with new features and fixes. The Macomb CTL posts new release highlights to our blog at emacomb.com.  Please contact us at ctlsupport@macomb.edu if you have any questions about Canvas releases.

March 9 Release

Please view the New Feature Screencast for a demonstration of the updates in this release:

 

Assessment Audit – Moderated Assignments

NOTE: This update only applies for instructors who have opted into the Moderated Grading feature for their course.  This allows multiple reviewers to grade student assignments.

The March 9 update streamlines the process for graders to view the audit trail  from within SpeedGrader:

Previously, instructors had to activate a separate Feature Option to view the audit trail.  Now, you’ll find a link directly in SpeedGrader.  The audit trail shows all actions taken on the assignment by all graders.

 

Discussion Topic Author Search

Instructors are now able to search discussion topics using a student’s name.  Previously, discussion search was limited to topic keywords only.  You will find the Discussion Search box at the Discussions link in your Course Navigation menu.

 

 

New Gradebook: Override Final Grade CSV Export

NOTE: This update only applies for instructors who have opted into the New Gradebook. By the end of 2019, the New Gradebook will replace the existing Gradebook. We’ll keep you updated as the deployment timeframe is announced.

The Override Grade feature deployed in the previous release introduced the ability for instructors to override the final calculated grade with a letter grade of the instructor’s choosing:

In this release, the Override column has been added to the CSV file generated for a Gradebook Export (accessible from the Settings gear at top right of gradebook).

At this time, you may not import a CSV file containing the Override column into a Canvas Gradebook.

The complete production release notes for this release are available on the Canvas Community.

The next Canvas release will be deployed Saturday, March 30, with release notes available Monday, March 18.

 

Images on this page are from the Canvas Guides and Release Notes, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Agreement.

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February 16 Canvas Release

Posted on February 18, 2019 | Leave a comment

Canvas is updated every third Saturday with new features and fixes. The Macomb CTL posts highlights from the production release notes and related content to our blog at emacomb.com.  Please contact us at ctlsupport@macomb.edu if you have any questions about Canvas releases.

February 16 Release

Please view the New Feature Screencast for a demonstration of the updates in this release:

 

New Gradebook: Override Final Grade

NOTE: This update only applies for instructors who have opted into the New Gradebook.  By the end of 2019, the New Gradebook will replace the existing Gradebook. We’ll continue to update you as the deployment timeframe is announced.

Instructors using the New Gradebook now have the option to manually override the final grade as caculated by Canvas. To activate, check the Allow Override box on the Advanced tab of the Gradebook Settings screen (gear in upper right corner).

This will add an Override column after the Final Grade (Total) column.

Instructors may then enter a letter grade to override the Total grade. The letter grade will reflect the lower percentage of the range in your grading scheme.

Students will not know their final grade has been overridden.

 

Quizzes.Next: Reopen Student Assessment

NOTE: This update only applies for institutions who have opted into the Quizzes.Next LTI.  In the long term, Quizzes.Next will become the new standard Quiz engine for Canvas.

Instructors are now able to manually reopen quiz attempts for students, with the quiz returning to the last question where the student was active.

This is an improvement over the current Quizzes behavior, which allows the instructor to Moderate and give additional attempts, but each new attempt requires the student to begin the quiz again, losing their previous work.

 

Rich Content Editor: Thumbnail Images Restored

When using the Rich Content Editor to insert an image into a Canvas page from your Canvas files (i.e., the Canvas tab for Image Source), you will now see image thumbnails in your folder structure:

Thumbnails greatly simplify the process of finding a desired image. The thumbnail feature was temporarily down after a previous Rich Content Editor update.

The complete production release notes for this release are available on the Canvas LMS Community.

 

The next Canvas release will be deployed Saturday, March 9, with release notes available Monday, February 25.

 

Images on this page are from the Canvas Guides, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Agreement.

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January 26 Canvas Release

Posted on February 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

Canvas is updated every third Saturday with new features and fixes. The Macomb CTL posts highlights from the production release notes and related content to our blog at emacomb.com.  Please contact us at ctlsupport@macomb.edu if you have any questions about Canvas releases.

January 26 Release

Please view the New Feature Screencast for a demonstration of the updates in this release:

 

 

Rubric Comments Enhancement

Instructors may now add comments to rubric criteria directly from SpeedGrader.

This update will allow instructors to edit their rubric comments while using the same rubric to grade assignments in SpeedGrader.

Note that this update refers to comments on the rubric criteria, not comments on the student’s assignment.

 

Learning Outcome Mastery

NOTE: This update only applies for instructors and students who have opted into the Learning Mastery Gradebook.  Please contact us at ctlsupport@macomb.edu if you’d like to test this feature.

The total score for a particular learning outcome in a course will now be displayed if at least one of the assignments does not have hidden point values.

For example, because all asignments’ point values are hidden in the rubric for Week 7 Journal, you do not see X /5 – only Mastered or Not Mastered.

This change will make it easier to view a student’s progress towards mastery when at least one of the outcome’s assignments shows a point value.

 

Moderated Grading: Assignments Editable by Viewer

NOTE: The Moderated Grading feature is not yet active at the Macomb institutional level. Please contact us at ctlsupport@macomb.edu if you’d like to test this feature.

If your assignment uses Moderated Grading, any grader who is able to view the Grade Summary page will now able to edit the assignment.

This update will allow graders who have not been designated by the instructor as the final grader to edit assignments. This will simplify the process for nonfinal and noninstructor graders to modify assignment details throughout the course.

The complete production release notes for this release are available on the Canvas LMS Community.

 

The next Canvas release will be deployed Saturday, February 16, with release notes available Monday, February 4.

 

Images on this page are from the Canvas Guides, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Agreement.

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January 5 Canvas Release

Posted on January 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

Canvas is updated every third Saturday with new features and fixes. The Macomb CTL posts highlights from the production release notes and related content to our blog at ctl.emacomb.com.  Please contact us at ctlsupport@macomb.edu if you have any questions about Canvas releases.

 

January 5 Release

Please view the New Feature Screencast for a demonstration of the updates in this release:

 

Resource Previews in Commons

Canvas Commons now includes a preview of the content which is to be imported.

Now users can view the content of the Commons resource without having to import it to their own Canvas instance first.

 

Course Link Validator Enhancements

The Course Link Validator in Course Settings now specifies whether a link or image is either invalid or unreachable.

  • Invalid – file is corrupt or unopenable
  • Unreachable – indicates file may have been moved or deleted from its host server. Try to find an updated link.

This change is intended to give instructors and designers more useful information to resolve broken links more efficiently.

 

Settings: Course Dates Clarification

This is a design change only – all functionality and user actions on the Course Details page remain the same.

The change of language on this page is intended to clarify the difference between courses and the larger term in which they’re scheduled.

 

The complete production release notes for the December 8 release are available on the Canvas LMS Community.

The next Canvas release will be deployed on Saturday, January 26, with release notes available Monday, January 14.

 

Images on this page are from the Canvas Guides, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Agreement.

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