Canvas Updates

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<h1>New Features</h1>
<h1>New Features</h1>
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<h2>Grades</h2>
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<h2>Course Settings</h2>
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<h3>Incomplete Quiz Score Icon</h3>
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<h3>Course Format</h3>
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When students complete a quiz that includes a manually graded question, the Grades page displays a Quiz icon instead of the current score, indicating that the quiz score is not yet complete. When students hover over the icon, students can view a message indicating that grading is in progress.
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Instructors can specify a format for their course. Located in Course Settings, this setting shows if a course is intended to be an online course or a supplement to a face-to-face course, but it is not visible elsewhere in Canvas.
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The Quiz icon displays in the Gradebook for instructors as well, indicating that some questions in the quiz need to be graded manually. When the instructor assigns a score for the manually graded question, the icon for both the instructor and the student will be replaced with the complete quiz grade.
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This feature is intended to help institutions categorize courses for data analysis and research and can be filtered via the Courses API endpoint. Currently this setting only displays course metadata and will continue to be developed in a future release.
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<h2>Quizzes</h2>
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<h3>Moderate Quiz Updates</h3>
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The Moderate Quiz page has an updated design for a cleaner look. Additionally, the page also adds functionality for improving outstanding quiz verifications for large courses.
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When a student views a timed quiz and time expires, Canvas auto-submits the quiz. However, if a student navigates away from the quiz page, the quiz submission remains outstanding. Previously instructors had to manually submit each outstanding quiz individually as indicated in the Time column as Time Up! Now, when instructors open the Moderate Quiz page, Canvas generates a warning message so instructors can manually check outstanding submissions for the entire quiz at one time. In the dialog window, Canvas displays a list of the outstanding submissions and automatically selects the checkbox next to each student’s name. To grade outstanding submissions for the selected student(s), click the Submit button. Canvas will grade the submission and update the score.
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<h2>People</h2>
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<h3>User Access Report Additions</h3>
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User access is now logged in the following areas of Canvas:
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Course Home Page
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Outcomes
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Modules
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<em><strong>Note:</strong> For instructors, the Quiz icon in the Gradebook can also mean that a Quiz score has been deleted and a new score needs to be assigned.</em>
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At the course level, user access activity appears in a user’s Access Report. User access information also displays at the account level in user page views.
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&nbsp;
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<h2>Notifications</h2>
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<h3>Copy of Created Conversations</h3>
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Users can set a new notification preference that allows them to receive a copy of all conversations they created. When enabled by the user, this feature allows users to see what conversations have been sent and how they appear in their specified communication channels.
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<em><strong>Note:</strong> When a user creates a group message and clicks the Send Individual Messages checkbox, Canvas generates only one notification for the sent message. Notifications cannot be sent from the beta environment.</em>
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<em><strong>Reminder:</strong> In Conversations, sent messages appear in the Sent folder. When a message receives a reply, the message thread will appear in the Inbox. When a user creates a group message and clicks the Send Individual Messages checkbox, the Sent folder displays one message for each user, as replies are treated as individual messages.</em>
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&nbsp;
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<h2>SpeedGrader</h2>
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<h3>Crocodoc Session Expiration Warning</h3>
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Instructors who use Crocodoc to annotate assignments in SpeedGrader receive a warning message when the Crocodoc session is about to expire. Crocodoc sessions are per submission and run for one hour; the expiration warning message appears after 50 minutes. The session begins when the submission preview appears in SpeedGrader. Any annotations made to the submission are saved automatically during the hour. This feature helps instructors be aware of the current Crocodoc session so they do not lose any of their work after the hour has expired. To create a new session, refresh the page or navigate to another submission.
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<em><strong>Note:</strong> Crocodoc features are not available in the beta environment.</em>
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&nbsp;
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<h1>Updated Features</h1>
<h1>Updated Features</h1>
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<h2>Discussions</h2>
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<h2>Gradebook Individual View</h2>
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<h3>Locked Discussion Time Display</h3>
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<h3>Switch Gradebook Link</h3>
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When a student views the details for a locked discussion topic, the displayed available date includes both the hour and the minute. Locked discussions are discussions that have been published by an instructor but cannot be viewed until a later date.
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After users have switched to Individual View, the link to return to the regular Gradebook has been renamed as Switch to Default Gradebook. This change creates a target destination in the link to remove ambiguity for accessibility users.
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<h3>Download All Submissions Button</h3>
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&nbsp;
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When viewing Assignment Information in Individual View, the Gradebook will display the Download all submissions button for quizzes that contain file upload questions. If a quiz does not include a file upload question, it will not include the download button. This change is to ease confusion with quizzes that contain no downloadable submissions.
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<h2>Quizzes</h2>
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<h2>Groups</h2>
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<h3>Questions and Groups Move-To Menu</h3>
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<h3>Group Leader Settings</h3>
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Quiz questions and groups can be reordered using a keyboard navigation menu. This feature places a drag handle next to each quiz question or group. To view the keyboard navigation menu, instructors can click the handle next to a quiz question or group and move it within the quiz. Questions and groups can still be dragged and dropped manually by clicking and dragging the quiz question handles.
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Instructors can modify the group leader settings in a Group Set at any time. When editing a Group Set through the Settings icon, the Leadership section appears at the bottom of the browser window. Previously group leader settings could only be specified while creating a new Group Set.
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<h3>Quiz Preview Message</h3>
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<em><strong>Note: </strong>Edited settings won’t take effect until after the next membership change, such as when another person joins or is assigned to the group. For manually enabled changes, you may have to refresh the page to see the group update. This functionality will continue to be improved in a feature release.</em>
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When an instructor previews a quiz, the preview message identifies whether or not the quiz has been published. If an instructor previews a quiz that has only been saved (not published), the quiz preview message shows that the preview is for the draft version of the quiz. However, if an instructor previews a quiz that has been published, the preview message shows that the preview is for the published version of the quiz.
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<h2>SpeedGrader</h2>
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<h3>Group Assignment Submissions</h3>
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For group assignments, SpeedGrader shows submissions both from student groups and individual students. This feature allows instructors to view all submissions, especially for students who may not be in a group.
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&nbsp;
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<h1>Other Updates</h1>
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<h2>Calendar</h2>
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<h3>Calendar Color Brightness</h3>
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The Canvas Calendar displays all courses in higher contrasting colors. However, accessibility users who need to view colors in a lower saturation can enable the High Contrast theme in User Profile Feature Options.
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&nbsp;
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<h2>Dashboard</h2>
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<h3>Course List Term Formatting</h3>
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The Course List displays better formatting for term dates. When users view term dates as part of a course, the term is displayed as italicized light gray text.
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<h2>Grades</h2>
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<h3>Letter Grade Score Formatting</h3>
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Letter grades throughout Canvas appear in a higher contrast. Previously, letter grades (and their percentage equivalents) appeared in a smaller and lighter format than other grades, making them more difficult to view. This change affects both regular and High Contrast user display settings. Letter grades and their percentages appear on the student Grades page and in the Gradebook (assignment score and total grade columns).
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&nbsp;
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<h2>Languages</h2>
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<h3>Korean</h3>
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Korean has been removed as a crowd-sourced language in Canvas.
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&nbsp;
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<h1>Fixed Bugs</h1>
<h1>Fixed Bugs</h1>
<h2>Accessibility</h2>
<h2>Accessibility</h2>
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<h3>General</h3>
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The following accessibility concerns have been addressed in Canvas:
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<ul>
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<li>When enabling keyboard navigation in Chrome or Safari, all link elements, buttons, and tabs in Canvas are marked with a clear light blue outline. same visual treatment has also been applied to buttons and tabs. Blue buttons in Canvas display a red outline.</li>
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<li>All Canvas feature pages contain level 1 headers for screen readers.</li>
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<li>High contrast text links are underlined; hovering over the links makes the underline go away. Exceptions are in the main Canvas menu and sidebar menu, as well as buttons.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Account Settings</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Account Statistics tables are accessible to screen readers.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Announcements</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Announcements post date and text meets a color contrast of 3:1 for the default Canvas interface and 4.5:1 for high contrast profiles.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Assignments</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>The Assignments page meets a color contrast of 4.5:1 for the high contrast profile.</li>
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<li>The Assignments Settings menus, Add Assignment to Assignments button, and publish/unpublish icons are no longer listed as an application and are accessible to screen readers and keyboard users.</li>
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<li>Rubrics can be created and edited by screen readers.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Conversations</h3>
<h3>Conversations</h3>
<ul>
<ul>
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<li>The Conversations Settings menu is accessible for keyboard users.</li>
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<li>Autocomplete options in the To field can be read by screen readers.</li>
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<li>The Conversations To field is accessible to screen readers.</li>
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<li>The Star and Mark as Unread message thread options are available to keyboard users.</li>
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</ul>
</ul>
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<h3>Course Settings</h3>
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<h3>Grades</h3>
<ul>
<ul>
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<li>The Navigation tab contains a message for keyboard users notifying them that they can move navigation items by using the Move To option in the navigation item Settings menu.</li>
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<li>The Gradebook and the Student Grades page display a color contrast of 4.5:1 for high contrast profiles.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Discussions</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>The Discussions page headers contain a message for keyboard users and screen readers notifying them how to rearrange discussions on the page.</li>
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<li>Discussions are no longer listed as an application and are accessible to screen readers and keyboard users.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Modules</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Users can access Modules after closing the Add content button.</li>
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<li>In a Modules Settings menu, the Edit button is accessible for voiceover and keyboard navigation.</li>
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<li>To prevent modules from being created with blank names, the Modules name field is a required field.</li>
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<li>The Modules page contains a message for keyboard users notifying them that they can move modules and module items by using the Move To option in the module or module item Settings menu.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Pages</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Page titles include a level 1 header.</li>
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<li>Pages are no longer listed as an application and are accessible to screen readers and keyboard users.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>People</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>The Groups page contains a message for keyboard users notifying them that they can move students within groups by using the Move To option in the user Settings menu.</li>
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</ul>
</ul>
<h3>Quizzes</h3>
<h3>Quizzes</h3>
<ul>
<ul>
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<li>Quiz answer titles appear for screen readers.</li>
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<li>The buttons on the quiz view page are labeled as buttons, which include the publish, preview, edit, and manage buttons. The buttons can be read by screen readers.</li>
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<li>The quiz timer, including time elapsed during a quiz, can be read by screen readers.</li>
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<li>Users can use voiceover keyboard commands to edit quiz question comments.</li>
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<li>The Quizzes Settings menus, Add Quiz button, and publish/unpublish buttons are no longer listed as an application and are accessible to screen readers and keyboard users.</li>
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<li>Quiz questions can be reordered when a quiz contains more than 25 questions in a quiz.</li>
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</ul>
</ul>
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<h3>User Dashboard</h3>
 
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<ul>
 
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<li>In the activity stream, the Show More/Less and Remove Items links are always displayed for keyboard users and screen readers.</li>
 
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</ul>
 
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&nbsp;
 
<h2>Assignments</h2>
<h2>Assignments</h2>
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<h3>Turnitin Percentages</h3>
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<h3>Assignment URLs</h3>
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In Turnitin Advanced Settings, the Small Matches option retains the percentage set as part of the Less Than ___ of the Document text field.
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When a student submits an assignment with a # at the end of the URL, the assignment submits successfully.<br>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor created an assignment and enabled Turnitin, selected Advanced Options, and selected the Small Matches checkbox, the assignment did not retain the percentage set in the Less Than... text field. Canvas code has been updated to retain the percentage set for the Turnitin assignment.</em>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When a student submitted an assignment that contains an # at the end of the URL, the assignment page did not refresh to show the submission was successful. Canvas code has been updated to address individual number signs as part of an assignment URL and refresh the page accordingly.</em>
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<h3>Personal Files and Assignment File Types</h3>
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If an instructor creates an assignment with restricted file submission types, students can only submit the file types specified in the assignment.
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor created an assignment with restricted file submission types, some students were still able to submit a restricted file type by uploading the file to their personal files and then submitting the assignment. Canvas code has been updated to honor restricted file types regardless of the source location of the submitted file. When a student tries to submit a restricted file type, Canvas will create an error message so the student knows why the submission is not accepted.</em>
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<h3>Grading Schemes</h3>
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Assignments display any associated custom grading schemes.<br>
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&nbsp;
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor created a grading scheme, applied the grading scheme to an assignment, and then edited the grading scheme, the assignment showed the default grading scheme, not the custom grading scheme. However, the custom grading scheme was being applied to the correct assignment. Canvas code has been updated to display an assignment’s associated grading scheme.</em>
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<h2>Calendar</h2>
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<h3>Undated Events and Languages</h3>
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When a calendar event is created and saved on the More Options page, the calendar event is saved on the specified date.
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When users in any language except English, Spanish, and Dutch created a calendar event and used the More Options button to complete and save the event, the event was appearing in the calendar as an undated event. Canvas code has been updated to always create the event with the date and time.</em>
 
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&nbsp;
 
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<h2>Conversations</h2>
 
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<h3>Message Attachments in Internet Explorer 10</h3>
 
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Users can send messages with an attachment when using Internet Explorer 10.
 
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When users attempted to send a message with an attachment using Internet Explorer (IE) 10, the message appeared to be sending but the message was never sent. Canvas code has been updated to verify attachment routing in IE10 to send messages properly.</em>
 
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&nbsp;
 
<h2>Course Imports</h2>
<h2>Course Imports</h2>
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<h3>Unpublished Quizzes</h3>
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<h3>Date Adjustments</h3>
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Unpublished quizzes retain their unpublished state in course imports.
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When copying a course, adjusting the date and time applies the selected parameters.<br>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When a user imported an unpublished quiz and selected the Adjust Due Dates option, Canvas was separating the quiz into an assignment and a quiz upon import, which also broke the Assignments Index Page. Canvas code has been updated to never create a new assignment and retain the unpublished state of the quiz. </em>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When a user copies a course and selects the option to adjust the date and time, the course copy was adjusting the course start time several hours into the future. This behavior occurred because the time zone UTC offset in the date shift option was being treated as local time. Canvas code has been updated to honor the set time zone for the course as part of the course copy.</em>
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<h3>Module Items</h3>
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<h2>Course Settings</h2>
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Common Cartridge module imports select all associated module items.
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<h3>Course Time Zone</h3>
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Assignment and Syllabus pages display the correct due date if local and course time zones vary across different days.<br>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor set a time zone for the course and then created an assignment, the assignment due date was displaying incorrectly if the date for the local time zone was the next day. However, the tooltip displayed the correct time. Canvas code has been updated to fix the date display for assignments with overridden date boundaries.</em>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor imported Modules into a course, only the module name was included in the import; it did not contain any associated module items. Canvas code has been updated to include all module items as part of a module import.</em>
 
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<h3>Quiz Reimports</h3>
 
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When a quiz is reimported into Canvas, quiz questions are only reimported into a question bank if the user checks the Overwrite Assessment Content with Matching IDs checkbox.
 
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor chose to re-import a quiz into Canvas, the import placed the questions in the question bank tied with the first version of the quiz, even if it had to replace a deleted question bank. Additionally, QTI file imports created a new quiz, and Common Cartridge files overwrote any edits to the existing quiz in the course, including the quiz title, description, and point values. Canvas code has been updated to not reuse question banks on import unless overwritten as part of the import.</em>
 
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&nbsp;
 
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<h2>Dashboard</h2>
 
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<h3>Activity Stream Unpublished Discussions</h3>
 
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Unpublished discussions do not appear in the activity stream.
 
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor created a new discussion that was not published, the unpublished discussion appeared in the course activity stream. Canvas code has been updated to clear the activity stream if a new or updated discussion is not published.</em>
 
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<h3>Scrollable Lists</h3>
 
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The Upcoming and To Do sidebars are scrollable when there are multiple items.
 
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When a user had multiple items in the Upcoming and/or To Do sidebars, the items were being cut off in the list and were not scrollable. Canvas code has been updated to remove a sidebar container that blocked the columns from being scrollable.</em>
 
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&nbsp;
 
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<h2>Discussions</h2>
 
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<h3>Discussion Images</h3>
 
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Discussion replies that include an image retain the image URL verifier.
 
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When a user posted a discussion reply and included an image whose URL parameters included a verifier, the verifier was removed from the image. This behavior occurred when users included a file that did not originate from the user’s personal files or from a link without a full host name and significantly affected users on the Canvas by Instructure app. Without a verifier, the image only displayed to the user who posted the image, and only if the user was logged in to the app. Canvas code has been updated to retain the image verifier from all user-context files. Verifiers for HTML content, media tags, and URL processing have also been distributed into their own focused verifier files.</em>
 
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<h3>Group Discussions</h3>
 
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Graded group discussions with student submissions can be pinned or closed for comments.
 
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor tried to close or pin a graded group discussions that contained student submissions, the instructor was not able to move the discussion. Canvas code has been updated to allow changes in the state of a graded group discussion.</em>
 
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&nbsp;
 
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<h2>Global Navigation</h2>
 
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<h3>Courses Menu</h3>
 
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Users can open the Courses drop-down menu by clicking the Courses link.
 
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When a user clicked the Courses link in Global Navigation, Canvas opened to the Course List page. The Courses menu could only be viewed by hovering over the Courses link. Canvas code has been updated to open the link to the drop-down menu, which allows users on touch screens and mobile devices to access Courses &amp; Groups.</em>
 
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&nbsp;
 
<h2>Modules</h2>
<h2>Modules</h2>
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<h3>Locked Discussions</h3>
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<h3>Graded Discussions</h3>
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Students cannot view discussions within a locked module.
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Graded discussions placed within a module contain the module footer.<br>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When a graded discussion was placed inside a module, users could not advance to the next module item because the footer was not appearing in the graded discussion. This behavior occurred because graded discussions did not include an assignment content tag. Canvas code has been updated to assign graded discussions with an assignment content tag and display the module footer.</em>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor adds a discussion to a module that is locked, either by prerequisites or availability date, the discussion could still be viewed by via module progression, direct URL, course activity, or the recent activity stream. Canvas code has been updated to match the module locked page used for assignments and quizzes to show the unlock date and time for the discussion.</em>
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<h3>Locked Files</h3>
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<h3>Module Time Zones</h3>
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Instructors can add and view locked files as part of a module.<br>
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When an instructor creates a module with an unlock date, all users view the module in their own time zone.
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor locked a file and then added the file as a module item, the file would disappear in the module list. This behavior occurred because modules only displayed items with an attachment context as active. When a file is hidden, however, the file is no longer considered active, which is why it disappeared from the module list. Canvas code has been updated to update the attachment context limitation as not deleted instead of active.</em>
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<h3>Locked/Unlocked File State</h3>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor created a module with an unlock date (past or future), and another instructor with a different user time zone viewed the module, the first instructor’s time zone applied to the module date for all viewers. This behavior also applied to students, where the module applied the time zone of the first student to view the module. Canvas code has been updated to cache module views separately per time zone.</em>
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Files module items reflect the state of the file.<br>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor added a file to a module and then changed the state of the file, the module was not adjusting the display with the changed file state. For instance, if an instructor added a locked file and then unlocked the file, the module still displayed as an unpublished file. Canvas code has been updated to sync the published state of file module items with the state of the file.</em>
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&nbsp;
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<h3>Module State Verification</h3>
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<h2>Notifications</h2>
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When publishing a module, Canvas verifies the state of all module objects within a module to verify the correct publishing state.<br>
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<h3>Profile Picture Thumbnails</h3>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor published a module, Canvas was not verifying the state of each module item as a standalone object, causing problems where pre–Draft State objects were out of sync when added as a module item. For instance, a pre–Draft State quiz added as a module item was shown as published in the module but remained unpublished as the quiz object on the Quizzes page. Additionally, publishing an entire module would not publish any unpublished content module items; the only way to publish the module item and the object together was to publish each module item on an individual basis within the module. Canvas code has been updated to verify the state of both the Canvas object and the state of the module item when publishing a module.</em>
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Conversations notifications display a sender’s profile picture as a thumbnail image.
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<h3>Languages and Module Unlock Date</h3>
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When viewing a module unlock date in a non-English language, the unlock date is translated correctly.<br>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> Some Conversations notifications were generating profile pictures at the full size of the image, rather than a thumbnail version. Canvas code has been updated to always resize images as 50 px by 50 px and pull the source file from the sender’s profile URL.</em>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When a user viewed a module unlock date in a language other than English, the date was not translating and displayed an error message stating that the text was not a date. Canvas code has been updated to localize the unlock date in modules.</em>
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<h3>Production Environment Notifications</h3>
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Users can receive notifications from the Canvas production environment.
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When users enabled notifications in their production environment, notifications were not being sent from the account. Canvas code has been updated to properly find notification methods within the production environment.</em>
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&nbsp;
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<h2>Quizzes</h2>
<h2>Quizzes</h2>
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<h3>Test Student Reset</h3>
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<h3>Course End Date in Auto-submitted Quizzes</h3>
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Resetting the Test Student allows an instructor to unpublish a quiz.
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When course dates are changed and set to override term dates, Canvas does not allow students to submit quizzes after a course has concluded.<br>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When course dates were changed and set to override term dates, quizzes did not always update immediately for students. Therefore, when students entered a quiz, Canvas registered a quiz submission where the submission date matched the course end date. Some of these course end dates could be before the submission start date, which caused the assignment to appear to be submitted in the future. Canvas code has been updated to verify course end dates and disallow submissions for concluded courses. This fix was deployed to production on 10/24/14.</em>
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<h3>Moderate Quiz Extensions</h3>
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If an instructor grants extra attempts to a student as part of a quiz extension, the Moderate Quiz page only displays the additional number of attempts.<br>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When a student was granted an extension as part of a quiz, the Moderate Quiz page displayed the Gets 0 extra minutes on each attempt message for that student, even if there was no change to the quiz time. Canvas code has been updated to display the correct options for associated quiz extensions.</em>
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<h3>Quiz Regrade Question Titles</h3>
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Quiz regrade does not expose custom question titles to students.<br>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor regraded a quiz, students were able to view any custom question titles that existed for the quiz. This behavior occurred because transformations that take place between the instructor and student views were not being applied when regenerating quizzes after the quiz regrade. Canvas code has been updated to retain the proper student view after a quiz regrade.</em>
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<h3>Quiz Unlock Settings</h3>
 +
When an instructor unlocks a quiz using the let students see this quiz option, the quiz updates with any set availability dates.<br>
 +
<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor unlocked a quiz using the let students see this quiz option, the current date appeared as the Available From date, even if the instructor removed or changed the date. In quizzes with time limits, the Until date was also affected and often restricted students from accessing the quiz completely. Canvas code has been updated to adjust availability dates for unlocked quizzes according to the proper quiz settings.</em>
 +
<h3>Respondus Quizzes</h3>
 +
When users attempt to publish a quiz from the Respondus quiz builder, Respondus publishes the quiz in Canvas.<br>
 +
<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When users attempt to publish a quiz from the Respondus quiz builder, Respondus generated an invalid file data error, even though the quiz was successfully published. This behavior occurred because of a naming change in the Canvas API, causing Respondus to not locate the quiz objects properly. Canvas code has been updated to correct the naming structure for the Respondus API endpoint.</em>
-
<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor reset the Test Student so that the course contained no visible submissions, the quiz was not able to be unpublished. Canvas code has been updated to remove all Test Student quiz submissions when the Test Student is reset.</em>
+
<h2>Rich Content Editor</h2>
-
<h3>Formula Questions</h3>
+
<h3>Media Elements</h3>
-
Formula questions that generate invalid results can be recomputed without refreshing the page.
+
The Rich Content Editor displays all whitelisted media elements.<br>
 +
<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When a user embedded a media element in the Rich Content Editor, saving changes within the editor removed the media element. This behavior occurred because the Rich Content Editor stripped all media elements that were not associated with any text content. Canvas code has been updated to support empty HTML elements when editing or saving content in the Rich Content Editor.</em>
-
<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor entered a formula question that could result in an answer of zero, the results would never generate a possible solution and display an error message. Additionally, once the error message appeared, no additional solutions could be generated until the page was refreshed or a new question was created. Canvas code has been updated to invalidate the generated data so that additional definitions and recomputations are not ignored.</em>
 
-
<h3>Correct Answers in Matching Questions</h3>
 
-
When an instructor edits a matching question, the correct answer is retained unless modified by the instructor.
 
-
 
-
<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor edited a quiz by clicking the Show Details link for a matching question, updating the question saved the modified text as the correct answer regardless of whether the answer was originally correct. Canvas code has been updated to retain the original correct answer unless modified by the instructor as part of the question edit.</em>
 
-
<h3>Shuffle Matching Questions</h3>
 
-
Matching questions shuffle the order of selectable drop-down quiz answers.
 
-
 
-
<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When instructors created a matching quiz question and saved the quiz, the order of the questions and answers remained identical. Canvas code has been updated to shuffle the order of questions and answers for matching questions.</em>
 
-
<h3>Numerical Answer Questions</h3>
 
-
Numerical answer questions accept zero as a possible exact answer.
 
-
 
-
<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor created a numerical answer question and set the exact answer as zero, the answer was not saved with the question. Canvas code has been updated to accept zero as an exact answer variable.</em>
 
-
<h3>Quiz Student Analysis Report</h3>
 
-
Quiz Student Analysis reports do not include HTML markup for quiz questions.
 
-
 
-
Explanation: When an instructor generated a student analysis report for a quiz, the CSV file included HTML markup from varied question types. Canvas code has been updated to disregard HTML markup in quiz answers as part of the student analysis report.
 
-
<h3>Quiz Timer Accuracy</h3>
 
-
The quiz timer always displays the correct time remaining for a quiz, even if students are not currently viewing the quiz page.
 
-
 
-
<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When students viewed the time for a quiz, the timer was not displaying the correct time if a student switched to another page in their browser, causing instructors to incorrectly believe that students had extra time to complete a quiz. This behavior occurred when JavaScript updates were delayed on the inactivated Canvas quiz window. Canvas code has been updated with active cross-browser verification to accurately display quiz time and auto-submit quizzes when necessary.</em>
 
-
 
-
&nbsp;
 
<h2>SpeedGrader</h2>
<h2>SpeedGrader</h2>
-
<h3>Group Assignment Submissions</h3>
+
<h3>Google Chrome Speech-to-text Recognition</h3>
-
For group assignments, SpeedGrader shows submissions both from student groups and individual students.
+
In Chrome, instructors can use the speech-to-text recognition feature to record comments in SpeedGrader.<br>
-
 
+
<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> With the release of Chrome 33 in February 2014, Chrome replaced their web speech API with a JavaScript API, disabling the SpeedGrader speech recognition feature. Canvas code has been updated with the JavaScript API to support speech functionality, which now actively tracks speech results in real time and adds additional user prompts.</em>
-
<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When students who were not in a group made a submission for a group assignment, the submission was received but could not be displayed by SpeedGrader. Canvas code has been updated to display both group and individual student submissions. This fix is promoted as an updated feature in the Canvas SpeedGrader.</em>
+
-
 
+
-
&nbsp;
+
-
<h2>Syllabus</h2>
+
-
<h3>Public User Views</h3>
+
-
Users who are not logged in to Canvas can view a syllabus if it is made public.
+
-
 
+
-
<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When a user tried to access a public syllabus, the syllabus page would not display the list of assignments. Canvas code has been updated to confirm non-logged-in users as viewers for a public syllabus.</em>
+
-
 
+
-
&nbsp;
+
<h2>Users</h2>
<h2>Users</h2>
-
<h3>Last Activity Report</h3>
+
<h3>Profile Pictures</h3>
-
The Last Activity report only displays page views from available pages.
+
When profiles are enabled, users can upload and retain profile pictures for their Canvas account.<br>
-
 
+
<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When users upload profile pictures to their Canvas account, some pictures were disappearing from user profiles. This behavior occurred because Canvas was not retaining files that may have been created in and linked from temporary file folders, stripping the file path for the picture. Canvas code has been updated to generate and retain profile pictures from temporary file folders.</em>
-
<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When instructors viewed the Last Activity column for a user, the report showed access from page views that were unauthorized, such as for unpublished courses, or for courses with start and end override dates in the future. Canvas code has been updated to not record recent activity for unauthorized pages.</em>
+
&nbsp;
&nbsp;
Line 273: Line 117:
<ul>
<ul>
<li dir="ltr">
<li dir="ltr">
-
<p dir="ltr">Beta release and notes: 10/27/14</p>
+
<p dir="ltr">Beta release and notes: 11/17/14</p>
</li>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<li dir="ltr">
-
<p dir="ltr">Production release notes: 11/03/14</p>
+
<p dir="ltr">Production release notes: 12/01/14</p>
</li>
</li>
<li dir="ltr">
<li dir="ltr">
-
<p dir="ltr">Production release and documentation: 11/08/14</p>
+
<p dir="ltr">Production release and documentation: 12/06/14</p>
</li>
</li>
</ul>
</ul>

Revision as of 13:03, 12 November 2014

Production Release Notes for Saturday, October 18, 2014

Contents

New Features

Course Settings

Course Format

Instructors can specify a format for their course. Located in Course Settings, this setting shows if a course is intended to be an online course or a supplement to a face-to-face course, but it is not visible elsewhere in Canvas.

This feature is intended to help institutions categorize courses for data analysis and research and can be filtered via the Courses API endpoint. Currently this setting only displays course metadata and will continue to be developed in a future release.

Quizzes

Moderate Quiz Updates

The Moderate Quiz page has an updated design for a cleaner look. Additionally, the page also adds functionality for improving outstanding quiz verifications for large courses. When a student views a timed quiz and time expires, Canvas auto-submits the quiz. However, if a student navigates away from the quiz page, the quiz submission remains outstanding. Previously instructors had to manually submit each outstanding quiz individually as indicated in the Time column as Time Up! Now, when instructors open the Moderate Quiz page, Canvas generates a warning message so instructors can manually check outstanding submissions for the entire quiz at one time. In the dialog window, Canvas displays a list of the outstanding submissions and automatically selects the checkbox next to each student’s name. To grade outstanding submissions for the selected student(s), click the Submit button. Canvas will grade the submission and update the score.

People

User Access Report Additions

User access is now logged in the following areas of Canvas: Course Home Page Outcomes Modules

At the course level, user access activity appears in a user’s Access Report. User access information also displays at the account level in user page views.

Updated Features

Gradebook Individual View

Switch Gradebook Link

After users have switched to Individual View, the link to return to the regular Gradebook has been renamed as Switch to Default Gradebook. This change creates a target destination in the link to remove ambiguity for accessibility users.

Download All Submissions Button

When viewing Assignment Information in Individual View, the Gradebook will display the Download all submissions button for quizzes that contain file upload questions. If a quiz does not include a file upload question, it will not include the download button. This change is to ease confusion with quizzes that contain no downloadable submissions.

Groups

Group Leader Settings

Instructors can modify the group leader settings in a Group Set at any time. When editing a Group Set through the Settings icon, the Leadership section appears at the bottom of the browser window. Previously group leader settings could only be specified while creating a new Group Set. Note: Edited settings won’t take effect until after the next membership change, such as when another person joins or is assigned to the group. For manually enabled changes, you may have to refresh the page to see the group update. This functionality will continue to be improved in a feature release.

Fixed Bugs

Accessibility

The following accessibility concerns have been addressed in Canvas:

Conversations

Grades

Quizzes

Assignments

Assignment URLs

When a student submits an assignment with a # at the end of the URL, the assignment submits successfully.

Explanation: When a student submitted an assignment that contains an # at the end of the URL, the assignment page did not refresh to show the submission was successful. Canvas code has been updated to address individual number signs as part of an assignment URL and refresh the page accordingly.

Grading Schemes

Assignments display any associated custom grading schemes.

Explanation: When an instructor created a grading scheme, applied the grading scheme to an assignment, and then edited the grading scheme, the assignment showed the default grading scheme, not the custom grading scheme. However, the custom grading scheme was being applied to the correct assignment. Canvas code has been updated to display an assignment’s associated grading scheme.

Course Imports

Date Adjustments

When copying a course, adjusting the date and time applies the selected parameters.

Explanation: When a user copies a course and selects the option to adjust the date and time, the course copy was adjusting the course start time several hours into the future. This behavior occurred because the time zone UTC offset in the date shift option was being treated as local time. Canvas code has been updated to honor the set time zone for the course as part of the course copy.

Course Settings

Course Time Zone

Assignment and Syllabus pages display the correct due date if local and course time zones vary across different days.
Explanation: When an instructor set a time zone for the course and then created an assignment, the assignment due date was displaying incorrectly if the date for the local time zone was the next day. However, the tooltip displayed the correct time. Canvas code has been updated to fix the date display for assignments with overridden date boundaries.

Modules

Graded Discussions

Graded discussions placed within a module contain the module footer.
Explanation: When a graded discussion was placed inside a module, users could not advance to the next module item because the footer was not appearing in the graded discussion. This behavior occurred because graded discussions did not include an assignment content tag. Canvas code has been updated to assign graded discussions with an assignment content tag and display the module footer.

Locked Files

Instructors can add and view locked files as part of a module.
Explanation: When an instructor locked a file and then added the file as a module item, the file would disappear in the module list. This behavior occurred because modules only displayed items with an attachment context as active. When a file is hidden, however, the file is no longer considered active, which is why it disappeared from the module list. Canvas code has been updated to update the attachment context limitation as not deleted instead of active.

Locked/Unlocked File State

Files module items reflect the state of the file.
Explanation: When an instructor added a file to a module and then changed the state of the file, the module was not adjusting the display with the changed file state. For instance, if an instructor added a locked file and then unlocked the file, the module still displayed as an unpublished file. Canvas code has been updated to sync the published state of file module items with the state of the file.

Module State Verification

When publishing a module, Canvas verifies the state of all module objects within a module to verify the correct publishing state.
Explanation: When an instructor published a module, Canvas was not verifying the state of each module item as a standalone object, causing problems where pre–Draft State objects were out of sync when added as a module item. For instance, a pre–Draft State quiz added as a module item was shown as published in the module but remained unpublished as the quiz object on the Quizzes page. Additionally, publishing an entire module would not publish any unpublished content module items; the only way to publish the module item and the object together was to publish each module item on an individual basis within the module. Canvas code has been updated to verify the state of both the Canvas object and the state of the module item when publishing a module.

Languages and Module Unlock Date

When viewing a module unlock date in a non-English language, the unlock date is translated correctly.
Explanation: When a user viewed a module unlock date in a language other than English, the date was not translating and displayed an error message stating that the text was not a date. Canvas code has been updated to localize the unlock date in modules.

Quizzes

Course End Date in Auto-submitted Quizzes

When course dates are changed and set to override term dates, Canvas does not allow students to submit quizzes after a course has concluded.
Explanation: When course dates were changed and set to override term dates, quizzes did not always update immediately for students. Therefore, when students entered a quiz, Canvas registered a quiz submission where the submission date matched the course end date. Some of these course end dates could be before the submission start date, which caused the assignment to appear to be submitted in the future. Canvas code has been updated to verify course end dates and disallow submissions for concluded courses. This fix was deployed to production on 10/24/14.

Moderate Quiz Extensions

If an instructor grants extra attempts to a student as part of a quiz extension, the Moderate Quiz page only displays the additional number of attempts.
Explanation: When a student was granted an extension as part of a quiz, the Moderate Quiz page displayed the Gets 0 extra minutes on each attempt message for that student, even if there was no change to the quiz time. Canvas code has been updated to display the correct options for associated quiz extensions.

Quiz Regrade Question Titles

Quiz regrade does not expose custom question titles to students.
Explanation: When an instructor regraded a quiz, students were able to view any custom question titles that existed for the quiz. This behavior occurred because transformations that take place between the instructor and student views were not being applied when regenerating quizzes after the quiz regrade. Canvas code has been updated to retain the proper student view after a quiz regrade.

Quiz Unlock Settings

When an instructor unlocks a quiz using the let students see this quiz option, the quiz updates with any set availability dates.
Explanation: When an instructor unlocked a quiz using the let students see this quiz option, the current date appeared as the Available From date, even if the instructor removed or changed the date. In quizzes with time limits, the Until date was also affected and often restricted students from accessing the quiz completely. Canvas code has been updated to adjust availability dates for unlocked quizzes according to the proper quiz settings.

Respondus Quizzes

When users attempt to publish a quiz from the Respondus quiz builder, Respondus publishes the quiz in Canvas.
Explanation: When users attempt to publish a quiz from the Respondus quiz builder, Respondus generated an invalid file data error, even though the quiz was successfully published. This behavior occurred because of a naming change in the Canvas API, causing Respondus to not locate the quiz objects properly. Canvas code has been updated to correct the naming structure for the Respondus API endpoint.

Rich Content Editor

Media Elements

The Rich Content Editor displays all whitelisted media elements.
Explanation: When a user embedded a media element in the Rich Content Editor, saving changes within the editor removed the media element. This behavior occurred because the Rich Content Editor stripped all media elements that were not associated with any text content. Canvas code has been updated to support empty HTML elements when editing or saving content in the Rich Content Editor.

SpeedGrader

Google Chrome Speech-to-text Recognition

In Chrome, instructors can use the speech-to-text recognition feature to record comments in SpeedGrader.
Explanation: With the release of Chrome 33 in February 2014, Chrome replaced their web speech API with a JavaScript API, disabling the SpeedGrader speech recognition feature. Canvas code has been updated with the JavaScript API to support speech functionality, which now actively tracks speech results in real time and adds additional user prompts.

Users

Profile Pictures

When profiles are enabled, users can upload and retain profile pictures for their Canvas account.
Explanation: When users upload profile pictures to their Canvas account, some pictures were disappearing from user profiles. This behavior occurred because Canvas was not retaining files that may have been created in and linked from temporary file folders, stripping the file path for the picture. Canvas code has been updated to generate and retain profile pictures from temporary file folders.

 

Next release schedule:


Note: You can follow the release schedule on the Canvas Updates calendar

Archived Canvas Updates
Retrieved from "https://lss.at.ufl.edu/help/Canvas_Updates"
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