Canvas Updates

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Production Release Notes for Saturday, November 8, 2014
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Production Release Notes for Saturday, December 6, 2014
<h1>New Features</h1>
<h1>New Features</h1>
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<h2>Course Settings</h2>
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<h2>Conversations</h2>
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<h3>Course Format</h3>
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<h3>
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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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Submission Comments Filter</h3>
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Users can filter messages in Conversations to view comments posted on assignment submissions. This feature restores user functionality of viewing submission comments in the Conversations Inbox.
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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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<strong>Note:</strong> <em>New submission comments do not affect the standard Canvas Inbox new message indicator. The communications team is exploring how to indicate new messages within the submission comments option. More details will be available in a future release.</em>
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Accessed in the Inbox type filter, Submission Comments allows users to view all comments sent and received from assignment submissions.
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Each message contains the name of the user and the name of the submission, the time the message was sent, and the number of messages in the conversation thread. Submission Comments only appear between a student and any user who has appropriate Gradebook and SpeedGrader editing and commenting permissions—most commonly an instructor, TA, or both.
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Like in the regular inbox, submission comments messages can be manually marked as read or unread. Messages can also be filtered by course.
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Users can reply to submission comments directly from the inbox by clicking the Reply icon in the message thread or next to the conversations filter options. Replies appear as part of the conversation thread but are also posted back to the assignment. Comments can also be viewed in the Gradebook and SpeedGrader.
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&nbsp;
<h2>Quizzes</h2>
<h2>Quizzes</h2>
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<h3>Moderate Quiz Updates</h3>
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<h3>Quiz Statistics</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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Quizzes has an updated design that enhances the details within quiz statistics. Additionally, this change improves the loading speed within quizzes.
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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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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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<strong>Notes:</strong>
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<h1>Updated Features</h1>
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<h2>Gradebook Individual View</h2>
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<h3>Switch Gradebook Link</h3>
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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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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>Groups</h2>
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<h3>Group Leader Settings</h3>
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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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<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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<h1>Fixed Bugs</h1>
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<h2>Accessibility</h2>
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The following accessibility concerns have been addressed in Canvas:
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<h3>Conversations</h3>
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<ul>
<ul>
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<li>Autocomplete options in the To field can be read by screen readers.</li>
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<li>Quiz Statistics is a Course-level feature option, which means that once it is enabled by the institutional admin, the feature can be enabled by instructors on a course-to-course basis. If you are an instructor and do not see Quiz Statistics available to you as a Feature Option within Course Settings, please contact your institutional admin.</li>
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<li>Some users have reported inaccuracies in matching-question graphs and quizzes that are linked to question banks. Our engineering team is reviewing this behavior and will continue to make enhancements in future releases.  In the interim, this feature will remain a course-level feature option.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
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<h3>Grades</h3>
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Instructors can view an entire quiz summary that shows all score percentages. The quiz summary also shows the quiz average score, high score, low score, standard deviation (how far the values are spread across the entire score range), and average time of quiz completion.
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<ul>
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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>Quizzes</h3>
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<ul>
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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>Users can use voiceover keyboard commands to edit quiz question comments.</li>
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</ul>
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<h2>Assignments</h2>
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<h3>Assignment URLs</h3>
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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 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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The quiz summary chart is interactive; users can focus on a specific segment of the chart by selecting a range with their cursor, such as viewing the number of students who scored between 0 and 50 percent.
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<h3>Analysis Reports</h3>
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When instructors generate an analysis report, Canvas shows the last time the report was generated. If there is an error with the report, instructors can retry the option or cancel the analysis completely.
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<h3>Question Breakdown</h3>
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The Quiz Statistics page shows a breakdown of each question in the quiz. Toggle the expand button to expand or collapse all details for all quiz questions.
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<h3>Grading Schemes</h3>
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Each question displays answer bars relating to the percentage of each answer choice. You can also hover over the answer bars to see the percentage and number of students in the tooltip. Expanding the question shows the exact percentage of each answer below the answer bars with the exact answer choices from your students.
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Assignments display any associated custom grading schemes.<br>
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<h3>Discrimination Index</h3>
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Quiz statistics for True/False and Multiple Choice quiz questions include an item discrimination index, which attempts to look at a spread of scores and reflect differences in student achievement. This metric provides a measure of how well a single question can tell the difference (or discriminate) between students who do well on an exam and those who do not. It divides students into three groups based on their score on the whole quiz and displays those groups by who answered the question correctly.
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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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Lower discrimination scores (in red) are scored +0.24 or lower; good scores (green) are +0.25 or higher. An ideal discrimination index shows students who scored higher on the quiz getting the quiz question right, students who scored lower on the quiz getting the quiz question wrong, and students in the middle range on either side. A discrimination index of zero shows all students getting the quiz question right or wrong.
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<h3>Distribution Scaling</h3>
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Quiz statistics for Fill-in-Multiple Blanks, Multiple Dropdowns (often used for Likert Scale questions), and Matching questions are animated to distinguish between answer choices. When each answer is selected, the bars in the answer distribution chart are scaled according to the answer response.
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<h2>Course Imports</h2>
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&nbsp;
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<h3>Date Adjustments</h3>
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<h1>Updated Features</h1>
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When copying a course, adjusting the date and time applies the selected parameters.<br>
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<h2>Quizzes</h2>
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<h3>Correct Answers for Multiple Attempts</h3>
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Instructors who create a quiz with more than one allowed attempt can restrict students from seeing the correct answers until after their last attempt. If an instructor allows students to view the correct answers, this additional option only appears if the Allow Multiple Attempts and Allowed Attempts checkboxes are both selected as quiz options.
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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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<strong>Note:</strong> <em>This additional option will follow the current Quiz functionality around multiple attempts.  If a student never makes it to the last attempt, the correct answer setting will not apply. To allow the student to view the correct answers, you can manually change the quiz options at a later time.</em>
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<h2>Course Settings</h2>
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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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&nbsp;
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<h2>SpeedGrader</h2>
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<h3>Crocodoc Previews</h3>
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SpeedGrader provides instructors with updates about Crocodoc files. If a submission includes a file that can be rendered in Crocodoc, but the submission preview is not complete, SpeedGrader generates a message stating the document is still processing.
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<h2>Modules</h2>
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<strong>Note:</strong><em> Crocodoc is not available in beta, so SpeedGrader will always show that Crocodoc document previews are in process.</em>
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<h3>Graded Discussions</h3>
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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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&nbsp;
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<h2>User Course List</h2>
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<h3>Unfavorite Past Courses</h3>
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On the My Courses page, users can favorite or unfavorite current courses. However, depending on course configuration, some favorited courses may still display the favorite icon even after the course has ended. If a past enrollment course shows the favorite icon, users can unfavorite the course by toggling the star icon.
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<h3>Locked Files</h3>
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Instructors can add and view locked files as part of a module.<br>
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<h1>Other Updates</h1>
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<h2>Course Settings</h2>
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<h3>Course Details Accessibility</h3>
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To address accessibility concerns, Course Details page has been changed to always appear as a form and removes the Edit button. Changes to any allowed fields must still be made by clicking the Update Course Details button at the bottom of the page. This change does not affect any user permissions.
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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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<h1>Fixed Bugs</h1>
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<h2>Accessibility</h2>
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<h3>Account Settings</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>When an admin views user enrollments, screen readers read the name of the course before the user unenroll link.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Announcements</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>The search field contains a description for keyboard users.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Course Settings</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Pressing enter on a Course Settings tab selects the tab.</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 remove attachment button is labeled for screen readers and keyboard users.</li>
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<li>The search field contains a description for 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>The modules page does not give instructions for moving modules unless the user is authorized to move modules.</li>
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<li>When a user adds content to a module, all form fields are labeled for screen readers.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Notifications</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Notification Preference settings are labeled as buttons for screen readers.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Pages</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>Screen readers read the page title header once as an H1 tag.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>SpeedGrader</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>SpeedGrader announces the name and grade status of each viewed student submission. However, in anonymous grading, student names remain hidden.</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Syllabus</h3>
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<ul>
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<li>The Creative Commons License image contains updated alt text to differentiate from the image filename.</li>
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</ul>
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&nbsp;
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<h2>Account Settings</h2>
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<h3>Term Dates</h3>
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Instructors and Teaching Assistants (TAs) can view courses according to term date restrictions.
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<h3>Locked/Unlocked File State</h3>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an admin restricted term access dates for users with instructor and TA roles, those users could still access courses for the entire duration of the term, as long as it is not overridden by course or section restriction dates. Course code has been updated to verify user roles and dates when granting term access.</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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<h2>Calendar</h2>
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<h3>Browser Back Button</h3>
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On the Calendar page, users can use the back button in their browser window.
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<h3>Module State Verification</h3>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> After viewing the Calendar, users were not able to return to a prior page using the back button in their browser. Canvas code has been updated to support the use of the back button to return to prior pages.</em>
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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>Linked Files</h3>
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Linked files in Calendar events cannot be downloaded unless the user is logged in to Canvas.
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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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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor created a calendar event with a linked file and used the Let Students Download or View Files in this Folder if I Link to Them permission, the calendar event included the verifier in the URL. This behavior meant that anyone with the URL could download the file without being required to log in to Canvas. Canvas code has been updated to remove the verifier on the URL in the Calendar and prompt the user to log in to view the file. This fix was released to production on 11/22/14.</em>
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<h3>Public Syllabus Dates</h3>
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Courses with multiple sections and a public syllabus display assignment dates on the syllabus.
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<h3>Languages and Module Unlock Date</h3>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor created a calendar event for a course with multiple sections and dates, viewing the public syllabus displayed the dates as a missing translation string. Canvas code has been updated to support multiple sections and display syllabus dates for non-logged-in users.</em>
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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> 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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&nbsp;
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<h2>Course Imports</h2>
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<h3>Question Groups and Question Banks</h3>
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Question groups remain linked to a question bank after course copy/import.
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<h2>Quizzes</h2>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor copied or imported a course, some question groups linked to a question bank lost their association with the question bank. This behavior occurred because assignments did not retain question bank IDs upon course copy. Canvas code has been updated to retain IDs between question banks and their associated assignments.</em>
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<h3>Course End Date in Auto-submitted Quizzes</h3>
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<h3>Examview Exports</h3>
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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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Canvas import Examview QTI files as a Blackboard import type as long as the ZIP upload contains QTI files.
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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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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When a user tried to import an Examview ZIP file as a Blackboard import type, Canvas generated an error message if the ZIP upload contained no files. Canvas code has been updated to disregard empty Examview ZIP files.</em>
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<h3>Moderate Quiz Extensions</h3>
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<h2>Discussions</h2>
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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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<h3>Discussion Attachments</h3>
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Attachments added to discussions are not attached when users open the discussion. Additionally, users who can edit ungraded discussions can view the attachment option.
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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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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor granted access for users to attach files to discussions, attached files were no longer attached to a discussion after the discussion topic was saved. This behavior occurred because unpublished topics were not granting appropriate attachment permissions to appropriate users. Users were also not able to view the attachment option in unpublished ungraded discussions. Canvas code has been updated to verify permissions for adding attachments when saving a discussion topic.</em>
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<h3>Quiz Regrade Question Titles</h3>
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<h2>Gradebook</h2>
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Quiz regrade does not expose custom question titles to students.<br>
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<h3>GPA Scale CSV File Upload</h3>
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Assignments set as a GPA Scale accept scores from CSV uploads.
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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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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> In a downloaded CSV file, all scores for a GPA Scale assignment are downloaded as points. When an instructor modified scores for a GPA Scale assignment and re-uploaded the CSV file, the upload cleared all scores set as points. Canvas code has been updated to apply point entries in GPA Scale assignments to the appropriate value for the GPA scale. For instance, if an assignment is given 4.5/5 points, and the GPA scale states that 80–100% is a 4.0, uploading the CSV file converts the 4.5 points to a 90%, which appears in the Gradebook as a 4.0.</em>
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<h3>Quiz Unlock Settings</h3>
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&nbsp;
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When an instructor unlocks a quiz using the let students see this quiz option, the quiz updates with any set availability dates.<br>
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<h2>Groups</h2>
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<h3>New Student Groups Page Self Sign-Up Groups</h3>
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When students are a member of a self sign-up group, the New Student Groups page only allows them to leave or view the group.
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<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>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When students joined a self sign-up group, viewing the New Student Groups page showed students that they could join the group, even though they were already members of that group. This behavior occurred because of a miscommunication between the user ID and group ID, which were coded in different data types. Since Canvas could not properly associate these IDs, the group links could not be updated for the appropriate users. Canvas code has been updated to code user and groups IDs as the same data type.</em>
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<h3>New Student Groups Page Add Groups Button</h3>
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Students can only view the Add Groups button when they have permission to organize their own groups.
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<h3>Respondus Quizzes</h3>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When the New Student Groups feature option was enabled by an admin, and an instructor created a group and disabled the Let Students Organize Their Own Groups option, students were still able to see the Add Group button, even though the button was not active. Canvas code has been updated to verify permissions for adding a new student group.</em>
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When users attempt to publish a quiz from the Respondus quiz builder, Respondus publishes the quiz in Canvas.<br>
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<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>
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&nbsp;
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<h2>Learning Mastery Gradebook</h2>
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<h3>Learning Mastery Gradebook Pagination</h3>
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Students can view all outcomes in the Learning Mastery Gradebook.
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<h2>Rich Content Editor</h2>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor created a course with more outcomes than could initially be displayed in the browser, students were not able to view outcomes or were viewing duplicate outcomes. This behavior occurred because the outcome link API endpoint was not specifying an order when paginating outcomes. Canvas code has been updated to properly paginate outcomes in the Learning Mastery Gradebook.</em>
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<h3>Media Elements</h3>
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The Rich Content Editor displays all whitelisted media elements.<br>
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<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>
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&nbsp;
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<h2>Quizzes</h2>
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<h3>Quiz Edit and Course Navigation</h3>
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When editing a quiz, instructors can access Course Navigation links.
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an instructor edited a quiz, some of the Course Navigation links could not be accessed. This behavior occurred because the hidden quiz regrade feature (which only appears if an instructor wants to regrade a quiz question) was blocking some of the Course Navigation links. Canvas code has been updated to allow access to all Course Navigation links when editing a quiz.  </em>
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<h3>Search Field</h3>
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Users can search for courses in the Search field on the Quiz Index Page.
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When a user clicked in the Search field to search for a quiz, the Quiz Index Page was not generating any results. This behavior occurred because of an error in the search script that rendered quiz titles. Canvas code has been updated to render the quiz result list after a search entry has been entered. Additionally, this fix also improves search performance and returns search results more quickly.</em>
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&nbsp;
<h2>SpeedGrader</h2>
<h2>SpeedGrader</h2>
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<h3>Google Chrome Speech-to-text Recognition</h3>
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<h3>Rubric Edit Icons</h3>
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In Chrome, instructors can use the speech-to-text recognition feature to record comments in SpeedGrader.<br>
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When using the tab key, rubric icons do not appear in SpeedGrader.
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<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>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When viewing a rubric within SpeedGrader, instructors who used the tab key reported that edit icons were appearing within the rubric. Canvas code has been updated to hide edit icons within SpeedGrader.</em>
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<h3>Admin Gradebook Filter</h3>
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When filtering the Gradebook by section, admins can view the number of students in each section.
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<h2>Users</h2>
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When an admin filtered the Gradebook by section, the Gradebook was showing the total number of students in the course, not the number of students in the section. This behavior only affected users with an admin role. Canvas code has been updated to display correct student totals for each section.</em>
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<h3>Profile Pictures</h3>
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When profiles are enabled, users can upload and retain profile pictures for their Canvas account.<br>
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<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>
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&nbsp;
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<h2>User Course List</h2>
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<h3>Course Names</h3>
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Long course names do not affect the page display.
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<em><strong>Explanation:</strong> When a course contained a long course name, the enrollment type was being pushed out of the browser view. This behavior occurred because the course name was changing the layout of the page instead of truncating the course name. Canvas code has been updated to truncate long course names and not affect the page display.</em>
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<p dir="ltr">Beta release and notes: 11/17/14</p>
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<p dir="ltr">Beta release and notes: 12/10/14</p>
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<p dir="ltr">Production release notes: 12/01/14</p>
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<p dir="ltr">Production release notes: 12/15/14</p>
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<p dir="ltr">Production release and documentation: 12/06/14</p>
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<p dir="ltr">Production release and documentation: 12/20/14</p>
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'''Note: You can follow the release schedule on the [http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=instructure.com_u3bufsip887n3qb6fht3rgnbts%40group.calendar.google.com&amp;ctz=America/Denver Canvas Updates calendar]'''
'''Note: You can follow the release schedule on the [http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=instructure.com_u3bufsip887n3qb6fht3rgnbts%40group.calendar.google.com&amp;ctz=America/Denver Canvas Updates calendar]'''
<center>[[Archived Canvas Updates]]</center>
<center>[[Archived Canvas Updates]]</center>

Revision as of 14:26, 2 December 2014

Production Release Notes for Saturday, December 6, 2014

Contents

New Features

Conversations

Submission Comments Filter

Users can filter messages in Conversations to view comments posted on assignment submissions. This feature restores user functionality of viewing submission comments in the Conversations Inbox.

Note: New submission comments do not affect the standard Canvas Inbox new message indicator. The communications team is exploring how to indicate new messages within the submission comments option. More details will be available in a future release.

Accessed in the Inbox type filter, Submission Comments allows users to view all comments sent and received from assignment submissions.

Each message contains the name of the user and the name of the submission, the time the message was sent, and the number of messages in the conversation thread. Submission Comments only appear between a student and any user who has appropriate Gradebook and SpeedGrader editing and commenting permissions—most commonly an instructor, TA, or both.

Like in the regular inbox, submission comments messages can be manually marked as read or unread. Messages can also be filtered by course.

Users can reply to submission comments directly from the inbox by clicking the Reply icon in the message thread or next to the conversations filter options. Replies appear as part of the conversation thread but are also posted back to the assignment. Comments can also be viewed in the Gradebook and SpeedGrader.

 

Quizzes

Quiz Statistics

Quizzes has an updated design that enhances the details within quiz statistics. Additionally, this change improves the loading speed within quizzes.

Notes:

Instructors can view an entire quiz summary that shows all score percentages. The quiz summary also shows the quiz average score, high score, low score, standard deviation (how far the values are spread across the entire score range), and average time of quiz completion.

The quiz summary chart is interactive; users can focus on a specific segment of the chart by selecting a range with their cursor, such as viewing the number of students who scored between 0 and 50 percent.

Analysis Reports

When instructors generate an analysis report, Canvas shows the last time the report was generated. If there is an error with the report, instructors can retry the option or cancel the analysis completely.

Question Breakdown

The Quiz Statistics page shows a breakdown of each question in the quiz. Toggle the expand button to expand or collapse all details for all quiz questions.

Each question displays answer bars relating to the percentage of each answer choice. You can also hover over the answer bars to see the percentage and number of students in the tooltip. Expanding the question shows the exact percentage of each answer below the answer bars with the exact answer choices from your students.

Discrimination Index

Quiz statistics for True/False and Multiple Choice quiz questions include an item discrimination index, which attempts to look at a spread of scores and reflect differences in student achievement. This metric provides a measure of how well a single question can tell the difference (or discriminate) between students who do well on an exam and those who do not. It divides students into three groups based on their score on the whole quiz and displays those groups by who answered the question correctly.

Lower discrimination scores (in red) are scored +0.24 or lower; good scores (green) are +0.25 or higher. An ideal discrimination index shows students who scored higher on the quiz getting the quiz question right, students who scored lower on the quiz getting the quiz question wrong, and students in the middle range on either side. A discrimination index of zero shows all students getting the quiz question right or wrong.

Distribution Scaling

Quiz statistics for Fill-in-Multiple Blanks, Multiple Dropdowns (often used for Likert Scale questions), and Matching questions are animated to distinguish between answer choices. When each answer is selected, the bars in the answer distribution chart are scaled according to the answer response.

 

Updated Features

Quizzes

Correct Answers for Multiple Attempts

Instructors who create a quiz with more than one allowed attempt can restrict students from seeing the correct answers until after their last attempt. If an instructor allows students to view the correct answers, this additional option only appears if the Allow Multiple Attempts and Allowed Attempts checkboxes are both selected as quiz options.

Note: This additional option will follow the current Quiz functionality around multiple attempts. If a student never makes it to the last attempt, the correct answer setting will not apply. To allow the student to view the correct answers, you can manually change the quiz options at a later time.

 

SpeedGrader

Crocodoc Previews

SpeedGrader provides instructors with updates about Crocodoc files. If a submission includes a file that can be rendered in Crocodoc, but the submission preview is not complete, SpeedGrader generates a message stating the document is still processing.

Note: Crocodoc is not available in beta, so SpeedGrader will always show that Crocodoc document previews are in process.

 

User Course List

Unfavorite Past Courses

On the My Courses page, users can favorite or unfavorite current courses. However, depending on course configuration, some favorited courses may still display the favorite icon even after the course has ended. If a past enrollment course shows the favorite icon, users can unfavorite the course by toggling the star icon.

 

Other Updates

Course Settings

Course Details Accessibility

To address accessibility concerns, Course Details page has been changed to always appear as a form and removes the Edit button. Changes to any allowed fields must still be made by clicking the Update Course Details button at the bottom of the page. This change does not affect any user permissions.

 

Fixed Bugs

Accessibility

Account Settings

Announcements

Course Settings

Discussions

Modules

Notifications

Pages

SpeedGrader

Syllabus

 

Account Settings

Term Dates

Instructors and Teaching Assistants (TAs) can view courses according to term date restrictions.

Explanation: When an admin restricted term access dates for users with instructor and TA roles, those users could still access courses for the entire duration of the term, as long as it is not overridden by course or section restriction dates. Course code has been updated to verify user roles and dates when granting term access.

 

Calendar

Browser Back Button

On the Calendar page, users can use the back button in their browser window.

Explanation: After viewing the Calendar, users were not able to return to a prior page using the back button in their browser. Canvas code has been updated to support the use of the back button to return to prior pages.

Linked Files

Linked files in Calendar events cannot be downloaded unless the user is logged in to Canvas.

Explanation: When an instructor created a calendar event with a linked file and used the Let Students Download or View Files in this Folder if I Link to Them permission, the calendar event included the verifier in the URL. This behavior meant that anyone with the URL could download the file without being required to log in to Canvas. Canvas code has been updated to remove the verifier on the URL in the Calendar and prompt the user to log in to view the file. This fix was released to production on 11/22/14.

Public Syllabus Dates

Courses with multiple sections and a public syllabus display assignment dates on the syllabus.

Explanation: When an instructor created a calendar event for a course with multiple sections and dates, viewing the public syllabus displayed the dates as a missing translation string. Canvas code has been updated to support multiple sections and display syllabus dates for non-logged-in users.

 

Course Imports

Question Groups and Question Banks

Question groups remain linked to a question bank after course copy/import.

Explanation: When an instructor copied or imported a course, some question groups linked to a question bank lost their association with the question bank. This behavior occurred because assignments did not retain question bank IDs upon course copy. Canvas code has been updated to retain IDs between question banks and their associated assignments.

Examview Exports

Canvas import Examview QTI files as a Blackboard import type as long as the ZIP upload contains QTI files.

Explanation: When a user tried to import an Examview ZIP file as a Blackboard import type, Canvas generated an error message if the ZIP upload contained no files. Canvas code has been updated to disregard empty Examview ZIP files.

Discussions

Discussion Attachments

Attachments added to discussions are not attached when users open the discussion. Additionally, users who can edit ungraded discussions can view the attachment option.

Explanation: When an instructor granted access for users to attach files to discussions, attached files were no longer attached to a discussion after the discussion topic was saved. This behavior occurred because unpublished topics were not granting appropriate attachment permissions to appropriate users. Users were also not able to view the attachment option in unpublished ungraded discussions. Canvas code has been updated to verify permissions for adding attachments when saving a discussion topic.

Gradebook

GPA Scale CSV File Upload

Assignments set as a GPA Scale accept scores from CSV uploads.

Explanation: In a downloaded CSV file, all scores for a GPA Scale assignment are downloaded as points. When an instructor modified scores for a GPA Scale assignment and re-uploaded the CSV file, the upload cleared all scores set as points. Canvas code has been updated to apply point entries in GPA Scale assignments to the appropriate value for the GPA scale. For instance, if an assignment is given 4.5/5 points, and the GPA scale states that 80–100% is a 4.0, uploading the CSV file converts the 4.5 points to a 90%, which appears in the Gradebook as a 4.0.

 

Groups

New Student Groups Page Self Sign-Up Groups

When students are a member of a self sign-up group, the New Student Groups page only allows them to leave or view the group.

Explanation: When students joined a self sign-up group, viewing the New Student Groups page showed students that they could join the group, even though they were already members of that group. This behavior occurred because of a miscommunication between the user ID and group ID, which were coded in different data types. Since Canvas could not properly associate these IDs, the group links could not be updated for the appropriate users. Canvas code has been updated to code user and groups IDs as the same data type.

New Student Groups Page Add Groups Button

Students can only view the Add Groups button when they have permission to organize their own groups.

Explanation: When the New Student Groups feature option was enabled by an admin, and an instructor created a group and disabled the Let Students Organize Their Own Groups option, students were still able to see the Add Group button, even though the button was not active. Canvas code has been updated to verify permissions for adding a new student group.

 

Learning Mastery Gradebook

Learning Mastery Gradebook Pagination

Students can view all outcomes in the Learning Mastery Gradebook.

Explanation: When an instructor created a course with more outcomes than could initially be displayed in the browser, students were not able to view outcomes or were viewing duplicate outcomes. This behavior occurred because the outcome link API endpoint was not specifying an order when paginating outcomes. Canvas code has been updated to properly paginate outcomes in the Learning Mastery Gradebook.

 

Quizzes

Quiz Edit and Course Navigation

When editing a quiz, instructors can access Course Navigation links.

Explanation: When an instructor edited a quiz, some of the Course Navigation links could not be accessed. This behavior occurred because the hidden quiz regrade feature (which only appears if an instructor wants to regrade a quiz question) was blocking some of the Course Navigation links. Canvas code has been updated to allow access to all Course Navigation links when editing a quiz.

Search Field

Users can search for courses in the Search field on the Quiz Index Page.

Explanation: When a user clicked in the Search field to search for a quiz, the Quiz Index Page was not generating any results. This behavior occurred because of an error in the search script that rendered quiz titles. Canvas code has been updated to render the quiz result list after a search entry has been entered. Additionally, this fix also improves search performance and returns search results more quickly.

 

SpeedGrader

Rubric Edit Icons

When using the tab key, rubric icons do not appear in SpeedGrader.

Explanation: When viewing a rubric within SpeedGrader, instructors who used the tab key reported that edit icons were appearing within the rubric. Canvas code has been updated to hide edit icons within SpeedGrader.

Admin Gradebook Filter

When filtering the Gradebook by section, admins can view the number of students in each section.

Explanation: When an admin filtered the Gradebook by section, the Gradebook was showing the total number of students in the course, not the number of students in the section. This behavior only affected users with an admin role. Canvas code has been updated to display correct student totals for each section.

 

User Course List

Course Names

Long course names do not affect the page display.

Explanation: When a course contained a long course name, the enrollment type was being pushed out of the browser view. This behavior occurred because the course name was changing the layout of the page instead of truncating the course name. Canvas code has been updated to truncate long course names and not affect the page display.

 

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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