From e-Learning Documentation

Revision as of 19:06, 24 June 2015

Production Release Notes for Saturday, June 27, 2015

Important Upcoming Dates

• On July 18, 2015, Differentiated Assignments will be enabled for all Canvas users as a standard feature. This change includes both Differentiated Assignments by section and individual users, which is part of this production release.

 

• On August 8, 2015, all Etherpad collaborations that are hosted by Canvas will be permanently deleted. Due to Canvas no longer hosting Etherpad collaborations, users are strongly encouraged to migrate any necessary content before August 8. To export your content, please click the double-arrow icon (Import/Export) within the specified Etherpad collection. Export file types include: HTML, Plain text, Microsoft Word, PDF, ODF (Open Document Format), and DokuWiki.

 

In this production release, instructors can better manage student assignments on a case-by-case basis. The production notes also include updates to existing Canvas features, other Canvas updates, and fixed bugs.

New Features

Gradebook

Excuse an Assignment

Instructors can use the Gradebook to excuse a student from an assignment in their course.

To excuse an assignment for a student, enter the value of EX in the corresponding Gradebook cell. The Gradebook will reflect that the assignment is excused for the student. Excused assignments are not included in the calculation for a student’s total grade.

Students can also be excused from a Group Assignment; the other members of the group will still be able to view and submit the assignment.

Note: Currently, the Gradebook only accepts a standard Canvas-wide value of EX for assignment exemptions. In phase two of this feature, instructors will be able to choose from a list of statuses for the excused assignment or for a graded assignment, such as late, missing, absent, etc.

When students have been excused from an assignment, they can view the excused status on the assignment submission page, or when they view the grades page. Students who are excused from an assignment will not be able to submit the assignment, though they can still view the assignment details.

In Modules, assignments are still shown as a module item. If submitting the assignment is a module requirement, students can progress through the Module as if he or she had submitted the assignment.

Notes: (1) Discussions and Quizzes can be excused for students in the Gradebook, but students cannot see that they have been excused from the discussion or quiz. This behavior will be addressed in a future release. (2) Sending notifications to students about any excused assignments will be included in a future release.

Other Canvas Updates

Quizzes

Quiz Question Background Color

The quiz question creation page background design has been changed from blue to white. This change is purely for aesthetics and has no effect on accessibility.

Fixed Bugs

Accessibility

Accounts

• When an admin navigates through the account level Groups page, focus is retained on the search field. Additionally, the search field is focused before the Add Group button.
• When an admin opens the menu to add a new user, an error message is only displayed if the full name is not entered correctly.

Announcements

• Screen Readers can read the Add External Feed link.

Assignments

• Keyboard users can access all assignment submission types in order. Focus is retained on the first tab of the available submission type.

Discussions

• Individual discussions display a color contrast of 3:1 for the default Canvas interface and 4.5:1 for high contrast profiles.

User Settings

• With High Contrast Styles enabled, checkboxes throughout Canvas display a color contrast of 3:1 for the default Canvas interface and 4.5:1 for high contrast profiles.

Assignments

Assignment Submission Type Error Messages

Assignments generates error messages specific to the submission type.

Explanation: Canvas was generating inconsistent error messages for each assignment submission type. For example, when a user set the submission type to online but did not select a submission type, saving the page generated an error message asking to choose at least one submission type. However, when an LTI tool was selected but the URL was not entered, Canvas failed to generate an error but did not save the page. This behavior occurred because Canvas wasn’t correctly verifying external tools. Canvas code has been updated to show an error message for blank external tool URLs.

Course Imports

Course Settings and Grading Schemes

Importing Course Settings from a Canvas course export package also imports the grading scheme.

Explanation: When a user imported selective course content from a Canvas export package, the grading scheme was not included in the import. Importing the entire course was not affected. This behavior occurred because Canvas was not verifying grading standard copies if it was part of selected content. Canvas code has been updated to import the course grading scheme when part of selected course content.

Course Copy and Default Group Sets

Canvas finds or creates a group category set for imported group assignments.

Explanation: When a course with a group assignment was copied into Canvas, the copied course did not include the group assignment or the selected group set. This behavior occurred because Canvas did not verify if the group had an assigned group category. Canvas code has been updated to find the group category set for the group assignment, or to create a Project Group category if no set is created.

Angel Quiz Feedback

Feedback from Angel quizzes import correctly into Canvas.

Explanation: When a user imported a quiz from Angel, the quiz did not include the quiz feedback. This behavior occurred because the feedback identifier was incorrect for the quiz type. Canvas code has been updated to properly retain feedback from quizzes.

Discussions

Concluded Enrollments

Users with concluded enrollments cannot edit discussions if the course is still active.

Explanation: When a user’s enrollment was concluded in an active course, any discussions created by the user could still be edited by the user. This behavior occurred because of inaccurate permission settings. Canvas code has been updated to verify enrollment status in addition to course status.

Files

Scroll Bar in Firefox and Internet Explorer

Users in Firefox and Internet Explorer can scroll to view all file folder names in the left Files navigation panel.

Explanation: Users who accessed Canvas using the Firefox or Internet Explorer browsers were not able to view all file folder names in their course. In the left navigation panel, Files was missing the horizontal scroll bar. This behavior also affected file folders with long names and occurred because the browsers required a CSS flex property, which sets all items to be the same length regardless of content. Canvas code has been updated to define a flexible display in the left navigation panel.

Long Folder Names

Long file folder names are truncated on the Files page.

Explanation: When a user created a file folder with a long name, the folder name was not wrapping correctly in the left navigation panel. This behavior occurred because the page design was not correctly supporting long names. Canvas code has been updated to truncate long file folder names in the left navigation panel. To view the entire name, users can hover over the file folder.

Notifications

Unpublished Deleted Items

Canvas does not send notifications when deleting unpublished items in Canvas.

Explanation: When an instructor created an unpublished Calendar appointment group, assignment, or quiz, and then later deleted the item, all users received a notification that the item was deleted. This behavior occurred because Canvas had only been coded to verify that the state of the item had changed. Canvas code has been updated to only send notifications when the item state is active.

Pages

Page Edits in Internet Explorer

Users can edit more than four pages in Internet Explorer 10 and 11.

Explanation: When using the Internet Explorer browser, when a user created more than four pages in a course and tried to edit the last page, the Edit button disappeared from the page. This behavior occurred because of a misconfiguration in the popup dialog window. Canvas code has been updated to correct the menu display in Pages.

Tables and Page Sidebar

Table sizes do not affect the Page sidebar.

Explanation: When a user created a table in the Rich Content Editor that was wider than 800 pixels, the table started to overlap the Pages sidebar and affecting access to the page history view. This behavior occurred because the table overflow settings were not defined in the CSS. Canvas code has been updated to correct overlapping and overflowing tables in the page layout.

People

Student Interactions Report Messages

Instructors can message students from the Interactions Report page.

Explanation: When an instructor opened the People page, selected a student, and viewed the Interactions Report page, sending a message from the Report page generated a user error. This behavior occurred because the message was not associated with the course. Canvas code has been updated to include the course context when sending a message from the student interaction report page.

Quizzes

Quiz Extensions

Extra time granted to students persists in subsequent extensions.

Explanation: When an instructor moderates a quiz and adds additional time, the time was not being saved on any subsequent extensions, such as granting an extra attempt or unlocking the quiz. This behavior occurred because Canvas only verified the number of remaining attempts. Canvas code has been updated to retain any extra time values when moderating a quiz.

Quiz Submission Dates

Student quizzes are displayed according to the accurate submission time.

Explanation: When a student submitted a quiz, some of the submission dates were being shown as being submitted in the future. This behavior occurred because of an inconsistency with the end date, which also scheduled the submission for grading when the quiz was overdue. Canvas code has been updated to set submission times according to the fallback date, which verifies whether there is a quiz scheduled-submission date and the current time zone date and posts the submission date appropriately.

SpeedGrader

Group Assignments

Group Assignments show the associated group’s submission.

Explanation: In a group assignment, the drop-down menu in SpeedGrader was displaying a duplicate group that did not exist. When an instructor attempted to select the extra group, SpeedGrader redirected to another group’s submission. This behavior occurred because of a prior modification to the group membership and conflicts with deleted groups. Canvas code has been updated to not include deleted groups in assignment associations.

Complete/Incomplete Grades

Complete/incomplete grades display in SpeedGrader.

Explanation: When an instructor entered grades for an assignment as Complete/Incomplete, the points field only displayed a portion of the Complete/Incomplete indicator instead of expanding to a more suitable width. This behavior occurred because the points field was not coded to expand for any values other than points. Canvas code has been updated to expand the box for the Complete/Incomplete grading type.

Null Rubric Scores

Null rubric criterion are not highlighted on the submission details page.

Explanation: When an instructor created an assignment and used a rubric for grading, any field that were not scored as a criterion item were being highlighted on the student submission page, incorrectly suggesting that the criterion corresponded to the overall grade. This behavior occurred because SpeedGrader verified the criterion entries and not the point values. Canvas code has been updated to not display and highlight the criterion description to students if a criterion does not include a score. Scores of zero are not affected as they are intentionally scored as such and contribute to the overall grade.

Media

Media Files in Safari

Users can access media files in Safari.

Explanation: In the Safari browser, when a user tried to access a media file such as an audio or video comment, clicking the preview icon did not generate the media file. This behavior occurred because of a change in the Safari preload value for JavaScript media elements. Canvas code has been updated to redefine the preload value used for Safari.

Next release schedule:

• Beta release and notes: 07/06/15

• Production release notes: 07/13/15

• Production release and documentation: 07/18/15

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