Canvas operates on a three-week release cycle through which features are added or updated. Courseware Support posts highlights from Canvas’s production release notes, a link to these notes, and other relevant content to the Canvas at Penn blog a few days before the production release, which usually occurs on Saturdays. Please contact Courseware Support at canvas@pobox.upenn.edu if you have any questions about an upcoming production release.
10/10/15 Production Release Highlights:
- And/Or Requirements for Modules: When creating requirements in a module, instructors can give students an option between two or more tasks. This change allows students to choose which task they prefer to complete to demonstrate their learning and move forward in the course content. If instructors would like students to select one assignment from a list of added module item requirements, the instructor may choose to manually configure assignments appropriately, either by using the differentiated assignments feature or excusing assignments as necessary in the Gradebook. To enable the And/Or option, instructors can edit a module, add a requirement, and select the Students must complete one of these requirements option.
Important: If instructors choose to use this feature for graded items, please note that all assignments with their current grades are reflected in the Gradebook. For instance, if a module requires a student to submit one of three assignments, the two assignments that aren’t submitted still factor into the Gradebook as unsubmitted.
- Anonymized Notifications for Anonymous Peer Review Assignments: When instructors enable anonymous peer reviews, notifications sent to students about the peer review assignment are also anonymous. Notifications do not include the name of the student whose work is to be reviewed.
- Muted Assignments Total Column Icon: As introduced in the previous production release (2015-09-19), when an instructor mutes an assignment in the Gradebook, the Total column will display a warning indicating that the total score is different than shown to students. The icon has been changed to the mute icon to help differentiate between icons in the total column. This icon also takes precedence over the warning icon for weighted assignment group errors.
- Scheduler Comments: When students sign up for an appointment slot in the Scheduler, they can add a comment as part of the reservation. However, this field is optional. In the student’s calendar, the student can view the submitted comments by viewing the reserved appointment group event.
For a complete production release update, please see:
Canvas Production Release Notes: October 10, 2015
Please click here to view the transcript for this video.
Last Updated: 7 Oct 2015