Canvas Production Release: August 17, 2019

Canvas operates on a monthly 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 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.

August 17, 2019 Production Release Highlights

There are several updates to Canvas Conferences:
- Breakout Rooms: This feature allows instructors to place students into groups for team collaboration during a conference. Breakout rooms can be created at any time during the conference. A minimum of two breakout rooms are required, and the moderator can create up to 8 rooms. Breakout rooms can either be assigned by the moderator manually or randomly, or attendees can choose which breakout room to join. Once a participant has joined a breakout room, the participant cannot be assigned or join another breakout room. For more information, please see the full release notes.
- Closed Captions: This feature allows a stenographer join a conference as an observer and provide live captioning to attendees. For more information please see the full release notes
- VPAT Support: Canvas Conferences (BigBlueButton) is WCAG 2.0 AA Accessible, with some exceptions. For additional information, please see the BigBlueButton Accessibility Page.
Unsplash Course Card Image Search in Course Settings: This change replaces Flickr with Unsplash, which offers high-quality, safe images for use as course card images. Existing images imported from Flickr will not be affected.
File Attachment Default in Discussions: When instructors view the Discussions Settings for their courses, the option to Attach Files to Discussions is selected by default. If preferred, instructors can disable the option for students to add attachments in Course Settings or the Discussions Settings menu.