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.
2/20/16 Production Release Highlights:
- Restrict Future Enrollments in Courses List: As part of selecting the “Restrict students from accessing courses before start date checkbox,” admins have an additional option that allows them to restrict students from viewing those courses in their Courses (or enrollments) list. This checkbox option is called “Restrict students from viewing future courses in enrollment list” and only appears if the start date restriction checkbox is selected. This feature removes the name of the future enrollment course from the “Courses” list so that students do not see they are enrolled in the course. This setting can also be locked for sub-accounts. This change has not yet been applied at the course level.
- Crocodoc Student Feedback Document Review: When an instructor adds Crocodoc annotations to a student’s submission, instructors can view if the student has viewed the feedback. This change does not affect any student behavior in Canvas.
- Analytics Graph Enhancements: Account, course, and user analytics graphs have been improved for accessibility and readability; changes do not affect current functionality. See the full release notes for details.
- External Tool URL in Assignments: When an instructor created an External Tool assignment submission, previously instructors could only add an External URL by clicking the URL field. This functionality has been improved by allowing a direct URL to be entered in the link field. Instructors can still locate an External Tool by clicking the Find button.
- Grade Sorting: When students view the Grades page, they can sort grades by due date, module, assignment title, or assignment group. By default, sorting is by due date. If modules or assignment groups aren’t used in a course, they won’t be included as sorting options.
- Sidebar Enhancements: Dashboard sidebar content includes more white space and enlarged font sizes for better readability. All sidebar areas include the name of the course, and assignments also include the total number of points. The “Coming Up” section includes the specific date of the assignment or event instead of the day of the week. Additionally, any assignments that have already been graded include the assignment score. For instructors, the “To Do” list assignment icons are replaced with an indicator representing the number of submissions that require grading. The indicator matches the primary color of the account’s theme as set in the theme editor.
For a complete production release update, please see:
Canvas Production Release Notes: February 20, 2016
2016-02-20 New Feature Screencast from Canvas LMS on Vimeo.
Please click here to view the transcript for this video.
Last Updated: 24 Jan 2019