Categories for LMS

Canvas Updates

Canvas User Updates – March 30, 2013

By Helice Agria |

Important Notices – March 30th Release

‘Sticky’ Gradebook 2 Column Customizations: Gradebook 2 columns will now remain (sticky) when they are rearranged in a custom order, i.e. by assignment due date or assignment group. Rearranging assignments in the Gradebook view will not affect the order on the assignments page, however, rearranging assignments on the assignments page will continue to change the Gradebook view order. Note: Changes are browser specific, so customizations to the Canvas Gradebook made in one browser will not be reflected when opening it in another browser.

GradeBook Customization Screenshot

Quiz Settings Alignment:  Quiz settings will be relocated to the Gear Icon. Tools related to quiz functions, but not specifically settings, such as Quiz Statistics, Moderation and SpeedGrader will be displayed in the right sidebar.
Quiz Settings/Options Screenshot
Future Enrollments: Students will now be able to see upcoming enrollment in Canvas. Students will not have access to view the course material until it is published, but they will be able to confirm their enrollment in an unpublished course.
Future Enrollment Screenshot

What is a Bug? And How Are Bugs Fixed?Canvas Bugs

A bug is a glitch or error in intended software functioning. Whereas a feature is a “like to have” a bug is a “need to fix”.

Known Bugs in the Canvas Inbox: Currently there are a few bugs in the Canvas Inbox that Instructure is working on. These include issues with filtering messages AND sending messages to students no longer enrolled when messaging an entire class.
March 30th Bug Fixes:
  • Instructors are now prompted to re-publish a quiz after adding or changing a question group.
  • Image ALT attributes can now be edited correctly in the Rich Content Editor.
  • Grades will now display scores correctly on student pages, and grades will always round-up to two decimal places.

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Canvas Updates

Canvas Updates – Week of March 9th

By Helice Agria |

Important Notices – March 9th Release

  • Varied Due Dates for Combined Sections: Instructors can now add different due dates for sections of courses combined into one course.  If you teach a MWF and a T/Th class you can set different due dates for each.
VariedDueDates
  • Turn off Announcement Comments globally:  When posting an Announcement if you prefer to not allow students to respond publicly to the announcement, look for this option in the course Settings.
  • Turn off Editing/Deleting of Discussion Posts:  If you prefer students to not edit or delete their postings you can now turn this option off within the course Settings or from the main Discussions area.
NewSettings
  • Updated Interface: The look and feel of the Assignments Quizzes, and Discussions will change slightly in Canvas on March 9th. The result is an even more intuitive interface.  Additionally, the date settings for Discussions is now consistent with Quizzes and Assignments.  You can now pre-program a specific start and end date on Discussions.

Screen_Shot_2013_03_05_at_10.45.45_AM

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Canvas Updates

Canvas Users Update – Week of February 18, 2013

By Helice Agria |

Important Notices

  • Changes to Withdrawn/Dropped students in Canvas:  Soon you may notice a change in how we handle Withdrawn and Dropped students in Canvas.  No longer will they appear in the ‘completed’ state in Analytics and Grades within your courses.  Withdrawn and Dropped students will be completely removed from the course.  If you need to see their data or if the student is re-added to the course (through SIS) all of their work and grades will reappear.  This is a change the district has made from the current processes.

Current Updates – January/February Release

  • Closed Captioning: Instructors can now add closed captioning to any video created or uploaded in Canvas and students can add captioning to their own videos. Note: Videos embedded from YouTube or other sources will have to include captioning from the source file.

Canvas Kaltura Screenshot

  • Improvements for iOS Devices: The majority of videos in Canvas will now play on iOS Devices, like iPads making it easier for all students to access your content across devices.
  • Convenient Discussion Settings: Discussion board settings are now linked from the discussion board page  making it easier for instructors to set specific permissions like file attachments or allowing students to create their own discussion topics. These settings were previously only available in the Course Settings area.

Discussion Settings Screen Shot Canvas

  • All the Small Things! A new Printer Friendly Option has been added to the student gradebook making it easier for students and faculty to print grades. Students are also able to quickly move from one course grade view to another.

Student Grade Print Feature Screenshot (more…)

Canvas Updates

Canvas User Update – Week of January 14

By Helice Agria |

Important Notices

Instructor Changes from SIS

Instructor Changes in SIS are still not populating through to Canvas this semester.

New screen shot users instructors are added when there is an instructor change but old instructors are not removed.  This should be working later in the semester when district has modified the SIS data sent to Canvas.

In the meantime, take a moment to access the Settings of your course (at the bottom left) and click on Users.  If there are previous instructors in your course, send an e-mail to ctl@mesacc.edu with the section number and your name.

Upcoming Changes

Next Release is 1/26/2013

The next Canvas release is scheduled for 1/26/2013, included in this release are minor adjustments to the options in the Collaborations tool and bug fixes.

Attendance Tool Preview

The attendance tool (aka Roll Call tool) is in beta testing and is not ‘yet’ available at MCC.  By summer semester it should be enabled.  In the meantime, as a preview, the Attendance tool seems to be a quick and easy way to mark attendance:

  • Instructors can mark students as ‘attended’, ‘late’, or ‘missed’.
  • Canvas will automatically calculate the attendance earned by the student and post a percentage to the gradebook throughout the course (if desired).
  • Instructors can use the list of student names to mark attendance each date or can use a visual seating chart.
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Canvas Timeline

By James Bowles |

Having trouble with keeping track of when you can start using Canvas? Check out this nifty timeline to enlighten yourself!

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