In this production release (June 2), the account-level Course and People pages have been updated to help admins more easily navigate courses and users in their account, and admins can choose to enable Right-to-Left functionality for supported languages as a feature option.

 

For outcomes and rubrics, imported outcome errors and warnings are more distinctive through clarified functionality, and the Find Rubrics window displays account and course names alphabetically when adding a rubric to an assignment. In the Rich Content Editor sidebar, the Links tab Course Navigation section reflects the same name as displayed in Course Navigation.

In DocViewer, annotations can be added to various images in SpeedGrader and the Submission Details page. Instructors can delete any annotations or comments for any user, and users can comment on annotations if they are not the author of the annotation. To improve the commenting experience, comments are truncated if they are longer than five lines long, comment padding has been decreased in each comment box, and comments always align with their associated annotations.

 

All users can select how they want to view separators in Gradebook Export CSV files, depending on their locale or user preference.

 

Production release notes also include API additions and fixed bugs.

 

This is an abridged version of the full release note article, which can be seen by clicking here. Below is a screencast of the production release.

 

 

Updated Features

 

Account Settings

Right-to-Left Language Support

Admins can change the Canvas interface to support right-to-left languages. This change repositions all navigational elements and text components. Currently, right-to-left functionality is supported for Arabic, Hebrew, and Persian languages.

 

 

Conferences

Recording Formats and Statistics

Conferences can display multiple recording formats. Depending on an institution’s Conferences tier, recording formats may be displayed as a presentation or a video.

 

 

Additionally, instructors whose institutions have upgraded to the Canvas Conferences premium tier can see a new recording format called statistics that provides metrics about student participation in the recorded session. These metrics include attendance (length of time in the session), number of moderators and participants, and a count of total speaking, chatting, raising hands, and sharing emojis events. Metrics also include each student’s response to polls. Statistical information can be downloaded as a CSV file.

 

 

 Canvas open source contributions: BBB feature recording multiple formats

 

DocViewer

Image Support

DocViewer annotations can be added to BMP, JPEG, JPG, PNG, TIF, and TIFF images in SpeedGrader and the Submission Details page. Large images are scaled to a lower resolution so the entire image can be displayed without having to scroll.

 

Note: This change does not apply to Images previewed in Files.

 

 

 Canvas Community contributions: Configure Image Files in Speedgrader to Fit the Window 

 

Instructor Annotation Management

Instructors can delete any annotations or comments for any user. This change allows instructors to remove annotations or comments that may be inappropriate or incorrect within a document. Any custom role based on the instructor permission can also delete annotations, as well as any admin.

 

When a user with annotation management permissions deletes a user’s annotation or comment, the annotation or comment is deleted from view for all users except for the owner of the annotation or comment. The owner can retain the deleted items or remove them by clicking the Remove icon. Deleted comments still support replies.

 

 

 Canvas Community contributions: DocViewer: Admin and Instructor can edit/delete comments 

 

Non-Author Annotation Comments

Users can comment on annotations if they are not the author of the annotation. This change allows any user to comment on annotations made by another user if a comment does not already exist.

 

 

Comment Truncation

Comments are truncated if they are longer than five lines long. Previously comments were truncated after one line. When a comment is selected directly, the full content of the comment all lines of content.

 

 

Comment Display Order

This change has already been deployed to the production environment.

Comments always align with their associated annotations.

 

 This change resolves a fixed bug in Canvas:

When multiple comments existed in a document and a user clicked a comment, comments did not align with their associated annotation and instead rearranged with the most recent comment at the top of the page. Canvas code has been updated to retain vertical order of all comments. so that when the student views them, comments appear in the same order as the parts of the text to which they apply.

 

 Canvas Community contributions: Automatically order correctly marginal comments in Speed Grader upon submit 

 

Comment Padding

This change has already been deployed to the production environment.

Comment padding has been decreased in each comment box. This change contributes to continual improvements being made to the commenting experience.

 

User Settings

Gradebook CSV Separator Preferences

Users can select how they want to view separators in Gradebook Export CSV files, depending on their locale or user preference.

 

Separator options are managed through one of three feature options in User Settings. Currently the options only apply to exporting Gradebook CSV files, but these options may apply to other CSV files in a future release.

 

Use semicolons to separate fields generates CSV files with semicolons as the field separators instead of the default comma. When disabled, this feature falls back to behavior determined by the state of the Autodetect field separators option.

 

Note: This feature is automatically disabled if the Autodetect Field Separators option is enabled.

 

Autodetect field separators attempts to determine the appropriate field separator as indicated by the language set in the user’s account. For languages where the decimal separator is a dot e.g. 1,234.56, autodetection will choose a comma as the field separator. For languages where the decimal separator is a comma, e.g. 1.234,56, autodetection will choose a semicolon as the field separator. For all other cases, autodetection will choose a comma as the field separator as a default.

 

Note: This feature is automatically disabled if the Use semicolons to separate fields option is already enabled.

 

 

Other Updates

 

 

Outcomes

Import Error and Warning Functionality Clarification

Imported outcome errors and warnings are more distinctive through clarified functionality. This change helps admins and instructors more clearly understand if import behavior is considered an error or a warning. If an imported file display a behavior that affect the entire outcome file, such as including empty files and/or invalid headers, or not including any outcomes in the file, the import is an error. All other behaviors that affect a single outcome in the file is a warning, such as an incorrect course ID. Previously most behaviors considered as warnings were noted as errors.

 

Rich Content Editor

Sidebar Course Navigation Link Name Consistency

In the Rich Content Editor sidebar, the Links tab Course Navigation section reflects the same name as displayed in Course Navigation. This change helps align terminology consistency throughout Canvas.

 

 

Rubrics

Account and Course Order

When a rubric is added to an assignment, the Find Rubrics window displays account and course names alphabetically. Previously the account and course names did not display in any specific order.

 

Fixed Bugs

 

Accessibility

Calendar

The month name and date ranges are underlined for improved accessibility.

 

Course Import

The warning for copying the same course displays a color contrast of 3:1 for the default Canvas interface and 4.5:1 for high contrast profiles.

Dashboard

In the Student Dashboard, To Do dismiss button is labeled with the name of the item being dismissed for screen readers.

 

Files

The Search for Files text field is read by screen readers.

 

Login

The Login page and Forgot Password page reads the Instructure logo correctly. Additionally, Internet Explorer does not identify the password field twice.

 

Outcomes

The Outcomes Edit button retains focus for screen readers.

 

People

At both the account and course levels, the tables in the Add People window include row headers. Additionally, the +People button is read as Add People to screen readers.

 

Course Import

Page History and File Link Functionality

File links within a page history function correctly after course import.

 

Explanation: When a page with file links was imported into a new course, the links in the page were linking to the correct files, but the revision history showed the same links as being broken. Canvas code has been updated to retain the correct links when viewed in the page history.

 

ePortfolios

File Links and Trust Accounts

For users in a trust account, ePorfolio file links can be viewed regardless of the account where the file was added.

 

Explanation: When a user viewed a file link in an ePortfolio, and the user was part of a trust account, the link generated a page error if the file was added in another account. Canvas code has been updated to display file links regardless of the account where the file was added.

 

Gradebook

Muted Assignment Comments

In muted assignments, comments are hidden in the Gradebook, Submissions API, and mobile apps.

 

Explanation: When an instructor added a comment to an assignment submission and later muted the assignment, students were able to view the submission comments via the Submissions API, which also affected the mobile apps. Canvas code has been updated to completely hide existing instructor comments when muting an assignment.

 

Notifications

Created Assignments and Previously Assigned Students

Created Assignment notifications are not sent to students who have been removed from the assignment.

 

Explanation: When an instructor created and published an assignment for everyone in the course, edited the assignment and removed some of the students from the assignment, and then published the assignment again, the previously assigned students received a notification that the assignment had been created. Canvas code has been updated to not send notifications to students who have been removed from an assignment.

 

People

Student Context Card and Concluded Enrollments

Student context cards load for concluded enrollments.

 

Explanation: When a student enrollment was concluded, the student context card was able to load from the Gradebook and generated an error. Canvas code has been updated to correct student context cards to display all enrollment types.

 

Rubrics

Grade Page Rubric Ratings

Rubric ratings are highlighted correctly in the student’s grade page.

 

Explanation: When a criterion score was worth more than 10 points and contained more than 3 ratings, the highlighted rating could be incorrect in the student’s grades page. Canvas code has been updated to correctly highlight the intended rating.