In this Canvas release (January 5), the Course Link Validator page includes design enhancements for link clarity, including identifying broken Course Card images. And the Course Details page has been updated to clarify term and course dates as well as the options to restrict students from viewing the course. No functionality has been affected.
LTI Tools: For institutions using Commons, Commons has been updated to include a new Preview feature and to simplify the user interface when viewing resource details page.
This release notes post has been sourced from the official Canvas Release Notes article located here. It features a selection of details from the official production notes of 01/05/2019.
A screencast with details of the release is below.
Updated Features
This feature is used in conjunction with an external tool (LTI) in Canvas. Please view the content below for additional details. For more information about LTI tools, please see the Canvas Release Notes FAQ.
Summary
Commons has been updated to include a new Preview feature and to simplify the user interface when viewing resource details page. Resource Previews is currently an opt-in feature in Commons and must be enabled by an administrator.
Change Benefit
This change allows users to preview resource content before importing it into their course. Users will no longer need to import a resource from Commons to view all the contents of that resource. The user interface has also been simplified to make finding and importing Commons content easier.
Affected User Roles & Behaviors
Admins
Administrators in Commons can enable Resource Previews in Account Settings. This option allows users to preview resources in Commons from the Preview tab.
Instructors
When Resource Previews are enabled, instructors experience three significant changes to the user interface.
The resource details page has been separated into three tabs. The Preview tab allows instructors to preview resource content before importing into a course.
The Details tab displays information about the resource.
The Version notes tab displays any updates to a resource.
Course Settings
Course Link Validator Design Enhancements
Summary
The Course Link Validator page includes design enhancements for link clarity, including identifying broken Course Card images.
Change Benefit
This change allows instructors and course designers to better understand the context of each broken link and how to resolve the link. Additionally, Course Card images that may be removed by Flickr can be identified and resolved.
Affected User Roles & Behaviors
Instructors
When instructors validate course content by clicking the Validate Links in Content button in Course Settings, the page content includes several design enhancements.
The page description content has been updated to clarify the validator searches course content for invalid or unreachable links and images. Invalid means the link or image is no longer valid and the content should be removed or replaced. Unreachable means the link or image could not be displayed because of a situation with the host server, which may be temporarily unavailable. Unpublished content in the course is also displayed in the validation results If the Show Links to Unpublished Content checkbox is selected.
Once the link validation process has completed, the page displays the following design enhancements:
- Content is grouped by object type (e.g. assignment, discussion, page)
- The object type is displayed below the link to each content item
- Each broken content item displays its relevant object type icon
- Broken external URL items in Modules are grouped by module
- Broken content within an object is identified as either a link or an image, with the appropriate icon displaying next to the broken content
- Broken content displays the name of the item as it displays in the Rich Content Editor
- Course Cards are a supported object type, which displays any course images added from Flickr that have been deleted
Course Dates and Functionality Clarifications
Summary
The Course Details page has been updated to clarify term and course dates as well as the options to restrict students from viewing the course. No functionality has been affected.
Change Benefit
This change helps instructors understand how individual course dates affect course access for students when used with term dates. Additionally, the options to restrict students from viewing the course before or after the start date are located after the course dates and add additional clarification.
Affected User Roles & Behaviors
Instructors
When viewing the Course Details page, instructors can view options to add or modify course start and end dates in a course. New and existing text clarifies functionality for all course date settings. Clarification also applies to section dates in the Sections tab.
The course date explanation text has been updated to suggest instructors verify the term dates before modifying course dates.
The checkbox to limit participation in the course includes clarification for how the checkbox affects the dates in the course.
The checkboxes to restrict students from viewing the course also includes clarification about whether the course or term dates are considered to be the course start and end date, depending on the course date settings.