April 18, 2020 Canvas Updates

April 17, 2020

Starting April 18, 2020, Canvas will receive a number of improvements and updates as part of the regularly-scheduled upgrade cycle by Instructure. Updates are made regularly to bring new features, improve user experience, and fix bugs. Such updates do not typically result in downtime. 

Additionally, Instructure will deploy a set of “Ready Releases” to Canvas. To provide more immediate support for instructors teaching online, Ready Releases introduce new and updated features or adjusted user functionality every week. This is temporary and in-response to COVID-19 so instructors and institutions can receive changes faster than regularly-scheduled monthly updates from Instructure.

Upcoming Changes 

  • Mute Notifications by Course  
  • Limit Submission Attempts by Course 
  • Access SpeedGrader from the Gradebook Header Menu 
  • Partial Scoring for Multiple Answer Questions in New Quizzes 
  • Addition of a Rubrics Link in Course Navigation 
  • Assignments: Bulk Editing of Due and Availability Dates
  • Set a Default Quiz Engine by Course 

Quick Summaries

Mute Notifications by Course

Users can mute all notifications for a course where the user is enrolled. Review how to mute notifications by course.

Previously…

Users could only set notification preferences through their account settings.

What’s new?

This change allows users to mute all notifications for a specific course through the course Home Page.

How can this affect teaching and learning?

This change allows users more control over which courses they are actively notified about.

In a future update, users will have more precise control over a course’s notification settings. There is currently no way to force notifications on for all users in a course. Instructors should warn their students of the need of notifications for a course.

Limit Submission Attempts by Course 

This feature allows instructors to limit submission attempts for students.

Previously…

Students could submit to an assignment an unlimited number of times.

What’s new?

Instructors can choose to limit the number of attempts a student can make for an assignment by using the Attempts menu.

How can this affect teaching and learning?

This change gives instructors more control over the structure of their assignments and the stakes of submitting.

This feature must be enabled on a course-by-course basis. Browse to your courses Features tab, then enable “Assignment Allowed Attempts“.

Access SpeedGrader from the Gradebook Header Menu

Assignment menus in the Gradebook include a link to SpeedGrader.

Previously…

 SpeedGrader could only be accessed from a courses assignment.

What’s new?

Instructors can now move directly from the Gradebook to SpeedGrader.

How can this affect teaching and learning?

This change helps graders access SpeedGrader more easily from the Gradebook.

 Partial Scoring for Multiple Answer Questions in New Quizzes 

Note: Most instructors should continue using Classic Quizzes. Limited support is available for New Quizzes. Contact CETL and your school/college support for guidance on when to use New Quizzes.

Multiple Answer questions allow instructors to award students partial credit with penalty if a student selects an incorrect response.

Previously…

Multiple answer questions were awarded credit only when all correct answers were selected.

What’s new?

 Multiple Answer questions can now award students partial credit when Multiple Answer questions are auto-graded.

How can this affect teaching and learning?

This change helps reduce the high-stakes nature of multiple answer questions and awards students points for every correct answer selected (rather than awarding points for a student getting all of the answers correct).

Addition of a Rubrics Link in Course Navigation 

Rubrics can now be accessed through the Course Navigation Menu.

Previously…

Rubrics could be accessed through the Outcomes page.

What’s new?

Rubrics are being removed from the Outcomes page and added to the Course Navigation Menu.

How can this affect teaching and learning?

This change allows course rubrics to be accessed more quickly. Additionally, the workflow is more intuitive as outcomes are not required within a rubric.

 Assignments: Bulk Editing of Due and Availability Dates

Due dates and availability Dates for all assignments, discussions, and quizzes can be edited on a single page.

Previously…

Instructors could only edit due dates from within a specific assignment’s edit options.

What’s new?

The Assignments page supports editing all assignment, discussion, and quiz dates in a single page. 

How can this affect teaching and learning?

This change allows assignment dates to be adjusted at one time in the same location, helping instructors make course-level due date changes in one step rather than several.

Set a Default Quiz Engine by Course

Note: Most instructors should continue using Classic Quizzes. Limited support is available for New Quizzes. Contact CETL and your school/college support for guidance on when to use New Quizzes.

Instructors can set their preferred quiz engine selection for each course.

Previously…

Instructors were required to choose their preferred quiz engine every time an additional quiz was created in the Quizzes tab. Additionally, Quizzes created from the course Home Page defaulted to Classic Quizzes.

What’s new?

Instructors using New Quizzes can set their preferred quiz engine for each course.

How can this affect teaching and learning?

This change allows a quiz engine selection to persist.

Additional changes

A number of interface changes and bug fixes are also being released in this update. Review the Canvas deploy notes from April 11 and April 18 to learn more about these changes.

Learn more 

To learn more about this Canvas update, and to see how the changes may affect instructors’ and students’ work, refer to the audience-specific release note links.