April 2021 Release Summary

April 19, 2021

This is the latest information on changes to UWM’s Digital Learning Environment which include changes to Canvas, Kaltura (a.k.a. My Media), Collaborate Ultra and other services available to Canvas. Updates are made regularly to bring new features, improve user experience, and fix bugs. In-general, these updates do not require downtime, but if it becomes necessary, an announcement will be made on the UWM Canvas website.

Upcoming Changes

  • Canvas (April 17, 2021)
    • Accept the first answer for New Quizzes
  • Collaborate Ultra (April 8, 2021)
    • Moderators can see up to 25 webcams at a time

Accept the first answer for New Quizzes (Canvas)

If an instructor allows multiple attempts, the first attempt can be retained for grading.

  • Previously: it was not possible to accept the first attempt for a quiz that allows multiple attempts.
  • After the release: assessments using the New Quizzes tool can optionally retain the grade for the first attempt in the Grades tool.
  • How this affects teaching and learning: it is now possible to satisfy instructional use cases where the instructor needs to capture the first attempt, while allowing the student to continue taking the quiz as a self-assessment. This change makes New Quizzes more feature-parity with Classic Quizzes.

CETL and school/college support do not currently recommend using New Quizzes unless it is needed for specific question types or capabilities. Contact CETL or your school/college support for additional information; and continue using Classic Quizzes whenever possible.

Moderators can see up to 25 webcams at a time (Collaborate Ultra)

Moderators may use Gallery view to see up to 25 webcams at a time in a Collaborate Ultra session. While this feature is currently only available to Moderators (and not Presenters or Students), Blackboard notes that the feature will be expanded to other roles.)

  • Previously: sessions were limited to viewing 5-6 webcams in Gallery view for Moderators
  • After the release: with Gallery view enabled, and with the chat/settings panel closed, moderators can view the webcams of up to 25 participants at a time. Clicking a video
  • How this affects teaching and learning: session moderators can see the physical responses from students in a session and can provide feedback to the presenter or others in a session to react accordingly.

Please note that seeing multiple webcams can be bandwidth-intensive and may be problematic on slower internet connections.

Learn More

To learn more about updates, and to see how the changes may affect instructors’ and students’ work, refer to the audience-specific release note links. Remember that some features may not be enabled for UWM or the UW System.

Canvas

Collaborate Ultra