These are the latest Canvas system updates that will become available from 16 May 2020. Please click on an update to expand and view the information. If you have any questions please submit a support ticket via the help menu in Canvas.
Please note that system updates are subject to change and may be subsequently updated.
Update 1 - Notifications: SMS Notification Types Deprecation. This update is available for all Canvas roles. Summary On 2 May, all SMS notification types are deprecated except Announcements and Grading notification types. Remaining notification types can be enabled through other communication channels. Change Benefit This change provides a better communication experience for all user roles. Other notification types are more consistent and reliable for Canvas users. Resources regarding other communication channels can be found in the Upcoming Canvas Changes Feature Clarifications page. Affected User Roles & Behaviours Instructors When users open their Notification Preferences page, all SMS options are disabled except announcements and grading notification types. Any unsupported notification type includes a tooltip that notifies users appropriately. Other related guides for Instructors and Students · How do I set my Canvas notification preferences as an instructor? Canvas Ready Release Updates. Canvas has modified their deploy and release processes and are now providing additional updates on a weekly basis. This change began on Saturday 21 March and is a temporary process until further notice. Monthly releases will still take place as normal. 28 March 2020: Courses – New Instructor Tutorials Content Update. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Teacher, Teaching Assistant, Course Designer, External Examiner and Observer. New Instructor Canvas tutorials have been updated with revised content and links. This change assists instructors using Canvas for the first time and helps them become familiar with Canvas. When enabled for an account, New Instructor Tutorials display for instructors in newly created courses. These tutorials can be accessed by an icon at the top of the page and explain the purpose of the page and what to do next. The course setup tutorial is shown to new Canvas instructors in new courses. New instructors are defined as users with instructor roles created in an account after the new tutorial feature has been enabled. The course setup tutorial can be collapsed from view and is persistent across Canvas pages, so if the tutorial is collapsed in one page, it will stay collapsed until expanded again. Note: When the New Instructor Tutorials feature option is turned on, it replaces the traditional Course Setup Checklist. Instructors can end the tutorial series in any page using the Don’t Show Again button. However, ending the tutorial in one course applies to all other courses. Instructors can view the tutorial in new courses again at any time by accessing their User Settings page and enabling the Course Setup Tutorial user feature option. This user feature option only displays for users enrolled as instructors. For instance, a user enrolled as an admin wouldn’t see the feature option unless the user were enrolled in a course with an instructor enrollment. User Feature Option & Existing User Access Once the New User Tutorial feature option is enabled for an account, the Course Setup Tutorial feature option displays in each instructor’s User Settings page. Existing instructors can view the tutorials in new courses by enabling this user feature option at any time. User feature options cannot be managed by admins. 28 March 2020: User Navigation – Student Mobile App Login QR Code. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Student. Students can now use a QR code to log in to the Canvas Student App. This change helps students more easily log in to the Canvas Student App without having to know their institution’s Canvas URL. When students are in Canvas, their User Navigation Menu includes a QR for Mobile Login link. This link generates a QR code and tells students they can use the code to log in to their account from the Canvas Student app. Canvas Student App version 6.7 is required to view the QR code, which was enabled in the app on 28 March 2020. 04 April 2020: Commons – URL Sharing. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Teacher, Teaching Assistant and Course Designer. Commons resources pages now include a button to copy the resource link. This change allows instructors to share Commons resources via URL outside of Canvas. When an instructor views a Commons resource, the page displays a Copy Resource Link button in the sidebar. This button allows the instructor to copy the resource link and share it with another user. When the button is selected, the link is copied to the user’s clipboard and can be pasted into the instructor’s preferred medium for sharing, such as a Canvas inbox message. Users who are not logged into Canvas must log in to Canvas to download, import, or favorite the resource. Additionally, resource previews do not display to non-logged-in users unless the resource has been publicly shared. 04 April 2020: New Analytics – Analytics Chart Tabs. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Teacher. The New Analytics chart viewing options have been changed from drop-down menus to page tabs. This change provides easier navigation between analytics data and provides consistency between the Course and Student views. Users who want to switch between Weekly Online Activity and Course Grades can view both options at the top of the New Analytics page in tabs. Users can click the tabs to navigate between options. No other functionality within the page has been affected. 04 April 2020: User Navigation – Teacher Mobile App Login QR Code. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Teacher, Teaching Assistant, Course Designer, External Examiner and Observer. Instructor roles can use a QR code to log in to the Canvas Teacher App. This change helps instructors more easily log in to the Canvas Teacher App without having to know their Canvas URL. When instructors are in Canvas, their User Navigation Menu includes a QR for Mobile Login link. This link generates a QR code and tells them they can use the code to log in to their account from the Canvas Teacher App. Functionality is contingent on Teacher Mobile App availability (may be available for different devices at different times). 18 April 2020: Files – Multiple File Upload Enhancements. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Teacher, Teaching Assistant and Course Designer. Course Files has been updated to clarify support of drag-and-drop functionality. This change helps users more easily discover how to upload multiple files to Canvas. The Course Files page and User Files page have been updated with minor adjustments to clarify support of drag-and-drop functionality in the main page and within individual folders. Empty folders show how to upload multiple files within the page or how to choose files from a computer. For existing folders that contain files, files can be added by dragging and dropping files anywhere in the folder window. 25 April 2020: DocViewer – Student Notifications. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Student, Teacher, Teaching Assistant and External Examiner. Students are notified when comments have been added in DocViewer. This change helps students know when their instructor or TA has added comments in a DocViewer-supported document (e.g. Speedgrader). In DocViewer, instructors and TAs can add comments in supported documents. If students have enabled the Submission Comment notification type, they’ll receive notifications when a comment has been added to their document via their specified communication channel(s). Notifications can be updated in the Notification Preferences page from the Account Menu. If annotation comments have been made anonymous, notifications are sent without the user’s name who posted the comment. This update should only apply when the grade posting policy is set to ‘Automatic’. If posting policy is set to ‘Manual’, students should only be notified when comments are released. Other recent updates: Canvas Integration - Turnitin LTI. 22 Apr 2020: A new notification before a session expires. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Student, Teacher, Teaching Assistant and Course Designer. Turnitin has introduced a new notification before a session expires. This is to ensure account security, and once three hours have elapsed with no active input from the user, the user will received a notification before a session expires. This notification says that in 10 minutes your session will expire, but that you can use the Extend Session button to keep grading. Once the 10 minutes have passed, you’ll have to log in again. If grading using Turnitin and you are writing a particularly long comment, and know you are about to take a break, navigate outside of the comment box to ensure that it saves. When a session expires, all unsaved work is lost. Saving happens automatically when we detect input from the user. However, in some cases, it’s possible that the sync didn’t happen because the rest of the page wasn’t interacted with. Other related Turnitin guides
· How do I set my Canvas notification preferences as a student?
· Turnitin within Canvas – Staff Guide
· Using Turnitin within Canvas – common queries from Staff and Students
· Turnitin within Canvas – Student Guide
· Full Turnitin LTI Release Notes