These are the latest Canvas system updates that will become available from 17 April 2021. 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: Course Settings - Course Availability Date Enhancements Enforcement. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Teacher, Teaching Assistant and Course Designer.
Summary
The Participation menu includes an option to select course dates by term or course.
Change Benefit
This change offers clarification for how student participation is managed for a course.
Affected User Roles & Behaviours
Instructors
When an instructor views the Participation section in the Course Settings page, the Participation section displays a menu that defaults to Term dates for new courses. This option sets student course participation to the start and end dates defined for the term.
If preferred, instructors can change course participation to the Course option, where course participation is limited to the course start and end dates, which can be added in the course. Course dates override term dates; however, section dates that exist in the course override course dates.
Course dates default to midnight. If the course is set to end at midnight, the page displays a warning icon.
The Participation option is retained when the Course Settings page is updated.
Notes:
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- The options to restrict students from viewing the course after the end date and before the start date have not been affected.
- Existing courses will be set by existing dates. If a course includes custom course dates and the participation checkbox is selected, the new Participation checkbox will be set to the Course option. However, if the participation checkbox in the old interface was not selected to override term dates—even if custom start and end dates were included—the new Participation checkbox will be set to the Term option.
Additional Details
For full details, please see the Course Settings: Course Availability Date Enhancements video in the Canvas Community.
Canvas Deploy Release Updates.
31 March 2021: Assignments – Submit Assignment Button Wording. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Student.
Summary
For student assignments, the Submit Assignment button has been changed to the Start Assignment button.
Change Benefit
This change clarifies the assignment workflow and intended submission behavior for students.
Affected User Roles & Behaviours
Students
When a student views the details for an assignment, a submission can be started by clicking the Start Assignment button.
Once the student uploads or adds a submission according to the submission type, the Submit Assignment button will submit the assignment.
Note: The spacing below the assignment description field has been changed to remove a minimum height requirement. This change removes excess whitespace for shorter assignment descriptions.
If the student is allowed to resubmit the assignment, the Resubmit Assignment button has also been updated to the New Attempt button.
31 March 2021: Assignments – Limited Attempts and External App Submissions. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Student.
When an assignment allows one attempt, submitting an assignment via an external app displays one submission.
Explanation: When an assignment only allowed one attempt, and a student submitted an assignment through an external app such as TurnItIn, the assignment showed the student had two submissions. Canvas code has been updated to prevent multiple submissions for relevant external app uploads.
31 March 2021: Gradebook – Gradebook Views and Page Refresh. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Teacher, Teaching Assistant and External Examiner.
Switching Gradebook views does not refresh the page.
Explanation: When a user switched from the Gradebook view to the Individual View, the Gradebook would refresh. The same process occurred when switching from Individual View to the Gradebook view. Canvas code has been updated to remove the page refresh when switching Gradebook views.
14 April 2021: Assignments – External Apps (LTI) and Complete/Incomplete Assignments. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Teacher, Teaching Assistant and Course Designer.
Assignments created via an LTI tool and scored as complete/incomplete are passed back correctly to Canvas.
When an LTI assignment score was passed back to the LTI provider, the score was calculated before the score was submitted to Canvas. However, for Canvas grades, incomplete and Complete assignments were only able to be calculated as 0% or 100%. Canvas code has been updated to align LTI 1.1 tools with all Canvas grades. Assignments calculates a score above 0 as complete, while LTI 1.1 calculates a score of 1 (100%) as complete. This change aligns both percentage options and provides a passback grade of 0.5 as complete
14 April 2021: SpeedGrader – Unlimited Attempts and Assignment Resubmissions. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Teacher, Teaching Assistant and Course Designer.
Assignments can be assigned as a resubmission if the assignment has unlimited attempts.
When an assignment was set to allow a limited number of attempts and then changed to unlimited, the button to reassign the assignment to students who have submitted in SpeedGrader was not clickable and displayed a message that the student has met the maximum allowed attempts. Canvas code has been updated to support unlimited attempts in assignment resubmissions.
14 April 2021: Course Settings – Course Availability End Date. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Teacher, Teaching Assistant and Course Designer.
A selected end date via the date selector tool is retained for the course.
When the Participation option was set to Course dates, an end date was set with the date selector tool, and whitespace was selected or the Update Course Details button selected, the date changed to either the day after the start date or a date in the future. Canvas code has been updated to retain the selected end date for the course.
14 April 2021: Course Settings – Participation Date Visibility. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Teacher, Teaching Assistant and Course Designer.
Summary
Term dates for the course display in the Course Settings page.
Change Benefit
This change allows instructors to view the start and end dates for the term, as set by their Canvas admin.
Affected User Roles
Instructors
When instructors view the Settings page for their courses, they can view the dates set for the availability dates in the course. If course participation is set to term, the term dates for student access display in the page.
If no dates have been created for the term (such as when the Default Term is used), the term start and end dates do not display any dates.
If dates have been created for the term, the term start and end dates for student access display in the page.
Note: Term dates can only be modified by a Canvas admin.
14 April 2021: Accessibility – Gradebook. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Student.
For students, the tooltip has been updated for assignments with a manual post policy. The tooltip has been updated as Instructor has not posted this grade.
14 April 2021: Announcements – Delayed Announcements and Safari Browser. This update is available for the following Canvas Roles: Teacher, Teaching Assistant and Course Designer.
When an instructor accesses Canvas in Safari 13.1.2+ and includes a course file in an announcement, delayed announcements are posted at the intended time.
When an instructor accessed Canvas in Safari 13.1.2+, included a course file in an announcement, and delayed the announcement until a future date, the Delay Posting option was not recognized and the announcement was posted immediately. Canvas code has been updated to correct delayed announcements postings in Safari.