Canvas Community/Product Forums/Product Release Notes
03/09/13 Canvas Production Release Notes/Screencast Featuring Varied Due Dates
erin
posted this on Mar 04 21:24
Our big news for this release (March 9), is the long-anticipated launch of varied due dates. This feature has no effect on students except for a few small interface adjustments in Quizzes and Assignments, but we anticipate instructors will find it extremely helpful with class sections. Varied due dates affects the entire Canvas interface so we’ve identified where any changes will appear for instructors.
We've also incorporated our screencast into our release notes below so you can learn all about the upcoming production changes in one location. As always, let us know your feedback in the comments.
The next release schedule:
- Beta Release & Notes: 03/18/13
- Production Release Notes: 03/25/13
- Production Release: 03/30/13
03.09.13 - New Release Video from Instructure on Vimeo.
New Features
Varied Due Dates by Section in Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes
Within Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes, instructors can assign different availability dates and due dates for each section of their course. This feature is designed to help instructors when they have sections of a course that meet on different days of the week or in different formats (online vs. face-to-face).
To indicate assignments with varied due dates, instructors will see Multiple Due Dates appear across their entire course including Quizzes, Assignments, Discussions, Syllabus, Modules, Course Analytics, Calendar 2, and SpeedGrader™.
Disable Comments on Announcements
Instructors can disable comments on Announcements for an entire course in Course Settings. This setting can be enabled at any time during the course and will apply to all future Announcements as well as those previously posted.
Instructors who do not want to use this course-level setting can still close comments for individual Announcements.
Student Messaging Permissions
Account administrators can disable student messaging to the entire class. However, the setting does not prevent students from communicating with each other in course groups. Administrators can set this permission at the account or sub-account level.
Edit/Delete Discussion Posts
Instructors can restrict students from editing or deleting their discussion posts. This permission can be set in the Discussion settings or in the Course Settings under “more options”.
When a reply is edited by a student, instructors will be able to see the date and time the reply was edited. This feature helps instructors know when the edit occurred and if it should affect a course assignment or grade. Students will not see edit notifications unless their reply has been edited by their instructor.
When a reply is deleted by any user, the activity is indicated by a date and time stamp, along with the name of the person who performed the action.
Page History Views
Students will only be able to view the history of a course page if they have permission to edit the page. Otherwise the page history link will no longer appear. Instructors or administrators can enable or disable page editing in Course Settings.
Bug Fixes
Kaltura Videos
Kaltura videos now play correctly, including new and previously embedded videos.
Notification URLs
URLs used in Notifications will link users to the specific Announcement or Discussion.
Muted Assignment Notifications
Canvas now respects muted settings within a course, and students will no longer see notifications for muted assignments in their course stream.
Gradebook CSV File Uploads
When users upload a CSV file in the Gradebook, Canvas will remember the Gradebook version where the file was downloaded. Previously after upload, the user would always be redirected to Gradebook 1. Now if the CSV is uploaded from Gradebook 2, the results will be shown in Gradebook 2.
Find a Course Autocomplete
Autocomplete results within the “Find a Course” field are now clickable and will link to the course.
Course Statistics
Instructors can no longer access institution-level user pages through Course Statistics, locking down privacy concerns.
Grade Export Report
The Grade Export Report now displays students only. Previously the report pulled all user roles.
Accessibility Updates
Accessibility updates have been made to the following:
- Grade view labels
- Record media box prompts
- Order of page headers
- Warning messages when visiting an external site in a new window
- Keyboard shortcuts dialog
Other Canvas Updates
Quizzes, Discussions, and Assignments Interface Updates
The Quizzes, Discussions, and Assignment interfaces have changed slightly. Students and instructors will see newly designed interface updates for Assignments and Quizzes.
In Discussions, instructors will notice the edit button has been moved next to the Gear icon, while the Speedgrader™ and rubric information is now located inside the Gear icon.
Cross-Institution Conversations
Conversations now work on more than one institution, resulting in a more seamless workflow for applicable users.
Added Languages
Canvas now supports Japanese and Portuguese.
Calendar Events API
The Calendar Events API now returns items in chronological order (either by default or with a parameter option).
Batch Update Conversations API
Instructors can now use the Batch Update Conversations API to manage their Conversations Inbox. Instead of selecting individual conversations at a time, instructors can use the API to archive, mark as read, mark as unread, and delete multiple conversations at once. For more details visit the Conversations Canvas API beta documentation webpage.
Admins API Updates
API users can now list and remove Admins using two new API calls: Remove account admin and List account admins. For more details visit the Admins Canvas API beta documentation webpage.
Improved Loading Times
Gradebook download times have decreased, and the dashboard sidebar now loads asynchronously to improve performance.
Signed LogoutRequest Messages
Canvas LogoutRequest messages are now signed to allow for proper SAML configurations.
Comments
I see that the Asian languages of Chinese and Japanese are now supported. Is Korean on the to do list?
It looks like the Discussion dates are now consistent with other assignment types. Our faculty with strict sequential schedules will love pre-programming the lock dates for Discussions instead of using Close for Comments.
I love the consistency in the redesign of the Discussions, Assignments, and Quizzing interface! Great upgrade.
- Melanie
In the new quiz dialog I no longer see a "Restrict this Quiz" option. Where has that moved?
@Michael, I show it is on the "Edit Quiz" interface at the location in the attached file/screenshot:
I answered my own question by playing on Beta. Options not enabled don't appear here - so unless you've restricted the quiz in some way, the options don't appear. "Restrict this quiz" is available when you edit the quiz, though, and it has the same subordinate options (access code, IP address, LDB, etc.)
Apologies for my ignorance, but how do I find the "Beta"?
@Betsy, if your institution is a cloud-based Canvas customer your beta instance would be at http://<your-institution>.beta.instructure.com, if you are using the free-for-teachers instance it's https://canvas.beta.instructure.com
Hope that helps!
I have a question about varied release dates and sections. In my class, I have groups, and each group has the same set of assignments, but they're due at different times. Can I use Sections the way that I want to use groups -- to create a cadre of students who have a set of assignments, some of which they must do as a group (and for which they receive a group grade) and some of which they must do individually (but within a group assignment) and for which they receive individual grades?
cdf
Thanks, Jeffrey. I'll ask and find out whether we are fish or fowl!
Hi David,
It sounds like you'll want to make each group it's own section. With this initial release, varied due dates applies to sections but having a group assignment is still the purview of groups. Let me know if I misunderstood you.
Thanks,
Hilary :)
Thanks, Hilary.
I think you're saying I'm on the right track -- that I can create a section, and then create a group within that section that includes all the students in the section.
I hope the attached flow chart will clarify what I want to do:
I have a class, Introduction to Theatre. The class is divided into groups and each group is assigned to a play. All groups have the same assignments, but they're due at different times; they also have an assigment that gets one submission from the group (and a group grade) and individual submissions from the group members (for which they receive individual grades). For the flow chard, I've assumed two sections (with each section containing 1 group of all the section members). Will this set-up work, especially will it work in the gradebook?
Also, if I'm understanding correctly, all the students will still be able to participate in discussions for the whole class.
cdf
Definitely check with your local college setup as well. If you are integrated with SIS, moving sections may cause some issues with syncing adds and drops and tracking students. If you have manually enrolled each user it should work okay though. Just thought I'd mention that though because if our faculty made their own sections and moved students it would making withdrawals and SIS changes no longer possible. :-)
- Melanie
I second what Melanie said about checking with your Online Learning admins to see what changes you can make to your course sections. At our College Faculty aren't given permission to add or delete students because all enrollments are managed automatically through integrations with our SIS. This applies to sections as well. The only *sections* faculty have are ones created from there literally being two different course sections put together into the same course (example: ENGL 101-02 & ENGL 101-03 combined into one Master ENGL 101 course).
For CDF and many of our faculty here, the ability to offer varied due dates by GROUPS would be a great new feature. It would solve many cumbersome workarounds. Perhaps the ability to offer this for GROUPS will come soon...? Please say yes..!
We also haven't enabled the ability for instructors to create sections. The SIS integration creates a separate 'course' for what you'd think of as a section.
Some good features and fixes.
I am wondering about the bug that has been around since inception of Threaded Discussions (ticket #153507). Any idea of the ETA? Basically, if one sets discussion(s) as Threaded, when the course is Copied or Imported, all the settings return to Unthreaded. The copy/import should retain the settings. Our graduate courses have a lot of "chatty" discussions. It is a very manual task to go back and reset these to Threaded.
Good fix on Edit / Delete Discussions. It will help. Technically, this really should be an individual Discussion Setting and not an All or Nothing Setting at the Course level. But the fix helps.
So Excited About: Varied Due Dates by Section in Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes
Thanks
Merea Bridges
Rockingham County Schools
If we are using the free-for-teachers instance, can we access the student messaging permissions?
I like the new interface changes for the most part. One thing I find odd is the small space available for assignment, quiz and discussion descriptions without a scroll bar being imposed. It would be great if this space re-sized automatically for larger description entries.
I am looking forward to experimenting with the varied due date by section features.
Josh, I completely agree; early reactions from our faculty regarding the new limited scrolling region for teacher/TA view of Assignment descriptions have been negative. I have just submitted a feature request and am awaiting its approval by the moderators.
I've got a few user links set up via the LTI Redirect tool. They used to open the links in the frame to the right of the navigation. I noticed after this release that now they open the links in the entire page. I don't know if this is a feature or a bug :) I can get back to the menu through the breadcrumbs.
Two things:
1. I wish we would have had more specifics about the Assignment Interface changes, especially quizzes. The change to the quiz editing interface is HUGE and not necessarily an improvement. I have at least one instructor who appreciated being able to see the running total number of points a quiz was worth on the right side of the screen. When will the Canvas documentation be updated to reflect the new interface?
2. We've also have had some negative faculty feedback in regards to the scrolling for assignment descriptions.
Love the new due dates, but wish the following for the Assignment View to lower transaction costs (the amount of time it takes to use each function in Canvas) including clicking and scrolling:
Why not see everything on One Screen by:
1) removing the expand/collapse option for Advanced Options (so that they're always seen)
2) leaving what encompasses Advanced Options in the right hand column (where it was)
3) keeping the due date view/functionality as it is (underneath at width of the above columns)
With the current layout, it is now necessary to a) scroll down to see full assignment information, b) click to expand Advanced Options, and c) scroll down again. Why not get everything on one screen every time and assignment is open/opened? For a teacher with 5 Preps and 25 assignments in a term, this is 375 extra click/scrolls in a semester and 750 in a year), times the number of times each of those 125 assignments is edited (which would at least double that number).
I also concur with the scrolling instructions being a problem, and I'm the one who first brought it to Kona's attention. However, it's not as bad as I thought, and the more I use it, the more I think the changes are for the better,
I feel as though I am missing something: I am not getting the "add due dates" button. I am still only able to set one due date for the assignments. Does anyone have an answer as to why?
Stephani - Are you trying in a course with multiple sections? If your course only has one section, you won't have the option to add more due dates.
Oh it does not. Most of our classes do not have multiple sections, they will run on only one section, will there be an update to allow the option for courses that do not have multiple sections? We use the multiple due dates for discussions which require student responses at a later date for the same discussion. I feel as though that may sound convoluted; however, the main point is that it would be helpful for courses that do not have multiple sections.
Hi Stephani,
I think we might be talking about two separate feature requests here.
1) Make varied due dates work for individuals and groups in addition to sections. This is part of our long-term vision for varied due dates but not something we'll be adding in the near future. We want to first give instructors the opportunity to use the feature and help guide us on what enhancements should come next.
2) Multiple due dates for a single discussion. If I'm understanding your comments correctly you may want to take a look at the existing feature request here: http://help.instructure.com/entries/20158043-Multiple-due-dates-for...
Multiple due dates are different from varied due dates. For varied due dates the most common usage is to create different due dates for students who meet on different days. For example, a course may have one section that meets on Mondays and Wednesdays and another that meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Instructors have requested the ability to set different due dates for the two sections rather than give the Monday crowd too much time or the Tuesday group too little.
I hope this helps.
I'm liking all of Matt's comments a lot. Good suggestions. Especially the first one.
I appreciate how you guys are constantly trying to improve Canvas--and I'm sure that's not an easy task with so many different ideas and opinions! For myself, I'm struggling to like the new interface for quizzes, discussions, and assignments. Maybe as I grow used to it my feelings will change, but for now I find it takes longer to locate and use the information I want. May I ask what prompted this drastic change from the previous interface?
Where's the button for Add more "Due Date" ? is this bug ?
There seems to be a bug in the Quiz editing function. The republish button doesn't propagate if you add, alter or delete a question group.
Anyone else seeing this, or is it just me? I'm going to file a ticket on this, regardless, since I can replicate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGbcWbFlRkg
Hi Tom
I see it too. I submitted a ticket as well.
Tom and Susan,
Yes, we are seeing this at NMSU as well...and we have submitted a ticket.
http://screencast.com/t/FenY0LHx
For a work around if they have to edit a question group, we are having our faculty make their changes to the group AND add a single question, save and re-publish and then delete that single question, save and re-publish.
Robbie
Same for us, we've submitted a ticket.
Could we get an updated release schedule for the next year? Or whatever you have? We need to schedule our QA process. Thanks!
Pamela
Loving your Canvas product releases (and videos), Instructure! We're retooling our training packets to align now.
As part of our campus-wide training we're asking our faculty to "subscribe" to these notes as part of their initial training process.
Also, thanks for the heads up on your beta and product release schedule, as well:
Beta Release & Notes: 03/18/13
Production Release Notes: 03/25/13
Production Release: 03/30/13
The release notes for the new Student Messaging Permissions state, 'Account administrators can disable student messaging to the entire class.' However, this was released with it disabled by default. This changes the expected behavior for users. I believe the release notes would better explain the default settings if they stated that students messaging the entire class is now disabled by default and administrators will need to change the setting in order to enable students to have the ability to message their entire class at once.
Maria and other community forum moderators, thank you for handling my feature request submission about the limited scrolling region for Assignment descriptions. Here is the link to the topic:
http://help.instructure.com/entries/21476805-Restore-Larger-Assignment-Descriptions-Pane-for-Teachers
Hello,
The removal of the page views from the course statistics area is a crippling blow to instructors needing detailed information about student activity in their course. This vital information is not provided in analytics or the access report. I use this information to verify when a student gets kicked out of a quiz, how long they have been in the course, etc.
While I agree an instructor doesn't need to see all the student's activity for the whole system, instructors need to see detailed activity for their own course.
Please find a way to incorporate this information back in at the course level. I am happy to assist/test/talk to someone about this.
Hello,
Am I right to think there was a fix in this release for the automatic peer attributions? (which now gives peer assessments only to the students who submitted their work)
Thanks,
Yannick
@Mitch, following up on your comment in the 2/25/13 beta thread: Is a feature request needed for the following?
"Our plan was to provide a hover over the "Multiple Due Dates" text to show a list of due dates."
Hi Rob,
No need for a feature request--but you're welcome to create one if you'd like. This is on our list of remaining tasks.
@Mitch, thanks; I'm glad it is still planned.
Even though we don't use sections, other than admin-generated cross-listings, the instructors have a drop down for the varied due dates that offers them the choice of 'everyone' or the default section. The problem we're seeing is that instructors don't understand what this means, so they enter a due date for 'everyone' and another for the default section. Then the assignment shows twice. I realize this is an issue we can address in training. I just thought maybe it would function better if the option didn't display in courses where there's only the default section. Should I submit a feature request? Thanks.
Jen
@Jen : I'd vote for it, though I'd hate to see this get lost in Feature Request Limbo. I hope Canvas can tweak this without an FR. I had a prof ask me about this the other day, wondering whether he should choose "everyone" or the title of the course, wondering if "everyone" meant all his students in all courses (and I'd have to agree with him that this is the most logical reading of the interface at first glance). At the very least, I would hope that when a course does not have multiple sections (and this prof's course does not), these stumbling blocks are removed.
I agree with Jen and Nathan that options should not be available unless they are necessary. Some instructors never teach sections. They don't even want to consider for a moment how valuable are variable due dates for different sections simply because they don't teach sections.
On the other hand when there are different sections in a course the variable due dates do not show on the assignment page unless there are enrolled students in the sections. Canvas "remembers" the due dates for the sections that do not have enrolled students in them but it does not display them until the students are enrolled. This will be also very confusing for the instructors who teach different sections.
George
One of the Quizzes, Discussions, and Assignments interface updates is fairly awkward. Using an iframe type field for the description forces the user to have to scroll to see the content in a very small window, which is rather painful. I would like to see canvas revert back to the full page view or create an option to disable this within the course.
@Brandon, I agree with you. I placed a feature request about reverting back to the full-page view of Assignment descriptions (and, separately, keeping the available full-page view for Calendar events).