If you have not logged into Canvas since May 2024, you will notice much has changed. Let's catch you up: some things are gone (Flip), some things are improved (Discussions), and others moved to a different location (Turnitin). This post is excerpted from a group presentation (Video 1:06:57) at the August 7th Canvas Investigations. Timestamps next to headings will link you directly to that topic in the recording. The most important take-aways are highlighted in yellow.
DoJ Ruling on Accessibility 2:29
In April, the clock started to count down two years for us to ensure all web content is accessible. The newly formed Office of Digital Accessibility (ODA) will guide us. Watch for messaging on the 3 Rs—Remove, Revise, Right First. The easiest and most impactful thing instructors can do now aligns with Remove — be selective when importing content from old courses.
Discussions/Announcements Redesign 4:09
Canvas Discussions have changed in appearance and functionality. Now, you can @mention people! Instructors should tune their notifications to get alerts when @mentioned and when replies are flagged as inappropriate. A number of other changes come with the Discussions Redesign, including Flexible Viewing Options, Quoting, and expanded anonymity options.
Manage Due Dates and Assign To 10:03
You can assign Pages or entire Modules to a student or section. Now there are three entry points to Manage Due Dates and Assign To throughout Canvas. All three activate a tray that flies in from the right.
- Kebab menu adjacent to the item (screenshot) on Modules, Pages, Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions pages
- Individual pages (screenshot) for a Page, Assignment, Quiz, or Discussion
- 😡😡😡 A link at the bottom of the editing window of a Page, Assignment, Quiz, or Discussion that invokes a fly-in tray on the right.
#3 was so universally loathed that Instructure is rolling it back. Sometime in August, the ability to manage Assign To properties will return to the bottom of editing windows for Assignments, Quizzes, Discussions, and presumably Pages.
Miscellaneous 14:07
There were many updates throughout the summer. These are the most consequential:
- Combat grading fatigue by randomizing the order in which students appear in Speedgrader.
- Set availability dates for Announcements.
- See which students have dropped the course so you can remove them from manually created sections.
- Add auto-responses and a signature to your Inbox.
- Find and replace in the Rich Content Editor.
- Visit the Message Students Who feature in the Gradebook—there are lots more ways to target specific groups of students.
- Student Cards and Sortable Rubrics
Google 20:05
The Google integration in Canvas was upgraded over the summer. It was a gentle transition where we limited users' ability to create new things using the legacy integration.
The Old Integration
Look for broken content with help from the Course Link Validator and fix them by following this KB. Google Apps 1.1 content created before May 21 and copied forward will break and could be in:
- Module links to Google content (screenshot at import, screenshot in content)
- Pages with embedded or linked Google content (screenshot)
- Assignments created using the old Google Cloud Assignment (screenshot of path to fix)
The New Integration
Link to Google content in Modules (screenshots and a short movie) and embed Google content in Pages (screenshots). Create Collaborations (screenshots) and Assignments (screenshots and a short movie). With Assignments:
- Get originality reports for up to five assignments per course
- Select to grade in Speedgrader rather than grade in Google
Want to go deep on the new Google integration? Watch our Google Days presentation (46:06)
Design Tools 25:37
There's a new interface for building content using the Cidi Labs sidebar. The old sidebar is still the default and will be until January 2025. Try the new sidebar in one of two ways:
Key Combination
- MacOS: Shift + Option + V
- Windows: Shift + ALT + V
Invitation in Legacy Sidebar
Select the gear icon at the top right in the Design Tools sidebar. You will see a prompt to Try New Version (screenshot). Some colleges are suppressing this invitation.
Living in two worlds
Your preferred sidebar follows you. This can result in a misalignment where the sidebar does not match the content on the page. The sidebar will tell you.
- content on page built with new but you're viewing legacy sidebar -> stuff could break (screenshot)
- content on page built with legacy sidebar but you're viewing new sidebar -> upgrade your content (screenshot)
Kaltura 31:09
Kaltura player upgraded to version 7 on August 1, 2024
The upgrade mostly went off without a hitch. Kaltura in Canvas embeds that we thought would upgrade smoothly did as expected. Old MediaSpace embed codes broke as expected.
Resources:
- Kaltura Player Upgrade on August 1, 2024: Timeline and Impacts
- Kaltura Player v2 vs Player v7 Comparison
- Steps to Replace Old MediaSpace Embed Codes
A Canvas-wide announcement is posted through August 30 so that new 9-month teaching staff on all campuses can be informed. Students might find broken embeds before instructors do: see the Steps to Replace Old MediaSpace Embed Codes for what to do.
Transcript Viewer By Default
Previously, if the owner or co-publisher of a recording in Kaltura wanted to include a searchable transcript (based on the recording’s closed captions), they needed to select a specific player when embedding using the Rich Content Editor’s Add Media Using Kaltura button. In the new version 7 player the transcript viewer is available by default.Wider Embed Sizes
To accommodate the transcript viewer the embed sizes are now wider. Previously the options were 608x402 and 400x285. Now they are 720x405 and 528x297, so a little taller and a fair amount wider. The new sizes have a 16:9 aspect ratio which should reduce the number of recordings presented with letterboxing.Reporting on Broken MediaSpace Embeds
We are sharing spreadsheets of pages in Fall 2022 through Fall 2024 and Default term courses with old MediaSpace embeds with the AT Product Admin/Support Google Group. This is being refined over time and is run (at least) every Monday morning.Kaltura v7 player Known Issues
- In the Canvas Student app for Android, player v7 embeds don't load. Instructure appears to be working on this, but it doesn’t appear in their known issues list.
- SRT caption files created in Adobe Premiere include styling that is out of spec (such as it is, SRT is not really a standard). This wasn’t a problem when viewing recordings in the Kaltura v2 player (which omitted styling), but the v7 player is more literal, doesn’t omit the styling, and shows HTML in the captions.
VoiceThread 50:35
The recent release brings simplicity and an overall improvement in usability and accessibility. Highlights include:
- The One Conversation Feature means you can see all the discussion on one VoiceThread on any slide. A marker indicates where people inserted comments.
- Bulk comment management means you can delete all comments for reuse.
- Previously people using screen readers had to use an alternate site. Now a single interface is works for all users.
There's a new look. Comments are now at the bottom left, not the center, so you may need to update any instructions you previously had about how to make comments.
Your old VoiceThreads are still in your main account and were upgraded to the new view on June 30th. However, they are no longer in your classes where they were placed. You must recreate VoiceThread assignments after importing content to a new course.
Watch the VoiceThread Tutorial Video for an interactive demo of the new VoiceThread.
Turnitin 55:38
Turnitin’s updated LTI 1.3 version no longer uses Speedgrader, but still integrates with the Canvas Gradebook.
- To create a Turnitin assignment, use the 3-dot kebab menu at the top right of the main Assignments window. This differs from the previous way, where you selected Turnitin in the External Tool picker under Submission type.
- Old Turnitin assignments imported into a new course site will be automatically converted into new Turnitin assignments.
- Turnitin no longer uses SpeedGrader. Read assignment submissions, create rubrics, and provide efficient feedback using QuickMarks inside the Turnitin interface in Canvas.
Turnitin has excellent user guides for instructors and students, especially in the Viewing your Grade and Instructor Feedback section. Refer to Canvas: Turnitin Overview, which has been updated to reflect the changes.
Discontinued Tools 1:00:21
Flip
Flip was abruptly shut down. There is no direct replacement, but we have gathered suggestions for how instructors could use different UMN learning technologies as replacements. Refer to Extra Points blog post for Flip Alternatives.
Jamboard
Jamboard will be view-only beginning October 1, 2024, and discontinued on December 31, 2024. Read the Jamboard help page for more information.
AI 1:01:18
- This optional feedback coach is available to students in the Peer Review and Group Member Evaluation tools.
- A suite of opt-in tools that includes In-Meeting Questions, Meeting Summary, & Smart Recordings
- Zoom AI Companion - Guidance for Instructors: Teaching Support resource
- Stand-alone tool available to all UMN faculty, staff, and students
- There are no plans to integrate it with UMN learning technologies
- OIT information page in progress, will share the link when it is available
Course Works
Acknowledgements
This post was authored by the Academic Technology community at the University of Minnesota.