In this production release (08/16), Quizzes makes it easier for instructors to control how many times a student can view quiz results, and the Rich Content Editor supports closed captions for full-screen videos.

The production notes also include updates to existing Canvas features and fixed bugs.

Note: Production release notes indicate Canvas updates that will be included with Saturday’s release. New features may differ from those available in your beta environment.

08.16.2014 New Feature Screencast from Instructure on Vimeo.

View the 08/16/14 Screencast Transcript

*Features are subject to change. Please see the complete release notes for details.

We welcome video feedback at instructure.com/videosurvey. If the embedded video does not appear, reload your browser window.

Next release schedule:

Beta release and notes: 08/25/14
Production release notes: 09/02/14 (in observance of Labor Day)
Production release and documentation: 09/06/14

Follow the release schedule on the Canvas Updates calendar

Updated Features

Quizzes

Quiz Results Restriction

Instructors can select a new quiz option that lets students view the quiz results only once after each attempt. This option is also designed for instructors who require students to complete quizzes within proctored environments and want to limit quiz result views within that location.

To enable this option for a quiz, select the Only Once After Each Attempt checkbox. Students will only be able to view the results immediately after they have completed the quiz. Once they navigate away from the quiz or refresh the page, students will see a message explaining that quiz results are protected and can no longer be viewed.

This option has no effect on instructors, who can always view student results. Additionally, this option may not be appropriate for quizzes that require manual grading, such as essay questions, where students would require additional views to see the updated results.

Notes:

The Only Once After Each Attempt option is independent of the Let Students See The Correct Answers option. If both checkboxes are selected, students can only view both their own responses and the correct answers one time. If the Let Students See The Correct Answers option is deselected, students will only be able to view their own responses one time.
As the Only Once option shows quiz results immediately after a student submits the quiz, the Only Once option will override any show or hide dates or times, so those fields are grayed out and are not available as part of that option. If an instructor wants to show or hide correct answers on any specific date or time, the Only Once option should not be selected.

Moderate Quiz Results

When a quiz is saved with the Only Once After Each Attempt option, instructors can use the Moderate Quiz feature to give students additional views to their quiz results. Moderate the quiz and select a student, then select the first checkbox to let a student see the quiz results one more time. Once the student has viewed the quiz results, the result extension will be reset and the results will be hidden again.

This moderate option is independent of any additional quiz attempts. If a student has been granted an extra attempt on a quiz, the student will be able to see the results of their quiz one more time as part of taking the quiz. The moderate quiz checkbox is only for seeing the results again; if this option is selected and students have also been granted an extra attempt on the quiz, students will be able to view the results before they take the quiz, as well as after they complete the quiz.

Note: If students are allowed multiple attempts on a quiz, instructors may want to edit the quiz and select the Allow Multiple Attempts setting, which gives an option to let students see their quiz responses only after the last attempt.

Rich Content Editor

Full-screen Closed Captions

Canvas supports closed captions for full-screen videos. When in full-screen mode, caption text is enlarged in proportion to the larger viewing area.

Other Updates

Account Settings

HTML5 Video Playback Feature Option

Instead of using Flash, admins can prefer to use HTML5 for browser videos across their institution. This feature can be enabled in the Account Settings Feature Options tab. Browsers will display videos as HTML5 by default; however, if a browser does not support HTML5, it will use Flash as a backup.

Note: HTML5 Video Playback is a beta-quality feature option, meaning that it is available in your production environment but may continue to receive adjustments by our engineering team.

Assignments

Course Assignments Pagination

The Course Assignments API endpoint supports pagination. Any additional allowed parameters in the API call are also maintained in pagination links.

User Settings

High Contrast User Theme Text Color

When users enable the high contrast theme in their user settings, all text color throughout Canvas defaults to a 4.5:1 contrast ratio, including text within search fields.

Fixed Bugs

Account Settings

Remove Icon Accessibility

The remove icon for Quiz IP address filters is labeled for screen readers.

Explanation: The icon to remove quiz IP address filters did not contain a description for screen readers and only referenced it as a link. Canvas code has been updated with a description label for this icon.

Reports Accessibility

Description links within the Reports tab are labeled for screen readers.

Explanation: The small question mark icons next to report names did not contain descriptions for screen readers and only referenced them as links. Canvas code has been updated with descriptive text for each icon.

Assignments

Expand and Collapse Accessibility (Student View)

Students can expand and collapse Assignment sections on the Assignments Index page using keyboard navigation.

Explanation: Students who use keyboard navigation were not able to navigate the Assignments Index page and expand and collapse Assignment sections. Canvas code has been updated to properly focus on expand and collapse controls.

Course Imports

Discussions State

When copied or imported into a course, Discussions retain their previous published state.

Explanation: Discussions were always published on course copy even if the discussion was previously unpublished. Canvas code has been updated to respect the state of a discussion topic upon course copy.

Assignment Due Dates Adjustments

Assignments and Graded Discussions adjust due dates for all items regardless of how many times they have been imported into the course.

Explanation: When importing Assignments or Graded Discussions into a course where items had been deleted before (usually as a result of a user error on import), their due dates were not adjusted as part of the course import because they were not recognized as a new import. Canvas code has been updated to disregard prior import status and import all items consistently.

Dashboard

Recent Feedback

The Student sidebar Recent Feedback heading shows activity within the past two weeks.

Explanation: The link at the bottom of the Recent Feedback sidebar was set to show assignments taking place in the next two weeks instead of prior assignments that had already taken place. Canvas code has been updated to change the recent feedback text link to mention past activity instead of upcoming activity.

Prior Instructor Roles

Users with deleted instructor enrollments do not receive any student information for the course.

Explanation: Users who were previously enrolled in a course and assigned an instructor role were still receiving notifications for user submissions in the Recent Feedback sidebar, even when their instructor enrollment had been deleted. Canvas code has been updated to always remove the submission comment permission from deleted instructor enrollments.

Discussions

Available From and Until Fields Accessibility

The Available From and Until fields are labeled for screen readers.

Explanation: When a user created a new Discussion, the Available From or Until fields did not contain any descriptions for screen readers. Canvas code has been updated with labels for each field.

Peer Reviews

Students receive notifications when a peer reviewer is attached to a discussion. Notifications are sent regardless of whether the discussion contains a rubric.

Explanation: When an instructor required peer reviews for a graded discussion, Canvas was not sending notifications to students once a peer reviewer was assigned. Notifications were also not being sent if an instructor did not add a rubric to a graded discussion. Canvas code has been updated to always distribute notifications regarding peer reviews.

Gradebook

Message Students Null Text

When using the Message Students Who feature in the Gradebook, Null does not appear next to student names.

Explanation: When an instructor opened the Message Students Who feature, Null was appearing next to the names of each student. Canvas code has been updated to adjust the javascript global command used for student name values.

Message Students Individual View Accessibility

In the Gradebook Individual View, the Message Students Who feature is labeled for screen readers.

Explanation: The Message Students Who button did not contain a label for screen readers and only referenced it as a text. Canvas code has been updated with descriptive text for the feature button.

Global Navigation

Grades

If an instructor is enrolled in more than one section within a course, the Global Navigation Grades link displays only one link to the course.

Explanation: When opening the Grades link within Global Navigation, instructors who are teaching more than one section within a course were seeing multiple course links. Canvas code has been updated to display one course link regardless of multiple section enrollments.

Groups

Groups Page Accessibility

Users can access all Group information using keyboard navigation.

Explanation: Students who use keyboard navigation were not able to completely navigate the Groups Page. Specifically, after joining, leaving, or switching groups, users did not receive a change confirmation, could not view all group details, and were not able to view the group member list. Canvas code has been updated to correct these accessibility concerns.

People

Email Address Error Message Accessibility

The error message regarding invalid email addresses is visible to screen readers.

Explanation: After entering an invalid email address when adding a user, the error message did not allow access to the Start Over button. Canvas code has been updated to properly read the error message.

Remove Enrollment Icon Accessibility

The Remove Enrollment link is labeled for screen readers.

Explanation: On a user’s profile page, the icon to remove enrollments as an admin did not contain a description for screen readers and only referenced it as a link. Canvas code has been updated with descriptive text for the icon.

Quizzes

Graded Date

Grades for student submissions do not post on future dates.

Explanation: After a student score was posted in the Gradebook, sometimes the grade would disappear; the Gradebook history would show that the grade had been posted on a future date. Canvas code has been updated to adjust the graded_at value according to current time zone for accurate date submissions.

Delete Uploaded File Accessibility

The button to delete an uploaded file is labeled for screen readers.

Explanation: In File Upload question types, the button to delete an uploaded file did not contain a description for screen readers and only referenced it as a link. Canvas code has been updated with descriptive text for the icon and to refer to the link as a button.

Quiz Previews

Quiz preview statistics do not appear in quiz results.

Explanation: When an instructor previewed and then submitted a quiz, the quiz results included the instructor preview as being from a logged out user. Canvas code has been updated to exclude instructor quiz previews when displaying quiz submissions.

Rubrics

Add Rubric Button

The Add Rubric button is always available in Outcomes.

Explanation: When a user opened Outcomes and added a new rubric, the Add Rubric button would disappear until the browser window was refreshed. Canvas code has been updated to always display the Add Rubric button in Outcomes.

SpeedGrader

Chrome File Icon Tooltip

In Chrome, after viewing the tooltip for the File icon in SpeedGrader, the tooltip disappears.

Explanation: When using SpeedGrader in a Chrome browser window, users who hovered over the File icon generated the icon tooltip, but the tooltip would not disappear until the window was refreshed. Upon further investigation Canvas engineers discovered this behavior occurred because of a tooltip display bug within Chrome. Canvas code has been updated to close Chrome tooltips after their initial view.

iOS Browsers

Users who use Safari to view SpeedGrader on their mobile devices can scroll through all student submissions.

Explanation: iOS mobile users who viewed SpeedGrader using the Safari browser were not able to scroll vertically through student submissions. This behavior only occurred within Safari and did not affect the Canvas SpeedGrader app. Canvas code has been updated with an adjustment to the cascading style sheet.

Syllabus

Public User Views

Users who are not logged in to Canvas can view a syllabus if it is made public.

Explanation: When a user tried to access a public syllabus, the syllabus page would not display the list of assignments. Canvas code has been updated to confirm non-logged-in users as viewers for a public syllabus.