New Feature / New Release

Introducing Canvas’s New Gradebook

Kent Barclay New Feature / New Release

Overview

On Wednesday, September 11, Canvas’s New Gradebook replaces the current gradebook in all Endicott courses.  The New Gradebook offers a number of new and enhanced features to help you input, manage, and release grades to students.

New Gradebook View

New Feature Highlights

  • More filtering and sorting options: Instructors use the View menu to arrange assignment columns by name, due date, points, and modules. You can also filter by  assignment group, module,  section or student group.
  • Crosshairs:  The New Gradebook offers crosshairs and highlighting for improved orientation and rows use alternating colors to help with navigation.
  • Submission status color coding: Instructors can customize the color associated with a Gradebook Status: late, missing, resubmitted, dropped, or excused. Any changes an instructor makes to the default status colors will persist for that instructor throughout all of his/her courses.
  • Grade detail tray: The grade detail tray displays a grading summary by assignment and student, a link to view and download the submission in Speedgrader, submission status options, and comment field.  Additionally, you can click the next and previous links at the top of the tray to advance to another student or advance directly to another assignment for that student.
  • Late and missing submission policies: Instructors can set course-level grading rules to automatically apply to late and missing submissions. Review the Late Policy Instructor FAQ to learn more.
  • Post and hide grade policies: Instructors can set a course-level policy that controls when and how grades are released to students with the Post and Hide Grade Policy options – Watch this video for details

Learning Resources

Canvas Conferences – Updated User Interface

Kent Barclay New Feature / New Release ,

HTML5 User Interface Update as of April 20, 2019

The BigBlueButton Conferences interface has been redesigned using HTML5 for improved usability. This change makes the Conferences interface faster and easier to use and removes the requirement for extensions or plugins such as Adobe Flash for audio/video sharing and Javascript for screen sharing.

Supported Browsers:  Firefox or Chrome on desktop and Safari or Chrome on mobile devices.  Note: The new Conferences interface is not supported on Internet Explorer or Edge browsers.

To Learn More

Watch this 6 minute Big Blue Button – Moderator/Presenter Interface video

Watch this 5 minute Big Blue Button – Viewer Interface video

Canvas Tips – Spring 2018 Workshop Handout

Kent Barclay Guidelines, New Feature / New Release, Tutorials

For those who can’t attend the Canvas Tips – Spring 2018 workshop this spring, I’ve linked to the Google doc handout that I put together for the session and also embedded it in this blog post.   So, check out the tips for each category by clicking on the hyperlinks for details on how to access and implement the feature(s) and contact me if you have any questions!

New Canvas Integration – Respondus LockDown Browser

Kent Barclay Integration, New Feature / New Release, Tutorials ,

Are you looking for a way to prevent students taking an online Canvas quiz from accessing any outside websites, printing, copying or accessing other applications  during the quiz ?   If yes, then consider requiring students to use the Respondus LockDown Browser,  which is now available within Endicott’s Canvas platform. 

Learn More about how to require students to use the LockDown Browser with a Canvas quiz with these resources:

 

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Canvas Conferences – Updated UI and student engagement features

Kent Barclay New Feature / New Release , ,

Check out the updated interface and new student engagement features in Canvas Conferences which integrates with the Big Blue Button (BBB) web conferencing platform. Key changes include:

  • Cleaner user interface with new icons.
  • Students can download presentations if presenter turns on the download option.
  • Public chat transcript can be saved and downloaded.
  • Multi-user whiteboard is available with user names displayed when drawing.
  • Shared notes layout lets students collaborate to created shared notes during lecture and breakout rooms.

Watch the 5 minute BigBlueButton 2.0 Overview to see new features.

Canvas Production Release Notes (2017-07-15)

Kent Barclay New Feature / New Release ,

In an effort to continually improve Canvas, Instructure, the parent company of Canvas, releases Canvas upgrades every three weeks along with Production Release Notes. Key features in the July 15 production release are listed below. For more details, view the full Canvas Production Release Notes for July 15, 2017 and its accompanying screencast. The next release is July 31, 2017.

New Features and Upgrades

1. Assignments and pages can now be duplicated in Canvas courses!  Duplicating discussions and quizzes are planned for a future release.

2. Modules replaces Recent Activity Stream as the default Course Home page for new courses. Instructors can still choose a different course home page option.

3. A Course Setup Tutorial is now available and replaces the Course Setup Checklist. In Account Settings, faculty can enable the tutorial to display for all courses.  Learn more about the Course Setup Tutorial here.

4. The default font size has increased from 14px to 16 px and new icons are used throughout Canvas.

5. The new Calendar Scheduler feature is turned on for Endicott. Use the links below to learn about the new Scheduler feature:

Announcing Canvas DocViewer

Kent Barclay New Feature / New Release

Canvas DocViewer is the new content preview and annotations tool that will replace the current Box previewer and Crocodoc annotation tools in Canvas on Monday, June 19.

Why is Canvas switching to DocViewer?

Canvas developed DocViewer to replace the third-party Crocodoc tool to better support customer needs. DocViewer provides a stronger technical foundation to improve existing features, and future product enhancements.

How is DocViewer different?

DocViewer supports all the same document types and the same annotation types as current functionality, with extra benefits including:

  • Modern interface that looks and feels like Canvas
  • Improved performance
  • Fewer clicks

What does DocViewer look like?

In SpeedGrader, the DocViewer toolbar displays the number of pages for a document, zoom in and out of the file, and use one of six annotation types for commenting: point, highlight, free text, strikeout, free draw, and area.

DocViewer for Speedgrader Annotations

How can I learn more about DocViewer?

Read the Canvas Release: Canvas DocViewer release notes to learn more about supported file types, Annotation Tools and Known Issues.