August 8, 2024
Reading Time: About 2 mins
Canvas released new updates on July 20, 2024, which can impact how instructors and students engage with their courses. Canvas has redesigned the Assignment and Discussions interfaces and made changes to Announcements; the Published/Unpublished interface; the Assign To function for Modules, Discussions and Pages; Microsoft Immersive Reader; and Inbox messages. See below for details on these recent changes.
Assignment Redesign
Due dates, availability dates and the “assign to specific students” function can now be adjusted without being in Edit mode. The Assign To button now appears next to Edit button, where instructors can directly assign and manage due dates and availability dates.
In Edit mode, Manage Assign To appears where there was previously a box labelled Assign To.
Discussions Redesign
Discussions can now be set as partially anonymous, where students may choose to reveal their name and profile picture or to remain totally anonymous. Graded and group discussions are not supported in Anonymous Discussions.
Additionally, instructors can now assign discussions to specific students and sections and manage availability dates by:
- Selecting the Assign To button at the top right-hand corner of the discussion, or;
- Selecting the Manage Assign To button at the bottom of the page when the discussion is in Edit mode.
Instructors can also Edit a discussion by clicking the three dots on the right-hand side of the discussion.
For discussions that are linked to a Group Set, instructors can view the submissions posted by each group by selecting the “two people” icon in the left corner of the bar above the discussion.
See below for answers to commonly asked questions:
- How do I create a discussion as an instructor?
- How do I edit a discussion in a course?
- How do I reply to a discussion as a student?
Announcements
Mark All as Read Button
This button allows users to mark all announcements as read. This feature can be useful for minimizing the appearance of notifications in Canvas announcements.
Availability Dates
This function allows instructors to set start and end dates to determine how long an announcement is available on Canvas. This can be useful for delaying start and end dates for specific announcements and for scheduling announcements prior to posting them.
Course Status Dropdown Menu
When publishing a course, the Publish and Unpublish options now appear in a drop-down menu.
Modules, Discussions and Pages
Individual and entire module items, pages and discussions (see more in Discussion Redesign) can now be assigned to specific students, extending the “assign to specific students” functionality beyond Assignments or Quizzes. This functionality may help instructors determine what content should be visible to specific students within a course, creating an adaptive, dynamic learning environment.
Microsoft Immersive Reader
Effective from July 25, there is now a Microsoft Immersive Reader button in the upper right corner of pages, assignments, the course home page and the syllabus. While Immersive Reader has always been a feature on Canvas, with the option to enable it under user settings, this update makes the Immersive Reader button appear by default.
For further information on how to use Microsoft Immersive Reader, see:
Auto-response for Inbox messages
Auto-response messages in Canvas are similar to out-of-office messages for emails. This functionality may help instructors refer students to other points of contact for the course when they are personally unavailable.
Note: The auto-response for Inbox messages feature is currently being tested at UBC and will be available in the coming weeks.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at lddi.educ@ubc.ca.