Reading Time: 2 minutes With the latest update, Canvas has simplified how some aspects of New Quizzes work. They’ve added Item Banks to your course navigation, and they’ve also adjusted some of the sharing settings. Item Banks in Course Navigation We’ll look at the first item well…first. We’ve talked before about the hoops to jump through to add or edit questions in New Quiz Item Banks. That method is still valid, but Canvas has added a new way to jump to Item Banks quickly – a link directly in your course navigation (if you can’t see it there, check the Navigation tab of your course settings to make sure Item Banks is…
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Canvas Update: SpeedGrader Comment Library
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canvas is adding a new feature on June 19, 2021, to help make SpeedGrader even speedier – a library where you can save and quickly access feedback comments. Before we dive into the specifics of this new feature, we do need to define a couple of things first. What you typically think of as “SpeedGrader” is in fact two separate things that work together – DocViewer (the left side of the screen where you can see the document and annotate it) and SpeedGrader (the right panel where you enter grades and add overall feedback comments). This distinction is very important with this new feature – this is a SpeedGrader comment library. Now that we’ve made…
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Canvas Update: Release Notes Available in the Canvas Help Menu
Reading Time: < 1 minute We’re going to spend the next couple weeks looking at the new Canvas features being released in June. The first feature we’re focusing on is the release notes themselves. Release notes are currently available through the Canvas community website. You can go there each month to check out the planned changes or updates for Canvas. But Canvas is making it even easier to view each new installment of the release notes. Once this new update goes live on June 19, you’ll be able to access the release notes from the Canvas help menu. In that menu, you’ll see the release notes for whatever role(s) you have…
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Canvas Update: Accessing New Quiz Settings
Reading Time: < 1 minute In the latest update, Canvas made it easier to access the overall quiz settings for a New Quiz. Previously, you could set the overall points and due date for the quiz when you initially created it, then there was only a single, very specific method to access those settings again. With the update, you can now access those settings from almost anywhere in Canvas. Previously, you’d click on a New Quiz and immediately go to the “Build” page. Now when you click on a New Quiz from the Assignments, Quizzes, or Modules pages, you will be taken to the overall quiz settings page where you can adjust the quiz name, number of points, and due date/time. …
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Canvas Update: New Quizzes and the Modules Page
Reading Time: 2 minutes In the new Canvas update, you’ll see some new functionality with New Quizzes on the Modules page inside Canvas. Previously, if you tried to add a quiz from the Modules page, your only option was a Classic Quiz. If you wanted a New Quiz, you needed to create it from the Quizzes page before going back to the Modules page and adding it to your module. But with the March 20 update, the content selector for a module will now show you which quizzes in your course are Classic Quizzes and also allow you to create a New Quiz. Let’s take a look at each. Identifying Classic Quizzes In the new Canvas update,…
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Canvas Update Incoming: New Rich Content Editor
Reading Time: 4 minutes Canvas is introducing a new look to its Rich Content Editor, the text editor you use in places like pages, assignment descriptions, and announcements. This update keeps all the same functionality as before – it just has a different process to accomplish those tasks while adding some cool timesaving features. Let’s start out by mentioning the biggest difference – the links panel has been removed, and all those items are now folded into the toolbar at the top of the editor. There are two different menus above the text box – the Rich Content Editor Menu Bar is on top and contains the items in text-based menu drop-downs, and the Rich Content Editor Toolbar displays the items in a “ribbon” format…
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Canvas Release Update: Course Navigation Visual Changes
Reading Time: 3 minutes Canvas is implementing visual updates to course navigation on October 19, 2019. But don’t worry – this change will not affect how the navigation functions. This update will improve accessibility and clarity, especially regarding hidden menu items. So, what are the changes? Currently, course navigation displays items visible to students in black, items hidden to students in a light grey, and the current page with a blue highlight. When you hover over an item, it displays a light grey background. These style elements did not meet accessibility guidelines. The contrast between hidden and visible items was too low, and the hidden/visible status was only defined by…