Here are some interesting new Canvas features from the past 12 months. They fall into three areas: creating content in Modules & Pages, using the Gradebook, and using Canvas Studio.
Modules, Pages, and the RCE
Bulk Publication for Modules
Teachers can easily publish or unpublish all modules & module items. Read more in June 17, 2023 release notes.
Scheduled Page Publication
Teachers can schedule publication for an unpublished page. Teachers can use the Publish At box in any unpublished page in their courses. Click here to read full release notes for Saturday, October, 15, 2022.
Drag and Drop Media into Canvas’s Rich Content Editor (RCE)
Canvas users can copy and paste or drag and drop to add media (images, audio, videos, etc.) while composing pages, announcements, etc. with Canvas RCE (Rich Content Editor). Read more in the February 15, 2023 deploy notes.
Gradebook
Submit on Behalf of Students
Teachers and TAs with the ability to edit grades can find a Submit for Student link by opening the Gradebook, clicking a cell, and clicking the grade detail tray icon to open details for the submission represented by the cell. When someone submits files on behalf of students, Canvas displays the name of that person and the time they submitted it. Read more in the March 18, 2023 Canvas release notes.
New Filters and Sorts
Teachers and other graders can click the new Apply Filters button to find all filtering options, including new filters based on assignments due dates and submissions status. They may also name and save combinations of filters for reuse. Instructure enabled the new filter layout in all courses on August 19, 2023. Click here to go to the guide to gradebook filters.
Teachers and other graders may sort by an assignment column’s excused submissions or unposted grades in Gradebook. See April 12, 2023 deploy notes for more information.
Canvas Studio
Edit Media in Browser
Users can choose Edit Media from a video’s options menu to trim and cut within their web browser. See September, 26, 2022 Studio Release Notes for more details.
Media Embed Customization
Users can set embedded Studio media display size (medium, large, extra large, or custom) in the Canvas RCE (rich content editor). See the May 20, 2023 Canvas release notes for more details.
Set Start Time on YouTube or Vimeo Media
Teachers can set playback start time for YouTube and Vimeo videos added to their Canvas Studio Library (April 3, 2023 Studio release notes).
Caption Editing Improved
Half a dozen improvements to Studio captions came arrived between February 21, 2023 and May 8, 2023 Studio releases.
- Studio media owners can use a search box with find & replace functionality to correct captions.
- Studio displays caption edits in real time.
- The media now displays beside the caption editor so it’s visible while editing.
- Studio caption editing also has a new Insert Line function, which media owners can use to make captions more accessible (recommended maximum line length is 32 characters).
- All users can download transcripts from captioned Canvas Studio media.
- While editing media captions, Canvas Studio saves automatically.
Header Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash