Canvas Updates & New Releases

February 2023 Release Summary

Instructors (Rolled out March 1, 2023 for Students)

The following is a highlight of recent feature releases and updates in Canvas that may be of interest to all Canvas users. For a complete summary of all the updates to Canvas, see the Canvas Release Notes sorted by date and organized by role (Instructor, Student, and Admin). You can also see release notes in the Canvas Help menu located on the global navigation bar in the lower left side. 

Rich Content Editor (RCE)
The Rich Content Editor (RCE) now supports pasting and the drag and drop of content. Users can copy and paste an image from a browser or photo viewing app in the RCE. Also, users can copy an image, audio, or video file from a file system directory viewer, such as the macOS Finder or Windows File Explorer and paste it in the RCE. Additionally, users can drag a file from the local file system and drop it in the RCE.

When dragging and dropping an image from the web, an HTML IMG tag referencing the file at its location on the web is inserted into the RCE. This may or may not display the image for other users depending on the public visibility of the source image.

For additional information related to this feature, see this article: RCE Drag and Drop.
 

December 2022 Release Summary

The following is a highlight of recent feature releases and updates in Canvas that may be of interest to both students and instructors. For a complete summary of all the updates to Canvas, see the Canvas Release Notes sorted by date and organized by role (Instructor, Student, and Admin). You can also see release notes in the Canvas Help menu located on the global navigation bar in the lower left side. 

Instructors and Students

Rich Content Editor
Within the Rich Content Editor (RCE), Canvas now provides a detailed word count when clicking on the Word Counter in the lower right corner of the RCE status bar. Previously the detailed word count was only available via the Tools link in the RCE tool bar. For more details on the detailed word count feature, see this guide.

Students

Grades
Students can easily access instructor feedback within Grades. When a new comment is added to a rubric, an indicator (blue dot) displays on the rubric button. When a new comment is added to an assignment, an indicator and the number of comments displays on the feedback button. Students can click the rubric and feedback buttons and quickly access the feedback from within Grades. For more information, see this video.

November 2022 Release Summary

The following is a highlight of recent feature releases and updates in Canvas that may be of interest to instructors. For a complete summary of all the updates to Canvas, see the Canvas Release Notes sorted by date and organized by role (Instructor, Student, and Admin). You can also see release notes in the Canvas Help menu located on the global navigation bar in the lower left side.

Instructor

Release Date: November 20, 2022

Canvas Gradebook

  • You can now easily apply a score to ungraded assignments in bulk. This can save a lot of time if you have many students who have ungraded submissions because they did not make a submission attempt. For more details on using the Apply Score to Ungraded Submissions feature in the gradebook, see this video.