In this blog post, we highlight important Canvas updates that have occurred or have been announced within the past month.

Post Policy Icon Updates in New Gradebook

The icons used with the Manual Posting Policy in the New Gradebook have been updated.  If an assignment has been set with the Manual Posting Policy, the word MANUAL will appear in the assignment header to indicate this.  If there are grades entered in the column that need to be posted, a grayed-out eye icon will appear. Once all grades have been posted, the eye icon will then disappear.  For more information on how the Manual Posting Policy works, please see the newly updated post Grade Posting Policies in the New Gradebook: An Overview.

Gradebook column with new icons indicated

New Course Navigation Menu Is Here

As of Oct. 19, the Canvas Course Navigation Menu has been updated to increase accessibility.  The link that is currently active is designated by black text and a vertical line, while all links that are not active are in light blue.  Links that are not visible to students are indicated by a crossed-out eye icon, replacing the light gray text formerly used to designate invisible links.  For more information, please see the September highlights post.

Restrict Private Chats in Canvas Conferences

The BigBlueButton interface in Canvas Conferences now allows the moderator of a Canvas Conference (i.e. the instructor) to prevent students from creating private chat messages with one another.  When the lock setting for “See other viewers in the Users list” is enabled, students will not be able to see one another, only themselves and the instructor; this will prevent them from creating a private chat with anyone except the moderator (instructor).

Lock viewers screen in Canvas Conferences

Further Resources and Getting Help

For full information on recent changes to Canvas, please see the October 19 release notes. Note that not all features are necessarily enabled at this time.  If you have further questions, please contact Academic Technology Solutions.