What’s New in Canvas: Back-to-School Edition

by | Sep 28, 2020 | Canvas, Canvas Features/Functions

Photo by Deleece Cook on Unsplash

There have been several significant changes and updates to Canvas over the past few months. As the Autumn Quarter begins, we present to you those changes that may be particularly useful to you in teaching and learning.

Personal Pronouns in Canvas

Personal pronouns are now available in Canvas. Students’ pronouns should be set in my.uchicago.edu and will feed into Canvas from there. Faculty, instructors, and staff can set their preferred pronouns directly in Canvas.

  1. In the global Canvas menu, choose Account –> Settings.
  2. Click the Edit Settings button.
  3. Choose your preferred pronouns from the drop-down menu and click Update Settings.
    Screen for choosing personal pronouns

Your preferred pronouns will then appear under your name in the Canvas interface.

Global Announcement Link under User Account

When you click on Account in the global Canvas navigation menu, you will now see a link for Global Announcements.
Global Announcements in menu

Clicking this link will take you to a page where you can view both current and recent announcements. You may find this feature helpful if you have recently closed an announcement and would like to view it again.

Example of current announcement

Example of recent announcements

Course Navigation Rubrics Link

The course navigation menu for your fall course now includes a link for Rubrics.
Rubrics in course navigation menu

Clicking this link will take you to a page with all rubrics associated with the course. Rubrics can be a valuable tool for assessing student work in a clear and consistent fashion. For more information, see:

Delete Multiple Canvas Pages at Once

You can now delete multiple Canvas pages at once. To use this functionality:

  1. In your course site, go to Pages –> View All Pages.
  2. Check the boxes next to the pages you wish to delete.
  3. Click the Delete icon (trash can).
    Example of multiple pages selected for deletion

Note that if a content page is set as the front page for your course, the delete functionality will be disabled for that page.

Add Multiple Files at Once to Modules

With recent enhancements to Canvas’ file upload functionality, it is now possible to add multiple files at once to your Canvas modules. Once you create and name a module, a space will appear that allows you to drag-and-drop multiple files from your computer into the module,
Box for uploading files into module

If you click the plus sign icon to add files to the module, you can also select multiple files to add at one time by using Ctrl+Click (PC) or Cmd+Click (Mac). Canvas will display the number of files you have selected to add.
Example of adding multiple files at once

Unsupported Browsers

As of July 18, 2020, Canvas code has been updated to support the two most recent versions of Firefox (77 and 78), Google Chrome (81 and 83 [82 was skipped due to the pandemic]), and Safari (12 and 13). If you are using an earlier version of one of these browsers, it may not work properly with Canvas. Please update your browser to the latest version to ensure that Canvas continues to work properly.

New Analytics

Canvas now offers new and improved course analytics and downloadable CSV files to help instructors keep track of student performance in their courses. We will discuss these new analytics in more detail in a forthcoming blog post. See:

Further Information

For further information, see the Canvas release notes. To catch up on changes and updates from earlier in the summer, see What’s New in Canvas – June 2020. You can also contact Academic Technology Solutions with any questions you may have.