The Sheridan Center's Digital Learning and Design Team would like to announce updates made in preparation for the Winter / Spring 2023 semesters. If you have any questions about any of the updates below, please contact us at [email protected].
Canvas Office Hours
For the start of the Spring 2023 semester the DLD will be offering 15-minute Canvas Office Hours. Please use this scheduler link to find and book your session.
Removal of deprecated versions of Canvas-integrated learning tools
The following Canvas-integrated learning tools were updated in early Fall 2022 to the most current versions using LTI 1.3 standards. With the fall semester coming to a close and in preparation for the Winter and Spring 2023 semesters, we have removed/updated these tools to avoid conflicts and to ensure that everyone will now use the current and more secure LTI 1.3 tools. With these updates, some of your old assignments/activities that used the previous integration may stop working in your old course sites. If you have copied versions of activities that were created prior to this upgrade, you will need to relink them to Canvas using the new 1.3 integration. Please see below for more details about each tool. If you need any help updating your content, please contact [email protected] or schedule a consultation.
GoReact
Change: Updated Tool Link URLs
Summary: Our GoReact integration has been updated to meet the new vendor requirements for installation. The features of the tool have not changed, but this update may impact previously created activities. If your activities have stopped functioning, you will need to recreate them following the steps in the Creating GoReact Assignments in Canvas help guide. If you need help with this tool, use this scheduler link to book a consultation.
Gradescope
Change: Removed extraneous Gradescope 1.0 integration
Summary: Gradescope's updated tool provides greater ease for instructors to create, link and synchronize Gradescope activities to Canvas. This upgrade will alleviate issues that instructors were seeing with duplicate buttons for Grade/Roster/Course synchronization. If your assignments were previously linked to Canvas via the 1.0 tool, you will need to relink your assignments to Canvas using the 1.3 integration. Visit the help article on Using Gradescope with Canvas as an Instructor for details. If you need help with this tool, use this scheduler link to book a consultation.
Hypothesis
Change: Deprecated Tool Integration Version Removed: Hypothesis.s (Deprecated)
Remaining LTI 1.3 Tool: Hypothesis
Summary: Hypothesis has upgraded their tool to be more secure, but otherwise functionality is relatively unchanged. If your activities have stopped functioning, you will need to recreate them following the steps in Using the Hypothesis LMS App With Assignments in Canvas or Using the Hypothesis LMS App With Modules in Canvas. If you need help with this tool, use this scheduler link to book a consultation.
Additional Note: The 1.3 and 1.0 versions of this tool ran in tandem during the Fall 2022 semester. If you have already upgrade to the 1.3 version of the tool, you should not be impacted by this change.
NameCoach
Change: Updating the NameCoach Instructor Roster View
Summary: For instructors who have used the NameCoach roster within Canvas, the tool used to list out student pronouns (if provided). With this update, the column for pronouns will be re-added back to the instructor roster view for future courses. If you need help with this tool, use this scheduler link to book a consultation.
Top Hat
Change: Deprecated Tool Integration Version Removed: Top Hat (Deprecated)
Remaining LTI 1.3 Tool: Top Hat
Summary: The Updated Top Hat 1.3 learning tool can be integrated as part of the Course Navigation menu (recommended) for easy access for both instructors and students and can also be linked to specific Canvas Assignments so that they appear in the Canvas Grades area. This updated integration makes it easier for instructors to create activities and link them and also provides daily automatic roster and grade syncing. See the Canvas Top Hat LTI comparison chart to see a comparison of the features between 1.1 and 1.3. To get started using the new integration, check out our Quick Start Guide and our Course Setup Guide. If you need help with this tool, use this scheduler link to book a consultation.
Additional Note: The 1.3 and 1.0 versions of this tool ran in tandem during the Fall 2022 semester. If you have already upgrade to the 1.3 version of the tool, you should not be impacted by this change.
UDOIT
Change: Deprecated Tool Version Scheduled Removal on January 30, 2023: UDOIT
Remaining LTI 1.3 Tool: Accessibility (UDOIT) (also known as UDOIT Cloud 3.0)
Summary: UDOIT has been replaced with a new and improved version. This upgraded tool (which is called Accessibility (UDOIT) in Canvas) can be enabled on your Canvas course navigation menu. With the new tool, UDOIT will auto scan your course as soon as you click on the tool and will let you know what content has changed since the last scan. For more details on what has changed, please visit the UDOIT Cloud 3.0 feature review. If you need help with this tool, use this scheduler link to book a consultation.
Additional Note: Users will have until January 30, 2023 to download prior reports from the deprecated UDOIT tool.
New Canvas-Integrated Learning Tools
Atomic Journals
Atomic Journals was installed in early Fall 2022 and is available for use in academic courses. Atomic Journals allows instructors to add journaling activities as separate Canvas assignments or as activities embedded within text via the rich content editor. For more details, please visit our help article on Atomic Journals.
Course Reserves (Leganto)
The Brown University Library announced a new reserves platform, named Course Reserves (also known as Leganto) which replaces the Library's current Online Course Reserves Access (OCRA) service and will provide an improved experience for instructors and students. The new tool is fully integrated with Canvas and starting Winter / Spring 2023 will be the only available option for online course reserves. For more information about Course Reserves, please visit https://library.brown.edu/reserves/ or contact [email protected].
Turnitin Draft Coach
Turnitin's Draft Coach tool is an application that students can use to get instantaneous feedback on their writing before submitting an assignment to Canvas. Draft Coach provides similarity checking, citations checking, and grammar improvement suggestions. The tool is integrated with both Google Docs and with Microsoft Word 365 (online) and is now available to any Brown user with an active Brown ID authenticated Google account.
For more information, please refer to our help article on Turnitin Draft Coach.
Other Updates
Media Library (Panopto) and Canvas Course Copy
In late December 2022, an update was released to Panopto that will allow Media Library content to be copied as part of the Canvas Course Copy process. When an instructor initiates the Canvas course import the content stored in the origin course site's Media Library tool will also be copied into the destination course site's Media Library tool*. The copied content will be automatically shared with the users in the destination course site and any media embeds that were created using the Panopto LTI (using the Rich Content Editor's Panopto embed button) will automatically be updated to link to the content in the destination course site. The process may take up to 1 hour to complete once begun so you may not immediately see content appear in the Media Library. This exciting new feature will make it easier for instructors to reuse their content in upcoming semesters without having to update and modify sharing permissions or media embed links.
* NOTE: Lecture capture content, Zoom class recordings, and Course Reserves content (Online Movies) will not be included in the course copy.
If you need any assistance copying your Media Library content, please contact the Media Services team.
Top Hat Offline Mode Retired
As of December 2022, Top Hat has retired their offline mode for student submissions. For instructors who relied on offline mode as a solution for connectivity issues during in-person activities, please review the Top Hat article on Professors: Connectivity Tips and Tricks.
Top Hat Presenter Tool for Windows Users
The Top Hat Presentation Tool is a downloadable tool used by some faculty who prefer to present questions over top of a slide presentation rather than upload their slides to Top Hat or create questions on the fly without using the web application. For instructors who use this tool on a Windows PC, there is a mandatory update that must be updated prior to January 6, 2023.
For those who are using the tool on their personal Window device, the updated tool can be downloaded from the Top Hat website.
For additional information on Using the Presentation Tool and requirements please visit Support_TopHat_Professor-Using-the-Presentation-Tool