The Sheridan Center's Digital Learning & Design Team would like to announce updates made in preparation for the Fall 2024 semester. If you have any questions about any of the updates below, please contact us at [email protected].
DLD Learning Technologies Canvas Support Options
Canvas Office Hours
DLD will be offering 15-minute Canvas Office Hours starting August 21st and throughout shopping period. Please use this scheduler link to find and book your session.
Fall Canvas Workshops
DLD’s Learning Technologies team is excited to announce two new virtual workshops: Canvas Basics and Organizing Your Canvas Site. These sessions aim to enhance instructors' Canvas knowledge and aid faculty in organizing their content for an improved user experience. No registration required to attend these sessions! Please visit Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning's Events@brown page for workshop specifics including the Zoom links.
Continuous Consultation Support for Canvas and Our Learning Technology Tools
Please note that you don't have to wait for our workshops or Canvas drop-in sessions to connect with a Learning Technologist. Our team is happy to discuss your specific technology needs throughout the year. To schedule a 30-minute appointment, please visit our consultation booking page using this link.
Our supported technology tools can be viewed on our Digital Teaching Tools website page.
Canvas Feature Enhancements Updates
The following enhancements have been updated/configured for Canvas and will automatically appear in your Canvas course sites:
Screen Capture and Auto Close Captioning in SpeedGrader
Canvas provides instructors with the ability to record video feedback or send audio/video files to students via SpeedGrader's comments section. A recent update to Canvas has introduced the Screen Capture feature, which enables visual demonstrations and explanations to accompany feedback videos, thereby providing multimodal feedback for diverse learners.
Additionally, this update incorporates auto-captioning features, aimed at enhancing accessibility and improving the clarity of feedback.
To see the feature in operation, watch this video made by our Canvas vendor, Instructure.
Randomize Student Order in SpeedGrader
Instructors now have the option in SpeedGrader to randomize students and hide their names in an effort to support anonymous grading.
One thing to note- once you select the option, it is saved by default in the browser course settings. This means that if you log into another device or use a different browser, you must select the randomizer sort option again.
Additional details can be found on the related article: How do I sort the student list in SpeedGrader?
Manage Due Dates and Assign To
When updating or creating a new assignment in Canvas, the "Assign To" date/time selection boxes have moved. Instead of appearing at the bottom of the assignment creation form, you will now see and click on the blue text titled "Manage Due Dates and Assign To". The "Assign To" menu will then appear in a tray to the right of the assignment window where you can fill out your course details in the fields provided.
Instructure, our Canvas vendor, has noted that in response to early testing feedback, there will be an update in the very near future that will make some small changes to the new format. To stay up to date on new developments, please read this release page.
Update as of 8/30: Instructure released an update to Canvas that reverted the previously mentioned changes. The date/time selection fields are no longer hidden and now appear as they did before when creating or editing a Canvas assignment, quiz, or page.
Although the update rolled back the new "Manage Due Dates and Assign To" menu, it retained the new "Assign To" button. This feature allows you to make date and assignment adjustments on the fly from a pop-out tray on the right, enabling the instructor to make changes without entering full edit mode.
Assign a Module to Individual Sections or Students
Canvas has now enabled the "Assign To" functionality to the Canvas Modules area. Instructors are now able to assign individual Canvas modules to specific students or sections via the "Assign To" feature found by selecting the three-dot menu located in the module header.
Learn more by reading this article: How do I assign a module to individual sections or students?
Important Featured Updates from Recent Semesters
Canvas Discussions Redesign (Spring/Summer 2024)
Instructure has revamped Canvas announcements and discussions, introducing additional features and options. These enhancements encompass a fresh interface for viewing discussion replies, the inclusion of anonymous discussions, and the capability to mention or quote another student in a post.
Canvas Discussions Redesign was enabled for all courses beginning Summer 2024.
Slack Course Workspaces (Fall 2023)
Brown University has procured an enterprise license of Slack. For the initial Fall 2023 roll-out (see the Today@Brown announcement), Slack will only be available to faculty and students enrolled in academic courses via the Slack integration within Canvas. With this Slack-Canvas integration, instructors and TAs can enable and create a Slack Course Workspace where the member list is tied to, and controlled by, the associated course's Canvas People tool roster. Please visit our help article on Slack Course Workspaces (via Canvas) for more information.
Sunsetting Google Jamboard
Google announced that Jamboard will be discontinued at the end of 2024. If you use Jamboard, we encourage you to export any projects that you would like to keep since they will no longer be available after December 31, 2024.
No new Google Jamboard projects can be created and all existing projects will become view-only on October 1, 2024.
Brown's Learning Technologies team is evaluating other whiteboard tool solutions including Miro and Zoom Whiteboard. Please complete this digital whiteboard feedback form if this type of tool is important to your teaching.
Previous Update Articles
If you would like to catch up on any updates you may have missed, please review our previous articles linked on our DLD Learning Technology Updates and Release Notes page.