Content

• Icon Maker
• Default Due Time
• Apply Score to Ungraded
• Improved Gradebook Filtering
• Course Pacing
• Improved Emoji Support
• Equation Editor Facelift

New Canvas Features for First Half 2022 – So Far

Canvas has received a handful of smaller new features during the Spring semester that are worth sharing. While none are individually major updates, each of them will be a useful tool for some people.

If you would like, you can go to the Canvas release notes page to see the details from the vendor.

Icon Maker

The rich content editor (RCE) now has a new button on the toolbar: the icon maker. With the icon maker, you can, without leaving Canvas, use images to create clickable “button-like” icons in your course. We expect a lot of instructors will be excited for this feature, especially those who like creating home pages for their course. Try it out!

• Pitt guide: RCE Icon Maker
• Canvas guide: How do I create an icon using the Rich Content Editor Icon Maker?
• Canvas guide: How do I edit an icon made using the Rich Content Editor Icon Maker?
• Canvas guide: How do I delete an icon made using the Rich Content Editor Icon Maker?
• Or try our Making a Canvas Front Page interactive tutorial!

Default Due Time

There is a new course setting: default due time. If you edit this setting, all new assignments you create in your course will default to the specified due time. You can still change the due time on a per-assignment basis. If you do not set this, the Canvas global default remains 11:59 p.m.

• Canvas guide: How do I set details for a course?

Apply Score to Ungraded

There is a new feature in the gradebook where graders can apply a score to all ungraded assignments in a whole course. While this feature has previously existed on a per-assignment (per-column) basis, the enhanced functionality now allows you to do this for an entire assignment group or the whole gradebook. This is used so you can apply a “0” grade for unsubmitted work. (Unsubmitted work default to a “-” grade, which Canvas interprets as “exempt” by default.)

• Pitt guide: Using the Gradebook
• Canvas guide: How do I apply scores to ungraded assignments?

Improved Gradebook Filtering

The gradebook page has been updated for better viewing and filtering across a few recent updates. You can easily filter by student or assignment by typing a name, or you can build (and save) more complex filters, such as “show me all quiz assignments for students in my section 1050”. Saved filters are easily toggled, without the need to redo the filters every time you want to use them.

In the screenshot below:

1. Notice that the view menu has been removed.
2. The options that were previously in the view menu are within the gradebook settings. All the same options (assignment sorting and color label selection) are still there, but some new ones are now available (such as turning off assignment group subtotals — which was a very commonly-requested feature). Don’t forget to click Apply in the bottom right after changing settings.
3. You can type a student’s name or assignment name (or both) to filter your gradebook quickly to just what you need.
4. Or you can click the filters button to create

If you click the Filters button, a sidecar will open on the right of your screen to build filters. You can add conditions, name the filter set, and save it. In the future, just click the Apply Conditions switch to turn on or off all filters in that filter set at once. Only one filter set can be enabled at a time. See the guide linked below for the full options available while building filters.

• Pitt guide: Using the Gradebook
• Canvas guide: How do I create a filter in Enhanced Gradebook Filters?

Course Pacing

Course pacing is a new feature that allows you to have variable assignment open, close, and due dates based on when the student joints a course. For instance, you can say “This assignment is due 14 days after the student joins the course.” While it can be used with standard courses to make it easier to reuse content from semester to semester, this is most useful for rolling-enrollment type courses, like non-PeopleSoft learning modules. This is still a feature preview and is likely to be enhanced or changed before final release.

• Canvas video: Feature preview overview.
• Pitt guide: Course Pacing
• Canvas guide: How do I enable Course Pacing as an Instructor?
• Canvas guide: How do I use Course Pacing?

Improved Emoji Support

Canvas already has good support for emoji entered by the user. However, there is now an emoji picker directly in Canvas when entering comments with SpeedGrader. Students also have an emoji picker in their submission comments.

Equation Editor Facelift

The equation editor in the Canvas rich content editor has gotten a facelift. It is now more responsive, scales better to different screen sizes, and is organized a bit more cleanly. There is no change in the functionality available, though it is now easier to toggle between editing LaTeX directly. A couple buttons related to vector math have been added for easier access to those glyphs.

• Canvas guide: How do I use the Math Editor in the Rich Content Editor?