Canvas Release content is subject to change
Canvas may alter the content in a release until the scheduled date, pending feedback in the Canvas Community. Documentation links will be included as they become available.
Implementation Date: February 20, 2021
In this Canvas Release, the changes below became part of the main Canvas environment.
- MathJax Equation Enhancements & Text Field LaTeX Characters: LaTeX equations can be entered in any Canvas text field, and MathJax is loaded if Canvas detects an equation image added by delimited LaTeX characters. Read more about the math editor in the “How do I use the Math Editor in the Rich Content Editor as an instructor?” guide.
- Pretty HTML Editor: The Rich Content Editor includes a pretty HTML editor in addition to the raw HTML editor. Pretty HTML indents and colorizes the HTML for easier editing. See “How do I use the HTML view in the Rich Content Editor as an instructor?” for more information.
Additional features included in this update but not added to the ISU environment are listed below. These decisions are continuously revisited as Canvas adds further functionality.
- Grading Period in CSV Headers: Grading Periods have not been enabled at ISU as they do not accommodate courses with non-standard start and end dates.
- Import Override Scores in Gradebook: This adds the ability to import a CSV file to a Final Grade Override column in the Gradebook, which has not been enabled at ISU.
- Any Teacher, Co-teacher, or TA has the ability to enable the Final Grade Override column; it is not specific to the Instructor of Record.
- Once enabled in a course it cannot be disabled.
- If applied too early in the semester, students would see an inaccurate grade throughout the semester, which could potentially result in a student’s grade changing from an A to an F immediately prior to grade submission.
- Final Grade override actions are not recorded in the Gradebook history so there is no record of who changed a student’s score or when.
- View Ungraded as Zero: This feature allows an instructor to view student grades as if all ungraded assignments were worth zero points. This change is not reflected in the student’s view; the instructor and student see two different grades.
- There is a warning when the option is first turned on but the setting persists until the instructor turns it off, with no additional warnings.
- The only indicator that this is enabled is each Gradebook column will now include the words “Ungraded as 0” in the column header. This indicator can get lost in the clutter of posting policies and the unpublished status indicator.
- A similar option previously existed in Canvas and caused significant issues during grade submission.
Read the Canvas Release Notes for more information on these changes.m