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By Barb Stephens, January 15, 2019 8:15 pm

You can access BlueLine (aka Canvas) from any browser on your Android or iOS device. However, for the best user experience, you should view Canvas via the mobile app.

To access Canvas mobile apps, you need to know Creighton’s URL: blueline.instructure.com

Mobile App Guides

The links include how to download the mobile app and guide you on using the mobile app:

Mobile Guides – Canvas Teacher

Canvas Teacher allows teachers to facilitate their courses on the go, both inside and outside the classroom. This app provides quick access to grading, communicating, and updating – three of the most frequent course facilitation tasks for teachers through Announcements, Assignments, Discussions and Quizzes.

Canvas Teacher Android Guide

Canvas Teacher iOS Guide

Mobile Guides – Canvas by Instructure

The Canvas by Instructure app is the mobile version of Canvas that helps you stay current with your courses anywhere you go.

Canvas Student Android Guide

Canvas Student iOS Guide

For assistance with any of these apps or documentation, please contact Canvas Support.

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By Barb Stephens, January 8, 2019 6:38 pm

Canvas, the application better known as BlueLine, operates on a three-week release cycle through which features are added or updated. Some highlights from the most recent release notes follow. For further clarification, check out the full release notes site.

Course Settings: Course Link Validator Design Enhancements

The Course Link Validator page includes design enhancements for link clarity, including identifying broken Course Card images. The page description content has been updated to clarify the validator searches course content for invalid or unreachable links and images. Invalid means the link or image is no longer valid and the content should be removed or replaced. Unreachable means the link or image could not be displayed because of a situation with the host server, which may be temporarily unavailable. Unpublished content in the course is also displayed in the validation results if the Show Links to Unpublished Content checkbox is selected. Once the link validation process has completed, the page displays the following design enhancements:

• Content is grouped by object type (e.g. assignment, discussion, page)
• The object type is displayed below the link to each content item
• Each broken content item displays its relevant object type icon
• Broken external URL items in Modules are grouped by module
• Broken content within an object is identified as either a link or an image, with the appropriate icon displaying next to the broken content
• Broken content displays the name of the item as it displays in the Rich Content Editor
• Course Cards are a supported object type, which displays any course images added from Flickr that have been deleted

Course Settings: Course Dates and Functionality Clarifications

The Course Details page and Sections tab have been updated to clarify term and course dates as well as the options to restrict students from viewing the course. No functionality has been affected.

• The course date explanation text has been updated to suggest instructors verify the term dates before modifying course dates.
• The checkbox to limit participation in the course includes clarification for how the checkbox affects the dates in the course.
• The checkboxes to restrict students from viewing the course also includes clarification about whether the course or term dates are considered to be the course start and end date, depending on the course date settings.

Calendar: Due Date Calendar Display

When an assignment included a due date on or after 11:31 pm (or 23:31), the time did not display next to the assignment title. Canvas code has been updated to display the time for assignments due on or after 11:31 pm.

Courses: Multiple Instructor Enrollments and Course Search

When the first page of results for a course search included a large number of instructor enrollments, the page was unable to load and generated an error. Canvas code has been updated to display up to 25 names in the Teacher column.

Dashboard: Event Date Order

When an event was created for a course, the event displayed first in the To Do list, regardless of date. This behavior prevented users from viewing the most current To Do items for their courses. Canvas code has been updated to display calendar events among other items in the To Do list in chronological order.

Notifications: Anonymous Grading and Submission Comments

When anonymous grading was enabled for an assignment, and students made comments on their submissions, submission comment notifications to the instructor displayed the student’s name. Canvas code has been updated to anonymize student names in submission comment notifications.

For a complete production release update, please see: Canvas Productions Release Notes: Jan. 5, 2019.

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By Barb Stephens, December 10, 2018 8:02 pm

Canvas, the application better known as BlueLine, operates on a three-week release cycle through which features are added or updated. Some highlights from the most recent release notes follow. For further clarification, check out the full release notes site.

Course Settings: Navigation Home Link Menu Removal

In the Navigation page, the Home link does not include a Settings menu. This change aligns consistency with intended functionality of keeping the Home link at the top of the Course Navigation Menu.

Dashboard: Card View Course Ordering

Course cards can be manually ordered in the Card View Dashboard. This change allows users to place course cards in a specific order.

• In the Card View Dashboard, users can select the Options menu for a course and move the card to another location in the Dashboard. Depending on the placement of the existing card, cards may be moved to the top of the Dashboard, ahead or behind a specific card, or to the bottom of the Dashboard.
• Cards can also be manually dragged and dropped to another location in the Dashboard.
• Once a dashboard card has been reordered, new courses added to the dashboard always display at the end of all existing courses.

Rich Content Editor: HTML5 Media Recorder

HTML5 is used instead of flash within the Rich Content Editor in Firefox and Chrome browsers. This feature is also supported for students in the Submission Details page and for instructors in SpeedGrader. This change allows recorded media without requiring flash within the Firefox and Chrome browsers. Internet Explorer and Safari browsers do not support this functionality. Users will not notice any change and still require the use of Flash.

Dashboard: Midnight Due Dates

When an assignment was due at 12 am (00:00:00) in the user’s local time zone, the List View Dashboard showed that the item was due at 11:59pm (23:59:59) the same day instead, which affected students as they thought they had an additional day to complete their coursework. Canvas code has been updated to display due dates at the same time they are created and not adjust the time for one minute earlier.

Settings: Flickr Course Card Image Search Warning

When a user searched in Flickr for a course card image in Course Settings, Flickr results did not always return safe results even though the search is designed to only return safe images. This behavior occurred when Flickr image owners did not include a safety setting within the image when it was uploaded. Canvas code has been updated include a warning about search results when searching for a course card image.

For a complete production release update, please see: Canvas Productions Release Notes: Dec. 8, 2018.

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By Barb Stephens, November 27, 2018 6:47 pm

Canvas, the application better known as BlueLine, operates on a three-week release cycle through which features are added or updated. Some highlights from the most recent release notes follow. For further clarification, check out the full release notes site.

Rich Content Editor: Embedded Image File Uploads

Users can directly upload a file to embed in the Rich Content Editor. This change allows users to upload and embed files without first having to upload the image to Canvas.

Assignments: Due and Availability Date Seconds Adjustment

In the 2018-09-15 release, Canvas code was updated to always record assignment times as hh:mm:59, even if the assignment was changed to a non-59 minute value. This behavior caused any manually changed assignments to allow to be submitted almost one minute after the due or availability date. Canvas code has been updated to the previous behavior for assignment submission times, which defaults the seconds value to hh:mm:59 for any minute set at 59, but sets the seconds value to hh:mm:00 for any non-59 minute times.

Assignments: External Tool Submission Uploads

When a student tried to submit an assignment by uploading a file through an external tool, the screen generated an error and the file selection button was not displayed. Canvas code has been updated to display the file selection button for external tool assignments.

Calendar: Allow Students to See Time Slots Scheduler Option

When a new Scheduler appointment was created with the option to allow students to see who has signed up for time slots, the option only allowed students to view the information until all time slots had been filled. Canvas code has been updated to clarify the checkbox setting as only showing time slots if slots are still available.

Course Import: Question Bank Images

When a quiz question was added from a question bank, the question was edited in the quiz, and then the course was copied or imported, any images in the quiz question were removed. However, images were not affected in the original course except that images were rendered inaccessible. Canvas code has been updated to not remove file verifiers associated with a quiz on course copy.

Notifications: Anonymous Grading Late Assignment Notifications

When an instructor received late assignment notifications for students who submitted a late assignment, and the assignment was set to be graded anonymously, the notifications included student names and links to the assignment that could not be accessed. For non-anonymous submissions, notifications include the student name and a link to the student’s submission details page. Canvas code has been updated to anonymize student names in email notifications and include a link to the submission in SpeedGrader, which is also anonymized.

For a complete production release update, please see: Canvas Productions Release Notes: Nov. 17, 2018.

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By Barb Stephens, October 29, 2018 7:38 pm

Canvas, the application better known as BlueLine, operates on a three-week release cycle through which features are added or updated. Some highlights from the most recent release notes follow. For further clarification, check out the full release notes site.

Analytics: Analytics Beta LTI

Analytics Beta is an LTI tool that provides improved analytics for tracking student data using an interactive chart or table. Analytics Beta will eventually replace current course and account analytics. However, Analytics Beta and the current course Analytics functionality can be used concurrently. This feature allows admin, instructor, TA, and designer roles to view improved analytics functionality and provide functional feedback for additional analytics development. (should be available after October 29)

Assignments: Google Drive and Microsoft Office Assignment Submission Status

Students and instructors can view the status of Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365 assignment submission file uploads. This change informs students and instructors of assignment file upload status.

Dashboard: List View Dashboard Calendar Event View

In the List View Dashboard, the link for an event displays a summary window that includes the event date, location, and event details. This change allows students to quickly view details for an event without having to view the event directly in the Calendar.

Dashboard: List View Dashboard Grades Link Update

In the Grades menu, the course link directs to the Grades page instead of the home page. This change allows students to directly access the Grades page for the course.

Dashboard: List View Dashboard Sidebar Updates

In the Card View and Recent Activity Dashboard sidebars and the Course Home Page sidebar, the Coming Up section has been removed for students. The To Do list displays up to seven items instead of five, and items may be included that are due more than two weeks in advance.

This change aligns consistency with content display in the List View Dashboard and the Calendar.

Gradebook: Gradebook History Anonymity

Student names do not display in the Gradebook History if an assignment was graded anonymously. This change helps mask anonymity in the Gradebook History page.

Rich Content Editor: HTML5 Media Recorder

For video recordings in the Rich Content Editor, HTML5 can be used instead of flash in Firefox and Chrome browsers. This change allows recorded media without requiring flash within the Firefox and Chrome browsers. Internet Explorer and Safari are not supported.

Dashboard: Dashboard Pages Icon Update

The Pages icon has been updated in the List View Dashboard and the To Do List sidebar in the Card View and Recent Activity Dashboards. This change aligns the Pages icon with other areas in Canvas.

Student Context Cards: Profile Initials

Student Context Cards displays profile initials for students without profile pictures. Initials are based on the first name and last name of the student’s display name. This change upgrades the current interface functionality of non-profile-picture user accounts. Previously student images without profile pictures displayed a gray profile outline.

For a complete production release update, please see: Canvas Productions Release Notes: Oct. 27, 2018.

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By Barb Stephens, October 15, 2018 1:37 pm

You can access BlueLine (aka Canvas) from any browser on your Android or iOS device. However, for the best user experience, you should view Canvas via the mobile app.

To access Canvas mobile apps, you need to know Creighton’s URL: blueline.instructure.com

Mobile App Guides

The links include how to download the mobile app and guide you on using the mobile app:

Mobile Guides – Canvas Teacher

Canvas Teacher allows teachers to facilitate their courses on the go, both inside and outside the classroom. This app provides quick access to grading, communicating, and updating—three of the most frequent course facilitation tasks for teachers through Announcements, Assignments, Discussions, and Quizzes.

Canvas Teacher Android Guide

Canvas Teacher iOS Guide

Mobile Guides – Canvas by Instructure

The Canvas by Instructure app is the mobile version of Canvas that helps you stay current with your courses anywhere you go.

Canvas Student Android Guide

Canvas Student iOS Guide

For assistance with any of these apps or documentation, please contact Canvas Support.

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By Barb Stephens, October 4, 2018 2:38 pm

Canvas, the application better known as BlueLine, operates on a three-week release cycle through which features are added or updated. Some highlights from the most recent release notes follow.  For further clarification, check out the full release notes site.

Production Release Highlights:

Account Settings: Anonymous Instructor Annotations Feature Option

In Assignments, the Anonymous Instructor Annotations option is enabled by a course-level feature option. The Anonymous Instructor Annotations option only affects DocViewer in the SpeedGrader submission window. When Anonymous Instructor Annotations is enabled, DocViewer comments do not display an instructor’s name.

Dashboard: List View Dashboard Dismissed Alerts

In the List View Dashboard, students can view the Alerts Menu and view new opportunities and dismissed opportunities. New opportunities can be dismissed at any time. Dismissed opportunities are only removed if they are fulfilled according to the label in the opportunity, such as submitting an assignment.

Dashboard: List View Dashboard Peer Review Items

In the List View Dashboard, students can view and complete peer review assignments. Peer review assignments indicate the peer review that must be made by the student and display the peer review icon. Peer reviews can either be due on the same day as the initial assignment, or it can be due after the due date.

Discussion: Section-Specific Discussions Workflow Update

This change clarifies the workflow functionality of adding section-specific discussions. By default, the Discussion Details page includes all sections for the discussion. If all sections are selected, the discussion can be created as a graded discussion. The sections menu is removed, and individual sections and due dates can be added to the graded discussion. However, if the discussion is changed to include one or more specific sections, the Graded checkbox is grayed out and the discussion is not available for grading.

DocViewer: Document Rotation

This feature allow instructors and students to manually rotate images and documents in DocViewer to allow easier viewing of files that were uploaded with a different image orientation.

Announcements, Account-Level People, and User Navigation: Profile Initials

For users who do not have a profile picture, Canvas will display the initials of their name as their profile picture in these three locations: Announcements, People, User Navigation. Previously Canvas displayed a gray profile outline for any user who did not add a profile picture.

Rich Content Editor: Mark Text Element

Users using the HTML Editor can include the mark text element (<mark>), which assists with accessibility.

For a complete production release update, please see: Canvas Production Release Notes: Oct. 6, 2018

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By Barb Stephens, October 4, 2018 2:35 pm

Canvas, the application better known as BlueLine, operates on a three-week release cycle through which features are added or updated. Some highlights from the most recent release notes follow.  For further clarification, check out the full release notes site.

Production Release Highlights:

DocViewer: Anonymous Grading Annotated Comments

DocViewer supports annotated comments in anonymously graded assignments. This change allows instructors to leave annotations and feedback in SpeedGrader assignment submissions while the assignment is muted and student names are hidden. If the assignment does not allow instructors to view each other’s names, the name of the instructor is also hidden.

Gradebook: CSV Import Custom Column Support:

Gradebook CSV import files support updates for custom columns, including the Notes column.

People: Profiles Last Attended Date

In a student’s Profile page, instructors can note the date that a student last attended in the course. Dates can only be entered in Canvas individually on a per-student basis. Additionally, once a date is entered, it cannot be removed.

SpeedGrader: Submission Comments PDF Export

The SpeedGrader sidebar includes a link to export submission comments as a PDF when the assignment is visible to students. This functionality is not supported for anonymous assignments until the assignment is unmuted.

Calendar & Dashboard: Color Contrast

The default course color hex values have been updated to display a color contrast of 3:1 for the default Canvas interface.

Announcements and Discussions: Section Order

Sections are listed alphabetically in the sections menu for both Announcements and Discussions.

Rich Text Editor: Multiple Subfolders and Folder Sidebar

If a course contains more than 50 subfolders at the same level, a user who wants to upload a file using the content selector sidebar cannot upload a file until all subfolders have been loaded.

For a complete production release update, please see: Canvas Production Release Notes: Sept. 15, 2018

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By Barb Stephens, September 6, 2018 2:42 pm

Canvas, the application better known as BlueLine, operates on a three-week release cycle through which features are added or updated. Some highlights from the most recent release notes follow.  For further clarification, check out the full release notes site.

Production Release Highlights:

Calendar: Scheduler External Feed Appointment Details

For instructors using the Scheduler tool in the Calendar, the Calendar Feed link includes Scheduler appointment details in the calendar feed export. Appointment details include scheduled student appointments, the associated course, and any student comments. In student calendar feeds, the current functionality has not been affected. Students can view their reserved appointment group time slot, but any comments to the instructor are not included.

Dashboard: List View and Mark as Done Module Requirements

The Mark as Done module requirement synchronizes with the student Dashboard List View and Card View to-do list to automatically complete items that have been marked as done.

Speedgrader: Anonymous Assignment Hidden Submission Details

When an assignment is anonymous, SpeedGrader does not display submission details until after the assignment is unmuted.

Quizzes: Numerical Answer Question Negative Values

Numerical Answer questions support negative values.

For a complete production release update, please see: Canvas Production Release Notes: August 25, 2018

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By Barb Stephens, August 6, 2018 5:46 pm

Canvas, the application better known as BlueLine, operates on a three-week release cycle through which features are added or updated. Some highlights from the most recent release notes follow. For further clarification, check out the full release notes site.

Production Release Highlights:

Dashboard: Student To Do List View

The Dashboard includes an option to view all course tasks in a list format. This view is currently only available to students. In addition to displaying automatically populated graded To Do items, the List view allows instructors to add non-graded items to the To Do list and students to add their own items to the To Do items. This change helps students manage all tasks across all their courses in a user-friendly format that also allows for user customization.

Assignments: Google and Microsoft Office Assignment Submission Processing Notification

Students can navigate away from the assignment submission page without disrupting a file upload for Microsoft Office 365 or Google Drive file submissions. Canvas displays a message notifying students that their submission upload is processing. This update improves assignment submission reliability for Microsoft Office 365 and Google Drive files.

DocViewer: Stacking Replies

Comment replies are stacked together and can be expanded to view the entire comment thread. This change helps manage multiple comments in a document. When users view comments for a DocViewer-supported document, comments with replies are stacked together. The number of replies is indicated for the comment thread. Users can click the first comment to expand and view all additional comments.

Assignments: Quizzes.Next Beta Label Removal

The beta label has been removed from the Quiz/Test button in the Assignments page. This change indicates that the Quizzes.Next LTI is no longer in beta.

For a complete production release update, please see: Canvas Production Release Notes: August 4, 2018