Canvas Insider is a regular blog series from FCLT News Bytes that highlights changes in Canvas and Canvas tools at Mt. SAC.
We recently debuted the Canvas Insiderblog post series, and the maiden post mentioned where and how Instructure, Inc. shares release updates to its users about Canvas. The process of finding Canvas updates that are relevant to you can be pretty overwhelming. So the purpose of this series is to provide you with the information that is relevant to YOU, in a manner that is easy to consume. That being said, this blog post will highlight a recent admin update to Canvas that provides YOU, the Canvas users, an even EASIER way to discover updates recently pushed to Canvas from inside of Canvas in the global navigation. Pretty convenient, right?
Release Notes Interface in the Global Navigation Menu (Live Now)
The bottom of the Help Menu in Canvas will now display an indicator when a release update has been published and made live for any role currently attached to your account. As mentioned in the first Canvas Insider blogpost, Canvas release notes are separated by user roles (Instructors, Students, and Admins being the primary roles). So as teachers at Mt. SAC you will see release updates for Instructor Roles, but perhaps also for the Student role if you possess that role in any course inside of Canvas. This also means that Mt. SAC students will have access to release updates that specifically affect the student role in Canvas. Anyone with an Admin role in Canvas will see Admin release updates as well. Clicking on any of these links will take you to the respective user summary for that specific release update, allowing you to see quickly and easily what has changed.
The blue number badge next to the Help Button serves as an indicator for new release updates since your last visit. At the bottom of the menu, you can see a green toggle, which allows you to disable the blue badges altogether if you wish.
It is important to note that the feature changes mentioned in the release updates are only those that have been made the default feature for all Canvas users. So future Canvas feature updates, as well as optional updates enabled by Canvas admins will not display on this list. If you wanted to see the full list of changes with any given release update, you will still want to reference the full Canvas release notes for any given release.
Adding this feature directly into Canvas should help make keeping up with Canvas feature updates much easier for our users. I can tell you first-hand, that even as a Canvas admin, it can be difficult to keep up with Canvas product changes. This update will greatly benefit us as well, and we are excited to share it with you here today!
Are you excited about product updates as much as we are here at FCLT? Let us know what you think about this Canvas Insider update in the comments below!