Hello everyone. I wanted to update you on recent developments and progress made within Canvas on two specific issues that have frustrated us in the last few weeks.
1) Course List
a. Your Course Lists have been cleaned up and should now show ONLY the current term and any groups/committees you are enrolled in as a member.
b. Your courses from the three previous terms (two that were imported from Blackboard and the past Fall term in Canvas) are available to you through your Past Enrollments. Click the View All Enrollments link located in the bottom right corner of the Course List for access.
c. Scheduled for the 2/18/12 release is the ability for ALL users to Customize their course list. That removes the criteria of having 12 or more courses before customization is available. Customization will allow you to hide any courses you don’t want showing.
2) Conversations
a. It’s important to note that Instructure has designed the Conversations feature as a social media tool and not as an e-mail system. Therefore, messages sent show up in conversation form similar to what you see when you text on your cell phone. Because it is not an e-mail system, there is no place to put a title to your message and no place to review what was sent other than the conversation generated from it. Many of you are frustrated by this, as are others from other institutions, but at this time Instructure does not plan to deviate from the design of this feature. You can add your voice to the discussion by posting to the Canvas Community Feature Request page
b. Instructure has implemented two changes to Conversations in response to requests: 1) A new filtering option allows you to start typing the name of a course so it automatically appears in the drop-down and will show only messages that pertain to that particular course, and 2) the ability to “star” the conversation (instead of label) and filter conversations by star.
c. Scheduled for the 2/18/12 release: the term name will show when listing courses in Conversations.
Have questions or need additional help? Several options are available: You can always contact me directly at lames@umw.edu or contact any member of DTLT or Pam Lowery for personal assistance. Additionally, you can click on the Help button in Canvas located in the upper right corner of your screen to file a ticket with Instructure or contact the UMW HelpDesk.
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