Canvas instructors will notice a number of exciting changes for fall 2016, including:
- A new user interface
- The popular “Photo Roster” tool from Classes*v2, now available to TFs
- Canvas accounts for all active NetIDs
- Syllabus integration with the Registrar’s Online Course Information system, and
- Umbrella sites for multi-section course groups.
New User Interface
The new user interface offers improved ease of navigation to Canvas’s most important tools for course management, and it has been specially designed to display well on a variety of screen sizes, including mobile devices. The global navigation has been moved from the top to the left side, as you can see in the screenshot below, and activity in each of your current courses is easy to spot from the dashboard page:
Photo Roster
Many instructors find it very useful to see students’ ID photos, so they can learn each student’s name at the start of the semester. The Classes*v2 Photo Roster tool has been moved into Canvas for fall courses. And great news: teaching fellows will now be able to view the Photo Roster within each course site – an improvement requested by the Yale community and now available only in Canvas (Photo Roster in Classes*v2 is viewable by only the instructors of record).
Canvas Accounts for Everyone
As of August 1, everyone at Yale with a valid NetID will now have a Canvas account: anyone can now log on to Canvas, although only those who have been given access to specific courses will be able to see the course sites. However, now that the user accounts have been created, instructors and TFs can easily add anyone with a Net ID to a course site, by clicking the “+” button on the People page and adding a person’s Yale email address or NetID.
Syllabus Integration with OCI
When you publish a course site with syllabus content in Canvas, a link to the site will appear on the Registrar’s Online Course Information site during our next sync (typically within a few hours). Students who are “shopping” a course can now preview syllabi published in Canvas courses in the same way that they can preview Classes*v2 syllabi on OCI.
“Umbrella” Sites on Request
In courses with many sections, such as the introductory Math courses 112 and 115, individual course sites are created for each section, yet instructors frequently have a common set of files and communications to share across sections. In this case, and “umbrella” site may be useful: students with access to the individual section sites will also gain access to a separate “umbrella” site for shared communications. Umbrella sites can be created on request: please contact canvas@yale.edu for more information.