Canvas Discussions Redesign

Canvas Instructor Guide – Discussions Redesign

You now have the option to enable the Discussions Redesign in your course.

You can use Discussions Redesign to provide an enhanced experience for course discussions. When enabled in your course, Discussions Redesign displays for all discussions and all users in your course.

Discussions Redesign is currently a beta feature. Some discussion settings and features in the classic Discussions interface may not function or be available in Discussions Redesign. The following features are currently in development for Discussions Redesign: rubrics, peer reviews, group discussions, availability dates, closing discussions for comments, restricting students from editing and deleting their own posts, podcast feeds, and requiring students to post before seeing replies.

Enable Feature Preview

In order to use Discussions Redesign in your course, you first need to enable the feature preview from Course Settings.

Open Feature Options

Open Feature Options

In Course Navigation, click the Settings link [1]. Then click the Feature Previews tab [2].

Enable Discussions Redesign

Enable Discussions Redesign

Locate the Discussions Redesign feature preview [1] and click the State icon so it displays as enabled [2].

Canvas “New Quizzes”

https://vimeo.com/285865866

Canvas is rolling out an update to the current Quizzes feature. Starting now, you will have the option to use the new tool, called “New Quizzes,” or the current tool, called “Classic Quizzes” when building a Quiz.

New Quizzes is an assessment engine that integrates with Canvas as an LTI tool and will replace the Classic Quizzes functionality currently existing in Canvas.

You can use New Quizzes to create assessments using a variety of questions types. New Quizzes assessments display as assignments in the Assignments page and can be duplicated. Students can take New Quizzes assessments within their Canvas courses.

Canvas will eventually prevent the creation of new Classic Quizzes in July, 2022 June 2024 (December 2021 update). If you have existing Classic Quizzes that you would like to continue using, you can migrate them to New Quizzes.

For more information, please contact your Educational Technologist at edtech@pugetsound.edu.

Canvas also has a number of user guides for New Quizzes:

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Quizzes-Transition/Classic-Quiz-Sunset-Timeline-Subscribe/bc-p/502698

What is New Quizzes? – Instructure Community 

Instructor Guide (New Quizzes) – Instructure Community 

FAQs New Quizzes

Alexander Street LTI

In summer of 2021, we implemented the Alexander Street Video LTI into Canvas. The LTI allows you to search and embed Alexander Street Videos into your Canvas courses directly within Canvas and without generating a separate embed code. Users watching content will be automatically authenticated to our library’s institutional account.

To embed existing content, click the Alexander Street Video icon in the toolbar of the Rich Content Editor of the page where you want the video to appear.

Location of Alexander Street icon in Rich Content Editor

Enter your search terms in the dialog that appears. Click “View Video” to confirm it’s the content you want.

Results for search term “blue planet”

Select either “Embed medium size” or “Embed large size.” The dialog will close and the video will be automatically embedding in the page. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click “Save.”

Embedded video and location of “save” button

Here’s a brief video that shows the same steps described above.

MEDIAL: Video Storage

We are pleased to announce that MEDIAL, our digital video storage and distribution system, has been upgraded. Faculty can now browse a catalogue of digitized films, and easily embed these videos into their Canvas pages. For instructions on how to access this catalogue from within Canvas, please visit our Knowledge Base article entitled Using the MEDIAL Application or watch the brief video below.

For more information on streaming videos, visit Collins Library’s guide to streaming media

As a part of the Summer of 2021 upgrade process, Media Services has conducted a one-time inventory of the content hosted on this server, adhering to the following policy: 

  • We have archived content that was
    • a.) uploaded before August 1st, 2020
    • b.) never viewed by faculty or students
  • If we do not receive notice that archived media is still required, it will be deleted one year after being archived. 

New Content Management Policies 

Due to storage constraints, content cannot be hosted indefinitely. Media Services and the Library reserve the right to inventory, archive, and delete content hosted on this server, adhering to the following policies:

Starting in Spring of 2022, Media Services will conduct an annual review of the content hosted on our server. 

  • As a part of that review, any media not viewed in the last four years will be archived, making it inaccessible. 
  • Faculty who find that necessary media is inaccessible due to archiving should email media@pugetsound.edu or file a KACE ticket from Okta, asking for the media to be returned to the server. 
  • If we do not receive notice that archived media is still required, it will be deleted one year after being archived.

We are excited to offer faculty the ability to browse through the library of previously digitizied films and add them to Canvas without needing to manage embed codes. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to call x3963, email media@pugetsound.edu, or file a KACE ticket from Okta.