Category: Canvas

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New Canvas Gradebook Feature

View Hidden Grades

In the Gradebook Settings of the Canvas Gradebook area, a View Hidden Grades indicator option is available. This will allow Teachers and Admins to see an icon marking any grades that have not yet been posted to students.

This will help you quickly identify which grades are hidden from students, reducing confusion and ensuring more accurate communication about grade visibility.

This feature is available for use from 25th September 2025.

How do I use this feature?

To use this feature, you would navigate to the Gradebook area of your course in Canvas.

You would then locate the ‘Gradebook Settings’ by selecting the settings option (cog icon) in the top right corner of the screen. Once here, you will navigate to the ‘View Options’ tab where you will be able to select the ‘View hidden grades indicator’. This enables the hidden grades indicator within the Gradebook of the particular course you are in.

The gradebook settings area in Canvas Gradebook where you can enable ‘view hidden grades indicator’.

What does the feature look like in action?

In the Gradebook, an orange indicator displays which grades have not been posted next to each grade where this is applicable.

An orange dot shown against a grade in the Canvas Gradebook to indicate the grade has not been posted.
An orange dot shown against a grade in the Canvas Gradebook to indicate the grade has not been posted.

Find out more

You can find out more about the functionality of the Canvas Gradebook on the Canvas Course Navigation website, under the heading ‘Grades’.

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Digital Education Technologies Showcase Day: Summary

The Learning Enhancement and Technology (LET) Team in the Learning and Teaching Development Service (LTDS) were joined by colleagues from NUMBAS, Library Reading Lists, Digital Adoption, FMS Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Team and representatives from the Artificial Intelligence (AI) in LTDS.

The LET Team were delighted at the turnout on the day and the fantastic conversations that were able to take place. Find out more about the event and what colleagues thought about the event within this blog post.

Stalls set up at the Showcase Day event
Stalls set up at the Showcase Day event.
Continue reading “Digital Education Technologies Showcase Day: Summary”
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YouTube videos in Canvas may now include adverts

Colleagues using Canvas should be aware of a recent change affecting YouTube videos embedded within their courses. Due to updates in YouTube’s monetisation policies, videos embedded directly into Canvas may now display adverts.

This change will take effect on 22nd September 2025.

This is happening as over the recent years, video content has become a staple in learning environments and monetisation of that content has become increasingly important to those creators, many of which are educators themselves. As a result, Google/YouTube has evolved its model and approach to this.

It applies to both newly added and previously embedded videos, and the adverts are controlled entirely by YouTube.

Unfortunately, there is no way to disable these adverts within the standard Canvas environment.

To warn viewers of the potential of adverts being displayed, Canvas has introduced a new content overlay warning. This message appears before a video plays, alerting viewers that the video may contain advertising.

On desktop browsers, the warning is shown prior to playback, while on the Canvas mobile apps, it appears at the top of the page.

An example of this notice can be seen below:

Image from Instructure Canvas Community Website

If you have any questions regarding this change, please contact ltds@newcastle.ac.uk.

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Global Accessibility Awareness Day 2025

What is Global Accessibility Awareness Day?

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is an international event intended to get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital accessibility and inclusion.

This year the event will be held on 15 May 2025.

To honour GAAD, we will be posting a series of blog posts and videos highlighting issues and provide guidance on accessibility issues (more on that later in this post).

Let’s begin by exploring what digital accessibility means, identifying the individuals it affects, and challenging common misconceptions about accessibility.

What is Digital Accessibility?

Digital accessibility refers to the ability of people with disabilities/impairments to independently consume and/or interact with digital.

This can include web content and applications (including on mobile devices).

The Diverse 21st Century Learner

Digital accessibility is often perceived as a set of practices aimed solely at helping individuals with disabilities. However, accessibility is much broader and benefits everyone, regardless of their abilities or circumstances. By incorporating accessibility into digital design, we create inclusive environments that enhance usability and convenience for all users.

Our learners come from a wide range of backgrounds, each with unique needs shaped by their individual circumstances. Unfortunately, these needs are sometimes overlooked, particularly in terms of accessibility.

These learners could include:

Learners with Visible Disabilities

This can include individuals with visible disabilities, such with mobility impairments, visual impairments, or hearing impairments.

Learners with Invisible Disabilities

This could include users with invisible disabilities, such as cognitive impairments, mental health conditions, or chronic illnesses.

Learners with Temporary Disabilities

Users experiencing temporary disabilities, such as a broken arm or temporary vision impairment.

International Students

Students from different countries who may face language barriers and cultural differences.

Professionals Seeking more Education

Working professionals looking to further their education.

Learners with Different Preferences

Users with specific preferences, such as those who prefer dark mode or larger text.

Parents

Parents who may be juggling multiple responsibilities and need efficient and accessible digital tools.

Commuters

Individuals who frequently travel and use digital tools on the go.

Learners Who Use Mobile Devices

Users primarily accessing digital content via mobile devices.

Offline Users

Users who prefer or need to access content offline due to limited internet connectivity.

With knowledge of who our potential learners could be, we can help create digital content that is accessible and helps towards meeting their needs.

What is Happening This Week

To help our colleagues and students at Newcastle to engage with accessibility content, colleagues in the Learning and Teaching Development Service (LTDS) are going to be sharing blog posts each day during this week on Digital Accessibility.

Schedule of Posts

  • Tuesday 13th May 2025 – Document Design Fundamentals
  • Wednesday 14th May 2025 – Creating Accessible Videos in Recap (Panopto)
  • Thursday 15th May 2025 – Anthology Ally in Canvas
  • Friday 16th May 2025 – Accessibility Resources Available at Newcastle University

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Save the Date: Digital Education Technologies Showcase Day 

The Learning Enhancement and Technology Team in the Learning and Teaching Development Service (LTDS) are hosting a Digital Education Technologies Showcase Day on Monday 1st September 2025 between 12 and 3pm in the Boilerhouse.

This is a fantastic opportunity to meet the teams and people behind our Digital Education Technologies here at Newcastle. This will include: Canvas, ReCap, Vevox, Inspera (Digital Exams), Assignments (Canvas, Turnitin and New Canvas Quiz), Buddycheck, NULA, NU Reflect, AI, H5P, as well as the Numbas Team, Digital Adoption (M365 and Adobe) and Library Reading Lists Team.

This event is aimed at both academic and professional services colleagues already using these systems who want to take that step further, as well as new colleagues who want to learn about the digital technologies available.

The event will take place as a drop in, so you don’t need to sign up. If you would like to make any suggestions around what you would like to see at the event, please complete our Microsoft Form.

More information will be shared about this event over the summer.

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Canvas October 2024 Updates

Over October there have been a series of updates to various features within Canvas including New Quizzes, Assignments and Discussions.

In this blog post, we will cover what is new in Canvas for October 2024.

How to Navigate this Update

This update is broken down into pages dedicated to updates for each of the Canvas Features.

By selecting the page numbers below, you will be taken to the update for each Canvas feature.

Included in this update is:

New Quizzes Updates (Page 2)

  • Add Time to Existing Quiz Sessions
  • Manage Student Result View
  • Submitted Date Displays in Moderate Log
  • Attempt Log Stopped Viewing the Canvas Quiz Page

Assignment Updates (Page 3)

  • Assign to Interface Change – “Assign To” Location Change

Discussions Updates (Page 4)

  • Edit button added to Discussions Index Page
Pages: 1 2 3 4
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Inbox Updates 

Over the summer there have been a series of updates to the Inbox within Canvas.

In this blog post, we will highlight some of the key changes to the Inbox and how you can utilise these changes in your courses.

Video Overview

Add Auto Response

All users can now create an Auto Response message in the Canvas Inbox. This works similar to an email Out of Office message however this only within the internal messaging system in Canvas.

An example of this can be found below:

To do this:

  1. In the top left corner of the Inbox, select the cog icon
  2. From the dropdown menu select “Response On”
  3. Add the Start and End Date
  4. Add a Subject
  5. Add a Message
  6. Select “Save”

Add Signature to Messages

All users can now create a personalised signature on their Inbox messages in Canvas. This works similar to a signature in Emails and is assigned to internal messages in Canvas.

An example of this can be seen here:

As you can see above, my contact details have automatically been added to my message.

To do this in your own inbox:

  1. In the top left corner of the Inbox screen, select the cog icon
  2. Select the “Signature On” button
  3. Add your personalised signature in the box provided
  4. Select the “Save” button
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Announcement Updates

Over the summer there have been a series of updates to the Announcements feature within Canvas.

In this blog post, we will highlight some of the key changes to Announcements and how you can utilise these changes in your courses.

Video Overview

Mark All As Read Button

In Announcements, a Mark all as read button is available.

This update allows users to quickly and efficiently mark all announcements as read. Previously, each message would need to be manually marked then a bulk action applied. With this update, all messages can be marked as read with a single button click.

Notification for Changed Content

In Announcements, instructors can notify students when an announcement has been updated.

This feature prevents missed information, allowing users to respond promptly and appropriately to the new information.

Previously there was no way to alert recipients that there had been a change to an announcement other than posting the message again or sending another message informing students of the change.

Availability Dates

In Announcements, the delayed posting field is changed, in addition to the Available from field, instructors can add Until dates.

The update enables instructors to specify a date when the announcement will no longer be visible to students.

Announcements Timestamp

In Announcements, the Created date is hidden from students, and the Last edited date is only shown if the announcement was edited after being published. Additionally, the Posted date now reflects when the announcement became available.

This update helps prevent any confusion between the Posted and Last edited dates for students.

In the above screenshot, we can see in the teacher view, we can see the creation and the posted date (point 1).

In the student view below, we can see that we only have the posted date (point 2).

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SpeedGrader Updates

Over the summer there have been a series of updates to the SpeedGrader tool within Canvas to improve the ability to provide feedback.

In this blog post, we will highlight some of the key changes to the SpeedGrader and how you can utilise these changes in your courses.

Submission Comment Drafts

In SpeedGrader, after adding a submission comment, if this has not been saved, a Draft pill displays indicating that this comment has not been saved and a warning message is presented alerting the teacher that the comment has not been saved.

Previously there was no clear indication that a comment had been submitted and this would lead to students not seeing comments/feedback in their assignments.

With this update, it is clear for a teacher to see the status of a submission comment.

You can see in the example below that the submission comment has not been submitted and we have a draft pill alongside our comment:

When we press submit on this comment, the draft pill disappears which means the comment is visible to the student:

Rich Content Editor (RCE) In Submission Comments

In SpeedGrader, some Rich Content Editor (RCE) features are available when using submission comments. The available RCE features include:

  • Heading
  • Bold
  • Italic
  • Underline
  • Font colour
  • Insert Hyperlink
  • Bullets

This allows teachers to style feedback and provide further resources via linking. In the example below, you can see a link is provided to further resources to assist the student:

This functionality is available at the top of the submission comments box as demonstrated below:

Equation Editor in Submission Comments

In SpeedGrader, an Equation Editor function has been added to the Rich Content Editor. This feature enables instructors to incorporate math equations into their submission comments.

In the below example, you can see the new equation editor function within the submission comments in SpeedGrader:

Randomise Students in Submission List

In SpeedGrader Settings, instructors now have the option to randomise the order of students within each submission status. This update helps mitigate grading fatigue and biases by ensuring a random sorting of students. Additionally, it enhances grading efficiency by maintaining this random order within submission statuses.

Below are step by step instructions on how to do this:

  1. In the top left corner of the SpeedGrader, select the cog icon
  2. From the dropdown menu select “Options”
  3. Within SpeedGrader options, select “randomise students within a submission status”
  4. Select the “Save settings” button

Please note that when the randomised students, the preference is saved as the default in the browser for the course. When logging in on another device, instructors must select the sort by options again.

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Digital Assessment Upcoming Training Webinars

The Digital Assessment Team in LTDS have various training webinars covering our Digital Assessment tools starting in the next few weeks.

You can check out the full list of sessions, dates/times and the links to book in our list of sessions.

Inspera Digital Exams

Inspera for Professional Service colleagues

6 November 2024, 10:00 AM – 11:00 AM

Creating and managing exam questions in Inspera

2 October 2024, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM

7 November 2024, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Marking an Inspera exam with auto marked questions

16 December 2024, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

22 January 2025, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Marking and moderating an Inspera exam with manually marked questions

17 December 2024, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

23 January 2025, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Digital Assignments: Canvas and Turnitin

Creating and Managing Digital Assignments

2 October 2024, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Online Marking & Feedback (Canvas)

4 December 2024, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Online marking and feedback (Turnitin)

11 December 2024, 9:00 AM – 10:00 AM