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:
In the top left corner of the Inbox, select the cog icon
From the dropdown menu select “Response On”
Add the Start and End Date
Add a Subject
Add a Message
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:
In the top left corner of the Inbox screen, select the cog icon
Select the “Signature On” button
Add your personalised signature in the box provided
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).
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:
In the top left corner of the SpeedGrader, select the cog icon
From the dropdown menu select “Options”
Within SpeedGrader options, select “randomise students within a submission status”
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.
A question set is a group of questions created in Inspera. In Inspera you can make individual questions, or you can set up a question set and create a group of questions in there. Individual questions can also be imported into your question set.
Creating your question set
Accessing Inspera
All colleagues (and students) access Inspera via Canvas. Colleagues can either access a ‘test’ exam set up in their Canvas Sandbox area, or by going through an existing Inspera exam.
Naming your question set
You should give question sets meaningful names, e.g. ‘MOD1234 Semester 1 Exam 202425’. This makes it easier to identify the question set for the current academic year. Question sets are created in the Author tab of Inspera.
Remember to rename your individual questions too, so that you can easily find them in the question set. Each new question is automatically given the name ‘New Question’ so if you are creating question sets with multiple questions in, giving them a meaningful name will help you find specific ones later.
If you need to update a question, a meaningful name will make it easier and quicker to locate.
Adding labels to your questions
Adding labels to your individual questions can also help with locating and re-using your questions in other question sets.
If you’d like to know about adding labels and using filters to find questions, please see our dedicated label filtering blog post.
Content creation in question sets
There are various features you can use within Inspera to enhance your question sets. These are optional features you can apply within your question set.
For example, you can randomise the order in which the questions appear for students when they sit they exam. You can also use the random pulling feature to pull a sub-set of questions from a larger bank of questions, so that each student receives a different combination of questions.
If you are using both manually marked essay questions, and a set of multiple choice questions, you are able to put these into what is known as sections. This means you could apply randomisation to the multiple-choice questions only. You could also use another feature on the essay questions known as candidate selected questions.
There is a dedicated Content Creation Featureswebsite on our Learning and Teaching Inspera site which lists the full details on these different features.
Question set deadlines
Once the Module Leader has completed their Digital Exam Form to confirm the details about their Inspera Digital Exam, the next step is to start creating their question sets.
Question sets are created by the module team and shared with the Digital Exams Team via email to Digital.Exams@newcastle.ac.uk.
The question set deadlines for 2024/25 are detailed in the following table:
Semester
Question Set Deadline
Semester 1
15th November
Semester 2
7th March
Semester 1 August Resit (Semester 3)
17th April
Semester 2 August Resit (Semester 3)
8th July
A table with the question set deadlines for each semester.
Training webinars
The Digital Exams Team deliver a training webinar ‘Creating and managing exam questions in Inspera’ which colleagues can sign up to via the Elements training system. The training session covers an on-screen demos of setting up and adding questions to your question set.
In the last academic year, our cycle came to a close with the support of Resit and Deferral Digital Inspera exams. Overall, there were 103 Resit/Deferral Inspera exams which ran between 8-16 August, with 101 exams being held successfully on campus. The Digital Exams Team were delighted to see an increase in the use of content features for this period, showcasing the wide range of benefits Inspera can provide.
The removal of the minimum threshold for the August assessment period, (in 22-23 Inspera could only be used for Resits if a certain number of students were due to take the digital exam) saw a vast increase in the number of module teams using Inspera. We can confirm the removal of the minimum threshold was a success and all Inspera users can opt for a Resit in 24-25 if their Semester 1 and/or 2 assessment runs as an Inspera Digital Exam.
Inspera Training 24-25
Training for Semester 1 preparation is now available to book via the Newcastle University LMS. Please use the links below to book onto appropriate training as required:
Here are the important deadlines you need for the new academic year:
Deadlines for Semester 1 and 2 assessment periods
Task
Deadline
Deadline to complete the digital exam form for Semester 1
25 October 2024
Deadline to prepare question set in Inspera for Semester 1
15 November 2024
Digital exams: hard deadline to submit backup paper for digital exams to Exam Paper Portal for Semester 1
Within 2 working days of backup paper being sent to module team by LTDS, and no later than 6 December 2024
Deadline to complete the digital exam form for Semester 2
19 February 2025
Deadline to prepare question set in Inspera for Semester 2
8 March 2025
Digital exams: hard deadline to submit backup paper for digital exams to Exam Paper Portal for Semester 2
Within 2 working days of backup paper being sent to module team by LTDS, and no later than 11 April 2025
Deadlines for August assessment period
For Resits/Deferrals from Semester 1
Task
Deadline
Deadline to complete the digital exam form for the resit period exam (which was originally a Semester 1 exam)
17 March 2025
Deadline to prepare question set in Inspera
17 April 2025
Digital exams: hard deadline to submit backup paper for digital exams to Exam Paper Portal for the resit period
Within 2 working days of backup paper being sent to module team by LTDS
For Resits/Deferrals from Semester 2
Task
Deadline
Deadline to complete the digital exam form for the resit period exam (which was originally a Semester 2 exam)
1 July 2025
Deadline to prepare question set in Inspera
8 July 2025
Digital exams: hard deadline to submit backup paper for digital exams to Exam Paper Portal for the resit period
Within 2 working days of backup paper being sent to module team by LTDS
All information regarding deadlines for Inspera Digital Exams is also posted on the colleague facing website along with a wide range of helpful resources on all aspects of Inspera. Go to the Frequently Asked Questions section and deadline information can be found under ‘How should I prepare for an Inspera digital exam?’ and ‘Can I use Inspera for August assessment period exams?’.
Further Support for Students 24-25
ASK webpage
The Digital Exams Team have recently updated the student facing website which includes access to newly created demo exams for students to practice using Inspera.
Do you get frustrated when you click on a link and no content appears?
If you don’t hide inactive links on your Canvas courses, your course visitors could be clicking on links that have no content.
Your course navigation bar in Canvas should only include links to active items.
Hiding unused navigation links in a navigation bar has several benefits:
User Clarity: When showing only inactive navigation items, users might mistakenly click on items with no content. Hiding non-active items prevents confusion and frustration when no content appears.
Cleanliness: By hiding unused links, you declutter the navigation bar, creating a cleaner and more visually appealing menu.
Canvas Mobile App: As all links are displayed in the Canvas App, by including only active items, you will improve the usability of your course navigation.
Accessibility: Hidden links are less distracting for screen readers and visually impaired users. It ensures that the focus remains on relevant content.
The Rich Content Editor in Canvas offers a straightforward and efficient method for building content in your Canvas courses.
The Rich Content Editor is available in:
Announcements
Assignments
Discussions
Pages
Quizzes
Calendar
The Rich Content Editor allows for the embedding of various elements such as videos, images, other types of media files, course files. Additionally, it enables the creation of tables and lists. You are also able to link to content within your courses and to materials outside your course via hyperlinks.
The Rich Content Editor allows you to bring all your content together in one place.
In this blog post, we will show you examples of how to can use this in Announcements, Assignments, Discussions, Pages and Quizzes.
This short video from Instructure, you can see how to use the RCE in Canvas:
An example of using the RCE in Announcements
Links can be incorporated into your announcements to guide students towards specific resources you wish to highlight.
In the example provided, we prompt students to review a pre-lecture task located on a Canvas page. By including a direct link (highlighted as 1 below), students are navigated straight to the resource, eliminating any potential confusion. This ensures that all necessary resources are conveniently provided within the announcement message itself.
An example of using the RCE in Assignments
Essential resources for the assessment can be made readily accessible to students by providing pertinent links. These may include links to guidelines, policies, and additional support such as discussion boards.
In the following example, we have incorporated a link to a discussion board (1), enabling students to anonymously pose questions about the assessment. Additionally, we have included an email link (2) for direct communication with the module leader. Links to school policies and university regulations, such as student progress and plagiarism, are also provided.
By consolidating all necessary information for the assessment in one place, we eliminate the need for students to search elsewhere.
This approach promotes clarity and guidance, ensuring that students fully comprehend the expectations and requirements of their assessment
An example of using the RCE in Quizzes
In the Quizzes section, you have the option to include links that can assist students with their assessments. These could be links to the content that will be evaluated or to technical guidance.
In the given example, we are notifying students that the assessment will be based on the Week 1 Lecture (highlighted as 1). Additionally, a link for technical support (highlighted as 2) is provided for their convenience.
An example of using the RCE in Discussions
Links to the discussion topic and technical guidance on utilising Canvas Discussion boards can be incorporated. This approach is beneficial as it equips students with all the necessary resources for active participation in the discussion, while also providing context to the discussion topic.
In this instance, we are offering a link to the module corresponding to the current teaching week (highlighted as 1). This serves to give students a prompt for the discussion and context for the topic under discussion. Additionally, we provide technical guidance for utilising discussions (highlighted as 2).
An example of using the RCE in Pages
Using the RCE in Canvas Pages
Leveraging the Rich Content Editor (RCE) in Canvas Pages, you have the flexibility to enrich your teaching materials with a diverse range of content items. This includes not only links to course-specific content and videos, but also resources like PowerPoint presentations and external webpages.
Canvas, our Virtual Learning Environment is constantly evolving to enhance user experience and functionality. Each month we inform you via this blog what changes are taking place, how they will impact users and how to make the best out of this new functionality.
In this blog, we will look at the new Find and Replace tool in the Rich Content Editor.
Rich Content Editor – Find and Replace
What is this new feature?
A find and replace tool has been added to the Rich Content Editor (RCE). This will be similar in functionality to Find and Replace your would find in Word Processing applications like Microsoft Word.
As this is a Rich Content Editor enhancement, you will be able to use this in the following areas of Canvas:
Announcements
Assignments
Discussions
New Quizzes
Pages
Quizzes
How do I use this Find and Replace Tool?
Access the Rich Content Editor:
When editing a Canvas page, discussion post, or any other content, click the Tools drop-down menu in the Rich Content Editor.
Select Find and Replace from the options.
Search and Replace:
In the modal that appears, enter the text you want to find in the Find field.
Enter the replacement text in the Replace field.
Click Replace to replace the first occurrence, or Replace All to replace all occurrences.
Users can addlabels to individual questions to help with general organising and for locating questions with specific content.
Inspera have created the option to filteron labels that have been added to questions. Until now, if filtering on more than one label, the result has been to show all content with any of these labels. We know there is a need to search for all content that has all the selected labels. It is now possible to be able to filter on more than one label simultaneously.
Using labels in practice…
You can add labels to questionsin your question set. For example, you may wish to label your questions with the topic (e.g. Topic X, Y OR Z) but you may also want to add another filter, such as the year the question is from. When searching the question bank of all your questions in Inspera, it is now be possible to filter so that you can find questions that are say from ‘2023/24’ and from ‘topic X’, rather than all questions coming up with either of those filters.
How to filter using labels
Go to Author, and then select Questions
You will then select ‘filter’.
Select the ‘labels’ drop down and search for the labels you wish to find via the search box. You can then select these via the tickboxes.
Use the ‘any’ button if you would like to find any questions using any of the label(s) selected, or use the ‘all’ button if you wish to find questions that have all of the labels you have selected. This will exclude questions that only have one of the selected filters.
