What’s New for Fall 2016?

During the 2015–2016 academic year, the UC Irvine campus opted to adopt the Instructure Canvas learning management system. We are beginning a multi-year transition, developing an extended ecosystem of instructional tools centered around Canvas, with integrated homegrown and third party services expanding upon Canvas functionality.

In the past year, the Office of Information Technology developed new enhancements to many of the instructional technology tools we build and maintain in the campus’s Electronic Educational Environment (EEE). Instructure released updates to Canvas functionality. Read on below for the highlights!

Electronic Educational Environment (EEE)

  • Learn more about EEE Canvas, the EEE team, the UCI Canvas Pilot on new and enhanced informational websites:
  • Use the EEE toolbox to access a more complete suite of tools available to instructors (note the EEE Canvas section)
  • From your MyEEE page, you can now click ‘Go to EEE Canvas course space’ and be prompted to login to enrollment-restricted course spaces
  • Learn more regarding the future of select EEE tools (comparable information for other tools in the legacy EEE toolset will be added progressively, as it becomes available)
  • Obtain additional information about the RapidReturn service either via the automated email response or updated documentation

GrandCentral

  • Explore a personal EEE Canvas Sandbox, where you can become familiar with Canvas tools, experiment with the functionality, and even draft course content and structure that you can later copy into your actual course spaces
  • Access all of your EEE Canvas course spaces starting from Spring 2015 in the multiple-term enabled GrandCentral
  • Add an observer to your EEE Canvas course spaces
  • See a processing queue of pending course space requests for relevant instructor and TA classes
  • Use a newly updated contact form in the process of creating a EEE Canvas course space to indicate a preferred contact method

Scout

  • Administrators
    • Mark questions as required within a Scout Form
    • Access and modify notes on an individual submission from the listing of all form submissions
  • Participants
    • Upload and submit audio files
    • Filter your forms to see more information about your submissions

Help Center

Canvas

Provided by EEE Team

  • See UCI specific branding within the newly updated Instructure Canvas user interface
  • Verify the grading scheme that is used to translate numeric to letter grades in the process of submitting official final grades
    • Beginning in Fall 2016, all new EEE Canvas course spaces will be configured with the default EEE Grading Scale
  • Obtain strategies for resolving potential login issues by following the steps provided on an updated login error page
  • Click ‘Go to WebRoster’ from within the EEE Canvas People Tool to go directly from Canvas to the Registrar’s official roster information

Provided by Instructure

Learn more on Canvas News & Updates

  • Canvas Course Space Tools
    • Assignments
      • Collect scores from multiple graders, then select a single score to add to the gradebook
      • Create custom deadlines and assignment availability windows for individual students and groups
      • For anonymous peer review assignments, students will no longer have access to the student that submitted the review
      • Students can now access the feedback provided on group-submissions, provided the instructor has opted to distribute the feedback to the entire group
      • Assignment dates are now sync’d between Canvas and Turnitin on Turnitin enabled assignments
    • Calendar
      • Create repeating events for a specific course space
    • Conferences
      • Create a poll within a conference
    • Files
      • Schedule the release of files within a Canvas course space
    • Grades
      • Excuse an assignment for individual students
    • Settings
      • Check all links within a Canvas course space
      • Provide an ePub version of a specific course
    • SpeedGrader
      • Access an updated look and feel of SpeedGrader
      • Automatically save comments added to individual student submissions, so comments are not inadvertently sent to the incorrect student
      • Easily download student submissions
      • For Turnitin enabled assignments, SpeedGrader now delays processing files, which helps to alleviate some issues (work continues on a more complete resolution)
  • Canvas Individual Settings
    • Courses
      • Access a newly updated view of all courses
    • Dashboard
      • Create a nickname for individual courses
      • Select a color for the course
    • Settings
      • Access images that students have embedded within an ePortfolio
      • Opt to configure international text (SMS) messaging as a notification preference