Winter Term 2 is just around the corner, and the Canvas implementation team is continuing to work toward the full implementation of UBC’s new online course platform.
Instructors and students who will be using Canvas next term can look forward to some new and improved features. As of Winter Term 2, UBC plans to make available Canvas’s updated Quiz tool—currently titled Quizzes.Next in beta—as well as the new Canvas Gradebook.
By next semester, students will also be able to self-enroll in groups created by instructors and to create their own study groups in Canvas. This new functionality will be enabled by UBC’s activation of the People tab in Canvas.
Threaded discussions will have a new look, too. In response to the UBC community’s feedback during Term 1, vertical bars will be added to the left side of threaded posts to indicate the level of response. A top-level response to a discussion question will not display any bars, a reply to a top-level response will display one bar, and a reply to a reply will display two bars. (And so on.)
Finally, additional learning tools—such as iPeer, UBC Blogs, and CoursEval—will be integrated with Canvas before the start of next term. The list of tool integrations that will be ready for Term 2 will be finalized on UBC’s Canvas website for instructors by mid-December.
Canvas was selected in June 2017 as the replacement for Connect (Blackboard Learn). As of August 2018, Connect will no longer be available for teaching courses at UBC. Visit about.canvas.ubc.ca to learn more about Canvas and UBC’s transition from Connect.
