Happy New Year!

Welcome back staff, faculty, and students as we begin the Winter 2026 term, our second full term full on Canvas.

Instructors who are teaching in the new LMS for the first time should review the following important Canvas resources:

• Key changes in Canvas
• Getting Started with Canvas (Training Resources)
• Controlling student access in Canvas
• Getting Support for Canvas

As an important reminder, the gradebook in Canvas is a fair bit different than what we are used to so instructors should review the documentation, taking special note of the default grade visibility settings, and may also wish to attend CTL’s Gradebook session on January 15th, 2026.

We are also excited to announce a number of new features or changes occurring in Canvas and across the Digital Learning Environment.

New Canvas Features:

• A new Canvas Portfolios feature has been released that allows instructors to create evaluation portfolios to track student progress within or across courses and students to create their own showcase portfolios. Full usage instructions for Portfolios can be found here.
• Canvas New Quizzes can now be used to deliver feedback surveys, either graded or not. This new functionality is a direct replacement for the feedback activity from eClass. 
• The Enhanced Rubrics feature preview has been enabled for the site, allowing instructors to explore using them in their courses.

Simple Syllabus LTI added to Canvas: Instructors who are using Simple Syllabus can now provide a direct, course navigation link for students to their syllabus from within their canvas course.

Edufide Assign2 and SEM Updates: 

• Assign2 has added 3 new assignment types that instructors can use within the tool’s existing collaborative grading interface including Coding assignment (beta) for comp sci programming homework assignments, Any Exam (beta) which allows impromptu lab or in-class work to be scanned then uploaded, and Online Quiz (alpha) which allows the construction of assessments that can include using structured AI grading for long-form answers and the use of STACK questions. 
• SEM Version 2 is now the recommended option for instructors looking for web-based exam proctoring. Instructors who require screen-locking and additional exam security must still use Respondus Lockdown Browser.
  
  

Respondus Server Profile Selection: when directly launching LockDown Browser, users will now need to select the ‘U of A Canvas’ server profile or the ‘U of A Continuing Ed Canvas’ server profile depending on their needs. This change will not affect anyone using Canvas New Quizzes as those auto-launch the application using the correct profile.

Support for both Canvas and any of the DLE tools and services can be found via our online support portal as well as via email at eclass@ualberta.ca or by phone at 780-492-9372.

Regards,
IST eClass Support