February 1, 2021

Short version:

The maximum width for Canvas user content areas with content not created with DesignPLUS has been removed. Content that was created using the Design Tools sidebar will still have a maximum width.

Long version:

Quite a few years back, Canvas introduced the New User Tutorial feature option in the root account settings. This feature had an unusual side effect. When this feature is enabled, Canvas content fills the full width of the browser. While this may sound like a positive thing, it made user content that was previously a nice comfortable width like this:

Look like this, where the paragraphs become hard to read on larger monitors and banner images become huge:

To prevent this from creating problems with existing courses, we enforced a maximum width on the Canvas user content to prevent that from happening. Because I didn't want to go to the far edge of the browser to find the edit button, that maximum width was set on the user content area rather than just the Design Tools content. 

We have seen a recent increase in new Cidi Labs customers that have been using Canvas who are using the New User Tutorial feature who panic when all of their content now has a maximum width. In addition, in the February 3, 2021 Canvas deploy Links to an external site. applied that width to all Canvas users. 

Since my goal is to have as little of an impact on Canvas outside of the content we help you create, I have removed the width limit from the Canvas content container. However, since I firmly believe that limiting the width has better usability, the maximum content width will still be applied to the Design Tools Wrapper.

The Module Builder has been updated to use the same method Canvas uses to duplicate pages, assignments, and discussions accounting for all settings including grading rubrics and LTI assignments.

This enhancement includes API calls that are not currently available in the scoped credential list in Canvas. We have requested those additional API endpoints and will add this functionality when they become available in Canvas. I have a ticket in with Canvas support and I keep following up to see if I can get it added.

We have had reports of instances where the page title where students can access alternative formats provided by Blackboard Ally may still be hidden on pages where Design Tools was used to create the content. Additional tests have been added to the code to account for instances when that dropdown is not created until after the Design Tools code looks for it.

The original fix for the Ally dropdown was part of the September 3, 2020 release.

Resolved an issue where the Module Builder would hang up when trying to copy external LTI assignments.

The resolution for this feature includes API calls that are not currently available in the scoped credential list in Canvas. We have requested those additional API endpoints and will add this functionality when they become available in Canvas. I have a ticket in with Canvas support and I keep following up to see if I can get it added.