Quarterly Newsletter, April 2020

It’s hard to believe how much has changed since the last Cidi Labs quarterly newsletter.  We hope this edition finds you all healthy, safe and adjusting to these unprecedented times. 

You’ll notice we haven’t been sending COVID-19 emails – we figured sparing you a few of those was one of the ways we could help most. 

We are however sending this quarterly newsletter as an efficient way to help you stay up to speed on all things Cidi Labs. Please know that we’re here to help as always, so don’t hesitate to reach out!  

Live Webinar Series

Thank you to all who attended the first 3 webinars in our series!  Join us on May 13th to learn how you can Lighten Your Load this Summer with ReadyGO This webinar will highlight our new course readiness tracking tool for Canvas.

If you missed any of the live webinars, you can still access the recordings to view at your leisure:  

New Features

Based always on the feedback we receive from our amazing community of customers, we continue to enhance our tools to better meet your needs.

Check out some of the new features we’ve added since the beginning of the year:

    • DesignPLUS now has a Full Screen Editing option which expands the Canvas rich content editor, hiding the Canvas sidebars and other elements to provide more space to focus on your content.  
    • DesignPLUS also has a new button in the Add/Edit Navigation Block tool and the Link/Button tool to help create and update links that point to existing Canvas content.
    • TidyUP now includes a way to produce a CSV report of files, folders and content as well as the ability to customize the text that appears in the help section to include institution-specific content.
    • UDOIT Cloud now makes it possible to filter and view the list of accessibility issues by type, allowing users to focus on one type of issue at a time and making the process more efficient. Additionally, institution-specific messaging can now be added to the welcome page of the tool to allow for the inclusion of additional accessibility resources for users.

Coming Soon! NEW Upload/Embed Image Tool

We’re excited to share that in the next few weeks a new version of this DesignPLUS tool will be available, and with it comes a host of new and improved features, including:  

    • A more intuitive interface
    • Drag and drop image upload from your computer
    • Add an image from Canvas
    • Search pexels.com and unsplash.com
    • Set the Course Image
    • Set the alternative text within the tool
new upload tool
new upload tool

Each institution will be able to decide when to turn on the new Upload/Embed Image Tool which will involve a simple 3-step process that can be done by your Canvas admin. We’ll let you know when it’s ready so stay tuned! 

Also Coming Soon:  Inherited Scoped Developer Keys

All of the Cidi Labs LTI tools will be updated to include this security enhancement which limits the API calls that each developer key should have access to and as a result offers increased security.  These new keys will be available to turn on in Canvas so institution-specific developer keys will no longer be required.

InstructureCon

As we look ahead to the summer, the prospect of connecting with all of you in Nashville sounds downright dreamy.  Given the uncertain times that we find ourselves in, we remain in close contact with Instructure about the conference and stand ready to adapt to any changes in plans that may arise.

In any event, we will find ways to connect as a community and let you know how very much we appreciate you!  In the meantime, be sure to join our User Group channel in Slack.  

Stay well and stay safe,
Team Cidi Labs

 

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