Two Important Changes in Canvas

February 12, 2018
Categories: Canvas

Preferred Name Update

If you have designated a preferred name in UNCGenie, that name will now appear everywhere names are displayed in Canvas. This change makes Canvas consistent with the other services that use preferred names (e.g. Google, Box, WebEx).

In particular for students, in the past, their legal names would display in the Grade Center area and in the People area, but their preferred names displayed in Discussion, Conversations, etc. Please be aware of this change, especially as you transfer grades from Canvas to Genie, as Genie still lists legal names, and therefore it is possible some names may appear in a different order from Canvas to Genie. In the unlikely event that displaying preferred name causes two students to appear with the same name in Canvas, you can differentiate by looking at the Secondary ID (username) in the Grade Center area.

Icon Changes

During the Canvas update that occurred on February 3, 2018, some Canvas Settings menu icons were replaced with an Options icon, in order to improve design consistency throughout Canvas.  The Settings menu icon appears as a cog and the Options icon appears as three vertically aligned dots.  The menu choices that appear when you click the Options icon have not changed.