Enabling a new Differentiation Tags feature within Canvas

Enabling a new Differentiation Tags feature within Canvas

January 20, 2026 at 1:36 pm

On Wednesday January 21, 2026, we will be enabling a new feature on Canvas, called Differentiation Tags. This new feature will allow instructors to discreetly organize students into defined sets for a more personalized learning experience, making it easier to work with subsets of students for communication, grading, and instructional workflows. Specifically, you will be able to

  • create and manage tags assigned to students via the People page
  • assign students to assignments and quizzes to specific student tags
  • filtering student submissions in the Canvas SpeedGrader based on tags
  • communicate with specific student tags through the Canvas Inbox without alerting the whole class, and
  • manage student tags via a CSV file upload

What do I need to know about this new feature?

  • You will not need to do anything to prepare. The feature will be enabled seamlessly, and the option to use it in your Canvas course will be available from January 21 onward.

Where can I get further help?

If you have other questions about this change or about Canvas, feel free to contact us at the LT Hub. You can also refer to the FAQ page set up by Canvas on this new feature.

Posted in Canvas News

Kaltura LTI Integration Upgrade for Canvas

January 13, 2026 at 12:39 pm

The Kaltura LTI integration in Canvas will be upgraded to use LTI 1.3. Originally, we had planned for this to happen on January 19, 2026, however, this upgrade is now delayed until the 2026 Summer Term (May to August 2026).

What do you need to know about this change?

No downtime is expected, but you may notice a brief “blip” during the transition.  

After the upgrade, the location of My Media will move from the course navigation menu to the Canvas global navigation menu. 

Additionally, you will need to re-authorize Kaltura when you first access My Media or the Media Gallery. This is a legitimate one-time request that will need to be accepted to continue using Kaltura with Canvas.  

Thank you for your patience as we improve your experience! 

Where can I get further help?

Please contact us at the LT Hub if you have questions about this change.

Posted in Kaltura News

Students: Beginning-of-Term Canvas Course Access (2025W2; January 2026)

December 15, 2025 at 1:28 pm

Please note that by default, your Canvas courses will not appear on your Dashboard for access until the first day of term, Monday January 5, 2026, and access to courses typically ends eight weeks after the last day of class (approximately June 5, 2026). However, instructors may adjust their courses to open early or close late.

Due to the high volume of registration changes at the start of term, changes to registration in Workday can take up to 24 hours to reach Canvas. 

What does this mean?

If you have recently registered for a course and do not see it on your Canvas dashboard: 

  1. Log in to Canvas and click Courses in the global navigation. 
  2. Select All Courses to see your complete list of courses. 
  3. If the course does not appear in All Courses, wait 24 hours from when your registration was updated in Workday and check again. 
  4. If the course is appearing under All Courses but it says “No” in the Published column, this means your instructor has not made the course accessible to students. 

Where can I get further help?

If your course does not appear under All Courses in Canvas after 24 hours or you have questions about accessing courses at the start of term, please contact us at the LT Hub for support.

For more information about Canvas, please see our Canvas Student Guide.

Posted in Canvas, Canvas News

Kaltura LTI integration upgrade for Canvas Catalog

December 3, 2025 at 12:46 pm

On December 5, 2025, between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. Pacific, the Kaltura LTI integration in Canvas Catalog will be upgraded to use LTI 1.3.

What do you need to know about this change?

No downtime is expected, but you may notice a brief “blip” during the transition. After the upgrade, users’ “My Media” will be accessible via the Catalog main navigation menu.

Additionally, new features will be added, including:

  • Enhanced Media Player
  • Media Stitching for combining clips
  • Recycle Bin for easy recovery
  • Support for Documents

Thank you for your patience as we improve your experience!

Where can I get further help?

Please contact us at the LT Hub if you have questions about this change.

Posted in Kaltura News

Recent Zoom upgrade may require re-adding Zoom links to Canvas courses

August 25, 2025 at 10:52 am

On August 19, 2025, 10:30 a.m. PST, we upgraded the Zoom integration in Canvas to a new version to improve overall stability and performance. The upgrade completed successfully; however, certain Zoom settings were reset in Canvas, and this reset may require you to re-add Zoom to areas of your Canvas course.

What do instructors need to know about this change?

  • If you did not have Zoom in your Canvas Course Navigation and did not link to Zoom’s Canvas page in other areas of your course content, there is nothing to do. These two areas are the only areas that were impacted by the upgrade. Links to Zoom meetings and Zoom recordings in Canvas courses were not affected in any way.
  • The Zoom menu item was removed from the Canvas Course Navigation for all courses. To re-add Zoom to your Course Navigation, first go to the “Navigation” tab in your course settings page. Find the “Zoom” menu item, click the options menu (the 3 vertical dots), choose “Enable”, and save your setting changes.
  • Any links to Zoom’s Canvas page in other areas of your course were also removed. These links are created when you add an external tool to a Canvas module and select Zoom. If you wish to use this link to Zoom in your course, you will need to re-add Zoom as an external tool to the module(s).

Where can I get further help?

Please contact us at the LT Hub if you have questions about this change or would like assistance with Zoom or Canvas.

We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this upgrade and expect the improvements will ultimately support a positive experience in the coming term.

Posted in Canvas News, Zoom News

Studiosity 2024/25 W2 pilot concluded

August 20, 2025 at 3:00 pm

During 2024/25 W2 term, the LT Hub/LTIC had the opportunity to pilot Studiosity, an AI-based study tool designed to provide students with immediate feedback on their writing. The pilot has now concluded, and the UBC trial license for Studiosity is no longer available.

We would like to thank all those who participated in the pilot, and the team at Studiosity for setting us up with the tool and answering our myriad questions – it was a valuable learning experience for us at UBC about our own needs and approaches to teaching and supporting students with their learning with technology.

LTIC is committed to ecosystem vibrancy and to making available a rich suite of tools to educators and learners. We are undertaking a holistic process of examining our approaches for building out this ecosystem. We will let you know of any additional opportunities to try new tools in the coming year, and we thank everyone who participated in piloting this one—your time, feedback, and enthusiasm are always appreciated!

Posted in Other Tool News

Central support for Mattermost ending in May 2025

April 7, 2025 at 11:15 am

The LT Hub’s support for the chat tool Mattermost will end on Monday, May 5, 2025. After this date, Mattermost will no longer be available to use with central support at UBC.

Why is central support for Mattermost changing?

UBC’s learning technology leadership made this decision for several reasons:

  • Since its adoption at UBC, Mattermost has seen a significant drop in use that is now disproportionate to its maintenance needs.
  • The functionality of Mattermost is similar to what is now available in Microsoft Teams.

Where can I get support with transitioning?

For questions or requests for help in transitioning from Mattermost or with using Microsoft Teams, contact us at the LT Hub.

Posted in Other Tool News

Call for summer learning analytics project proposals open now through April 14, 2025

March 21, 2025 at 11:00 am

Effective today, the LT Hub is launching a new Learning Analytics Faculty Partnership Program that invites you to request dedicated hours with the LT Hub’s Learning Analytics (LA) team to support pedagogical inquiry. Proposals are selected for partnership three times a year, and the current call for summer proposals is open now through April 14, 2025.

You can submit proposals for learning analytics support related to

  • getting access to existing learning data or collecting new sources of data,
  • developing data tools and visualizations about learning, and/or
  • receiving assistance with learning data analysis.

Selected proposals will receive LA team support hours based on the project scope.

How can I learn more and submit a proposal?

You can read more about eligibility, proposal selection criteria, and project examples on the LA Faculty Partnership Program page. You can also register for a LA Faculty Partnership Program information session happening on April 3, 2025, to hear a live overview of the program and ask questions.

Eligible faculty from UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan are welcome to submit proposals through the LA Faculty Partnership Program form.

Posted in Other Tool News

Central support for MyLA and OnTask ending in April 2025

March 10, 2025 at 12:15 pm

The LT Hub’s support for the learning analytics tools My Learning Analytics (MyLA) and OnTask will end on Monday, April 7, 2025. After this date, MyLA and OnTask will no longer be available to use in Canvas.

Why is central support for MyLA and OnTask changing?

UBC’s learning technology leadership made this decision for several reasons:

  • Since their adoption at UBC, both tools have seen a significant drop in use that is now disproportionate to their maintenance needs.
  • The functionality of both tools is similar to features now available in Canvas.
  • Consultation with UBC users and stakeholders of these tools determined that their removal from the LTE will not impact teaching and learning.
  • The change will allow the LT Hub’s Learning Analytics team to focus more time and effort on tools that identify stronger actionable insights from learning analytics data.

How can instructors and students access similar features in Canvas?

If you are someone who has used—or been interested in using—learning analytics tools like these, you can explore similar functionality in Canvas.

Where can I get more support with transitioning?

For questions or requests for help in transitioning from MyLA and OnTask, contact us at the LT Hub.

Posted in Other Tool News

New interim process in place for how publisher content and tools are included in Canvas

January 28, 2025 at 3:15 pm

We previously shared the need to change how publisher content and tools are included in Canvas at UBC, and those changes are now underway.

When you request publisher content or tools through the UBC Bookstore (e.g., materials from Macmillan Achieve, McGraw Hill Connect, Norton Learning Tools, Cengage MindTap, Pearson MyLab/Mastering, WileyPlus), the LT Hub will enable access to the publisher tool in your Canvas course; you can then add the required materials. We will also add a privacy notice informing students that publisher content/tools are being used in the course.

What do instructors need to know about this change?

  • You can continue to request publisher content and tools from the UBC Bookstore as usual. Behind the scenes, the LT Hub will enable access to the publisher directly in your Canvas course using each publisher’s Canvas integration, rather than adding them using an intermediary tool (as we used to). The UBC Privacy and Information Security Management (PrISM) team has confirmed that this direct access meets UBC privacy and security requirements.
  • You will see a student privacy notice added to any Canvas course with publisher content/tools. We have worked with the UBC PrISM team on wording that properly notifies students about the use of publisher materials and what guidelines students can follow to maximize privacy when interacting with these materials. Please do not remove this notice from your course.

Why is this an interim process?

We plan to streamline the process between now and September 2025. Streamlining will likely mean letting you enable publisher access in Canvas courses yourself and centralizing the student privacy notice, so it does not need to appear in each course.

We will post information about the final process closer to the start of 2025/26 W1. In the meantime, you can contact us at the LT Hub or reach out to the UBC Bookstore with questions.

Posted in Canvas News