As part of the Gender Recognition and Lived Name Policy, starting with the Spring 2026 semester, pronouns will display for users in bCourses who have opted to share them. Pronouns are sourced from official campus systems of record (CalCentral and/or UC Path) and will automatically be updated in bCourses in the same way that lived names are synced.
Starting October 31, 2025, advertisements may start displaying on any YouTube video embedded in bCourses. This is due to a change in how the bCourses vendor (Instructure) works with YouTube. Before playing the video, viewers will see a message letting viewers know that ads may be displayed before, during, or after the video. These ads are controlled by YouTube and cannot be disabled in bCourses by instructors, students, or admins.
Update September 19, 2025: Google has removed the “Homework Help” feature from Canvas pages with the latest Chrome update. However, the functionality can still be accessed by manually launching "Search with Google Lens" from the Chrome settings menu or using the "Ask Google about this page" option in the browser URL bar.
Gradescope LTI 1.3 is now available in bCourses. LTI 1.3 improves on 1.0 in several key ways, including increased security, and roster syncing that allows for syncing multiple sections from bCourses.
Please see our KB article, “What's new in the Kaltura v7 player?”. If you encounter any issues with Kaltura media players, please email kalturahelp@berkeley.edu
Modules, module items, pages, and ungraded discussions can now be assigned to everyone, specific sections, or individual students in bCourses. These updates are intended to improve the ability to differentiate instruction of their course content.
What’s new:
UPDATE - AUGUST 29, 2024: Based on user feedback, the vendor has rolled back the “Assign To…” tray interface described below, reverting to the original design for assigning due dates and assignees.
As of July 20, all users will see a new interface when interacting with Discussions or Announcements in bCourses. The updated interfaces include a modernized look and some added features. No functionality has been removed.
Between June 19 and June 27, 2024, did you do an import of bCourses content (e.g. from a previous course) that contained Kaltura media ? If so, the embeds may not function in the imported content due to a Canvas bug, if you used the “Select specific content” option (instead of the alternative "All content"):
Have you ever wished that you could automatically send a message to students as soon as they enroll in your course? The bCourses Welcome Email feature is designed to do exactly this! While you can send an announcement at any time, students who enroll later might miss it. The Welcome Email is designed to solve this problem.
In preparation for the Spring 2024 term, we will be making an updated Zoom-bCourses integration available to all instructors. The newer integration is actively supported by Zoom and receives regular feature improvements. Read about the new features
An update to the Zoom to Kaltura integration made by Kaltura in early October benefits many Zoom users who have wanted colleagues (co-instructors, GSI’s,staff, etc) to be able to manage the recording files copied to Kaltura via the integration.
Several improvements to the RTL accessibility portfolio are available for the spring 2023 semester. These include updates to the Accessibility Basics online course site and the new features, Immersive Reader and WYSIWYG Instructor Feedback tool, provided by Ally in bCourses.
We are happy to announce a new batch of features and fixes for the SuiteC collaboration tools:
When we re-built the SuiteC tools earlier this year, we prioritized the popular Asset Library and Engagement Index tools and made the decision to retire the native whiteboard tool and support use of the many available third party whiteboard tools. Our first major update to SuiteC includes a number of ways to make it easier to bring these external whiteboards into the Asset Library.
The Asset Library and Engagement Index tools are being rebuilt, and new versions will be available in the fall, while Whiteboards and Impact Studio are being retired.
The SuiteC tool set was developed as part of a grant-funded project and first piloted in 2015. Over time, technologies have modernized, class sizes have increased, and the performance of SuiteC has fallen behind, ultimately leading to the need to retire the current toolset.
In-between Spring and Summer instruction, we will upgrade the Turnitin academic integrity integration available inside bCourses: On May 23rd, we will enable a new Turnitin integration, and turn off the legacy integration.
Turnitin Similarity Reports generated before 5/23/21 will no longer be accessible by instructors in bCourses after that date.
