The holidays are upon us and we want you to unwrap a very special Impact gift this year with the hope that it will bring you as much excitement for cohesion and efficiency as it does us, paving the way for a joyous start to the festive season! Take a look at this quick video then read on below:
In a call with one of our customers about a year ago, they shared with me that Instructure products seemed more like roommates instead of family. This analogy truly hit home not only for me, but for us as an organization. At Instructure, we are committed to redefining the edtech landscape by creating a comprehensive, open, accessible, cohesive, and trusted platform. Since that conversation, we have gone into overdrive to brainstorm, plan, build, and start delivering on a unified experience for all. Today, I am happy to announce two major steps forward in that work designed to enhance the overall Impact user experience.
Nav. Wrapper: A Global Framework for Unified Experience
Impact is excited to be the second product (outside of Admin Analytics) to adopt the new Instructure Nav. Wrapper (with the rest of the products following suit soon)! This updated global framework unites various interfaces under one cohesive design language, ensuring a seamless transition between tools while maintaining a familiar and user-friendly appearance. This not only simplifies interactions, but also improves ease of access and engagement, allowing educators and learners to focus more on content and less on navigating through disparate interfaces.
As a result of the newly unveiled Nav. Wrapper, here is a breakdown of the small changes that Impact users can expect:
- Simplified Impact brand logo in top, left-hand corner
- A new Account Profile area denoted by the
icon in the top, right-hand corner that provides a pop-out tray upon clicking with each Impact Admin’s:
- Account Security
- Sub-account (if applicable) featuring an updated modal for sub-account selection
- Connected LMS User featuring an updated modal for LMS user selection
- Dashboard Language Selector
- “Log out” button
- An updated Settings area denoted by the
icon in the top, right-hand corner that provides a drop-down menu upon clicking with the rest of the settings areas for which you are familiar.
- Instance Selector in top, far-right-hand corner with updated drop-down menu
Impact in Canvas: Elevating the Admin Experience
What makes the aforementioned Nav. Wrapper even more spectacular is using it inside of Canvas! Impact, renowned for its powerful messaging, support, and insights capabilities and designed for use with Canvas can now reside comfortably and conveniently within Canvas. This integration eliminates the need for separate logins, URLs, and disjointed experiences, offering Impact Admins improved access and navigation to monitor, measure, and magnify adoption of Canvas and its integrated tools. By integrating Impact directly into Canvas, educators can harness its insights without leaving their familiar Canvas environment, ensuring smoother and uninterrupted workflows.
In preparation for this integration, we reached out to Impact users via a survey to ask where they preferred to have Impact inside of Canvas. The results below from that survey very clearly showed that Impact Admins wanted the Impact Dashboard to be placed in the Canvas Admin Navigation Menu and ideally only for those Canvas Admins who are also Impact Admins.
As such, the Impact Team in collaboration with the Canvas Team got to work to make this dream a reality! While the Nav. Wrapper is available for all customers and in all experiences, the Impact in Canvas experience is available only for Impact Admins inside of Canvas. It is important to note that while this feature is available and ready for configuration, the standalone Impact product will also remain. With that being said, we hope that our Canvas + Impact Admins take advantage of this awesome new feature and install, use, and provide feedback to us on their new and improved experience!
Using Impact inside of Canvas not only helps to simplify and streamline workflows, but also provides some key advantages over the standalone product:
- There is no need to log in multiple times, as Impact recognizes you when logged into Canvas.
- The Instance Selector detects which Canvas instance you are accessing and defaults to it automatically.
The Impact in Canvas LTI configuration features two main parts:
- New Canvas Permission for Account Roles entitled “Impact - Manage” where Canvas Admins can customize permissions for visibility of the Impact Dashboard inside of Canvas
- Updated LTI Keys tab with clearer, step-by-step configuration process inside of Settings for the new Impact Dashboard LTI (along with the pre-existing Course Reports LTI)
A couple of important side notes:
- There is no need to log into Impact inside of Canvas assuming that the email address you use to log into Canvas is the same as your Impact Admin email address. If you are using a different email address, you will need to use the "Connect your LMS user" Impact feature to match the email used in Canvas.
- We are working to improve the Support Center experience for Impact Admins inside of Canvas. For now (temporarily), Impact Admins will see the Impact Support Center when inside the Impact Dashboard in Canvas and will see the Canvas Support Center elsewhere.
In conclusion, we hope that the unwrapping of the Nav. Wrapper and Impact in Canvas demonstrates our commitment to fostering a cohesive and user-centric experience inside of the most trusted edtech ecosystem in the world. Of course, we won’t stop here… be on the lookout in 2024 for even more depth and breadth in Impact’s cross-product integrations! As we wrap up this exciting unveiling of our latest work, we extend our warmest holiday wishes to all educators, learners, and supporters. May your holiday season be filled with love, joy, laughter, and your new year filled with seamless edtech experiences!
