Canvas Migration 101

Migration Schedule

  • April 9th – Migration document sent to Canvas
  • Week of April 12th COTC courses will be loaded into Canvas

Canvas Training

Canvas and Design support

Canvas Support Pathways

    • Technical Support
      • Step 1:For technical questions about how to do specific things in Canvas like make quizzes, set up your grade book, etc., the first place to go is to is to Canvas’ Support FAQs.  One advantage of the Canvas LMS is the large community of users who support one another by asking and answering questions about the LMS functions.  If you’ve got a question, it’s very likely that it’s addressed in either the “troubleshooting guide” or in the “ask our community” section of the Canvas Support FAQs.
      • Step 2: While Canvas’ support is fairly extensive, it’s not exhaustive and there are things you may want to do in your classes that Canvas’ support is unable to help you with.  In that case, you should feel free to bring your question to the a member of the eLearning Champions.  The faculty members of the eLearning Champions group have made themselves available to assist you by setting aside specific hours of availability to meet one-one-one.  To schedule a time with a member of the committee, a link to a Microsoft Bookings reservation site has been made available on the Canvas Migration 101 page.  Select the “Schedule time to work with eLearning Champions”  link and you will be able schedule an appointment at a time that works best for you.
      • Step 3: In the event that the members of the eLearning Champions are not able to help you resolve your technical question they will hand off your question to a member of the Digital Learning Team, either Kris Read or Kacy Burchfield.  Kris and Kacy have been working diligently to master the features of the Canvas LMS and have direct assess to the Canvas support staff in the event it’s needed.
    • Design Support
      • Step 1: The other type of support that has been lined up for faculty is with course design and online best practices.  For basic questions about the best practices COTC has adopted for online courses, first consult the BAM’s document and the “COTC Jumpstart Quick Reference”.  Each has information about the content and format of things like the Course Home Page, the Syllabus, and other basic course elements, as well as some best practices tips.
      • Step 2: For questions that go beyond the information found these documents, the same procedure outlined above can be used to schedule one-on-one time with member of the eLearning Champions committee.
      • Step 3: Finally, should your design or best practices question go beyond what the members of the eLearning Champions can assist you with, they will put you in contact with an instructional designer from O’Donnell Learn.

Faculty Communication

March 11, 2021

Faculty,

The information below is very important. As you are all aware, COTC is in the midst of a migration from our current LMS (Moodle) to CANVAS and this email gives important information about the migration process, as well as outline the support services in place for faculty as we develop our courses in the new LMS.  Please give the information in this email your full attention.

As you are all aware, by this coming fall semester all LMS related course functions will be administered through Canvas. In anticipation of this deadline, the digital learning team, administration, and faculty members of the E Learning Champions committee have worked to facilitate a smooth migration process, as well as to develop resources and assistance pathways for faculty to learn Canvas, and prepare their courses for the fall.  The information below is an overview of these points.

Migration and Canvas Support Updates

Canvas Migration 101
To facilitate clear communication about the migration process and make \Canvas support resources readily available, COTC’s digital learning team has created the Canvas Migration 101 page.  Here is a link to the Canvas Migration 101 page.  This page is your go-to hub for information about the Canvas migration.  That page currently has three sections.  Section 1 provides information about the migration schedule, section 2 has information about Learning opportunities for the Canvas LMS, and section 3 has Canvas support information.

Understanding the Migration Process
There are two key deadlines to keep in mind when it comes to the migration process.

March 19
March 19 is the deadline for faculty to make changes to their existing Moodle shells that they would like carried over to Canvas.  Any changes made to Moodle shells after this date will not be migrated into the Canvas course shell.  On March 19, digital copies of the migrating course shells are handed off to a team with Canvas who will execute the migration.  This means the process is not in the hands of our digital learning team and requests for late changes cannot be accommodated.

April 12
By April 12, all course shell copies from Moodle to Canvas should be complete and course content should be available to all faculty when they log into Canvas.

Getting Ready: Learning Canvas During the Migration

Canvas Learning Opportunities

The Canvas learning management system is currently open for faculty to access.  To get there, you can use this link.  Canvas has been made available so that we as faculty have an opportunity  to begin interacting with and learning about it while courses are in the migration process, and so that when courses are available we can hit the ground running preparing them for the fall semester. The first opportunity we have to learn Canvas is to create a Sandbox Course to familiarize yourself with the look, feel, and operation of the LMS. For specific instructions about setting up a sandbox course in Canvas, head to the Canvas Migration 101 page and see the “How to create a sandbox course in Canvas” handout.

**One important thing to note about setting up a sandbox course in Canvas is that all Canvas courses must align with a specific naming convention.  Information about this is provided in the “How to create a sandbox course in Canvas” handout.  In the event you have already set up a sandbox course in Canvas, please make sure  your course follows this convention.  

A great second opportunity to learn to use Canvas is to utilize Canvas’ Training Services.  To use Training Services, you must first create a sandbox course in which you are the instructor.  Then, once that has been created, you will have access to a number of free videos and webinars that cover a wide variety of topics like the Canvas grade book, creating quizzes in Canvas, etc.  This is a *great* place to learn about our new LMS.

Canvas Support Pathways

Preparing Courses for Fall 2021
Once your courses are available in Canvas the work of getting them ready for the fall semester can begin. When preparing your courses in canvas, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Common Canvas Elements
The Canvas LMS includes features  Moodle does not. For example, all COTC courses in Canvas will include a course homepage, a syllabus page, etc.  Just as we had a standard of presentation in Moodle where all courses were designed around introduction and objectives, coursework, etc, all courses in Canvas will share certain core elements to give our students a common user experience.  Information about those elements can be found by going to the Canvas Migration 101 page and viewing the BAMs document. (Note: that document is not available yet, but will be made available as soon as possible).

Technical Support

Step 1:For technical questions about how to do specific things in Canvas like make quizzes, set up your grade book, etc., the first place to go is to is to Canvas’ Support FAQs.  One advantage of the Canvas LMS is the large community of users who support one another by asking and answering questions about the LMS functions.  If you’ve got a question, it’s very likely that it’s addressed in either the “troubleshooting guide” or in the “ask our community” section of the Canvas Support FAQs.

Step 2: While Canvas’ support is fairly extensive, it’s not exhaustive and there are things you may want to do in your classes that Canvas’ support is unable to help you with.  In that case, you should feel free to bring your question to the a member of the eLearning Champions.  The faculty members of the eLearning Champions group have made themselves available to assist you by setting aside specific hours of availability to meet one-one-one.  To schedule a time with a member of the committee, a link to a Microsoft Bookings reservation site has been made available on the Canvas Migration 101 page.  Select the “Schedule time to work with eLearning Champions”  link and you will be able schedule an appointment at a time that works best for you.

Step 3: In the event that the members of the eLearning Champions are not able to help you resolve your technical question they will hand off your question to a member of the Digital Learning Team, either Kris Reed or Kacy Burchfield.  Kris and Kacy have been working diligently to master the features of the Canvas LMS and have direct assess to the Canvas support staff in the event it’s needed.

Design Support

Step 1: The other type of support that has been lined up for faculty is with course design and online best practices.  For basic questions about the best practices COTC has adopted for online courses, first consult the BAM’s document and the “COTC Jumpstart Quick Reference”.  Each has information about the content and format of things like the Course Home Page, the Syllabus, and other basic course elements, as well as some best practices tips.

Step 2: For questions that go beyond the information found these documents, the same procedure outlined above can be used to schedule one-on-one time with member of the eLearning Champions committee.

Step 3: Finally, should your design or best practices question go beyond what the members of the eLearning Champions can assist you with, they will put you in contact with an instructional designer from O’Donnell Learn.

Thank you for your time and attention. I apologize for the lengthy email, but I also know that this is essential information for us to have as we prepare for the fall semester and a new learning management system.  If you have any specific questions about this process or there is anything I can help you with, please feel free to contact me.

Steven Huizenga, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
Central Ohio Technical College
1179 University Dr.
Newark, OH 43055
huizenga.7@mail.cotc.edu
(740) 366-9181