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Preparing for the Migration to Canvas

You've attended the Info session, you know Blackboard/Portal is shutting down August 31, so now what? What can you do right now to make sure that you're prepared for the Q (Canvas) in September 2018?

If you thought there wasn't anything for you to do right now, I'm sorry to disappoint you - there's lots! Let's get started...

  1. Review the slides from the Canvas Information Session (from Feb. 28, 2018): If you missed this session, or you just want to refresh, you can view the content presented during the session
  2. Explore your Q sandbox: If you are an instructor, you can test a demo course just by logging in to U of T's Canvas instance. If you are a TA, an administrator, or another member of the Teaching Team, you were not automatically assigned a sandbox. But, you can request one! It does take a few days for the request to process, but you'll be notified as soon as it is created. Anything that you build in your sandbox course can be copied over to your "real" course.
  3. Archive your existing Blackboard/Portal course: Archiving your course serves to ensure that you have a legacy record of this course. The Archive function creates a zipped package with all course content, including student enrolment and students' course interactions. Will you  need this? Maybe not, but it's a good back up to have and only takes a few minutes to do. (Another feature is exporting your course, but this only includes course content and files, not student work, student course interactions nor the grade centre. It is recommended that you always download a copy of your grade centre separately to ensure that you always have a copy of student grades.)
  4. Choose how you'll build your course on the Q: If time allows, this is an opportunity to rebuild your online course shell. ACT (the central department supporting this process) has put together essential information for instructors (including a handy comparison between Blackboard and Canvas features). You can also export your course and import it into Canvas (this works best for simpler, content dominant courses). 
  5. Schedule a consultation with your FASE support team: During the migration, the Education Technology Office is available for you as much (or as little) as you'd like. Please fill out this form to schedule a session - we can do in person, over the phone, whatever works for you. It's never too early to get started!

There's a lot going on above and it depends on how comfortable you are with tackling it all on your own. If you take anything from this, take point number 5 and schedule a session with us so that we can discuss your specific questions and requirements. 

 

Full house for the Canvas Information Session: