SMU’s transition to Canvas is rapidly moving forward. Formal weekly Canvas training workshops began in early January and will continue through September. Roadshow sessions and “convert to Canvas labs” will be offered throughout May and June and customized departmental Canvas training sessions may be requested. OIT’s embedded academic technology team, in partnership with the Center for Teaching Excellence, is gearing up to provide expanded support and instructional design consultation to assist and to ensure SMU’s educators can capably LEARN Canvas, PREPARE course materials, and BUILD courses with this exciting new SMU cloud system. If you are an instructor who has yet to begin preparations for using Canvas, the time to begin is now.
After the current term, SMU courses will be published exclusively for use within Canvas. Blackboard will no longer be available for open use after this semester. As of June 30th, 2016, Blackboard—and all course materials and information stored therein—will no longer be openly accessible to educators or students.
How should faculty proactively prepare for changing to Canvas?
Do not wait until the last minute. Prepare now. All educators currently have unrestricted and open access to previous course materials in Blackboard. However, waiting until the last minute will result in frustrations and challenges which are entirely avoidable and will result in unfavorable teaching experiences for educators and students alike. While SMU’s academic technology team, training team, help desk and instructional designers are available to assist educators and students through the transition to Canvas, educators must begin learning Canvas in order to ensure the best and smoothest experience in building out courses in the new system.
Canvas Preparation Elements:
- Learn Canvas
- Prepare Course Materials for Canvas
- Build Courses in Canvas
LEARN CANVAS. The more you learn about Canvas and its capabilities, the more Canvas can be used to serve you and your students in your classes. Though many faculty have already chosen to “jump in” and find Canvas to be highly accessible and intuitive, attending a training session, participating in an online Canvas class or watching self-paced online tutorials will help grow your own broad awareness of the powers (and subtle nuances) of SMU’s new LMS. Please take advantage of these resources:
| Workshops | Canvas Resources | Request Departmental Training |
| Online Training | Canvas Community | SMU Canvas Page |
We hope to see you at one of our workshops and labs soon!
Continue Reading: Preparing & Building Courses in Canvas.
02/12/2016: Post updated with reference to faculty.
03/10/2020: Updated course link(s) from Lynda.com to LinkedIn Learning
We have added several new IT Training Workshops for the spring term, including new courses in using Canvas, Box, and Qualtrics.
This class covers the newly introduced Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) that will be replacing Blackboard. These open sessions will introduce you to the Canvas interface, creating course content, customizing your course’s look and feel, assignment grading, and new features that were not included in Blackboard. Find the full schedule on the 
This class is a quick introduction to SMU’s new cloud storage system, Box. Learn how to log into Box, add and organize files, install desktop sync software, and share/collaborate files with others. To register, please visit the 
We are offering several courses in using Sitecore, SMU’s Web Content Management System. In 
This session is designed to get you acquainted with the new look and feel of Inside.SMU (SharePoint 2013). We’ll review the basics of working with a team site and will also briefly discuss some of the new features you should expect as we move to the cloud. To register, please visit the 
2015 was a year of transition for the Training and Communications team. Now that we are fully staffed we wanted to take a moment to introduce ourselves. To get to know us a little better, visit the 
Laurene Klassen, Manager of IT Training & Communication has been with IT for the past seven years. She recently became a Microsoft Certified Trainer and holds her Microsoft Office Specialist Master certification. In addition to Microsoft courses, she often provides instruction for new system rollouts such as Concur and Selectica. In addition, she provides ongoing training for my.SMU.
Ian Aberle is an IT Communications Specialist and Trainer for the IT Training & Communication team. Ian is responsible for much of OIT’s digital communications, graphics, and social media. Ian provides various training classes/initiatives with expertise in SMU’s Web Content Management System (Sitecore), web design, SMU’s digital signage solution (Appspace), and various tools in the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite.
Zach Peterson, who has worked for the Help Desk since 2012, has recently transitioned to the IT Training & Communication team as a Training Specialist!
Lynda.com is one of the newest members of the IT training team. Lynda.com brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from hundreds of accomplished teachers and recognized industry experts to us through lyndaCampus. lyndaCampus provided thousands of hours of training to institutions around the world, including more than half of the Fortune 50 companies, all branches of the U.S. military, and 31 state governments. Through the lyndaCampus website, available at 
As you may have heard, SMU recently began offering full Lynda.com access for all students faculty and staff. Already, hundreds of you have logged on and began learning new things! As Lynda.com continues to improve, they have recently announced that as of November 30, they will be gradually rolling out a new look for their courses. To keep you in the loop, here are a few of the differences you can expect once the new format hits your account.
SMU Physics will be hosting a “Mathematica 10 in Education and Research” seminar on Tuesday, November 17, 2015 from 4:00-5:00 in Heroy, Room 153. This talk illustrates capabilities in Mathematica 10 and other Wolfram technologies that are directly applicable for use in teaching and research on campus. Topics of these technical talks include: