Tag: Canvas LMS
SMU is a 100% Canvas Campus.
As graduation ceremonies reached their culmination on May 14th, Southern Methodist University officially graduated into the next era of course management. Consistent with the announcement and transition plan set forth in last August’s message to faculty from the Office of the Provost, I’m pleased to announce that Canvas has been implemented as the sole course management system for university sources of record. If you haven’t heard by now, Canvas is a cloud-based course management system which offers a modern interface designed to better support the increased teaching and learning demands of higher education in functions such as blended learning, “flipping classrooms,” and providing a more robust overall framework for online education and distance learning activities.
After 12 years of long and faithful service, Blackboard is officially retired from course management duty; no further course shells or course enrollment data will be populated into Blackboard. Starting immediately, all course shells and course enrollment data will be published exclusively to Canvas. For faculty still needing to export course materials from Blackboard for use in Canvas, Blackboard (http://courses.smu.edu) will remain openly accessible for faculty access until June 30th, 2016. If you have any remaining materials on Blackboard, please proceed to retrieve them as soon as possible. If you need assistance with this transition, please contact 214.768.HELP or email help@smu.edu as early as possible, as our time before now and the fall semester will become increasingly limited.
In conjunction with this transition to Canvas, SMU’s embedded Academic Technology Service Directors in each academic unit are in the process of contacting each and every SMU faculty member to ensure that plans are being made to accommodate the transition along existing project timelines. If you require direct consultation navigating this transition and have not yet connected with your department’s Academic Technology Service Director to make a plan, please refer below to the contact for your school or college:
| Meadows School of Arts | Mousumi Tanha | mtanha@smu.edu |
| Cox School of Business | Jeff Liew | jliew@smu.edu |
| Dedman School of Law | James Pan | pan@smu.edu |
| Dedman College | Dr. Michael Robertson | robertsonm@smu.edu |
| Simmons School of Education | Scott Martin | smartin@smu.edu |
| Perkins School of Theology | James Pan | pan@smu.edu |
| Lyle School of Engineering | Merlin Wilkerson | merlin@smu.edu |
Please make time between now and June 30th to export any and all course materials you’ll need in any future course. Do not delay! Being sure that you’re prepared now will save anxiety later on.
SMU faculty and students can login to Canvas using SMU campus login credentials. For SMU courses of record, course shells, instructors, TA’s and students are all automatically populated from enrollment data from my.SMU. Between now and continuing into the fall term, OIT will be offering webinars and in-class Canvas training opportunities which cover basic usage to more advanced topics such as utilization of the Gradebook and Assignments. Please find a training that meets your needs here. If you require individual training or coaching—don’t worry—your Academic Technology Services Directors will be hosting and scheduling Canvas Open Labs within each school as well to help you directly with Canvas course migrations.
SMU will retain Blackboard course archives for five years—special archive recovery services will be available after June 30th, but Blackboard archives will not be immediately accessible for use. Faculty may submit individual tickets to the SMU IT Helpdesk for recovery of past Blackboard course materials. Please contact the main SMU IT Helpdesk if you need further assistance at 214.768.HELP or by emailing help@smu.edu.
Important Upcoming Canvas Dates:
| May 12, 2016 | Spring 2016 Term Closes |
|---|---|
| May 13, 2016 | Canvas transforms into sole course management system for courses of record at SMU (No further my.SMU enrollment data published to Blackboard) |
| May 13, 2016 to June 30, 2016 |
Blackboard (http://courses.smu.edu) still openly available to SMU faculty community for the purpose of course material recovery and for faculty to be able to export past course materials for future usage or archiving |
| July 1, 2016 | Blackboard (http://courses.smu.edu) will no longer be available for open access to SMU community. http://courses.smu.edu will be re-directed to SMU Canvas login splash page |
New In-Depth Canvas Sessions Announced
Need some more assistance with the finer points of SMU’s new Canvas LMS? OIT has scheduled additional training sessions over the summer that cover advanced topics ranging from grade books to modules. Just like the basics sessions OIT has given through the spring semester, these summer sessions are walk-in only, so stop by on any of the dates!
Below is a list of the upcoming sessions, their locations, and their dates and times. For any questions regarding these sessions, please contact your academic technology liaison in your department.
Schedule of Courses
| June 3, 1PM | Intro to Canvas (Condensed) | Crow 186 |
| June 3, 2PM | Assignments & Grade Book | Crow 186 |
| June 6, 10AM | Quizzes | Hughes-Trigg |
| June 6, 11AM | Mastering Modules | Hughes-Trigg |
| June 13, 2PM | Intro to Canvas (Condensed) | Webinar |
| June 23, 10AM | Intro to Canvas (Condensed) | Webinar |
| July 11, 3PM | Canvas Course Set-Up Workshop | Crow 186 |
| July 11, 2PM | Assignments & Grade Book | Crow 186 |
| July 20, 10AM | Quizzes | Crow 186 |
| July 20, 11AM | Mastering Modules | Crow 186 |
| July 28, 10AM | Assignments & Grade Book | Crow 186 |
| July 28, 11AM | Canvas Course Set-Up Workshop | Crow 186 |
| August 5, 1PM | Intro to Canvas (Condensed) | Crow 186 |
| August 5, 2PM | Assignments & Grade Book | Crow 186 |
| August 8, 2PM | Quizzes | Crow 186 |
| August 8, 3PM | Matering Modules | Crow 186 |
| August 8, 4PM | Assignments & Grade Book | Crow 186 |
End of Term Course Conclusion for Canvas
At the end of every term, (dates are set in accordance with the academic calendar) all Canvas courses for that term will automatically be concluded.
When all courses are concluded at midnight the last day of the term, students will then transition to “Read-Only” access. Instructors will have an additional 14 days of “Full Access” after that, in order to complete grading.
If your course dates exceed the normal term, please call the help desk to put in a ticket and we will contact you to help adjust your course.
If you have an incomplete, please call the help desk to put in a ticket and we will contact you to help make the adjustment.
Spring 2016 dates
Student full access ends midnight May 10th
Instructors full access end midnight May 24th
Canvas Readiness Update
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Support for courses within Blackboard |
SMU CANVAS: Are you ready?
As the countdown quickly continues toward the imminent decommissioning of Blackboard in June, increasing numbers of faculty are taking advantage of OIT’s Canvas workshops and learning to build (and rebuild!) courses in our new system. Over 100 faculty members have attended OIT’s hands-on training to date while many others have successfully utilized online resources. OIT’s training sessions will continue every week and into the fall semester—and other “conversion camps” and Canvas learning opportunities will be scheduled soon.
Now is the time to start making plans for moving your Blackboard courses and materials into Canvas for future terms. If you have not yet become familiar with Canvas or attended a training session, if you have not yet created a plan to download or consolidate your previous Blackboard course files, if you have not yet requested a Canvas “sandbox” course shell—the time is now! Continue reading Canvas Readiness Update
