FAQs - How...
What contingency planning has been done for significant outbreaks of Covid-19 that make many staff and students sick at the same time or for extended periods? How will it impact the implementation?
Much of the work to implement Canvas and migrate courses can be done remotely with staff interacting on Zoom if required. It is also possible to do a lot of the training via Zoom if circumstances require us to do it that way.
The project has several risk mitigation strategies in place to avert the worst-case scenarios from arising. However, if serious, ongoing, or widespread illness did occur, then we have also defined the minimum viable product (MVP) that needs to be delivered technically and in terms of course migration for teaching to commence on Canvas on the planned schedule. Associate Deans would be involved in project decisions impacting on faculty courses if Covid-19 forced us into an MVP or reduced-scope approach to course migration. This would not be ideal of course, but it would ensure we get everyone onto Canvas and trained on time.
When will courses be migrated to the new system? And who is going to do that work?
Courses will be migrated in three phases based on the Trimester schedule. Course coordinators will receive communication closer to the time that this will occur for each course.
The migration work will be completed by projects Faculty Learning and Teaching Advisors (FLATAs) who will be embedded in Faculty Hives for the duration of the project. The FLATAs will migrate each course from Blackboard to Canvas, check to make sure everything came across, and then work with the course coordinator and teaching team to ensure the course flows properly and takes advantage of the new tools and features of Canvas.
If you have something you want to achieve in your course that was not possible in Blackboard, then this is a good opportunity to do some course development while the FLATA resource is available to configure and build it for you.
When will I receive training to use the new system, and what will that look like?
There will be several opportunities to receive training on how to use Canvas, in various delivery formats.
The Faculty Learning and Teaching Advisors (FLaTAs) will deliver one-on-one and group training sessions as appropriate to the specific needs of different user groups. This will be done throughout the course migration process, and additional just-in-time training and one-on-one support will be available at the start of each Trimester of teaching.
In addition, the following self-directed resources and tools will be made available as soon as we have our Canvas environment configured:
How much will my course change during the migration to Canvas?
How will the migration work for courses that haven’t yet been assigned a teacher and probably won’t have one until just before the Trimester starts?
How will the migration and uplift decisions be done for courses that aren't owned by a single academic, or even by a single School?
How will the new platform support and enable Te Reo Māori?
Much of the work to implement Canvas and migrate courses can be done remotely with staff interacting on Zoom if required. It is also possible to do a lot of the training via Zoom if circumstances require us to do it that way.
The project has several risk mitigation strategies in place to avert the worst-case scenarios from arising. However, if serious, ongoing, or widespread illness did occur, then we have also defined the minimum viable product (MVP) that needs to be delivered technically and in terms of course migration for teaching to commence on Canvas on the planned schedule. Associate Deans would be involved in project decisions impacting on faculty courses if Covid-19 forced us into an MVP or reduced-scope approach to course migration. This would not be ideal of course, but it would ensure we get everyone onto Canvas and trained on time.
When will courses be migrated to the new system? And who is going to do that work?
Courses will be migrated in three phases based on the Trimester schedule. Course coordinators will receive communication closer to the time that this will occur for each course.
The migration work will be completed by projects Faculty Learning and Teaching Advisors (FLATAs) who will be embedded in Faculty Hives for the duration of the project. The FLATAs will migrate each course from Blackboard to Canvas, check to make sure everything came across, and then work with the course coordinator and teaching team to ensure the course flows properly and takes advantage of the new tools and features of Canvas.
If you have something you want to achieve in your course that was not possible in Blackboard, then this is a good opportunity to do some course development while the FLATA resource is available to configure and build it for you.
When will I receive training to use the new system, and what will that look like?
There will be several opportunities to receive training on how to use Canvas, in various delivery formats.
The Faculty Learning and Teaching Advisors (FLaTAs) will deliver one-on-one and group training sessions as appropriate to the specific needs of different user groups. This will be done throughout the course migration process, and additional just-in-time training and one-on-one support will be available at the start of each Trimester of teaching.
In addition, the following self-directed resources and tools will be made available as soon as we have our Canvas environment configured:
- An introduction to Course will be set up, and all staff will be automatically enrolled. This can be completed at your own pace.
- A Canvas ‘sandpit’ environment with a test course. This is a safe, non-live environment where you can play around and try things out.
- A inbuilt desktop assistant tool with onscreen tips and step by step guides. This just-in-time help will be there for the times where you know you need to do something but need a prompt or reminder on how to do it.
How much will my course change during the migration to Canvas?
- There will be some basic changes to how your course looks and feels, and flows, simply due to Canvas being a different system built with a different philosophy. Blackboard works on a folder-based logic, while Canvas is built around a modular workflow. We expect that Blackboard courses that have been built on a modular structure will migrate well, but courses built on folder structure will require some effort to get them working well in Canvas. The FLATA assigned to your course migration will take you through these system differences.
- As for your course content, that will all be migrated from Blackboard into Canvas. Once this has been completed, the FLATA will meet with the course coordinator and teaching team to review the functioning of the course and go through opportunities to use the tools and functionality in Canvas to best effect for you and your students as users of Canvas.
- If there are changes you wanted to make to your course content, or things you wanted to do but couldn’t in Blackboard, then that can also form part of this process. Ultimately, the FLATA will do the heavy lifting of configuring and building your course elements, but they will be guided by the course coordinator.
How will the migration work for courses that haven’t yet been assigned a teacher and probably won’t have one until just before the Trimester starts?
- At minimum, the migration will still occur and the FLATAs will make sure the course is working optimally in its current state on Canvas, based on what is in Blackboard now.
- If the course requires changes to be made to get it working properly in Canvas, the FLATAs will work with Heads of Schools and Associate Deans to identify where staff can be involved.
How will the migration and uplift decisions be done for courses that aren't owned by a single academic, or even by a single School?
- For courses with teaching teams all within the same School, we will work with the course coordinator and involve the whole teaching team.
- For courses that are delivered across multiple Schools or programmes, we will take the same approach, but Associate Deans may also be included to ensure we reach firm consensus on decisions regarding course configuration in Canvas.
How will the new platform support and enable Te Reo Māori?
- Canvas has an inbuilt immersive translation tool that allows users to convert pages into Te Reo Māori and other supported languages.
- In addition to this, we will work with the vendor to support bilingual menus and screen views as part of the set-up and integration in our environment.