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June 2, 2023 - Canvas Soft Launch Summer and Fall Faculty Lists

Dear Faculty,

Thanks to all who have begun your Canvas transition! Below is some general reminder information for all faculty as well as specific action items for soft launch summer and fall faculty.

If you have not signed up for the soft launch, we still strongly encourage all faculty to start on the Growing with Canvas training and plan how you will build your classes, knowing that all UHD classes will be offered in Canvas starting in Spring 2024.

While you will soon begin to see migrated BB content, our pilot colleagues recommend that you plan to build your new Canvas courses in a blank shell to maximize the LMS capabilities, using your BB content as a repository to draw from. You can copy any shell you build into your official course shells as we did in BB. Every faculty member has one blank shell to start with and can request more—log into Canvas now.

Watch the TTLC newsletter for summer in person and virtual training opportunities!

Summer Soft Launch Faculty

  1. Verify that your name appears in this link to list of summer soft launch faculty.
    If your name does not appear and you think you signed up for summer in Canvas, contact John Lane at [email protected] immediately.
  2. Verify that the following note is in the schedule for each of your courses—if not, please contact your scheduler and department chair immediately to add it. We must communicate accurately with students.
    This section will be taught using Canvas. UHD is in transition to this system from Backboard. Please consult your course instructor or academic success coordinator about any questions and check out our Canvas student support website. If you register for this course, you will get additional information from your instructor prior to the semester via gatormail as well as IT support to use Canvas to carry out your coursework successfully.
  3. Send a message to currently enrolled students via your class rosters to remind them that they will be in Canvas. [The institution will post a note in the parallel BB version of the course to remind students to go to Canvas, but we also recommend that you send a message.] At the end of this message is a sample you could use/edit. UHD has a student-based Canvas resource page that is a good starting point for them.
  4. Remember to copy your course into your official course shell if you have built in a sandbox. Then publish the shell for students to see.
  5. Work on your fall classes as well—all summer soft launch faculty are expected to continue to teach in Canvas.

Fall Soft Launch Faculty

  1. Verify that your name appears in this link to list of fall soft launch faculty.
    If your name does not appear and you think you signed up for fall in Canvas, contact John Lane at [email protected] immediately.
  2. Verify that the following note is in the schedule for each of your courses—if not, please contact your scheduler and department chair immediately to add it. We must communicate accurately with students. [NOTE: fall Canvas faculty should teach all sections in Canvas unless approved via TTLC for specific multi-section class exceptions.]

    This section will be taught using Canvas. UHD is in transition to this system from Backboard. Please consult your course instructor or academic success coordinator about any questions and check out our Canvas student support website. If you register for this course, you will get additional information from your instructor prior to the semester via gatormail as well as IT support to use Canvas to carry out your coursework successfully.
  3. Complete your Growing with Canvas training (available within Canvas when you log in) as soon as possible but no later than July 1.

Sample message to send to students enrolled in Canvas soft launch courses prior to start of semester:

Welcome to (name of course)! I am excited that you will be in the course, and I am hard at work preparing ways of making it an engaging and memorable learning experience for you.

My name is XXX, and I will be your instructor for this class. As you may know, UHD is transitioning from Blackboard to a new Learning Management system called Canvas. As part of the transition, some classes are being offered in Canvas in Summer and Fall and in Spring 2024, all UHD courses will be in Canvas. This course will be offered in Canvas, so you are getting an inside early track to learning the system! You can log into your Canvas courses on this Canvas page. That same link will take you to student resources.

As you plan for your success in Canvas, I strongly recommend that you take and complete the "Passport to Canvas" course. This is the student orientation to the LMS. You can access this orientation inside Canvas by logging in with your UHD credentials. The course should appear in your dashboard's list of courses. In this orientation course, you'll earn completion badges and learn the basics of the system.

For help with the course, with Canvas, and with any other UHD-supported technology, contact UHD Canvas Support (phone 713-221-2786, email [email protected]). Help pages on other UHD-supported technology (Panopto, Perusall, VoiceThread, Respondus, etc.) are available as well.