Hello Faculty,
With the fall semester fully underway, now is a great time to relay more detailed updates on the LMS transition from Blackboard to Canvas. As a reminder, all faculty will have access to Canvas at some point in the Spring semester to learn the new LMS. We will run another pilot for faculty who want to teach their spring 2025 courses in Canvas. Canvas will be the official LMS starting with Summer 2025 sessions.
The call for a Spring’25 Canvas pilot group is now open!
For the Spring’25 pilot, a limited number of courses will be selected to be taught in Canvas. This provides a second wave of students and faculty early access to Canvas as well as the opportunity to learn and explore system features and new instructional technology that UMass Dartmouth has acquired before the campus-wide transition that is currently planned for Summer’25.
Faculty participating in the Spring ‘25 pilot will have three options for their content creation in Canvas course sites:
- Develop content from scratch in Canvas.
- Import content from Blackboard to Canvas yourself.
- Use K16 migration service to convert Blackboard content to Canvas automatically.
As a reminder, UMass Dartmouth course sites will not be created in Blackboard for the Fall’25 semester as the transition to Canvas will be complete by then. Unlike the Summer’24 pilot, stipends are not included in the Spring’25 pilot, and there is no requirement to present a showcase of the pilot experience.
Click to Volunteer for the Spring’25 Pilot Group
Outline of Spring’25 Pilot Experience:
- 10/15/24 – Deadline for pilot volunteer submissions.
- 10/25/24 – Selected pilot volunteers will receive:
- notification of acceptance into the pilot.
- a sandbox site in Canvas for each qualifying Spring’25 course.
- access to the “Growing with Canvas” course and vendor-led demonstrations to fulfill training requirements.
- 11/1/24 – Deadline to confirm Spring’25 pilot courses and content sources.
- 12/1/24 – Deadline to complete the Growing with Canvas course and vendor-led training to remain in the pilot.
Wintersession’25
Winter’25 courses that are scheduled to be taught by Fall’24 pilot group participants will be created and taught in Canvas. All other Winter’25 courses will be taught in Blackboard.
Canvas Questions?
If you have questions about Canvas or the transition, we invite you to visit Instructional Development’s Canvas webpage which will be updated as new information is available. For additional questions, please email the Instructional Development using the Canvas Feedback and Inquiries Form.
We hope your fall semester is going well, and we look forward to working with you during this transition.
Sincerely,
The Provost’s Office
CITS | Instructional Development