What You Need to Know To Connect Your Campus with Canvas

After your school makes the decision to sign the contract with Instructure, what happens next? This session will be targeted towards those in a DE Coordinator or System Administrator perspective. It will include discussions of the resources needed, the value in purchasing “white glove” conversion and training options, the SIS decisions that need to be made, etc. You will be able to go back to your campus with the information you need to make your conversion process smoother and less stressful.

By the end of the session, you will know:

· What you can do to prepare for the process

· What your options are in terms of additional conversion and training packages

· The key decisions that you will need to make in order to configure Canvas to meet your campus’s needs and requirements

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Notes from the session:

Making a Plan

Was the content “moved” from your old system(s)?
Will you run a beta test with only certain faculty?
How long will you give faculty to transition to Canvas?
Will you pay them to learn the new system?
Will you hire staff to help them move/organize their course material?
Will you try to track the progress?

Working with IT

Do you have a “standard” SIS?
How will users be authenticated?
Will you automatically create course shells?
Will you create a “template” for course shells?
What will naming scheme be?
Will co-teachers get one course shell or 2?
How will wait-listed students be handled?
How will grades be handled? (check the default grading scheme, end-of-semester upload?)
What happens if a faculty can’t find their class in Canvas?
What happens if a students doesn’t seem to be on the Canvas roster?
Will faculty have “sandboxes?”
Can faculty have extra sandboxes for building specific courses?
Can other, non-instructional departments use Canvas? (HR, PD, Comm Ed)
Can users be added with just an email address?

Purchasing “extras”

What’s covered in the contract? (Read it carefully!)
How will you determine how to distribute the “free” training sessions?
How much do the extras cost?
What do you really need? (IT help? Training?)
If you purchase extra training, how will you deploy it?
What’s the best timing for utilizing extra help?

Working with Instructure

Customer Success Manager

Weekly then bi-weekly phone calls
Very responsive to questions
Certain things have to be implemented at that level (Analytics, SCORM)
They can advise you about “political” or cultural problems with transition

Training

Great trainers
If you bring them to campus, reserve one session just for your staff
Make sure your system looks like it will in the long run (this is faculty’s first impression)
Sandboxes or demo courses are a great idea
Ask about how to do things your old system did (your faculty will!)

IT

Take advantage of their expertise
Ask for best practices

Support

How will students get help?
How will faculty get help?
Will you customize your Help menus?
Who will review support cases?
Who will “fix” things?
The KB
Site-specific help docs
Forms? (see Website section)

System Administration

Who will be the Admin(s)?
Main LMS Contact (Main contact for all things Canvas for your institution)
LMS Admins (additional Canvas admins)
Support Primary Contact (Main contact for your tickets logged by students/faculty).
Distribution Emails (may include multiple contacts per category):
General Info (Used for general blasts, product release notes, general notifications of planned maintenance, changes to policies, procedures, features, functions).
Canvas Status (Used for institution specific alerts on current issues, incident reports and institution or group specific notifications of planned maintenance).
What roles are needed? (TA, Librarian, Observer, Dean…)
Permissions
Sub-accounts – sub-sub? (Health Sciences vs Nursing)
Branding
Apps/LTIs (White list?)
Publishers
Turnitin
Cross-listing
Test student?
Outside account holders? (publishers and others may ask)

Website

Forms
- Request User Access to Canvas
- Canvas Course Shell Request Form
- Course Reassignment Request Form
- Canvas Course Information Corrections
- Increase Canvas Course Storage Limit
- Canvas Roster Issues Form
- Cross-List Course Sections Request Form
  - for teaching multiple sections from one shell
- Adding Teaching Assistants Form
Help links
Transition Help
Support information
Teaching with Canvas
Guides for a new Canvas instructor
Training schedule/signups (signupgenius.com)
- Calendar
- Workshops
- Drop-ins
- 1:1 appointments
- Online expertise certificate
- @One options
- FLEX credit

Training

Who will attend the webinar trainings from Instructure?
Will you offer training workshops? Bootcamps? Webinars? Videos? @One classes?
If faculty come in for help, will you make instructional design suggestions?

Miscellaneous

Will you offer “public” syllabi?
How will students find their online course materials while more than one system is in use?
Will you use canvas for online faculty evaluations?
Will you create a default course shell with placeholders that includes basic college information and links, as well as things such as
- student readiness
- an introductory discussion board
- placeholders for instructor contact information