LMS Project FAQs

• The Canvas Community has a multitude of resources and helpful guides for instructors and students to help you learn how to use and navigate Canvas more efficiently and effectively.
• All IC students and instructors should first contact Canvas Support for technical assistance, available 24/7/365. Canvas Support is our first line of support going forward and will be able to provide help in a timely manner.
• Users can access Canvas Support by clicking on the (?) Help menu located in the Canvas navigation on the left side of your computer screen, or click on the 3 lines in the top right corner of the screen in the Canvas app on your mobile device.

• All faculty have been provided with one Sandbox course that is not linked to a specific course in Banner/Homer with a CRN. It is your own Canvas site where you can explore and test different features of Canvas.
• If you go through the “Growing with Canvas” self-paced instructor training course it will guide you through using the Sandbox course to learn and apply the Canvas tools.

• The Migration Task Group has reviewed the process for migrating up to 4000 academic courses with the support of a third-party vendor K16 Solutions.  
• The first wave of the bulk migration process was completed on June 4. It included academic course content from Fall 2020, Winter 2021, and Spring 2021 terms. 
• The second wave of the bulk migration was completed on August 27. It included academic course content from the Summer 2021 term and any special requests received prior to July 15.
• The third and final wave of courses will be migrated the first week of October. Requests were submitted through an online form and were due by October 2nd. 
• Ithaca College supports tools for storing documents and media from your old Sakai sites that you want to keep, but not move into Canvas, including MS One Drive, Leganto, and Kaltura. 
• Documentation is available in the Canvas Resources @ IC course to help faculty with the manual migration of content for any courses not done via the auto-migration tool, or for those faculty who want to do the migration of content on their own. 

• Course files from the Resources folder, Discussion topics, Assignments, Quizzes and Tests, and media files will be copied over. Because Canvas is a much newer LMS, not everything will look the same, or be in the same spot, as it was in Sakai. 
• Please note that Quiz/Test Banks (Question Pools) do not come over with the migration and will need to be done through a manual process. Directions can be found in Canvas Resources @ IC course site in Module 3. 
• Content will be brought over as a copy of your old course in Sakai. Faculty will not be able to teach from this copied course. The content will need to be copied or imported into your new Fall/Spring Canvas courses which have the IC Design Template and Blueprint applied. 
• The content will need to be reviewed and updated before copying it into your new Fall/Spring Canvas courses. Tips and documentation have been provided by the Migration Task Group in Module 3 of the Canvas Resources @ IC course for faculty.

• Sakai does not make it simple for a user to copy over an entire bank of quiz/test questions, either manually or through the bulk migration process.  Published quizzes and tests that do not draw from a Question Pool do migrate over; however, question pools/banks are designed in a unique way in Sakai and need to be manually migrated following a series of steps. 
• Quiz/Test Banks (Question Pools) do not come over with the migration and will need to be done through a manual process. Directions can be found in Canvas Resources @ IC course site in Module 3. 
• We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause. 

• The first wave of the bulk migration process was completed on June 4 and faculty were given access to the copied content. It includes academic course content from Fall 2020, Winter 2021, and Spring 2021 terms. 
• The second wave of the bulk migration process was completed on August 27.  It includes academic course content from the Summer 2021 term, and any special requests received prior to July 15. 
• The third wave of bulk migrations will happen in early October. We anticipate access to these courses will be available by late October. 
• Course content auto-migrated from Sakai will be a master copy in Canvas and will not be tied to a roster from Homer. These courses will not be available for use as a direct teaching course. 
• The team recommends faculty review and revise all course content that was auto-migrated from Sakai into Canvas before copying/importing the content into the new Fall/Spring courses.  

Any content you currently have in these tools through Sakai will remain with the tool and still be accessible from Canvas. 

1. iRubric
2. Kaltura Media Gallery
3. Leganto Reading Lists
4. Top Hat
5. VoiceThread
6. Zoom 
7. Select Microsoft Office (0365) tools (Teams Meetings, OneDrive)

At this time our team is providing support to faculty and students as they become familiar with the tools in Canvas. 

During the Fall semester, the team will be able to review the special requests from faculty. Faculty will need to fill out a request form and guidelines will need to be met prior to the review and approval of the 3rd party application by Information Technology and the IT Security team. More information will be shared soon.

There are many different options for users who are seeking support to learn how to navigate and use Canvas. Here are some suggestions.   

• New to Canvas - Complete the "Growing with Canvas" self-paced course. It can be found on your Canvas Dashboard. 
• Some knowledge of Canvas - Visit the Canvas Community for user guides and helpful video tutorials. You can access the Canvas Guides and Community from the Help Menu of Canvas. 
• Looking for more - Visit the Ithaca College Canvas course Canvas Resources @ IC for faculty with a robust list of materials, documentation, and links to additional training and support offerings. The course can be found listed in the Help menu of Canvas. 
• Additional workshops will be provided throughout the Fall 2021 semester. Watch the Intercom and project website for announcements and more information. 

• New to Canvas - Complete the "Passport to Canvas" self-paced course. It can be found on your Canvas Dashboard. 
• Some knowledge of Canvas - Visit the Canvas Community for user guides and helpful video tutorials. You can access the Canvas Guides and Community from the Help Menu of Canvas. 
• Looking for more - Visit the Ithaca College Canvas course Canvas Student Resources @ IC  with a robust list of materials, documentation, and links to additional training and support offerings. The course can be found listed in the Help menu of Canvas. 

Sakai will be placed into a read/download-only mode on August 12, 2021, after the Summer Sessions have concluded.  

What this means

• Instructors will be able to post grades for Summer Session II through August 11
• All Registration Courses for new and incoming students are still accessible through August 30
• All students taking Placement Exams (Math, Music, Speech Path, etc) in Sakai will continue to take/submit those exams as directed
• Faculty cannot create any Fall 2021 courses in Sakai - please go to Canvas, IC's new learning management system
  • Users will no longer be able to create or add any new content, resources, or files to Sakai
• All users will be able to login to Sakai to access, read, and download any content through January 30, 2022
  • This includes exporting Question Pools and common cartridge files for manual course migration

If you have any questions about migrating from Sakai to Canvas, please reach out to the Information Technology Service Desk for assistance.

• ithaca.edu/itchat
• servicedesk@ithaca.edu
• 607-274-1000
• 104 Job Hall

From February 1, through June 30, 2022, Sakai will move to warm storage (archived vault) and access will be strictly limited. Only the LMS Administrator and designated LMS support staff will have access to Sakai. By December we will provide information on how to request copies of documents or information from Sakai. 

• After January 30, 2022 students will no longer have access to course resources, assignments, projects, or materials they may need for cumulative program requirements. The Implementation Team is working with department/program chairs to provide information and support to students. 
• Students will receive additional information in the fall with guidance regarding saving files and resources from Sakai.
• Students can begin saving personal files to their OneDrive, media on Kaltura, or other storage options. There are multiple file storage options available to students. You can read more in the IC Service Catalog Knowledge Base.     
• Moving content out of Sakai will be a manual process that students will need to complete before January 30, 2022

While Sakai was historically used for non-academic purposes and project sites, we now have many other tools available within Microsoft Office which individuals and groups can leverage for effectively communicating, sharing documents, and hosting department and committee resources. 

• With the sunsetting of Sakai, the team sent email communications out to Project Site creators/maintainers including resources available for moving content out of Sakai and into an alternate platform.  Please see the Intercom for more information.  
• Moving content out of Sakai Project Sites will be a manual process that will need to be done by the site creator/maintainer(s). Documentation for best practices and steps to success is available in the IT Service Catalog Knowledge Base  
• The site creator/maintainer(s) will have until October 15, 2021, to download any content out of Sakai that they want to keep. 
• Project sites in Sakai will be deleted in December 2021. 

Yes! 

The technical team has added a link on apps.ithaca.edu. You can login by clicking on the Canvas tile and entering your IC Netpass (full IC email and password) or direct access through canvas.ithaca.edu and log in with your IC Netpass (full IC email and password) credentials. You will need to use multi-factor authentication to get into Canvas. 

We have put together several courses to help instructors and students learn about Canvas. These courses are available by clicking on the (?) Help menu in the navigation pane, listed in your Courses and on your Dashboard, or linked from another course site. 

• Canvas Resources @ IC (for instructors only) with access to:
  • ​​Canvas Accessibility @ IC
  • Summer Institute 2021 
• Canvas Student Resources @ IC (for students only)
• Passport to Canvas (for students)
• Growing with Canvas (for instructors)

Courses in Canvas are units of instruction in one subject that typically last one term. Course sections in Homer will be automatically generated for all semesters, beginning with Fall 2021. In Canvas click on the Course or Dashboard button in the blue navigation bar, to see your courses. 

The LMS Governance and Executive Committees have established screening guidance for non-course, instructional canvas sites. Please read below for the guidelines that need to be met before you request a Canvas course site and next steps.  

Screening Guidance for Non-Course, Instructional Canvas Sites

Canvas sites are generally reserved for named, identified courses created as part of the official course schedule. However, under some circumstances, the creation of a Canvas site might be created for instructional purposes beyond scheduled courses with CRNs. Requests for such sites are screened by a task group of the LMS Governance Committee and will be evaluated using the following criteria.

• Sites should be used for instructional purposes, for example, serve a cohort of students who may not be concurrently registered for a course in common but who are sharing an academic experience (e.g., a cumulative project such as a graduate or senior project, a field-based or clinical experience not associated with a CRN, modules that are required for training in the major, such as safety training, etc., that may not be associated with a specific CRN but that are required and instructional)
• Sites should be more than a repository of documents/resources and rely on the collaborative and learning tools of an LMS (e.g., discussion forums, tests/quizzes, rubrics, and assignment/project feedback).

In order to request the creation of a Canvas site for instructional purposes, requesters should complete the Request a New Canvas Course form (https://ithaca.teamdynamix.com/TDClient/34/Portal/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=182) available in the IT Service Portal. Please provide as much detail as possible including the name of the course, who the owner/instructor will be, the purpose of the course, and a detailed description outlining the needs and impact.