Category: Online Education News You Can Use

Canvas is now MiraCosta’s sole course management system!

Blackboard and Moodle access links have been removed from http://miracosta.edu/online to eliminate any confusion for our summer students.

Faculty who are continuing to access old courses in Blackboard and Moodle may do so until June 30 via:

• Blackboard: https://blackboard.miracosta.edu/
• Moodle: http://miracosta.mrooms.net/

If you need to catch up on details about extracting course content and data from the older systems, please see my previous Countdown to Canvas message.

Happy Summer!

Jim Julius, Ed.D.
Faculty Director, Online Education

Please be sure you have extracted everything you need from Blackboard and Moodle, since access to those systems ends on June 30. See Considerations in Leaving Blackboard and Moodle for more details; for quick guidance on downloading class gradebooks and archives, see directions to do so for Blackboard or for Moodle.

Further, please consider carefully:

• Are there old courses that you haven’t taught for some time, but you don’t want to leave behind? Don’t forget those!
• Are there old courses that someone else in your department taught, but that person has since left MiraCosta, and your department has permission to reuse course content? If so, contact Karen Turpin (kturpin@miracosta.edu) for assistance in bringing such content over to Canvas.

Finally, if you are still getting up to speed on Canvas, keep in mind:

1. The plethora of great locally-developed and selected Canvas resources available to you.
2. The 24-7 instructor hotline for Canvas support – it remains available throughout the summer: 1-833-345-2890 and is your best option for quick “how do I do this in Canvas” or “why isn’t Canvas doing what I think it should do” types of questions.
3. The TIC will be closed for its transformation into the brand-new Teaching & Learning Center during the first part of the summer, but Karen and I are working and available to you throughout the summer – feel free to contact either of us with questions that go beyond what the Canvas hotline can provide.

 

To: All faculty

Blackboard and Moodle will no longer be options for instruction after the spring semester. The official end of our licenses providing access to Blackboard and Moodle is June 30. Please make sure you have extracted all needed content from all classes by then.

Faculty should consider 3 potential issues:

1. If you have not yet rebuilt all your classes in Canvas, do you have all class content, resources, materials, etc. that you will need from the old system?
2. Are you prepared for potential grade challenges on classes that were run in an old system?
3. If you taught this spring in an old system, what would you do if a student needs to resolve an incomplete?

For much more detail on these issues, please see Considerations in Leaving Blackboard and Moodle

For some quick guidance on downloading class gradebooks and archives, see directions to do so for Blackboard or for Moodle.

 Jim Julius, Ed.D.
Faculty Director, Online Education

To: All faculty

All fall and summer classes are available now in Canvas for you to begin preparations. Blackboard and Moodle will no longer be options for instruction after the spring semester.

The official end of our licenses providing access to Blackboard and Moodle is June 30. Prior to that, please make sure you have extracted all content from all classes for rebuilding in Canvas.

If you have been teaching classes in Blackboard or Moodle this year, and you have the possibility of needing to work with a student after June 30 to resolve a grade dispute and/or finish an incomplete class, you’ll need to be extra-careful to retain all the records that may be important such as grade details, your feedback to the student, and so on.

If you are still learning Canvas, we have one more upcoming 4-week online Introduction to Teaching with Canvas class, starting Monday, April 23. Learn more and sign up if you’re interested.

Going forward, I will be sending a weekly countdown message with reminders, tips, and recommendations until the closure of Blackboard and Moodle.

Tip #1: Explore the many MiraCosta-specific Canvas resources available to you, including resources specifically about transitioning from Blackboard to Canvas, many of which were created by MiraCosta faculty from the Canvas Transition Team.

Jim Julius, Ed.D.
Faculty Director, Online Education