Canvas Pilot Information

Dear UNC Charlotte Canvas Pilot Faculty Member,

Congratulations! You have been accepted to participate in the Canvas pilot for Spring 2016. Thank you for volunteering to be a part of this pilot program to evaluate Canvas as a potential new Learning Management System for the campus. Your feedback is essential in helping the LMS Committee with its charge of studying the need and feasibility to move to a new LMS. As with the nature of any pilot program, there will be a learning curve for everyone involved. We will be relying heavily on the vendor to provide support and troubleshooting as we all learn this new tool. Fortunately, our vendor has a wealth of online guides and videos for instructors and students. They will also be providing 24/7 phone support. This message includes information for how to get started using Canvas and for the help resources that are available to you and your students.

HOW TO ACCESS CANVAS

IMPORTING FROM MOODLE

We encourage you to begin working in Canvas as soon as possible to become familiar with it before the Spring semester starts.

Please note that during the January workshops, there will not be time for importing your course from Moodle. This step MUST be completed prior to the workshop.

SUPPORT AND TRAINING

Your primary help resources will be the Canvas Online Guides and the Canvas Help Desk. CTL help will be available starting January 6. Due to the constraints of resources, you are strongly encouraged to attend one of the on-site training sessions in the CTL on January 6 or 7.

ONLINE GUIDES

CANVAS HELP DESK – 24/7 PHONE SUPPORT: We are contracting this piece now and will make it available to you ASAP in a separate email.

UNC CHARLOTTE ON-CAMPUS TRAINING

In addition to the online self-paced training and guides available, training will be available in the Center for Teaching and Learning. Sign up for these workshops in February 2016. All will be held in Kennedy 221.

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

Instructors can also contact the Center for Teaching and Learning for help designing courses or using instructional features of Canvas.

SUGGESTED MESSAGE FOR YOUR STUDENTS

Dear Students,
This semester our course is one of approximately 100 courses using Canvas, a learning management system. Your other courses may be in Moodle as they may not be part of this pilot. Your feedback is essential for the university as we consider replacing Moodle with Canvas, so you will receive three short surveys over the course of the semester.

To access your Canvas course, go to: uncc.instructure.com and log in using your NinerNet ID and password.

For help using Canvas, please see the online student guides:

CAVEATS

The following external tools may not be immediately available for the pilot. We have included an anticipated availability date, although some may require workarounds:

  • Kaltura – late Jan
  • TurnItIn – mid Jan
  • Respondus – mid Jan
  • Mahara – late Jan
  • Saba Meeting – no integration with Canvas, but manual meeting creation possible
  • Panopto – mid Jan
  • Grade adapter – mid-semester
  • Clickers – late Jan

Thank you again for your participation in this important evaluation process. We look forward to receiving your feedback on Canvas.

-The Center for Teaching and Learning-