By LMS Taskforce
This information will also be linked via the Blackboard login page, next to a daily countdown that we hope lessens the anxiety a little. The guidance we are supplying to students is provided below for your information. That information can also be found via a link on the Blackboard login page.
Faculty and staff
When is Blackboard going away?
Blackboard will be going away for faculty, staff, and student use on June 1, 2021. That means, you will no longer have access to your prior course materials, feedback, and resources. Saint Mary’s will maintain archival access for a short period of time to meet certain obligations, but access to it will limited to Blackboard administrators
When will Canvas be live?
Canvas is already live! You can log into it at smumn.instructure.com using your Saint Mary’s username (not your whole email address, just what comes before @) and password. Feel free to explore! If you can’t log in, contact helpdesk@smumn.edu for help. Check out the Canvas Community page for more information and a video tutorial.
What do I need to do?
- Get trained on the new system. Here are a few options:
- Self-paced trainings hosted in Canvas
- Live CELT/Instructional Technology trainings
- Recorded trainings
- Check your migrated courses: Instructional Technology has taken care to migrate courses with good attention to detail, but you know your courses best. Schools of Graduate and Professional Program (SGPP) instructors can do this right now, and College course migrations will be finalized at the end of March.
- Transfer any needed data out of Blackboard — we made every effort to migrate all of your courses, but you may have data stored in Blackboard outside of your courses. For instance:
- Blackboard courses you might be in charge of that are not academic courses: clubs, organizations, committees, test courses, etc. If you cannot migrate these yourself, contact LMS@smumn.edu.
- Double-check that data from the courses you need to teach from have been migrated from Blackboard. SGPP instructors can do this right now, and College course migrations will be finalized at the end of March.
- You may need to make some changes to migrated courses that refer to the new learning management system (Grade Center is now Gradebook, etc.)
- Get links from Blackboard to learning experiences that exist outside the learning management system (Flipgrid, Google Sites, etc.)
- If you used an external assessment tool through Blackboard, get those links too. They can likely be reused in Canvas.
- Download any student work you want to save from Blackboard. These documents cannot be migrated and must be saved manually.
What about students?
Additional information will be shared with students as what they may want to do regarding their content in Blackboard.
What if I have questions?
- For assistance accessing Canvas, contact helpdesk@smumn.edu.
- Questions on migration or course availability, contact Abram Hedtke at ahedtke@smumn.edu or Jason Spartz at jspartz@smumn.edu.
Students
When is Blackboard going away?
Blackboard will be going away for student use on June 1, 2021. That means, you will no longer have access to your prior course materials, submitted assignments, feedback, and resources. Remember, final grades can be retrieved through your student portal.
When will Canvas be live?
Canvas is already live! You can log into it at smumn.instructure.com using your Saint Mary’s username (not your whole email address, just what comes before @) and password. Feel free to explore. If you can’t log in, contact helpdesk@smumn.edu. We highly recommend looking at the “Canvas at SMU” course, which is a non-graded training course that will get you started. Check out the Canvas Community page for more information and a video tutorial.
What do I need to do?
- Get trained on the new learning management system:
- You are automatically enrolled in a self-paced training called Passport to Canvas which should help you learn the basics of the new system.
- Transfer any needed data out of Blackboard.
- Important: If you are an undergraduate student who is part of the new general education program — starting in 2018 or later — you must download any artifacts and reflections you may have uploaded to your IGEP or Integratus portfolio courses. These courses cannot be migrated, and you will need to have copies of these documents to use in our new portfolio solution.
- You may be in charge of a club or organization that used a Blackboard course to communicate. If you can’t transfer that information yourself, please email lms@smumn.edu.
- Download any student work you want to save from Blackboard. This information cannot be migrated and must be saved manually. Go into your past courses and click into your assignments. Any papers, assignments, or other work that you may have uploaded to Blackboard must be downloaded from those courses if you want to save it. (And it’s a good idea to do so!)
What if I have questions or need support?
- Contact helpdesk@smumn.edu for issues accessing Canvas.
- Email the LMS Task Force at LMS@smumn.edu for questions on migration and the archival process of Blackboard.