Canvas course migration - Questions and answers

The following message was emailed to current course instructors on 02/06/2023

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Dear Colleagues,

Since sending out the announcement about the first round of migrations of old ReggieNet course sites to Canvas on Friday, February 2, we’ve received a number of questions. We’d like to share those answers with you.

Why all of the emphasis on “backup”?

ReggieNet and Canvas are two different systems, and it is impossible to engineer a foolproof 1:1 conversion between the two. Moreover, Canvas has different tools. Some pilot instructors, especially those who wanted to take advantage of Canvas’ advanced features, found it easier to backup items and populate their new Canvas courses themselves.

In addition, migration does not transfer any student data. So, instructors wishing to keep an old course for the purposes of saving grades or student submissions, such as essays or portfolios, will need to back up those items instead. In fact, student data has never lasted forever in ReggieNet. Students and their work are removed from ReggieNet course sites after they leave the University and their accounts are retired.

Despite those caveats, migration may be the best option if you make extensive use of the Assignments, Lessons, Tests & Quizzes, or Discussions tools in your ReggieNet courses.  If you do so, we encourage you to request the migration of at least one of those courses before February 13 so you can see the results and make informed choices about future requests.

Why are current migration requests limited to one version of each course taught between Spring 2021 and Fall 2022?

We limited the scope of the first round of course migrations for logistical reasons. The requests we gather from faculty need to be verified and formatted in a specific way and then handed off to our vendor. This is our first attempt to do so on a large scale, and we want to get it right.

Also, based on feedback from the ongoing pilot program, some instructors found it easier to build new courses by pulling what they needed out of ReggieNet themselves. We hope that, once instructors see what a few migrated courses actually look like in Canvas, they can make better informed choices about whether or not to request migration for other courses.

Why do I need to make a request? I though you were going to automatically migrate recent courses.

That was indeed the initial plan. However, further investigation revealed a few important considerations:

• Feedback from pilot instructors showed us that, in some cases, it is easier to build a course using individual elements from old ReggieNet courses rather than fully migrated content. While the University has contracted for thousands of individual course migrations, we want only do migrations that will actually benefit instructors.
• The original plan was to pull the newest version of each course that an instructor has taught from Spring 2021 to Fall 2022. But we quickly learned that was the best approach in some situations—for example, a course this fall may have been adjusted to deal with an illness, conference travel, or some other factor, making an older course the more ideal one to migrate.
• Summer and winter courses often have the same catalogue number as those taught in spring or fall but feature radically different modalities and structure. Instructors might need to have those courses migrated in addition to ones taught in the fall or spring.

So, it was decided that the best approach is to empower instructors to choose which courses from those time periods are migrated in this first round. This has the added benefit of the instructor providing the Site URL, which helps to ensure the correct course is migrated.

Will there be other chances to request a course migration?

Yes. There will be additional opportunities to request course migrations later this spring. We hope to refine the process based on this current, first round of migrations.

Will I be able to request migration of courses from before Spring 2021 or a course I am teaching this current semester?

Yes, to both. We’ve recognized from the start of planning the move to a new learning management system that some courses are taught on a two-year or longer frequency. Instructors who need to migrate older courses will have the opportunity to request that. Likewise, those who want to migrate their courses from this spring will also have that opportunity, probably closer to the end of the semester.

What about courses I am scheduled to teach this summer?

Summer instructors will have the option to use either ReggieNet or Canvas this summer. They will receive information in the coming weeks about making their choice.

Will I be able to migrate my special course site?

Some ReggieNet sites are not tied to courses, but rather, were created to support departmental programs, special training programs, or registered student organizations. We are still determining the best ways to handle those migrations.

Owners of those sites will be contacted separately with options in the coming weeks. These options would include migrating an existing site into Canvas, creating a new Canvas site they can build themselves, or deciding on a different platform (such as Microsoft Teams) which might better suit their needs. We are developing a menu of choices to outline the advantages and challenges associated with each solution.

Faculty or staff currently managing special project sites can expedite this process by going to Site Info > Edit Site Information and making sure their name and email are in the Site Contact fields.    

Can I build my Fall 2023 courses in ReggieNet and then have them migrated to Canvas?

No. Course “shells,” the blank templates provided before every semester for each assigned course, will only be created in Canvas for the fall of 2023 and onward.

When will I be able to access Canvas?

We plan to open up Canvas to all instructors by the week of March 6, 2023, the week before spring break. Both requested migrated courses and the new course shells for Fall 2023 will be available in Canvas by then.

When will training start on Canvas?

Some self-paced, online training will be available by the week of March 6. Workshops will begin shortly after spring break. We hope to announce a schedule and open registration in February.

When is ReggieNet “going away”?

ReggieNet will still be used for summer courses by those instructors who choose to do so. At the end of the summer term, after summer grade submissions, ReggieNet will still be available in a “read-only” mode, meaning that instructors will be able to view and download content from their course sites but not create anything new.

Current plans call for keeping ReggieNet in that state through the end of the fall semester, after which, it will be retired.

Need Help?

If you are unsure whether a course should be migrated or not, or if you have any other questions, please email the Center for Integrated Professional Development at ProDev@ilstu.edu.