About 60 instructors and more than 2,000 students will put Canvas through its paces as part of a special pilot in the spring of 2023. Their experiences will prove invaluable as the campus fully transitions from ReggieNet to Canvas before the start of the next academic year. Illinois State is on track to use Canvas exclusively for teaching and learning in the fall of 2023.
Pilot planning
Faculty were invited to nominate a spring course for the pilot program earlier this semester. From the outset, organizers wanted to limit the size of the program to ensure that the faculty and students who take part can get the help they need, and to limit the number of students forced to use both ReggieNet and Canvas at the same time. Courses for the pilot program were selected based on a wide range of criteria, including modality (fully online, hybrid, face-to-face), course sites of various levels of complexity, and courses which represent different types of learning across the disciplines. It was also important to include instructors who both do and do not have previous experience using Canvas.
In recent days, pilot instructors have received access to a “sandbox” course in Canvas, which will allow them to become familiar with the system and to begin building their spring courses. Past courses from ReggieNet will also be transferred into Canvas for those who requested it. Pilot instructors will also be invited to participate in special training sessions and take advantage of online resources to help prepare their Canvas sites for students to use in January. Students will be able to see if their classes use ReggieNet or Canvas in the My.IllinoisState portal.
Next steps
Instructors who are not participating in the pilot can expect to get access to Canvas around the middle of the spring semester. They will also see the course “shells” for their fall teaching assignments in Canvas (and not ReggieNet) at that time. This will allow them to prepare for using the new learning management system for either summer or fall courses. Support staff at the Center for Integrated Professional Development (formerly CTLT) and in Technology Solutions are finalizing plans to make this happen.
Plans also call for making a sample Canvas course site available so the campus community can see what the student experience will be like on desktop and mobile devices.
In addition, staff members are working with academic administrators and an advisory committee of faculty members to create guidelines for what content will be migrated from ReggieNet to Canvas and how long old courses will remain in Canvas going forward. They will also develop guidance on how instructors can back up their own teaching materials from ReggieNet and request to have courses they intend to teach in the future migrated into Canvas.
The Center is also creating professional development opportunities, both traditional workshops and self-paced, online experiences, to help all instructors learn how to teach with Canvas. More information on those offerings will be announced in January.
Learn more
A complete timetable for the transition project is now available on the NextLMS website. From there, instructors and staff can also learn more about Canvas’ features, including how it addresses accessibility concerns. Both instructors and students can submit questions using the form on that webpage.
