With that foundation in place, faculty who teach non-medical undergraduate and graduate students may now begin to transition courses from Blackboard to Canvas for the fall 2020 semester. Please see below for instructions on how to get started with Canvas. For more information about the University’s transition from Blackboard to Canvas, visit go.rowan.edu/canvas.
What do you need to do now?
- Create your course in Canvas. Log in to the Rowan Online Portal, select My Courses from the top navigation menu and follow the instructions to create a course shell for each of your eligible courses. After you submit your request, the course shell will be immediately provisioned within Canvas, and you can begin building your course for the fall 2020 semester.
- Begin your self-paced Canvas training. Once you create a course shell in Canvas for the fall 2020 semester, you will be automatically enrolled in a self-paced training course that will show you how to download existing course content from Blackboard and build a new course in Canvas. You will be able to access and download content from Blackboard until January 31, 2021. You can find the self-paced training course in your Canvas Dashboard and also the means to make appointments with trainers through a Picktime calendar scheduling system.
What else do you need to know?
There are four different options for online courses within Canvas: online-only, hybrid, e-learning enhanced and traditional remote.
- Online-Only/Hybrid Courses: Online-only courses, which are entirely designed for online instruction, and hybrid courses, which are primarily designed for online instruction, will not be available as an option for development for the fall 2020 semester. Faculty who are interested in pursuing these types of courses for future semesters should submit a proposal through the Rowan Online Portal.
- E-Learning Enhanced Course: More than 20 percent of course content and activities are developed for online instruction in e-learning enhanced courses. Faculty teaching e-learning enhanced courses will be provided with one-on-one instructional design support and given access to additional online tools to support online instruction. Faculty who are interested in pursuing this type of course for the fall 2020 semester must submit a request through the Rowan Online Portal by Monday, June 15.
- Traditional Remote Course: The traditional remote course is designed to offer an online repository to accommodate face-to-face instruction. Faculty must develop at a minimum a course plan and offer a syllabus and instructor bio for traditional remote courses. Course shells for traditional remote courses must be created at least 30 days before the start of the course.
Where can you get more information?
- Canvas Training: The self-paced online training course in Canvas should be your first stop for help transitioning course materials from Blackboard to Canvas. As stated above, once enrolled in the Canvas self-paced training course, faculty will also have the opportunity to schedule appointments with trainers to receive one-on-one help starting on June 8.
- Q&A Sessions: We will also be holding Q&A sessions on the transition to Canvas in the coming months. For more information about upcoming sessions, visit go.rowan.edu/canvas.
- Canvas Transition Website: Additional information about the transition from Canvas from Blackboard, including answers to frequently asked questions and information about additional training opportunities are available at go.rowan.edu/canvas.
For other questions not addressed in the self-paced training or on the Canvas transition website, please contact the Technology Support Center at 856-256-4400, or submit a ticket in the IRT Support Portal.