» Canvas

Attention Faculty: All Courses will use Canvas as of Fall 2020

Due to the need for consistency for the student learning experience, all Chapman courses will only have the Canvas learning management system available to them for Fall 2020 (meaning Blackboard will no longer be a platform available for courses), but please don't fear! We have many training options available for you.

Canvas Summer Training Options for Faculty

We want all faculty to be trained on Canvas for fall courses. For now, we're asking full-time faculty to please sign up for training here: Summer 2020 Canvas Training Registration (explanation of training "hikes" below). Part-time faculty will be trained in August. Alternatively, if you already have experience or training on Canvas, please let us know about it: Canvas Training and Experience (form for those with previous experience).

Canvas Summer 2020 Training Options include the following for full-time faculty. Part-time faculty will have separate options starting in August (so please stay tuned):

  • Group Hike (Intensive): Canvas Course Design Cohort Intensive. 10-15 hour cohort-based and facilitated one-week session (choice of weeks throughout summer).
  • Solo Hike: Canvas Course Design Independent Study. Month-long independent study (June).
  • Hike with Trail Guides: Basic Technology Training and Canvas Course Design. For those who find technology difficult to understand, this is a month-long, higher-touch, facilitated training for basic technologies and Canvas that includes extra support from various IS&T staff (July).

Summer 2020 Drop-In Online Help 

Join us Monday-Friday, anytime from 9:30-11:30 am or 2:30-4:30 pm for virtual drop-in support for teaching remotely (Canvas, Blackboard, Zoom, Panopto, BigBlueButton, Turnitin, course design, asynchronous teaching, and teaching pedagogy). Clicking the following link will open a Zoom meeting with one or more of our experts:  bit.ly/lmssupport

Canvas Information


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Where can I learn more about Canvas and how will training occur?

For faculty: Apart from the summer sessions mentioned above, we offer self-paced Canvas courses, Educational Technology Services (ETS) workshops, and ETS drop-in hours for training. Each faculty member can sign into Canvas with their Chapman credentials and find a "Self-paced Growing with Canvas" course as well as a personal practice sandbox course. Visit the Chapman Canvas Instructor Training site for more training options or visit the Chapman Canvas workshop registration for details on workshops and drop-in hours. Canvas also offers great Canvas Instructor Guides or, if the technology paired with Canvas is Chapman-specific, search our Chapman Canvas Knowledge Base.

For students: We offer a Chapman Student Canvas Training site, or we can teach faculty how to add pre-made student training modules to their courses that help students understand the basics about Canvas. Students can also search the Canvas Student Guides or Canvas Student Video Tutorials.

When can faculty start using Canvas?

The sooner the better. Course sites are available now. You can sign into Chapman's Canvas site by going to https://canvas.chapman.edu.

Do faculty have to use Canvas?

Faculty are not required to use a learning management system (LMS); however, since COVID has created an extra need for the potential of online coursework, most find it a great tool to support the content, communication, and assessment needs to support student learning. We highly recommend using Canvas for its great learning support and learning analytics. Starting Fall 2020, no course sites will exist in Blackboard Learn and they will only exist in Canvas. 

Will my current and past courses be migrated?

Yes, your current and past Blackboard courses will be migrated to Canvas. The timeline of this migration is coming soon.

You can choose to have us migrate your content, you can migrate your content yourself (which often gives you more control over what and how it is migrated), or you can choose to start fresh and build your course from scratch on Canvas. Contact us to for information to help you make this decision: canvas@chapman.edu.

Choosing Canvas


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Why and how was this decision made?

In fall 2018, we kicked off a project to evaluate whether Blackboard Learn continued to be the right software to support teaching and learning on our campus. In April 2019, we convened a Request for Proposal (RFP) Committee to formally evaluate three different cloud-based Learning Management Systems (Blackboard Ultra, Brightspace, Canvas) to see which would meet our campus needs. Since then, we've gathered data from students and faculty, conducted numerous hands-on focus group sessions, and held an all-campus Town Hall to discuss this issue. From that assessment we learned that Canvas was the preferred LMS for our campus.

What is an LMS?

LMS = Learning Management System. Our LMS for the past 16 years has been Blackboard Learn.

Who was on the RFP Committee?

  • Jeff Goad - School of Pharmacy
  • Jana Remy - IS&T Educational Technology Services
  • Ron Steiner - Faculty Senate President and Fowler School of Law
  • Lynda Hall - Faculty Senate Secretary and Wilkinson College
  • Samantha Gonzalez - student
  • Brett Fisher - Leatherby Library
  • Eric Chimenti - Wilkinson College
  • Michael Fahy - Fowler School of Engineering
  • Bruce Dehning - Argyros School of Business
  • Caroline Wilson - Crean College
  • Dorcas James - IS&T PMO
  • Sheryl Hathaway - IS&T Instructional Technology
  • George Viegas - IS&T Information Security
  • Lauri Mantooth - IS&T Enterprise Applications
  • Austin Lee - School of Communication Studies

All Courses on Canvas

 

 

 

 

Canvas software logo

Still Have Questions?

We have answers. Submit your inquiries via our online form or send an email to canvas@chapman.edu