Canvas transition timeline

For most faculty, Canvas course development will begin in Fall 2017, but when to start using it will be optional until Fall 2018, when Campus Cruiser will be retired. (Note: WebStudy will be retired sooner, in Spring 2018).

2017 Summer

The behind the scenes work to bring Canvas online and orchestrate it as Widener’s new teaching and learning platform will take place over the summer. All of that magical integration between our student information system, single-sign-on authentications, and third party plug-ins takes somewhere in the range of 8-12 weeks.

Look for more information via emails and announcements, including workshops and training schedules (hint: this blog should be bookmarked as your go-to destination for all that is Canvas at Widener).

2017 Fall

Workshops, individual and small group training sessions, and everything in between will run starting fall 2017.  This the time to plan and start packing. Plan your course content, your department templates, and start collecting your course assets into appropriate folders. We will help guide you in this process of “modularizing” your class.

A very small number of courses will be teaching in Canvas in the fall. As part of this very strategic pilot used to measure functionality and features before the roll out to everyone, we will include only courses that have a great depth of Canvas framework and functionality already included at this stage of platform development.

2018 Spring & Summer

Faculty choice. Are you ready to teach in Canvas? Do you feel comfortable in the space and have you created your courses optimizing all that the new LMS has to offer? Have you worked to make sure that your documents are accessible to all learners and created courses that help your students achieve those learning goals you want for them?

Need more help, more training, more exposure to best practices in digital pedagogy? No worries, this is an ongoing process and you will be supported in this transition.

2018 Fall and beyond

Campus Cruiser will be retired at this point and you are now well-versed in the new platform and confidently teaching in Canvas.