What to Know About the Canvas Transition

Login to Canvas using your Mercer credentials:  http://canvas.mercer.edu/

Mercer is transitioning to the Canvas learning management system in May of 2017. Faculty teaching using Blackboard for the summer of 2017 should plan to transition to Canvas. This is a university-wide transition that includes the retirement of Blackboard, Blackboard Collaborate, and Moodle and affects all modalities of course delivery, including face-to-face and distance learning (both asynchronous and synchronous). Webex is the web conferencing tool used by Mercer for online courses with synchronous sessions or for other web conferencing needs. 

With the adoption of Canvas, we are moving forward to offer students a consistent, sophisticated, and mobile experience for both face-to-face and distance learning courses. Faculty members can expect an increased level of functionality with an ultimately decreased workload. We also have the opportunity to use Canvas for non-course functions, like student groups, internal training, department and school collaboration, and archived communication. We will become more efficient, more productive, and more pedagogically sound with Canvas.

Migration of course content from Blackboard and Moodle into Canvas will be managed both by Canvas and Academic Computing. The university is working to integrate many applications into Canvas to make it a one-stop location for faculty and student support. Current integrations include Webex, Courseval, Respondus Lockdown Browser, and additional apps available in the Canvas app store. Starfish and other applications will be integrated after the Blackboard contract expires. The university is also evaluating plagiarism detection tools, like Turnitin, to replace Blackboard’s SafeAssign. Learn more information on migration.

Please consider participating in the Canvas Spring 2017 pilot. Your courses and students are already in Canvas. Training sessions are scheduled throughout January. On the login page, http://canvas.mercer.edu, you can access links to helpful guides.

To sign up for the Spring 2017 pilot so that we can better support you, please complete this brief form:

http://tinyurl.com/canvasspring17

Self-paced training is available in the Canvas Community. To learn Canvas on your own, follow this link, choose the instructor course, and begin your learning experience. If prompted for a login, choose Mercer University and use your Mercer credentials. The instructor course may require email sign-up to begin.

https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers/resources