Important updates on the transition to Canvas

The following message was sent to Rutgers faculty and staff on January 12, 2022.

Dear Rutgers Colleagues,

As the new year begins, I am pleased to announce that a major milestone has been reached in the university’s transition to Canvas—the migration of more than 20,000 Rutgers courses to Canvas, effectively completing the course migration phase of the project. This is an impressive achievement, and it would not have been possible without the dedication and support of our entire community. As of the Spring 2022 semester, Canvas will be the sole learning management system (LMS) at Rutgers.

Now that the migration of courses from Blackboard, Moodle, and Sakai is complete, we have begun the process of decommissioning our legacy learning management systems:

• Blackboard and Moodle have entered a “read-only” state, preserving the content and student interaction data as per the university’s data retention policy.
• Sakai will also continue to be available for data and content retention purposes, as well as access to “project sites” devoted to various university initiatives. The ability to create new Sakai sites and add course rosters is now disabled.
• Planning is underway for the migration of Sakai project sites. In the meantime, users can still access and use their existing project sites normally.

With Canvas now the university’s only LMS, we continue to seek to improve the platform. Several new instructional tools are now available through Canvas, including Gradescope, a new feedback and assessment tool, and Ally, an application designed to assist faculty with ensuring the accessibility of their course content.

Please visit the LMS Transition to Canvas site for more information on the project. If you have any questions about Canvas, please visit the Canvas Help webpage for contact information.

While not without its challenges, the consolidation of learning management systems has unified and improved the student experience at a time when our reliance on technology for instruction is at its highest. I would like to extend my gratitude to all of our faculty and staff for their patience and efforts in accomplishing this major initiative for Rutgers.

Best regards,

Michele Norin
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer