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Transition to Canvas

 

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Transition to Canvas

Canvas is the University’s centrally-supported Learning Management System (LMS) and fully replaced the Sakai LMS after the Spring 2024 semester concluded. Sakai is now in restricted access until it is decommissioned on May 15, 2026. Please see below for information about the timeline, course migrations, and details on Sakai Restricted Access.

Timeline

  • Fall 2021 – Spring 2022: Pilot conducted through several courses across various academic units.
  • Summer 2022: No summer courses taught in Canvas. System access only available for future course development.
    • May 20: FA22 courses made available in Canvas (in addition to Sakai). All active Onyen users granted access to Canvas.
    • July 15: Begin accepting requests for non-Registrar courses.
  • Fall 2022 – Spring 2024: Canvas and Sakai available for any course listed in ConnectCarolina (instructor chooses which LMS to use). Migrated Sakai content from 2022 and 2023 available in Canvas (see details on getting content into Canvas).
  • Summer 2024: Only Canvas available for teaching and active use. Migrated Sakai content from Spring 2024 available in Canvas.
    • May 15, 2024: All Sakai sites permanently unpublished. Restricted access available only to Instructors, Organizers, Teaching Assistants, Coordinators, and Tech Support. 
  • May 15, 2026: Sakai no longer available.

Sakai Restricted Access

Sakai is now in restricted access as of May 15, 2024, until the system is decommissioned and unavailable to all users on May 15, 2026. During restricted access:

  • All courses, projects, and University-related work must be conducted outside of Sakai. No new sites created.
  • All Sakai sites permanently unpublished. Student, Participant, Auditor, Guest roles do not have access to sites.
  • Instructor, Organizer, Teaching Assistant, Coordinator, Tech Support roles still have access to their sites to allow for content review and retrieval for 2 years until Sakai is decommissioned on May 15, 2026.
  • Tools hidden from student view will not be visible to site owners. Submit a help request opens in new window with any questions or issues.
  • All email functions disabled.
  • Password resets for Sakai non-Onyen Guest accounts not permitted due to disabled email functions.
  • Incomplete grades: Instructors who have students with IN and AB grades must submit a help request to give their students temporary access to the course to complete their work. All communication between instructor and student must occur outside of Sakai (e.g., University email).

Sakai Course Migrations

We worked with a third-party vendor (K16) recommended by Instructure to migrate courses from Sakai to Canvas. This means that the content in some (but not all) of your Sakai courses was automatically transferred to a similar (but not identical) structure in Canvas.

Migrated content from University Registrar courses that were taught in Sakai in all 2022, 2023, and Spring 2024 terms are available in Canvas. If you taught a course from these terms in Sakai, you should see an archive of each of your courses on your Canvas Dashboard, titled in the form of “DEPT101.001.FA22_SAKAI_Archive” (note: SP22 archive sites do not include “SAKAI_Archive” in the site name and some sites may include “k16” in the archive title as well). Instructors can choose to reuse this copied content and import it into their official Canvas courses. We advise reviewing migrated data as soon as possible to identify where you will need to make adjustments. See full details on getting content into Canvas.

Note: The Sakai data from past courses was extracted on the following dates. Updates made after this will not be available in the Canvas archive sites.

  • Spring 2022 courses: June 3, 2022
  • Maymester, Summer Session I, Summer Session II 2022 courses: December 12, 2022
  • Fall 2022 courses: December 12, 2022
  • Spring 2023 courses: May 15, 2023
  • Summer 2023 courses: September 13, 2023
  • Fall 2023 courses: January 29, 2024
  • Spring 2024 courses: May 10, 2024

Rationale Behind Transition from Sakai to Canvas

While Sakai has worked well for the University, the number of educational institutions comprising the Sakai community has significantly decreased over the years and fewer improvements are being made from version to version. Our faculty members continue to experiment with external technology tools they can use in tandem with the campus learning management system. Unfortunately, many vendors are not developing their products to integrate with Sakai. As a result, the Sakai LMS is not a viable long-term option.

ITS Educational Technologies and Digital and Lifelong Learning conducted a pilot of the Canvas Learning Management System as a potential replacement for Sakai over Fall 2021 and Spring 2022 semesters. The pilot consisted of a diverse cohort of undergraduate and graduate courses representing a variety of schools and academic units across campus. Although the preferences of the more than 600 students surveyed for the pilot were mixed between Canvas and Sakai, an overwhelming majority found Canvas easy to use. A strong majority of pilot instructors who were surveyed or participated in focus groups also support the move to Canvas, while recognizing that there will be a period of adjustment for all.

Based on the results of the pilot and diminished development support for Sakai, the University replaced Sakai at UNC with Canvas. Sakai was supported and available for use through the end of Spring 2024. Beginning May 15, 2024, Sakai will remain available in a restricted access state until May 15, 2026, when Sakai will be decommissioned and no longer available.

Canvas’ Advantages

Canvas by Instructure is used by more institutions of higher education than any other learning management system, including other UNC System schools and UNC-CH’s peer institutions. In addition to being a more intuitive system for designing courses, below are several benefits of the Canvas system. Canvas’ cloud architecture also requires little to no downtime for feature upgrades and system maintenance.

  • 24/7 phone and chat support provided by Instructure
  • A more modern, straightforward, and easier-to-use interface
  • A more accessible experience for all users
  • Mobile apps for instructors and students
  • Robust app and email notifications
  • Improved calendar services
  • Templates that can be created by schools and automatically populated into all of their courses
  • Canvas is popular with K-12 school systems and across higher ed, so many first-year and transfer students will arrive already familiar with Canvas
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