We are excited to share with you the many ways you can start learning Canvas at Duke in preparation for transitioning to it for your Spring 2024 classes! We will be offering new resources and workshops throughout the semester, so there is no need to start learning Canvas right away, but we know many are eager to get started.

You can now log into Canvas and begin exploring the platform at canvas.duke.edu

We have also launched go.canvas.duke.edu, which will appear when you try to visit canvas.duke.edu but are not logged into Canvas (click the orange "Log Into Canvas" button in the top right corner to do so). This new website contains all of the information previously available on the LMS Transition website as well as the following new content:

Because Canvas has a different interface and toolset than Sakai, you may find it easier to explore the new opportunities and features Canvas has to offer and start course building from a blank slate. If you do decide to have content migrated, you can request up to 5 Sakai sites at a time and the Canvas Project team will migrate them into Canvas for you.

The equivalent to Sakai’s Project Sites in Canvas are Collaboration Sites. A Collaboration Site is a Canvas site not tied to a DukeHub/DKUHub course or roster, meaning that users need to be added and removed from the site manually. It has the same roles and tools available as Canvas Course sites.

This workshop for teaching assistants will cover Canvas basics, communication, grading, discussion forums, peer grading, and building assessments. 

This series of workshops will be offered multiple times throughout the semester. See the Events page for additional dates and times.

This workshop is recommended for anyone who has not used Canvas as an instructor before or those who would like a refresher on Canvas. This session will include some of the basic “getting started” and Canvas configuration information. 

This workshop is strongly recommended for all instructors. This session will focus on the core of Canvas – the Modules tool – and how to use it and several other key Canvas tools to best organize your site to support student success. 

This session will cover assessing student learning in Canvas using quizzes, graded discussions, assignment submissions, and the gradebook. 

Lindsay Saunders, Lecturer of Biology, is one of our Early Adopters using Canvas this Fall. She shared some of the reasons she has been pleased with Canvas:

“I am thrilled about how clean and intuitive the Canvas LMS is to use."

"The mobile app for students is sleek and I can easily send a quick announcement from the Canvas teacher app while I'm away from my desk. Being part of such a large network of institutions using Canvas means there is a wealth of documentation about best practices and examples so you're never left to reinvent the wheel alone. I only wish we would have switched to Canvas sooner!”

If you missed the town hall held on Tuesday, September 12, you can watch the recording here. The Canvas Project Team covered many topics including the timeline of the transition, options for learning how to use Canvas, the process for creating a course in Canvas, details of the migration process and more.

If this message was forwarded to you but you would like to receive messages directly regarding Duke’s transition to Canvas, you may sign up for updates here. A Duke NetID is required.