TED Tips – Issue 4: From D2L to Canvas

The Canvas Migration process is well underway.  We looked last week at some of the details and training opportunities to help understand the migration process.  This week’s TED Tip examines some options to get a course from D2L into Canvas.

While UW-Whitewater strongly encourages freshman-facing courses to be offered in Canvas (specific departments and colleges may have other requirements), from Fall 2018 through Spring 2019, you can choose either D2L or Canvas for your courses.

If you want to offer your course in D2L for students, you will need to complete the normal D2L “Course Request Process”.  You may have used this process before.  In D2L, by default, courses are not created until requested.

Canvas, however, automatically creates courses for you; there will no longer be a separate course request process.   Be advised, while these courses are automatically created (and WINS enrollments and course integrations will take place), these are blank placeholder courses.  You still need to import or create content and set up the course normally.  Additionally, while these blank courses help get you started – they will remain inaccessible until you actually “Publish” them.  You can find the publish command in the “Course Status” area in upper right corner from the Home screen inside each course.  Even though the course creation process and enrollments will happen automatically, you still will have to choose to “Publish” that course to make it available.

How do I get my content into Canvas?

You can create content directly inside of Canvas.  A transition like this a great opportunity to review learning objectives, update learning activities, and evaluate assessment effectiveness.  The move from one platform to another is a great opportunity to start fresh to create the best possible student experience we can. Striving for continuous improvement increases quality.

It is also possible to import existing content from D2L to canvas.  As with all moves, a good tip is to clean up existing files and content before the move.  It is recommended to go into the “Edit Course” section inside of D2L and then purge unneeded materials through the “Manage Files” command.

Once we are ready to migrate, the Course Complexity Application is a great resource.   WINS courses from Winter 2016 through Winter 2018 that are associated with your D2L account will show up with a complexity rating.  This complexity rating provides an estimate of time needed to fix your course inside Canvas.  Not everything transfers easily.  For example, grade categories or weighted grade items do not transfer into Canvas; you will have to spend time setting up new categories or configuring your gradebook in Canvas.  Quizzes and pools of randomized quiz questions are other common items that will require your attention in Canvas.  Every course is different, but the estimates provide a good gauge of time.

How Do I Export and Import Content?

The Course Complexity Application provides an “Export course from desire to learn” command that will start the process.  Alternatively, you could work from inside of D2L directly and from the edit course option, select the “import/export/copy components” command.  This is the same place command you may have used to copy from one section of a course to another.

After you have started to create an export from either place, select the course materials.  This ultimately creates a zip package export of your course.  Save or rename this zip file appropriately.

Next, go to Canvas.  Select your specific course and then choose the “Import Course Content” command from the “Settings” button.  Select the content type select “D2L export .zip format”.   Then choose the zipped file package you created in the last step.  Select all content.  When ready, you can then click import to move content into your course.   The processes of importing from one format to the next may take some time.  A video walkthrough is linked from the resources section if you are looking for a more visual step by step guide to this process.

After import, Canvas will provide an Issue List.  Canvas flags content that did not import easily as an issue.  You may need to rebuild some content.  You may need to reconfigure some tests.  You may need to double check the gradebook.  Another tool to review is the “Validate Links” command from setting option in canvas.  Like Issues, this will generate a list of broken links inside your Canvas course that you can use to update and review.

Whether you have created the content in Canvas for the first time or imported it from D2L – it is a good practice to review and proofread your new course before your publish it.

What other help is available?

The Learning Technology Center (LTC) continues to provide workshops.  Look for “Canvas Hands-On Introduction” for beginners, “Canvas Construction Zones” for hands on step by step migration, and “Canvas Deep Dives” for more in depth looks at specific tools and concepts.  Canvas also has a 24 / 7 toll free technical support service line including phone, chat, and email options Canvas 24/7/365 Support.

Next week I want to welcome you a bit more to the LTC and introduce you to some of the services and people that can help you explore ways to enhance student learning.

– Ted Witt
Teaching, Learning, and Technology Consultant

RESOURCES:

Video:  Moving a Course from D2L to Canvas

Canvas Migration Website:  http://www.uww.edu/icit/ltc/canvas-portal

Course Complexity App: http://dl.uwsa.edu

Link Validator reference: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12770-4152476605

Detailed Course Content Migration documentation: UW System Course Content Migration Documentation

D2L course request site:   http://my.uww.edu/d2lrequest

D2L eGrading Process Available for Fall 2016

The D2L eGrading process is now available for the Fall 2016 semester. This process allows instructors to transfer final grades from their Desire2Learn Gradebook directly to their WINS Grade Roster.

If you prefer step by step documentation, that can be found at: WINS eGrading Overview.

If you have any questions or concerns with the eGrading process, please contact UW-W Desire2Learn Support.

D2L eGrading Process Available for Spring 2015

The D2L eGrading process is now available for the Spring 2015 semester.  This process allows instructors to transfer final grades from their Desire2Learn Gradebook directly to their WINS Grade Roster.

If you prefer step by step documentation, that can be found at: WINS eGrading Overview.

If you have any questions or concerns with the eGrading process, please contact UW-W Desire2Learn Support.

D2L eGrading Process Available for Fall 2014

The D2L eGrading process is now available for the Fall 2014 semester.  This process allows instructors to transfer final grades from their Desire2Learn Gradebook directly to their WINS Grade Roster.

If you prefer step by step documentation, that can be found at: WINS eGrading Overview.

If you have any questions or concerns with the eGrading process, please contact UW-W Desire2Learn Support.

D2L v10.3 Discussion Tool Changes

The latest upgrade in D2L to version 10.3 included a complete interface overhaul of the Discussions tool. This new interface includes a change to the structure of Discussions and some new features, which are outlined in the video below.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the Discussions tool or the changes, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

D2L eGrading Process Now Open for Spring 2014

The D2L eGrading process allows instructors to transfer final grades from their D2L Gradebook to their WINS Grade Roster in a few simple steps. This process is currently open and available for instructors to transfer their semester grades from D2L to WINS.

For more information on how to use this process, please see the following Instructional Resources wiki pages:

We also have a video available to guide you through the first two steps:

If you need additional assistance with your Gradebook or if you have eGrading questions, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

D2L Inline Document Viewer Issue with Flash Modules

With the overhaul of the Content area of Desire2Learn (D2L), we discovered that the new inline document viewer has an issue that impacts some Flash modules/activities that may be embedded in your content.  We know that Flash versions of iSpring and legacy eTEACH presentations trigger an issue with the inline document viewer.  It appears to only impact Flash modules that are designed to scale to fit the size of the window they are in.

The easiest workaround to view these presentations is to use the “View content in new window” link.  This however will not stop the module from running in the parent window which may be confusing to students.

Unfortunately, there is currently not a clean workaround to update the links in D2L.  Follow the steps below to correct the issue:

  1. In the content area, click “New” and choose “Create a File”
  2. In the course file, use the html editor to “Insert a Quicklink”
  3. From the “Insert a Quicklink” screen, select “Course File”, click “Add File” and choose the file from the “Course Offering Files”.
  4. Enter text into the “Link Caption” field.
  5. Under “Open In” be sure to choose “New Window”
  6. Click “Insert” and then “Publish” to save and post the new course file
  7. Remove or change the status to “Draft” for the old link.

If you have any questions concerning this, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

Manage Dates Tool in D2L

The Learning Technology Center (LTC) has added a new D2L Mini Session featuring the Manage Dates tool in Desire2Learn (D2L) .

The Manage Dates tool enables instructors to view a list of objects in your course and edit their date availability values all on one page. This includes content, discussions, dropbox, grades, news, and quizzes.

The video can be viewed below and can also be viewed on our YouTube channel.

If you have any questions about the Manage Dates Tool, please Contact UW-W D2L Support.

Changes to D2L Copy Components Tool

With the latest service packs applied to the D2L Learning Environment, there were a few changes made to the copy function in the Import/Export/Copy Components tool.

Instead of using a drop-down menu to select the “source” course for the copy function, an new Search for offering function has taken it’s place. This allows you to easily select or search for a particular course that you would like to copy from.

For more detailed directions on how to copy components from a D2L course, please see the Copy Components wiki page. In addition to those written instructions, a video tutorial is also available below:

If you have any questions about the changes or using this tool, please contact UW-W D2L Support.

D2L Video Mini Sessions for Instructors

Desire2Learn logoThe Learning Technology Center (LTC) has created a new video tutorial series for Desire2Learn (D2L) tools such as content, dropbox, discussions, quizzing and gradebook.  These videos are designed to help guide instructors through the basics of the D2L.

The video playlist is available below and can be found on our YouTube channel.

If you have any questions about D2L, please contact D2L Support.