Canvas FAQ

Canvas FAQ

Transition from Moodle to Canvas

Spring 2023:

  • Moodle is Still Official LMS.
  • Canvas Workshops begin.
  • Canvas access through MySMC.
    • The Canvas icon will only appear for faculty. Students will not have access to Canvas through MySMC. 
  • Faculty Sandboxes available to explore and prepare content for coming semesters. *Not recommended to live teach in.

Summer 2023:

  • Soft Launch of Canvas
    • Available for Summer Term and Summer Quarter courses.
    • Not available for Summer Trimester courses.
  • Faculty can choose to teach in Canvas or Moodle.
  • On August 28, 2023, Students will NO LONGER have access to the Moodle icon and system

Fall 2023:

  • Launch of Canvas as official LMS for the entire campus on August 28, 2023.
  • Moodle still available to access previous content. Moodle will not be available to teach in.

Spring 2024:

  • Last semester Moodle will be available to access previous content.
  • On May 30, 2024, Faculty and Staff will NO LONGER have access to the Moodle icon and system
Canvas Timeline
  • August 27, 2023 is Moodle’s LAST DAY of being SMC’s learning management system.
  • On August 28, 2023, Canvas will go LIVE for faculty, staff and students and will be SMC’s new learning management system.
  • On August 28, 2023, Students will NO LONGER have access to the Moodle icon and system.
  • From August 28, 2023 until May 29, 2024, Faculty and Staff will have access to the Moodle icon and system via their MySMC portal’s “All Apps” page, but will not be able to actively use Moodle for their courses. The purpose of Moodle remaining available is to give Faculty and Staff ample time to access previous content, download and save files, and do full back-ups of past Moodle courses. 
  • On May 30, 2024, Faculty and Staff will NO LONGER have access to the Moodle icon and system.

Old Moodle courses WILL NOT be automatically added into Canvas. To keep a copy of your Moodle files, use the Download Instructor Files feature. To keep all course materials such as grades, please BACKUP your old Moodle courses and store them in your SMC Google Drive or your personal internal or external hard drive.

The EdTech team is here to support and be a resource to instructors throughout this transition process. Please submit a ticket to EdTech with questions you may have about the process. 

  • Video: How to Import Content into Canvas from Moodle
  • More details on how to Export Courses from Moodle/Import them to Canvas can be found in the Canvas Faculty Quickstarts, found in Canvas by selecting the Help icon on the Canvas Global Navigation menu. 

Most items in your course in Moodle will transfer over to Canvas. The core activities and resource types (files, pages, Assignments, Quizzes, Forums) all have very similar equivalents in Canvas and should come over. 

However, not every activity or resource will come over or come over exactly as-is. Check out our conversion chart  to learn more.

Please submit your need as a ticket via the SMC Service Desk. Once assigned, we will give you an empty course shell for you to import your old Moodle course content into.

Canvas

Spring 2023: Faculty will have access to the Canvas icon via the MySMC portal page and only Faculty will have access to play around with the application. The Canvas icon will not be available for Students yet. 

Faculty and Students will have access to the system in Summer 2023.

  • 24-hour 7days a week Canvas Instructor and Student support is available by clicking on the Help icon on the Canvas Global Navigation menu. 
    • Select a help option: Guides, Chat, or Phone
    • 24/7 support is available to students and faculty and focuses on technical issues associated with Canvas tools and features.
  • For consultations, contact EdTech at 925-631-4266 or submit a ticket

Yes, one of the strengths of Canvas is its mobile apps for students and teachers. Students commonly use the app to get notifications of assignments due or graded. While best practice is to use the web site for most teaching tasks, most can be accomplished via the teacher app.

SMC will be transitioning from Echo360 to Canvas Studio as the new supported video platform. Canvas Studio is a great communication tool that allows instructors and students to actively collaborate through video and audio media and integrates seamlessly with Canvas. 

IMPORTANT: If you use or have used Echo360, to save the media files you have created, you will need to download your Echo360 media. Once you have downloaded your media files, they can be uploaded to Canvas Studio. Echo360 will be available until June 30, 2023. After this date, faculty will no longer have access to Echo360. All Echo360 media will need to be downloaded by June 30th.

To download your media from Echo360 follow these instructions.

The Instructional Design Team currently offers two Canvas course templates, each of which provides a unique standard for design and format. With the increase in online course offerings and use of Canvas to enhance face-to-face learning environments, adoption of these templates can save faculty time on course development and supports the effort to ensure that courses at Saint Mary's College of California are accessible to all learners. Each template also aligns to a globally recognized set of quality standards for online courses,Quality Matters Rubric. 

Template 1: The Gael Template. This Canvas template has a simple design approach. This template's 'Home Page' includes a brief introduction, instructor contact information, office hours, and steps on how to start the course for easy navigation. This template includes text headers and module content is broken down into 1 simple page for lecture materials, readings etc. Whether you plan to create a repository of resources or an interactive online learning community, this template provides structure and essential elements to support students. Recommended modality use for face-to-face courses and hybrid courses.

Template 2: The LaSallian Template: This course template contains many of the same pedagogical elements as The Gael Template, however it contains more enhanced features and requires more technical skills. It varies from the other template in a couple ways. First, The 'Home Page' is a welcome page that introduces the students to the course and instructor. The Welcome Page offers navigation buttons to easily access different sections of the course. Second, the 'Start Here' and Module pages are longer and are separated into pages for each category of content to reduce the amount of information on each page, which helps students retain the material more efficiently. Recommended modality use for online asynchronous, online synchronous, or online blended courses.

For more information on course templates, check out the SMC Quickstarts - Course Templates Guide.

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