Transitioning from Moodle to Canvas

[KimEdgar]

Hi Canvas Community

We are working on a transition project where we will have many of our users using Canvas for the first time.  They are currently using Moodle.  I'd love to hear any tips and lessons learned from others who have made this transition.

What are you top tips for helping users transition?

Did you find any useful resources for assisting with the functional knowledge transition?  eg. x in Moodle = y in Canvas

I have found some useful guides both in the Canvas resources and via good old google, but interested in hearing  some personal experiences as well.

Thanks
Kim 😄

[jerry_nguyen · Accepted solution]

@KimEdgar 

Hi Kim, Welcome to Canvas LMS 😁  I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do. We transitioned to Canvas from another LMS (not Moodle, but I also have experience with it) four years ago, and I believe that without Canvas, we wouldn't be able to manage the increasing number of students enrolling in our courses. It has saved me countless hours on administrative tasks

Here are a few lessons and tips from our transition:

Ensuring your staff and teachers are well-informed about the transition

Initially, many of our trainers were hesitant about the change. It's essential to maintain a positive attitude and clearly explain the changes and benefits to your teachers (e.g., modern interface, better online grading experience, to-do list tool assisting with grading, etc.). A happy and confident teacher leads to happy students 😉

Before the transition, we ran multiple training sessions with our trainers and gathered their feedback about the system to eliminate pain points and improve documentation. We also offered one-on-one support for those who needed additional assistance.

We trained our support staff on basic tasks like resetting student passwords and looking up resources. It's crucial for them to be mindful of maintaining a positive attitude when supporting students.

As part of the training, you can create mock courses so your staff and teachers become familiar with navigating Canvas.

"Test the water" with a small group

We selected a few of our more confident trainers to conduct a new class on Canvas. We also transitioned one group of students from the old system to Canvas. During this trial, we continuously collected feedback from both trainers and students. This allowed us to identify any issues and difficulties early on so we could improve the course and process before they became bigger problems.

Ultilise BluePrint feature

📔Blueprint Courses Overview 

I love this feature because it allows you to push changes to multiple courses simultaneously, maintaining consistency. It has saved me hours compared to the old system, where I had to update content in individual courses.

Structuring your course to utilise Canvas Data and other Canvas analytical tools effectively

📔What is Canvas Data 2?

Canvas Data 2 allows you to pull data site-wide and create custom reports for analytics. To fully utilise the available data points from Canvas Data, you will need to follow several best practices, such as grouping all relevant content and assessments into modules and setting module requirements. This way, teachers can utilize the "View Progress" function to track their students' progression.

Also, having a clear and consistent naming convention (E.g. for courses, assessments, learning contents, etc.) co will be beneficial when querying data through Canvas Data.

You’ll need to get in touch with your CSM to enable access to Canvas Data 2 for your institution.

Feel free to contact me if you would like to learn more 😄

Showcasing to your trainers and students the best new features of Canvas

Here are a few features that I find that no other LMS can compete with Canvas:

• Centralized "To Do" List on the Dashboard: Submissions and due dates from all enrolled courses will show on this to-do list, allowing teachers to stay on top of their grading.
• Canvas App: The Student app allows students to receive real-time notifications from the system and study on the go. The Teacher app allows trainers to grade assessments via "SpeedGrader" on the go. Tip: Users can log in on their computer/laptop and then use the QR code for mobile login to quickly access the Canvas app on their smartphone.
• Course New Analytics: This feature allows trainers to identify students who are falling behind.
• Ability to "Message Who...": This feature in the "Marks" (or gradebook) section allows trainers to message students without submissions, those who scored less than a certain threshold, etc.
• SpeedGrader: Besides the usual ability to annotate student submissions, trainers can comment, provide verbal feedback via voice or video recording, and use the “Comment Library” to save commonly used feedback. Having used Moodle, I find Canvas SpeedGrader to be far ahead in terms of features and usability.
• Canvas Commons: This feature allows trainers to share their content with other users, and other trainers can import it into their own courses.
• Modern Rich Content Editor (WYSIWYG): This editor allows you to quickly insert links to resources within a course (e.g., links to pages, assignments, modules, discussions, etc.). It also works seamlessly with BluePrint.

In terms of functional knowledge, Moodle and Canvas are quite similar, except for the way content is organised. In Canvas, assignments, quizzes, pages, and files each have their own pages within a course. However, they can all be linked, organised, and displayed on the “Modules” page, providing a streamlined and cohesive structure for course materials.

Last but not least, the Canvas Community is one of the best places to find resources. Your questions might have already been answered by a community member, so just do a quick search 😎

Hope this helps and all the best with your transition to Canvas. Feel free to reach out if you need additional support!

[KimEdgar]

Thanks Jerry, very informative. 😄

[JasonSimmons]

Hi @KimEdgar ,

Are you familiar with Impact by Instructure? This tool helps new Canvas users (specifically those transitioning to Canvas from their legacy LMS) quickly learn the features and functions of Canvas. The webpage I provided will have more info about what it is exactly. 

If your institution is still in the process of migrating courses to Canvas or if you're looking to archive your Moodle course content and data without having to keep paying for a Moodle instance or reverting to cold storage, you should consider K16 Solutions. K16 offers both an automated LMS migration service and a cost-effective legacy LMS archiving solution that integrates with Canvas LMS. 

I hope that helps.

Best,
Jason Simmons, K16 Solutions

[KimEdgar]

Thanks Jason, much appreciated. Kim 🙂

[paul_fynn]

@KimEdgar PM me please, if you figure what to do with existing Moodle Book content /activty - the examples I'm looking to transfer look to me as though they could simply be pages and prerequisites within a Canvas module block...