This article provide details on the mass migration of course content from eClass to Canvas as a part of the U of A's LMS transition project.  Instructors and TAs can learn the next steps they need to follow once they receive their converted course(s) starting in November.

Update November 8, 2024: The vendor has released the first batch of courses today (approximately 8K) and will be completing work on the remainder in the coming days. Courses will appear on user's dashboards as soon as the vendor releases them.

Important note: the first phase of this process will take all eClass credit courses from the Winter 2023, Fall 2023, Winter 2024, Spring 2024 and Summer 2024 terms and rebuild them in Canvas. Courses delivered on eClass in Fall 2024 and Winter 2025 will be migrated to Canvas in May 2025.

Step 1) Review Migrated eClass Course Content

All migrated courses will appear on instructors' dashboards when they first sign into Canvas. Users who have multiple migrated courses may want to customize the course tiles to more easily distinguish between them.

Instructors must thoroughly review migrated content before using it. Given the breadth of content types and delivery options possible in eClass, some course migrations will be straightforward, and others will require more work to rebuild in Canvas. 

Locate Content

The standard eClass view of an eClass course page is rebuilt in the Modules area of Canvas courses. Instructors should click there first to review their content sections, headings, and all course content, files, links, and activities.

Each module in Canvas maps to the source content section (topic, week, etc) from the eClass course. One major difference immediately apparent is that the Canvas module view does not allow large blocks of inline text or any embedded media. If your eClass course contained rich content in the section headings or in Text and Media areas (formerly Labels), this has been converted to Canvas pages in the migrated course and positioned in the module where it appeared in the original section. These items must be clicked to be viewed.

Content from section headings appears first in the new Module with ' - Section Summary' appended to the title. If a course used shorter Text and Media/Labels in topics as sub-headings these are converted into Canvas text headers and any indentation from the original course will be copied across.

Review the Content Mapping and Conversion Chart

At this stage, if your course uses only basic content types (files, pages, discussions, links, etc) or in-page section content, you may now be ready to begin using your content.

Instructors using more complex content types should review the eClass to Canvas Content Conversion Mapping to determine if any content in their course needs further attention. That article has additional notes for advanced instructions for rebuilding content in Canvas. Any items that have no possible alternatives in Canvas are migrated with 'STUB:' prepended to their name and provide a link back to eClass for instructors to review the source course.

To further validate how content has been migrated, K16 provides instructors an exception log identifying anything the automatic migration process could not handle. This can be found in converted courses by clicking Pages > All Pages > and location the item(s) called 000-Migration Exception Log:

The Exception Log creates an entry for every eClass feature that does not translate to Canvas, so it can get lengthy. Reviewing this page is not required in all cases, but the Exception Log can be a useful tool to validate that content is not 'left behind' in eClass, notably incompatible quiz questions. The log provides direct links for instructors to access the original content easily (but URLs in the exception log are added after the K16 automated run, so they point to the migration server and must be edited to point at production if instructors are using them to validate missing content):

Step 2) Copy the Migrated Content into a New Course  

Once instructors have thoroughly reviewed their content, there are 2 main ways to use mass-migrated courses:

1) by requesting them as the content source when making a Canvas credit course request in the same way they would use content from a past term's eClass course, or a staging/sandbox course. Or:

2) by using them as content repositories and pulling content - or specific pieces of content - into credit courses using Canvas' native content import process. 

In either case, instructors should review the course configuration guidelines in Step 3) before releasing a course to students. 

Note: it is not possible to use a migrated AS a credit course without moving the content since student enrollments are only added to courses once they are created through the Course Request System.

Step 3) Configure the New Course

In addition to ensuring their content has migrated, instructors have a couple more things to do in Canvas to prepare their courses. (This is in addition to the standard tasks instructors need to do when rolling courses forward from past terms: ensuring the correct content is visible, updating the syllabus, adjusting dates on assignments and materials, setting up any access requirements or accommodations, etc.)

Customize the home page of a course

Migrated courses all contain a pared-down version of the U of A's custom template which adds a polished, visual front page that instructors can opt to use as a course landing page with links to other areas of the course. The home page is easily edited using the Canvas Rich-Content Editor to change links (and remove the migration warning text). Included with the pared-down template are some additional graphics assets instructors can use to customize the look and feel from the Files area of the course.

One major improvement in the Canvas RCE is that it is very easy to add links in pages to anywhere else in your Canvas course -- other pages, modules, files, etc -- to serve as a landing page. The existing navigation buttons/links can be used for this purpose and connected to the correct items in a course easily using the RCE.

If instructors are interested, the full version of the template can be explored further in any sandbox course -- it contains some additional design and formatting elements that instructors may want to incorporate into their course design.

New for November 2024, U of A Digital + Creative has also released a repository of faculty and department-specific banners and course card graphics for instructor use through the Canto digital asset management tool (requires CCID sign-in):

• • • Graphics course banners for courses in Canvas
    • Graphics course cards for courses in Canvas

Instructors can also choose not to use a visual course home page and instead set the modules page as the student landing page for a course.

Configure the Course Navigation Items for the Course

Content in Canvas can also be accessed through the left-hand navigation menu, where content is sorted by type. The recommended practice is for instructors to keep those navigation elements hidden from students and structure course content progression through modules. Using modules allows instructors to use completion requirements to set up course pacing and provides built-in navigation for students. Instructors can always access content from the left nav even if the items are hidden from students.

The migration template has the navigation elements configured in line with this practice and prevents student access to the Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes, Files, and Pages by default (as indicated by the crossed-eyeball.) In addition, several more advanced tools are disabled by default - Collaborations, Rubrics, and Outcomes. Instructors can enable any of these tools for particular use cases or re-order the visible options in the course settings under the Navigation section.

The left nav also contains several links to external tools which can be enabled or disabled in the course settings. (A good example of this would be to hide the Zoom nav element in courses that do not require online meetings). It is important to note that some of the nav links are instructor-only by default and are not indicated by closed eyeballs (eg. Item Banks.) Instructors should always use the View as student button near the top right to confirm what students are seeing in the left nav: 

Set up the Course Gradebook

Gradebooks in Canvas are somewhat less complex than in eClass but if instructors are using the gradebook to record student assessment scores and calculate marks, there are a number of important differences to be aware of when setting up gradebooks in Canvas. These changes are covered in detail in Using the Gradebook in Canvas. 

Most importantly, by default in Canvas, any entered grades are visible by default. Instructors must follow these instructions to change this behaviour if they want to release grades in bulk after review.

In Canvas all course totals are calculated using the sum of the total points for each assessment item shown in a percentage or as a letter (what was called the Simple Weighted Mean of Grades aggregation method in eClass.) If a gradebook requires that some items are given different weights (ie. the Weighted Mean of Grades aggregation method in eClass), these need to be set under the Assignments nav item by creating Assignment Groups where weights can be entered. 

Any native assessment items (assignments, quizzes, graded forums) and manual gradebook columns from the source eClass course are automatically added to the Canvas gradebook via the K16 migration. In addition, if the eClass gradebook had any weighted items, assignment groups are automatically created for these in Canvas (including advanced scoring options like 'Drop the lowest') and any assessment items are placed in the correct group. (However due to Canvas' built-in gradebook sorting methods, the K16 migration can not recreate the exact order of items in the Canvas gradebook.) 

Additional Migration Project Details

The U of A mass migration is being delivered via K16, an external vendor with extensive experience migrating content into Canvas. During summer 2024, a number of sample courses containing a wide range of eClass content types, layouts, and activities were converted initially using a manual backup method. K16 then used a custom automated process map and rebuild the sample course content into Canvas.

The content owners of the sample courses then went through an iterative review process to identify areas where the K16 process could better map content features or specific settings from their courses to matching features in Canvas. The end result of the review is a dedicated mass migration algorithm that will be applied in bulk to eClass credit courses to bring them across into our new LMS. This migration run will provide the highest fidelity of content transfer to minimize the work instructors will need to do to rebuild courses in Canvas.

The migration details are:

• Anyone who was enrolled as an Instructor in the original eClass course will be enrolled as a Teacher in the new Canvas course.
• Mass migrated courses will appear on enrolled instructor's dashboards with the same title as on eClass, prepended with 'eClass Content Migration:'.
• Due to site performance impacts and data privacy requirements, the vendor's service was connected to a clone of eClass with data copied on September 10th, 2024 so any changes made to course contents or enrollments after that time will not appear in migrated courses. 
• No student enrollments or student data from courses are included in the migration.
• Non-BearTracks eClass courses or courses delivered outside the specified credit-course terms can be migrated to Canvas manually.
• Migrated courses contain a pared-down version of the U of A Content Template containing only the custom-designed home page.
• There is no requirement that instructors use their migrated courses in the Winter 2025 term on Canvas - courses can still be requested on eClass normally up until the Summer 2025 term; after that point all new courses must be created on Canvas.