Moving into the 21st Century!

WebCT is a Dinosaur!

Calling all faculty! The “some day when we leave WebCT” is drawing near! It is finally time to leave the Jurassic Era that is WebCT and move into the 21st Century – enter, Canvas!

In September the governing board approved the RFP award for the new Learning Management System to a company called Instructure with their LMS, Canvas. MCC has been selected as the first Maricopa school to move to this new system. As part of the migration from WebCT to Canvas the CTL will run two different programs in an effort to work collaboratively with the college and  the unique needs of each department and hopefully, ease the migration process for everyone. Currently we anticipate that all faculty will be using the Canvas system beginning Summer I, 2012.

Canvas Pioneer Program
Summary: The Canvas Pioneer Program is a voluntary program with no stipend given. Faculty that are teaching a late-start spring course beginning no earlier than March of 2012 may apply to this program. The 25-30 faculty that are selected will receive early training and access to the production system and will be the first faculty teaching within the new Canvas LMS. They will be asked to share feedback on their migration / transition to Canvas, they will be asked to complete a survey about the training, migration, and teaching process, and they will be asked to deliver a survey to their students asking for feedback.

Selection will be based on uniqueness, discipline/department, technologies, and teaching and learning techniques so that we may fully test as many aspects of the new system as possible. A variety of departments is desired so that we can ensure we test the system early with your departments unique online teaching and learning needs.

Canvas Pioneer Application for Late-Start Spring 2012: http://tinyurl.com/canvaspioneer
Applications will be accepted until November 17th, 2011 at 5pm.

Canvas Faculty Mentoring Program
Summary: The Canvas Faculty Mentoring Program is a program for residential faculty with a maximum stipend of $2000.  The selected “faculty mentors” would be given training and access to the Canvas system first so that they could help support other faculty during the migration process. These mentors will be used to staff Canvas open labs and to be liasions within your departments to ensure that all faculty have the support they need during this transition. Currently we anticipate that all faculty will be using the Canvas system beginning Summer I, 2012.

Faculty Mentor responsibilities include:

  • Completing Canvas and/or Quality Matters training sessions,
  • Staffing 3 open labs a month from March 2012 through September 2012 (inclusive of summer)
  • Communicating Canvas updates to their assigned departments/chairs.

Selection will be based on location/department/discipline, availability during the summer months, experience in the current LMS, and experience with the Quality Matters rubric.

Canvas Faculty Mentoring Application: http://tinyurl.com/canvasmentor
Applications will be accepted until November 17th, 2011 at 5pm.

Questions? Concerns? Please contact the CTL: ctl@mesacc.edu or 480-461-7331.