Checking and publishing your imported VITAL courses in Canvas

Posted on: 27 March 2021 by Strategic Change Communications Team in Canvas at Liverpool

To help you successfully make the move from VITAL to Canvas, we have produced a short checklist of things you need to do to ensure your students do not lose access to any of their learning content after 31 July. This is the last day that students can access VITAL. After this date, all learning content must be published and available in Canvas.

Understanding what happens to your VITAL content

The good news is that the majority of learning content associated with your VITAL modules will be automatically copied over into Canvas and will operate in the same or better way in Canvas. To find out more, you may find it useful to read these following guides:

Unfortunately it is not possible to transfer items such as student submissions, feedback and assignments. A communications campaign is now underway to encourage students to download and save items that won’t copy over before 31 July.

Staff will retain access to Turnitin submissions via their existing Turnitin accounts. You will also be able to access content originally uploaded in VITAL via your Canvas PebblePad and Mobius accounts.

When your imported VITAL modules will be available in Canvas

Content relating to imported VITAL modules will become accessible in Canvas in two phases:

You will have access to modules covering the 2016/17 to 2019/20 academic sessions from the week commencing 5 April
- You will be able find these courses in Canvas by clicking on the Courses icon on the blue navigation bar – they won’t appear on your dashboard
You will have access to your 2020/21 modules from the week commencing 31 May
- These courses will appear in the unpublished courses section of your Canvas dashboard

Please note: Any content added to these modules in VITAL after 17 May will have to be manually copied over or uploaded into Canvas. Find out how here or by contacting the Canvas at Liverpool Team

Checking and publishing your imported VITAL modules

All imported VITAL content needs to be published so that your students can access it in Canvas. Before publishing you should complete the checks listed below, ideally no later than 27 July just in case you have any issues. Please don’t leave checking or publishing your VITAL content until 31 July.

2016/17-2019/20 imported VITAL modules

Test your imported VITAL modules to check that all the content, file attachments and links are working as you’d expect
Use the Student View to see what your course looks like from the perspective of your students and that all content will be visible to them
Publish your Canvas course so that your students are able to access it. Find out more here
Check that relevant access for any current students looks correct. If it doesn’t, contact ServiceDesk

2020/21 imported VITAL modules

As these imported VITAL modules relate to the current academic year, they may be required by students taking resits or those completing postgraduate modules which are still being taught after 31 July. As such, we would encourage you to complete all of the above steps plus some additional checks:

Remember: If you have any queries, advice and support is available:

24/7 from the Canvas Support Team – click the Help icon on the blue navigation bar to contact this expert team
From the Canvas at Liverpool Project Team by emailing: canvas@liverpool.ac.uk

Keywords: Canvas , Imported VITAL modules.