Pepperdine Canvas LMS Transition Plan

Go Canvas: Pepperdine University will transition to the Canvas LMS

Overview

After careful consideration, a comprehensive learning management system (LMS) study, and a successful pilot program, the Provost and Deans of each of our schools have selected Instructure Canvas as Pepperdine University's next LMS starting Fall 2025. We believe that Pepperdine Canvas will serve our faculty and students well by fostering an academic ecosystem that enables impactful learning experiences. Check out our Pepperdine Canvas Faculty Guides and Pepperdine Canvas Intro Video to start creating your class content. Faculty, don't forget to request a Courses/Sakai to Pepperdine Canvas Data Migration to move your instructional content to the new system.

LMS Town Halls

Three LMS Transition Town Hall sessions were held in Spring and Summer to share important details and features of the transition. Review the recording of our February Town Hall, April Town Hall, and May Town Hall.

Summer 2025 Early Adopters Program

We're excited that more professors will be able to dive into Pepperdine Canvas this summer! Select the topic below to learn more.

Become an Early Adopter

Faculty Participation

Ready to Join Early? Please consider joining the Pepperdine Canvas Early Adopters program for Summer 2025! The interest form will be emailed to all Pepperdine faculty soon. Submitting an interest form is not a guarantee of participation in the program but rather a way for TechLearn to gauge overall interest from the community. Once the interested parties have responded, TechLearn will share a list of respondents with the academic leadership at each school/division. If approved, TechLearn will connect with the professors and share training and support resources. Bear in mind, it's possible that some classes — especially those that are cohort-based, part of a special sequence, or other critical program-specific classes — may need to stay on Courses/Sakai until the fall.

Faculty teaching with the Digital Campus (2U) LMS are not eligible to participate in the Pepperdine Canvas Early Adopters Program.

Participating Instructor Expectations

For the Summer 2025 early adopter program, participating instructors may express interest in teaching one or all of their classes in Pepperdine Canvas. Any classes/sections not designated to be delivered in Pepperdine Canvas should continue using Courses/Sakai the official launch in Fall 2025. Participating instructors will be expected to:

Attend a Training: Attend at least one 90-minute Pepperdine Canvas onboarding training (Recordings of all sessions will be made available to participants): See "Training Opportunities Below"
Provide Feedback: Share experiences in a feedback survey during the summer term

TechLearn and Instructure (Canvas) will be available for training and support, and TechLearn will share resources and consultation opportunities for participating instructors. TechLearn is also be making a content migration request available to participating faculty.

Student Expectations

Students in the selected classes/sections will not be able to opt out of using Pepperdine Canvas for the course but do have the option to opt out of a student survey designed for the early adopter program.

Training Opportunities

Live Training

Wednesday, July 9 @ 9 AM PDT — The 3 Essentials of Canvas
Monday, July 14 @ 9 AM PDT — Assignments, Rubrics, and Speedgrader
Wednesday, April 16 @ 9 AM PDT — Quizzes

Asynchronous Training

The following videos are from our initial pilot and are limited to current Pepperdine University faculty and staff (University login required).

3 Essentials of Canvas (1 hr, 30 min)
Canvas Assignments Basics for Faculty (1 hr, 31 min)
Canvas New Quizzes Basics for Faculty (1 hr, 32 min)
Analytics, Grades, Files, Syllabus, And Attendance Tools (1 hr, 23 min)
Learning Canvas (by LinkedIn Learning) (1 hr, 54 min)

FAQ: Making the Move to Pepperdine Canvas

Choose a topic below to learn more about the LMS transition.

What is changing?

Pepperdine Canvas Selected to Replace Courses/Sakai

The University has selected Canvas LMS to replace our Courses/Sakai LMS. Canvas will become Pepperdine's primary learning management system, and Courses/Sakai will eventually shift to an archival state until the service is ultimately decommissioned. The final date for decommissioning has not been determined yet, but we expect to retain the service in a read-only mode for a few years after the transition.

Note: This change does not affect schools or programs that use the Digital Campus LMS (powered by 2U). This change only applies to schools and programs that use Courses/Sakai.

Why the Move?

Sakai has served Pepperdine well for over a decade, but multiple factors influenced the University's decision to change LMS platforms, including market adoption, user-friendliness, expanded features, and more. The community can explore the full analysis in the forthcoming 2023-2025 LMS Study Final Report.

Advantages of Canvas LMS

Canvas is the market leader for higher education in North America and Canada. It offers a robust set of features to help instructors and students create learning experiences. A few of the major advantages that Canvas offers Pepperdine include:

Built-in help resources, including 24x7 live chat and phone options
Mobile app for students and instructors
Intuitive and modern design and interface
More flexible academic ecosystem to support teaching and learning
Improved notification options and reminders
SpeedGrader for faculty
Improved document preview features
More daily enrollment updates (6 times a day)
and more…

When will it happen?

Timeline

Spring 2025

University announces selection of Canvas to replace Sakai
Canvas LMS pilot continues for select spring 2025 classes
February 12 LMS Town Hall (View the Recording)
Migration options in testing
Early Canvas preview available
Early Canvas training workshops
Initial Canvas documentation available
Faculty Summer Early Adopters are invited to try Canvas
Migration requests available for Summer Early Adopters
April 2 LMS Town Hall (View the Recording)
Migration options available for All Faculty Class Sites
Starter class templates available
2023-2025 LMS Study Final Report will publish

Summer 2025

May 14 LMS Town Hall (View the Recording!)
Migration requests open for all previous content regardless of term.
More Canvas training workshops
Expanded Canvas documentation available

Fall 2025

All classes available in Canvas LMS
Last semester for classes in Courses/Sakai, by request only and with approval from school leadership
Migration options available for Courses Project Sites
More Canvas training workshops

Spring 2026

Full Canvas LMS adoption
Courses/Sakai shifts to an archival state only

How will it happen?

Community Engagement

The University will send multiple announcements and offer town halls about the pending LMS Transition. Technology & Learning will collaborate with the Center for Digital Learning and school support teams.

Content Migration

A Migration Process is available. Migrations will be prioritized by term, starting with summer classes, fall/spring classes, and then project sites. Official forms will be shared to request the migration of course content.

Faculty Training

Multiple training opportunities will be provided, including workshops, recorded training sessions, step-by-step documentation, and 1-on-1 consultations. Register for Pepperdine Canvas Training on the TechLearn Events Calendar.

Faculty Peer-to-Peer Opportunities

Technology & Learning will host opportunities for professors to share their experiences, strategies, and techniques on how best to use Canvas LMS in teaching.

Starter Course Templates

Technology & Learning will develop and provide course templates to kickstart your site setup.

One-Term Extension to Continue with Sakai

Canvas adoption will formally start in Fall 2025. With approval from leadership at each each school, professors who need a little extra time may request a one-term extension to continue using Courses/Sakai for Fall 2025, and then fully transition to Canvas starting Spring 2026. The one-term extension may not be available for all school and programs.

What About Project Sites?

Project Sites on Courses were used for many purposes, such as committees, file sharing, class design templates, or communication. They filled a gap before the University had other collaboration platforms, like Google Workspace.

Moving forward, the focus of Pepperdine Canvas will be academic coursework and training. Only project sites directly tied to academic coursework, supporting direct instruction and program completion, will be considered for migration to Pepperdine Canvas. Also, Pepperdine Canvas is dedicated to current Pepperdine faculty, students, and staff only; it does not support unmonitored guest accounts for external users.

Never fear! Committees, schools/departments, and individuals will leverage powerful tools like Google Shared Drives, Google Groups, and Google Sites for knowledge-sharing or collaboration activities. In some cases, school and academic program informational sites may want to consider whether a page or section on the school's Community website may be a good fit.

Migration Options

Academic Coursework Program Sites: Community members with academic coursework program sites may submit migration requests starting in Fall 2025, for transition before Spring 2026. Due to the volume and priority of class site migration, we cannot accept/process project site requests until the fall.
Non-Coursework Project Sites: Community members with personal or collaborative project sites for non-academic coursework may begin downloading content from Courses immediately. They should request the appropriate Google Group (if necessary) and create a Google Shared Drive or Google Site for continuing their business, research, or personal interests. To bulk download content in Resources, site maintainers can consider using the Transfer Files (WebDAV) or Compress to Zip Archive features.

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