Canvas LMS Transition

Blackboard Organization Retirement Information

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Message sent to Blackboard Organization Leaders

Blackboard Organization Leaders, 

You are listed as a leader of one or more Blackboard Organizations (Bb Orgs) sites. As you are hopefully aware, Mason is changing its learning management system (LMS) from Blackboard to Canvas, and with that, the Bb Orgs service will be retiring in June 2025 as Canvas does not have a direct equivalent to organizations. 

Historically, Bb Orgs have been used at Mason for non-traditional course activities such as project collaboration, providing students with information, file storage, etc. You can see your organizations by logging into Blackboard and choosing organizations from the left menu. 

While we expect most Bb organizations will transition to Microsoft (MS) Teams or other options, we anticipate there may be some use cases that require an LMS environment and could move to Canvas. An important use case we know exists that we’re actively identifying solutions for is how Bb Orgs has been used across the university to store files linked from various university websites. We are working with the centralized CMS teams in the Office of University Branding and Information Technology Services to ensure the potential solutions will maintain the integrity of web content and links. Those impacted by this use case will receive additional information in the coming months. 

A matrix that documents common use cases and available solutions is under development. The project team will also provide guidance on how to download content from Blackboard and tips for moving to other options. Please familiarize yourself with your file storage location(s), user access, and file inventory in the Bb Orgs used by your site. 

To learn more and to help inform the transition planning, we invite you to join us on Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. for an information session. Use this link to join the session. You will need to authenticate using your Net ID and Patriot Pass Password. The session will be recorded for anyone unable to attend. There will be additional opportunities to ask questions and provide feedback. 

In the meantime, please contact lms@gmu.edu with any questions or concerns. 

Sincerely, 

Joy E. Taylor
Executive Director, Learning Support Services
Information Technology Services

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