Bb Orgs Retirement FAQs

In most cases, content should be published as a webpage rather than contained in a PDF, Word document, or PowerPoint file. There are a few situations when a downloadable web document is appropriate: 

• Forms that require print-only submissions: Documents that must be printed, signed, or submitted in hard copy. 

• Reports or policy documents: Official publications that need to retain formatting for compliance, archival, or print distribution.

These documents must meet WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards and serve a specific content purpose— printable forms, official reports, and policies that must retain original formatting.  To learn more about this criteria and the WebDocs solution, visit the WebDocs Resource Page.

Canvas Use Guidelines does not allow for the of storing files linked on the web. Also, industry best practices discourage the use of downloadable documents like pdfs, Word documents and PPT files, whenever possible. Content locked within a document is harder to access, navigate, and find compared to webpage content, creating several challenges: 

• Difficult to access: PDFs and other formats often lack proper tagging, making them inaccessible to screen readers and assistive technologies. 
• Lower search visibility: Search engines prioritize webpage content over document content, making PDFs harder to find. 
• Disruptive to read: Downloadable files interrupt browsing flow, requiring extra steps to open and navigate. 
• Not mobile-friendly: PDFs and other documents do not resize well, forcing users to zoom and scroll.
• Obscured from analytics: Analytics are less available for documents than web pages. For example, when a web user finds a PDF using Google search, that web user’s click to the PDF isn’t recorded in George Mason’s analytics. 

If you are approved for a Canvas Community site, you can move content by (1) requesting the content be migrated using the automated process available as part of the implementation project or (2) by moving content manually, on your own. To learn more about either option, click here: automated migration or manual migration.

You can use the course copy tool in Canvas to move all or some content into your community site from your migrated course. For more information about course copy, click here.

No. After migration, the content will be accessible only to the individual who submitted the form. The course site containing the migrated content cannot be made publicly available, as it is simply a container for the migrated content. Request a Community site which you will then copy your migrated content into, and then can be made available for users.

Canvas does not offer a direct equivalent to Blackboard Organizations. At this time, access to and utilization of Canvas is restricted to academic courses that constitute a component of the students; academic records, as documented in Banner and reflected on official transcripts. While there may be some exceptions, there are more suitable options for hosting and distributing content to your members. Review the Canvas Use Guidelines to determine what types of content will be permitted in the Canvas LMS.

Over the last several years, the University has made great investments in technologies and tools that foster and enable collaboration, information sharing and engagement. A review of Organizations use at the University has identified a number of common use cases that can be supported by tools that are available through the University. We encourage users to review the list of options below that have been curated for this effort to determine where they wish to transition their activities.

Blackboard Organization content needs to be migrated by July 15, 2025. You will not have access to Blackboard after this date. Requested to accessed archived content can only be made by submitting a request. Please note content will only be maintained in an archive through June 2026.

If you do not intend on transitioning to another solution, you do not have to take any further action. The content will be removed when Bb is retired.

Review the directions to download all files in a course (these are the files added by the instructor/leader, not by students/participants). We recommend that the data you are looking to maintain be saved in OneDrive (personal file storage) or SharePoint Document Libraries (shared file storage).

The Library of Virginia provides guidance on if and when information should be maintained. Here is a link to guidance for Colleges & Universities.

If the file(s) do not contain sensitive data, you can move the data to your OneDrive account for easy access. Other information will be removed when Orgs are retired in July 2025.