Office of Instruction and Student Development Update October 10, 2014
Update on the Potential Replacement for Sakai
If you remember, last spring the College put together a LMS Task Force, which consisted mostly of faculty but
also included some staff, to identify options to replace the Sakai LMS. By late spring, the Task Force did a
wonderful job narrowing the choices of possible learning management systems (LMS) down to five platforms to
consider: Moodle, Blackboard, Canvas, Etudes and Desire to Learn. The Task Force held several open forums
where faculty and students were able to view the five platforms.
The Task Force reviewed faculty, staff and student input gathered from the open forums and recommended that
the College move forward with piloting Instructure’s “Canvas™” LMS in fall 2014. The administration approved
the recommendation from the Task Force and allocated funds for the pilot. Subsequent to the administration’s
approval of the pilot, a Canvas Advisory Group (CAG) was formed to direct the pilot.
Results of the evaluations show that a majority of faculty and students involved in the pilot are pleased with
Canvas. Based on the results of the evaluation, CAG voted on September 30 and October 7 to recommend
adoption of Canvas as a replacement for Sakai. Their recommendation was forwarded to the Distance Education
Planning Committee (DEPC), the faculty leadership and me this past Thursday.
The Distance Education Planning Committee and the Academic Senate will discuss CAG’s recommendation in
the coming weeks. Pending final approval from President Smith, I anticipate that the college will implement
Canvas as a successor to Sakai beginning fall 2015. If approved, faculty will have the option to convert to Canvas
beginning spring 2015 or they can choose to wait until fall 2015. Sakai will remain available to faculty until the
start of fall 2015 to effect an smooth transition to the new LMS.
Incidentally, HSU is currently considering Canvas as an alternative to Moodle; if they adopt Canvas as may CR,
then our students who transfer to HSU will benefit from this common LMS choice.
I want to stress that we are doing our due diligence in the evaluation of Canvas, but we want to move as
expeditiously as possible to make sure that our faculty, staff and students have access to a comprehensive, robust
and appropriate learning management system as soon as possible. Converting to a new LMS as soon as possible
will reduce the cost associated with operating two learning management systems and reduce the time students will
have to adjust to a transition from Sakai to Canvas.
The members of CAG are to be commended for the time and effort put into developing the pilot program and the
Canvas recommendation. The Canvas Advisory Group members include: Mark Renner, Mark Winter, Lisa
Sayles, Angelina Hill, Reno Giovannetti, James Hays, Wendy Riggs, Gary Sokolow, Thomas Zagoria and Alison
Stull.
2014-15 Goals and Annual Planning Actions
The Instructional Council and Student Development Leadership Group have identified several goals that will
guide our work this this year. Some of the goals are specific to instruction and some to student development.
We’ve also identified several goals that are shared between the two divisions. You will see that our goals are
integrated with the Strategic and Annual plans.
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Goals for Instruction
 To deepen the collective understanding of non-credit
 To build out noncredit certificates in AB 86 categories
 To expand CTE programming
Goals for Student Development
 To continue to enhance High School outreach activities
 To continue the default loan management initiative
 To use communication management to connect with students
Shared Goals
 To implement two year scheduling
 To expand Distance Education to build district-wide programs
 To implement Student Success Support Program (SSSP), Student Equity Plan and Basic Skills initiatives
 To increase districtwide collective understanding of the SSSP funding model
 To employ strategies to keep students continually enrolled from one semester to another
 To co-enroll noncredit and community education courses
 To integrate Library services in degree development
 To increase retention rates in distance education sections
In addition to the above divisional goals, I will be working with the Cabinet, Mark Renner and the Academic
Senate to accomplish the following 2014-15 Annual Plan actions this fall:
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To develop orientation for students taking distance education courses
To implement a revised AP 4021 “Program Revitalization or Discontinuation Process”
To communicate Institutional Learning Outcomes (ILOs) with students and employees through dialogue and
publications like the syllabus template
To improve the assessment processes regarding areas of responsibilities
To develop a comprehensive plan for offering DE courses
To increase course offerings at alternate locations (e.g. high schools)
To collaborate with the community to continue student success discussions (e.g. summit)
To increase opportunities for students in work experience
To build a culture of continual adherence to accreditation standards
Welcome to New Division Colleagues
The Board of Trustees approved several new colleagues to Instruction and Student Development on October 7:
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Margarita Torres – Associate Faculty in Noncredit ESL
David Wilson – Associate Faculty in Noncredit Basic Skills
Stephanie Cowherd – Associate Faculty in English
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