One topic that has come up in many of our meetings revolves around “Orgs” as they are commonly known here at UofT.

“Orgs,” or Organization shells, are shared spaces on our current Portal that are distinct from the shells/spaces used for courses.

While they operate in a similar way to course shells, org shells are unique in one particular way; they are manually created upon request (and not automatically created by ROSI).

Orgs are used for all kinds of purposes, from extra-curricular learning and professional development, to administrative committee collaborations, and even as a storage and drop box.

In use since for more than a decade, there are now more than 2400 organization shells on the Portal, owned and run by people from across the entire University.

So, what will we be doing with orgs once we begin shutting down the Portal?

Well, the short answer is that they will either be (a) moved to the Toolbox if the org is for teaching and learning activities, (b) moved to Office 365 if the org is for more administrative purposes, or (c) deleted if the org has fallen in to disuse.

In early January, the Toolbox implementation team, working closely with the Office 365 team, will be meeting to kick off the org migration strategy. We will be doing our best to identify the shell owners, establish the currency of the shell, and define a specific migration strategy, simultaneous with the move of the courses off of Portal.

If you are an org shell owner, we invite you to reach out to your local divisional IT representatives, who will be helping us coordinate this phase of the project. Our goal is to make the transition as smooth as possible, of course.