Project Communique: March 29, 2018

Hello everyone,

Hope you are doing well.

You are receiving this as you are the key technical and training lead for your division and key communication contact for each division has also been cced.

As March is coming to an end, we are moving to the next phase of the project and preparing the end users to migrate from Portal to Quercus.   
    

Training

The Technical and Training Support leads at each division have now completed the following “Train the Trainer” sessions:
     
    1- From Portal to Quercus: Tool and Feature Compatibility
    2- Module Versus Pages
    3- Quizzes and Surveys
    4- SCORM and Quercus
    5- Content Migration: From Portal to Quercus

    6- Engage Students with Online Discussions
    
    
As the Technical and Training leads as you plan and coordinate the training sessions for your division, kindly advise us (via email) of the session times so we can post them on our website. If you require assistance with running your training sessions please contact us.  
    

Attached is a sample agenda of 2 hour Quickstart with Quercus prepared by CTSI and some guidelines to lead those sessions that you could use as a guidance. Also I have attached a sample presentation that FAS has been using for their hands on workshops for your reference. More guideline material to deliver Quercus Training has been posted on the T.E.S.T site and more will be added as they become available.

    
Course Shells Availability
    

The fall course shells will become available at the beginning of May in Quercus consistent with standing practice of the course shelves becoming available on portal 4 months prior to the start of the term.
    
The summer course shells will become available on Quercus by the end of March. Instructors have the ability to teach their summer course using Quercus or Portal. Some divisions have already confirmed that all of their summer courses will be taught on Quercus and many others have several instructors interested to teach in summer.
We encourage as many instructors as possible to start using Quercus for the summer term given their courses are not dependent on features that are not available in Quercus yet. 

    
Please note that the custom tools (e.g. advanced grouping, opscan upload) will not be available for the summer and only the following third party integration are aimed to be available for the summer term for instructors teaching using Quercus and other third party integrations and customized features are still being worked on: 
    
    Youtube, Turnitin, PeerScholar, Blue, iClicker Classic and WilePlus.
    
The Integration Updates are posted on our website:  https://toolboxrenewal.utoronto.ca/integration-updates/

Furthermore, any facet of the stem may still change for General Availability in fall.    
 

The course shells will not become visible to students unless the course is activated by the instructor. It is essential for the instructors to clearly communicate to the students which system they are using as a student may be taking two courses where one is taught on Portal and the other on Quercus. 

   
Content Migration
    
During our information sessions and departmental meeting visits we have been advising instructors to backup and archive all the course contents. More information has been posted on the essential information for instructors page: https://toolboxrenewal.utoronto.ca/instructor-info/

The experience of other institutions going through the same process has been it is best to build the courses fresh in the new LME rather than export/import. More guidelines are posted on https://toolboxrenewal.utoronto.ca/training-and-support/content-migration/

As you are aware we are providing workshops with migration assistants to support instructors with their content migration. As each division has a different strategy for content migration, kindly work with Matt Clare to discuss your strategy and determine how we can support your approach.
    
    
Administration Access Roles and Training
    
All Technical and Training leads received an email from us on Monday March 19 requesting the name of individuals requiring Administrative Access and signed Confidentiality Agreement to grant them access. Kindly submit your request by noon on Monday April 2 in order to be invited to the training session. We will be holding an Admin Access Training next week which those with access will be receiving an invite soon.
    
Please visit our website for more information and feel free to reach out to me (or email us at [log in to unmask]) for more information or any questions you may have. 
    
Thank you
    
Haniyeh Yousofpour, PhD, MBA, PMP
Toolbox Renewal Project Manager