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Nice article that outlines migration from a high level - admin needs, faculty needs, etc.

Higher education conferences over the past few years have been full of presentations, papers and panels on the processes involved in migrating a campus and its people to Google Apps for Education. While it is useful to hear about marketing tchotchkes, data validation, and the pros and cons of web clients, what seems to get ignored is the process that led to the decision to move to Google Apps in the first place. At North Carolina State University, where students were already using Google Apps, the decision to move employees involved almost as much time, effort and heartache as the technical migration. As the users saw it, they had a working system, even if that system only worked because of huge expenditures of time and money both on the backend server maintenance and the client need to implement terribly complex workarounds for simple functionality. The end result: a 94-page white paper and the realization that it's hard to sell ice to Eskimos1 , even if you show them that their ice has already melted. This paper and presentation will discuss the information gathering and needs assessment done by NC State prior to the decision to move employees to Google Apps, and the successes and difficulties involved.

"Retrieving legacy files As the old dropbox knew no separation of files by assignment (one of its major limitations), it was not possible to move these files into assignments during the upgrade, and there is no storage area facility available into which they could have been moved, so they are not directly accessible within the application after an upgrade or in courses restored from earlier versions. The old dropbox code used Perl, which has been completely removed from the web application in release 9, so the dropbox cannot be accessed anymore to retrieve the legacy files. A rudimentary Java-based interface is being provided to enable each user individually to download any legacy files they may wish to retrieve. These files can then be submitted in newly created assignments as desired or stored in one's Virtual Hard Drive inside the Blackboard Content System, if that is licensed by the institution and enabled by the system administrator. Unfortunately this interface is not exposed via any link in the application. System administrators or helpdesk staff can however make available such a link to their users, either assisting them with file retrieval on an individual basis or by publishing the download link to their users, e.g. in a system announcement. Community Engagement license holders may also wish to add an HTML portal module with this link, thus simplifying the download process, or add it as external link to the tool panel (in the portal menu column). The location of this interface (relative to your server root) is: /webapps/blackboard/execute/ddb It is important to note that this is not a file system location. You actually have to access the URL via a web browser! Sample HTML for a portal module named something like "Digital Dropbox Download": Download your digital dropbox files here When a user accesses this link, he will either see a message that no files were found for him, or a list of courses in w

Tips for the bitter end of migration from UMW.

"In Summer 2013, Hinds Community College (as well as the other 14 community colleges in Mississippi) will move to the Canvas platform by Instructure as the new learning management system for the college.  Blackboard will no longer be available after June 1, 2013 to students or faculty.  This website will serve as the communication tool regarding the migration to Canvas.  Please check back often for additional information regarding best practices, timeline for implementation, and training materials. PLEASE BOOKMARK THIS PAGE AND CHECK BACK OFTEN.  Frequent emails will also be sent out regarding updates. "

LMS Implementation: Tentative Migration Plan

look at PPT at bottom of page

Following an evaluation process that encompassed almost two years, Michigan Tech selected the Canvas Learning Management System,from Instructure, Inc. It was the clear choice of faculty and student testers, and is very intuitive and easy to use.

The LMS market is in flux. According to a 2010 survey conducted by the Campus Computing Project, Blackboard's dominance of the higher education market declined from 71 percent in 2006 to 57 percent in 2010. Open source alternatives Moodle and Sakai have continued to make inroads, as has Desire2Learn--together they now control over 30 percent of the market. The entry of Instructure, whose Canvas LMS recently scooped up the business of the Utah Education Network, provides an additional plot twist. And hanging over it all is the imminent migration of hundreds of legacy Blackboard clients to new systems as their existing platforms are retired.

could use this in our training nothing insttitution specific

angel to canvas selection process

"Canvas has drastically improved this process, so you should be able to easily import courses from your existing Blackboard course archive files. [Learn more about finding your course archives.] "

We recommend that unless you absolutely need to import a Blackboard course, it is always best to start fresh with a new course. However, we realize that this is not always possible for instructors.

Graphic that explains the relationship between terms and course dates and how to set terms and course dates to control user access: 

Guiding Faculty Through (Inevitable) Technological Change Fred Zinn - OIT Academic Computing, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Bowling Green State University findings on Canvas pilot including Strengths and Future Enhancements. Organized in a way that could be useful to KSC in the early stages = good talking points

Canvas and LMS selection criteria