Saint Mary's Newsroom / Campus Notes

The state of Minnesota released the information below on Feb. 25, 2021, about the state’s path to vaccinate all Minnesotans for COVID-19. You will note that higher education is not listed anywhere on this path, meaning neither students or employees of colleges and universities have been identified as a priority group for vaccination by the state. The university has already reached out to the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH), Representative Gene Pelowski, and Senator Jeremy Miller to express the university’s significant concern and disappointment with this failure to identify higher education as a priority for vaccination. While we appreciate all that MDH has done to work with the university throughout this pandemic, this lack of attention to higher education in vaccine distribution is very disappointing, especially as we try to prepare for fall 2021 and address the significant COVID-19 fatigue our faculty, staff, and students are feeling. We are advocating with MDH and our local legislators on this issue and will keep you posted on any new developments.

State Lays Out Path to Vaccinate All Minnesotans

As more vaccine arrives in Minnesota, the state is laying out a path to vaccinate all Minnesotans.

Governor Tim Walz announced today that Minnesota will vaccinate at least 70% of Minnesotans age 65 years and older before expanding eligibility to other groups, and aims to reach this goal by the end of March.

Once 70% of the state’s seniors have received the vaccine, Minnesota will expand eligibility based on underlying health conditions and workplace exposure risk. Minnesota will move forward with phases of vaccine eligibility based on science, medical evidence, and federal guidance:

Visit the state’s Who’s Getting Vaccinated page to learn more about the phases and when you will become eligible.

As vaccine supply increases, it will become easier than ever to get a shot. Until then, it’s important to take easy steps to slow the spread of COVID-19. Wear your mask, stay 6 feet away from others, wash your hands, and get a COVID-19 test if you need one. When it’s your turn, get your vaccine. After you’ve had your shot, continue following these safe practices to protect your neighbors while they wait for their vaccines.

Our president, Father James P. Burns, IVD, Ph.D., and Glena Temple, Ph.D., president of Viterbo University, signed an academic partnership agreement Feb. 23. This agreement provides flexibility and increased academic offerings for students at both schools. Watch the event.

Saint Mary’s faculty and staff campaign begins Tuesday, March 9, and runs through Saint Mary’s Giving Day on Tuesday, March 16. As educators and support staff, we know better than anyone the responsibility that Saint Mary’s has to be ever prepared for challenges, as well as opportunities so we can best ensure our students’ success. One way we ensure this success is through philanthropic support to the university. You are already impactful in your work; your philanthropic support can extend that impact.

Given the many changes over the past year, from addressing the challenges of COVID-19 to the many new faces we have welcomed, our goal this year is to return to our pre-pandemic 40% participation rate. We are already at 29%, which means we only need 38 individuals to join the ranks of philanthropic employees at Saint Mary’s to reach our goal!

For more information, or to get a head start, visit connect.smumn.edu/giving/faculty-and-staff.

By LMS Taskforce

This information will also be linked via the Blackboard login page, next to a daily countdown that we hope lessens the anxiety a little. The guidance we are supplying to students is provided below for your information. That information can also be found via a link on the Blackboard login page.

Faculty and staff

When is Blackboard going away?

Blackboard will be going away for faculty, staff, and student use on June 1, 2021. That means, you will no longer have access to your prior course materials, feedback, and resources. Saint Mary’s will maintain archival access for a short period of time to meet certain obligations, but access to it will limited to Blackboard administrators

When will Canvas be live?

Canvas is already live! You can log into it at smumn.instructure.com using your Saint Mary’s username (not your whole email address, just what comes before @) and password. Feel free to explore! If you can’t log in, contact helpdesk@smumn.edu for help. Check out the Canvas Community page for more information and a video tutorial.

What do I need to do?

• Get trained on the new system. Here are a few options:
  • Self-paced trainings hosted in Canvas
  • Live CELT/Instructional Technology trainings
  • Recorded trainings
• Check your migrated courses: Instructional Technology has taken care to migrate courses with good attention to detail, but you know your courses best. Schools of Graduate and Professional Program (SGPP) instructors can do this right now, and College course migrations will be finalized at the end of March.
• Transfer any needed data out of Blackboard — we made every effort to migrate all of your courses, but you may have data stored in Blackboard outside of your courses. For instance:
  • Blackboard courses you might be in charge of that are not academic courses: clubs, organizations, committees, test courses, etc. If you cannot migrate these yourself, contact LMS@smumn.edu.
  • Double-check that data from the courses you need to teach from have been migrated from Blackboard. SGPP instructors can do this right now, and College course migrations will be finalized at the end of March.
  • You may need to make some changes to migrated courses that refer to the new learning management system (Grade Center is now Gradebook, etc.)
  • Get links from Blackboard to learning experiences that exist outside the learning management system (Flipgrid, Google Sites, etc.)
  • If you used an external assessment tool through Blackboard, get those links too. They can likely be reused in Canvas.
  • Download any student work you want to save from Blackboard. These documents cannot be migrated and must be saved manually.

What about students?

Additional information will be shared with students as what they may want to do regarding their content in Blackboard.

What if I have questions?

• For assistance accessing Canvas, contact helpdesk@smumn.edu.
• Questions on migration or course availability, contact Abram Hedtke at ahedtke@smumn.edu or Jason Spartz at jspartz@smumn.edu.

Students

When is Blackboard going away?

Blackboard will be going away for student use on June 1, 2021. That means, you will no longer have access to your prior course materials, submitted assignments, feedback, and resources. Remember, final grades can be retrieved through your student portal.

When will Canvas be live?

Canvas is already live! You can log into it at smumn.instructure.com using your Saint Mary’s username (not your whole email address, just what comes before @) and password. Feel free to explore. If you can’t log in, contact helpdesk@smumn.edu. We highly recommend looking at the “Canvas at SMU” course, which is a non-graded training course that will get you started. Check out the Canvas Community page for more information and a video tutorial.

What do I need to do?

• Get trained on the new learning management system:
  • You are automatically enrolled in a self-paced training called Passport to Canvas which should help you learn the basics of the new system.
• Transfer any needed data out of Blackboard.
  • Important: If you are an undergraduate student who is part of the new general education program — starting in 2018 or later — you must download any artifacts and reflections you may have uploaded to your IGEP or Integratus portfolio courses. These courses cannot be migrated, and you will need to have copies of these documents to use in our new portfolio solution.
  • You may be in charge of a club or organization that used a Blackboard course to communicate. If you can’t transfer that information yourself, please email lms@smumn.edu.
  • Download any student work you want to save from Blackboard. This information cannot be migrated and must be saved manually. Go into your past courses and click into your assignments. Any papers, assignments, or other work that you may have uploaded to Blackboard must be downloaded from those courses if you want to save it. (And it’s a good idea to do so!)

What if I have questions or need support?

• Contact helpdesk@smumn.edu for issues accessing Canvas.
• Email the LMS Task Force at LMS@smumn.edu for questions on migration and the archival process of Blackboard.

The Canvas transition is already going on for many of you, and it’s coming soon for all of us. So come join us in a Canvas training! We offer trainings at the beginning (essentials), intermediate (intermediate essentials), and advanced levels. And we offer them during the day as well as in the evenings to reach all of our faculty. Last month, we offered these trainings on Mondays and Wednesdays. This month, we are shifting to Tuesdays and Thursdays to reach everyone.

We also offer less structured “Q&A” sessions each month where you can come with any questions that are not covered in the trainings. (And we won’t dismiss questions that are covered there either!) You can also find recorded trainings on CELT’s page of recordings.

Here is the schedule for March. You can RSVP for these trainings at the CELT site or via the links below.

March 2 – Essentials, noon

March 4 – Essentials, evening

March 9 – Intermediate Essentials, noon

March 11 – Intermediate Essentials, evening

March 16 – Questions, noon

March 18 – Questions, evening

March 23 – Advanced, noon

March 25 – Advanced, evening

If you have any questions, please email CELT@smumn.edu.

It’s Monday morning, and before we start looking ahead to all the Cardinal action this week, here’s a quick look back at last week, which included action in men’s and women’s basketball, and men’s and women’s hockey!