Pepperdine Canvas LMS Transition Plan

Go Canvas: Pepperdine University will transition to the Canvas LMS

Overview

After careful consideration, a comprehensive learning management system (LMS) study, and a successful pilot program, the Provost and Deans of each of our schools have selected Canvas, by Instructure, as Pepperdine University's next LMS starting Fall 2025.

We believe that Pepperdine Canvas will serve our faculty and students well by fostering an academic ecosystem that enables impactful learning experiences. Review the resources on this page to understand the process of moving from one LMS to another, to find helpful documentation, and review answers to common questions. Students and staff may contact Tech Central for more information. Professors may contact Technology & Learning or their local campus support staff.

Faculty Guides

Student Guides

Request Migration

Video Introduction for Faculty

Video: Pepperdine Canvas Introduction Video (Pepperdine login required, Length: 3 minutes, 34 seconds)

Fall 2025 Launch

Select the topic below to learn more.

Class Site Creation

Fall 2025 class site creation will begin on Tuesday, July 1, 2025.

Faculty teaching with the Digital Campus LMS in 2U-Partnered programs will need to check with their program director on the timeline for site creation in Digital Campus.

Faculty: Training Opportunities and Videos

Live Training

Register for Pepperdine Canvas Training on the IT Events Calendar. The team will regularly offer training opportunities near the start of each term. Professors may also schedule a faculty consultation.

To prepare for the Fall 2025 term, TechLearn offered multiple training events in July, August, and September. Recordings from these events can be found below.

Asynchronous Training

The following videos are from our initial pilot and are limited to current Pepperdine University faculty and staff (University login required).

3 Essentials of Canvas (1 hr, 30 min. A great introduction to teaching with Pepperdine Canvas.)
Canvas Assignments Basics for Faculty (1 hr, 31 min. Learn the core steps to create and evaluate assignments.)
Canvas New Quizzes Basics for Faculty (1 hr, 32 min. Learn the fundamentals of creating, administering, and grading New Quizzes in Pepperdine Canvas.)
Analytics, Grades, Files, Syllabus, and Attendance Tools (1 hr, 23 min. Review important features to set up and use your class site.)

Faculty: Courses/Sakai to Pepperdine Canvas Content Migration

Request a migration of Courses/Sakai class or project sites to Pepperdine Canvas. Review the expectations below to help avoid any potential delays.

Migration Expectations

Before Making the Request
- Instructors may only request the most recently taught section of a class site to import.
- You must be the primary and/or sole instructor of the course.
- Project site requests will be processed starting in Fall 2025. Please refer to the Project Site Process.
- Not all content is able to be migrated to Pepperdine Canvas. Additionally, only instructional content will be migrated. Student data/submissions/grades will not be transferred.
After Making the Request
- Please allow 5 -15 business days for the migrated site(s) to appear under your account. They will have the word "Migrated" in the title.
- TechLearn will alert you when the migration has been completed and provide the next steps, including the coordination of a 1:1 Consultation to review your migrated site(s).
Questions? Please reach out to techlearn@pepperdine.edu.

Faculty: Optional One-Term Opt-Out for Seaver College (Fall 2025 only)

Seaver College's administration has allowed Seaver faculty to request a one-term opt-out to defer the move to Pepperdine Canvas and stay with Courses/Sakai during the Fall 2025 term. After this fall term, however, no new classes will be created on Courses/Sakai, with the possible exception of Seaver Chapel courses for Spring 2026 only.

Anyone who wants to delay the move to Pepperdine Canvas must submit a Pepperdine Canvas Fall 2025 Deferral Request Form.

All Users: Download Individual Courses/Sakai Data

Faculty who wish to migrate instructional content should use the course migration process (see above).

Community members who wish to retain other content should download it. Please refer to the LMS Retention: Download Your Older Content.

Faculty or staff with Instructor or Maintain roles may export their gradebooks, download their Resources, or even export their course content through the course cartridge export.
Students may visit their past class sites, download the appropriate content (pay attention to copyright notices!), and download their assignment submissions. There is no central tool to automate or aggregate this process, so students must go class by class, and tool by tool.

LMS Town Halls

Three LMS Transition Town Hall sessions were held in Spring and Summer 2025 to share important details and features of the transition. Review the recordings of the February Town Hall, April Town Hall, and May Town Hall.

FAQ: Making the Move to Pepperdine Canvas

Choose a topic below to learn more about the LMS transition.

What is changing?

Pepperdine Canvas Selected to Replace Courses/Sakai

The University has selected Canvas LMS to replace our Courses/Sakai LMS. Canvas will become Pepperdine's primary learning management system, and Courses/Sakai will eventually shift to an archival state until the service is ultimately decommissioned. The final date for decommissioning has not been determined yet, but we expect to retain the service in a read-only mode for a few years after the transition.

Note: This change does not affect schools or programs that use the Digital Campus LMS (powered by 2U). This change only applies to schools and programs that use Courses/Sakai.

Why the Move?

Sakai has served Pepperdine well for over a decade, but multiple factors influenced the University's decision to change LMS platforms, including market adoption, user-friendliness, expanded features, and more. The community can explore the full analysis in the forthcoming 2023-2025 LMS Study Final Report.

Advantages of Canvas LMS

Canvas is the market leader for higher education in North America and Canada. It offers a robust set of features to help instructors and students create learning experiences. A few of the major advantages that Canvas offers Pepperdine include:

Built-in help resources, including 24x7 live chat and phone options
Mobile app for students and instructors
Intuitive and modern design and interface
More flexible academic ecosystem to support teaching and learning
Improved notification options and reminders
SpeedGrader for faculty
Improved document preview features
More daily enrollment updates (6 times a day)
and more…

When will it happen?

Timeline

Spring 2025

University announced the selection of Canvas LMS to replace Sakai
Pepperdine Canvas LMS pilot continued for select spring 2025 classes
February 12 LMS Town Hall (View the Recording)
Migration options tested
Early Pepperdine Canvas preview made available
Early Pepperdine Canvas training workshops provided
Initial Pepperdine Canvas documentation published
Faculty Summer Early Adopters were invited to try Pepperdine Canvas
Migration requests sought for Summer Early Adopters
April 2 LMS Town Hall (View the Recording)
Migration options made available for All Faculty Class Sites
Starter class templates made available
2023-2025 LMS Study Final Report published

Summer 2025

May 14 LMS Town Hall (View the Recording!)
Migration requests were opened for all previous content, regardless of the term
More Pepperdine Canvas training workshops offered
Expanded Pepperdine Canvas documentation made available

Fall 2025

All classes available in Pepperdine Canvas LMS
Last semester for Seaver classes in Courses/Sakai, by request only (Submit a Pepperdine Canvas Deferral Request Form)
All Graduate School classes in Pepperdine Canvas
Migration options available for Courses Project Sites
More Pepperdine Canvas training workshops offered

Spring 2026

Full Pepperdine Canvas LMS adoption

Summer 2026

Courses/Sakai shifts to an archival state only
June 2026, community access to Courses/Sakai to be removed

How will it happen?

Community Engagement

The University sent multiple announcements and offers for town halls about the LMS Transition. Technology & Learning collaborated with academic leadership, the Center for Digital Learning, and local school support teams. TechLearn continues to engage professors through email notices and training opportunities.

Content Migration

Request a migration of Courses/Sakai class sites to Pepperdine Canvas. Review the expectations on the form to avoid any potential delays. For Fall 2025, we reminded faculty to make requests as early as possible, with a recommended deadline of August 1, 2025.

Faculty Training

Multiple training opportunities were provided, including live workshops, recorded training sessions, step-by-step documentation, and 1-on-1 consultations. Register for Pepperdine Canvas Training on the IT Events Calendar.

Faculty Peer-to-Peer Opportunities

Technology & Learning will host opportunities for professors to share their experiences, strategies, and techniques on how best to use Canvas LMS in teaching.

Starter Course Templates

Technology & Learning has developed and provided a course template to kickstart your site setup in the "Canvas Commons." See the "Template Course" by TechLearn in the Canvas Commons.

One-Term Extension to Continue with Sakai for Seaver College

Canvas adoption formally started in Fall 2025. With the approval of Seaver College leadership, Seaver professors who needed a little extra time were allowed to request a one-term deferral to continue using Courses/Sakai for Fall 2025, and then fully transition to Canvas starting Spring 2026.

The one-term deferral was not available to graduate schools at Pepperdine. This decision to fully adopt Pepperdine Canvas for Fall 2025 was made by leadership at each graduate school, aiming to maintain student learning continuity across programs.

What About Project Sites?

Project Sites on Courses were used for many purposes, such as committees, file sharing, class design templates, or communication. They filled a gap before the University had other collaboration platforms, like Google Workspace.

Moving forward, the focus of Pepperdine Canvas will be academic coursework and training. Only project sites directly tied to academic coursework, i.e., supporting direct instruction and program completion, will be considered for migration to Pepperdine Canvas. Also, Pepperdine Canvas is dedicated to current Pepperdine faculty, students, and staff only; it does not support unmonitored guest accounts for external users.

Never fear! Committees, schools/departments, and individuals will leverage powerful tools like Google Shared Drives, Google Groups, and Google Sites for knowledge-sharing or collaboration activities. In some cases, school and academic program informational sites may want to consider whether a page or section on the school's Community website may be a good fit.

Migration Options

Academic Coursework Program Sites: Community members with academic coursework program sites may submit migration requests starting in mid-Fall 2025, for transition before Summer 2026. Due to the volume and priority of class site migration, we cannot accept/process project site requests until the fall.
Non-Coursework Project Sites: Community members with personal or collaborative project sites for non-academic coursework may begin downloading content from Courses immediately. They should request the appropriate Google Group (if necessary) and create a Google Shared Drive or Google Site for continuing their business, research, or personal interests. To bulk download content in Resources, site maintainers can consider using the Transfer Files (WebDAV) or Compress to Zip Archive features. Community members may also review the export and download links on the LMS Retention webpage.

Project Site Process

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