Ulwazi Update
WITS
WITS ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING NEWS BITES
10 FEBRUARY 2021
Our new Learning Management System (LMS) is known as ‘Ulwazi’, which means ‘knowledge’ in isiZulu.
Our Journey from Sakai to Canvas
Canvas, known as Ulwazi at Wits, is the University’s LMS to support online teaching and learning. It is a powerful cloud-based platform that is easy to use.
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WITS
Road to Ulwazi Stage 1: Setting up Ulwazi From 15 February 2021, Ulwazi will be the Wits default LMS.
You can log in via https://ulwazi.wits.ac.za/ using your staff number and Wits password.
When you log in to Ulwazi, the landing page will display a dashboard of all your courses.
Every 2021 course listed on SIMS has a site on Ulwazi. If you do not see your 2021 course site when you log in to Ulwazi, email a request to ulwazihelp@wits.ac.za to link you to your 2021 course site.
Stage 2: Migrating from Sakai to Ulwazi Wits ICT has completed the SIMS integration with Ulwazi so registered students should now appear in your course. If you do not see students in your course, please email ulwazihelp@wits. ac.za.
You can add other lecturers to your sites within Ulwazi. How to add users to a course.
Your Sandbox is your personal space to experiment with Ulwazi. If you are not seeing your Sandbox, please contact ulwazihelp@wits.ac.za so that they can link it to your profile.
If your course started before 15 February 2021 and has an active Sakai course site, log in to wits-e.wits.ac.za to access it. Lecturers can use the same url to access Sakai course sites for reference if they want to copy course materials to Ulwazi. For all other courses, staff and students should log in to ulwazi.wits.ac.za to access their course sites.
Learn Ulwazi When you log in to Ulwazi, you will see a self-directed course, "Discovering Canvas - 2021 - Lecturer Orientation".
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Stage 3: Learning to use Ulwazi Gradescope is an assessment tool integrated into Ulwazi. Attend a webinar to learn about its features. Wednesday, 10 February 2021 from 15:00 to 16:00.
Register here.
The Centre for Learning,Teaching and Development (CLTD) is providing training on designing and building your course sites. See training schedule
Stage 4: Preparing your course If you need to copy your course content to your 2021 course site, please read the Canvas howto page on copying content from one course to another.
If you want to create a new Ulwazi course site, please contact your Ulwazi Faculty Administrator. Contact details are available on page 8.
A Latex editor is available in the rich content editor in Ulwazi.
Information about Ulwazi for students Training materials and resources for students to learn how to use Ulwazi will be widely available from 15 February 2021.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Access
Migration
Integration and Data
Sakai-Related
Mobile App
Canvas
Access Do I (as a lecturer) have access to Ulwazi yet? Yes, Ulwazi went live on 27 January 2021! You can log in at https://ulwazi.wits.ac.za/. Your username is [your staff number]@wits.ac.za, and your password is the same password you use for your Wits email.
Migration from Sakai to Ulwazi My course has already started in January so I will remain on Sakai for Block 1. Do I need to alert anyone? Yes, you need to let ICT know so that they can make sure that your course (and student access) remains active in Sakai for Block 1. Please email ulwazihelp@wits.ac.za.
What will be transferred in the migration from Sakai to Ulwazi? All the course content is transferred, e.g. files, media, readings, lessons, announcements, quiz questions, assignment instructions, and discussion topics (only the topics - no discussion posts). Student interactions (such as chats, forum posts, assignment uploads, and grades) will not be migrated.
What about all the time and effort we put in last year, and in the preceding years in creating good course sites? Your 2020 course content from Sakai will be transferred "as is" to Ulwazi so all your hard work will be copied across. You will need to do some formatting and updating because Sakai “Lessons” do not work exactly the same as Canvas “Pages”.
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Will we be using Ulwazi in block 1 or only from block 2? With the exception of courses that started in January 2021 or before 15 February 2021, all courses need to be on Ulwazi for block 1.
Most Faculty of Health Sciences undergraduate courses and Commerce, Law and Management (CLM) Postgraduate School courses have already started. Does this mean that we will only migrate those courses to Canvas, when the second teaching block starts? Yes, those courses will be migrated separately and the process for that migration will be communicated.
Can you opt to not migrate the old Sakai course and develop a new course in Ulwazi? Yes, lecturers have the choice. You can choose to develop your course from scratch in Ulwazi.
Does Canvas have Gradebook, even if the existing content will not be migrated? Yes, the Gradebook in Ulwazi is very similar to Sakai (it is actually a little better).
What if my Sakai site is not automatically migrated? Sakai sites can be manually migrated. To request this: Log a ticket via ulwazihelp@wits.ac.za or Contact your faculty online learning designer.
I have a course that was run as one course in 2020, but in 2021, it is now split into two courses. Is there a way to request a new course site, in addition to the one that is being migrated? Contact your faculty online learning designer who will assist you.
I will be teaching a course in 2021 that a different lecturer taught in 2020. How do I ensure that I have access to the course site? ICT will do their best to link the courses to the lecturers. If a lecturer is not able to view their course. Email ulwazihelp@wits.ac.za
Will all lecturers in the course have access to the Ulwazi course site? Yes. The automatic migration will include all lecturers for a course from Sakai to Canvas. On Canvas, a lecturer can grant access to other lecturers.
Integration and Data Will Gradescope, Turnitin and BigBlueButton be integrated into Ulwazi? Yes, this has already been done.
If students use Teams or BigBlueButton within Ulwazi, will this be zero-rated? We still need confirmation about which sites will be zero-rated.
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Sakai-Related Will students still have access to Sakai sites? Students will still have access to Sakai if your course starts before 15 February 2021. But it is vitally important that you let ICT know that this course is active on Sakai so that they don't remove access in block 1.
Will we continue to have access to Sakai for the purpose of referencing our old courses if required? Lecturers will still have access to everything in Sakai for 2021. Thereafter the courses will be archived and Sakai will be "switched off".
In Sakai lessons, there is an option to export content via the IMS Common Cartridge (CC) format. If I export content from a lesson in Sakai using this CC format, can I then import that content into my course in Ulwazi? Yes.
Mobile App How do I download the mobile app? Canvas has a mobile app for android and apple devices. You can download them from the respective app stores. Once installed, use Ulwazi University of the Witwatersrand when you are asked “What is your school’s name?”. Use the same login details as on the site by using [staffNo]@wits.ac.za and Wits password.
Which mobile app should I download? Canvas has three mobile apps. There is one for the teacher, one for a student and one for a parent. Download the teacher app as the lecturer. (There are different features in each app with the appropriate focus.)
Canvas Support FAQs Can I link several of my course sites together if I want different cohorts of students in the same course? Yes, Canvas has a cross-link function that works with sections, similar to the parent-child site function in Sakai. Please email Ulwazi Help or your Faculty Online Learning Designer to link your sites together. You will need to specify the course code for each course to be linked and which course is the "parent" course. This needs to be done by an administrator so SIMS integration remains intact.
https://www.instructure.com/canvas/support-faq https://community.canvaslms.com/ https://elmira.instructure.com/courses/49/pages/frequently-asked-questions
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Privacy policy Data privacy is an important concern when working online. Instructure (the company that owns Canvas) has a clear privacy policy, which provides details on what data they collect, who can access the collected data, and how the data is used. Instructure has also signed the Student Privacy Pledge, which commits to safeguarding student privacy regarding the collection, maintenance, and use of student personal information. To ensure that students' privacy is protected, you should communicate with students via Ulwazi rather than on platforms which harvest data for commercial purposes (such as Facebook and Whatsapp).
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Support
Centre for Learning, Teaching and Development (CLTD) Instructional Designers ID support: IDSupport.cltd@wits.ac.za
Faculty Online Learning Designers Humanities Renee Koch: renee.koch@wits.ac.za
CLM Greig Krull: greig.krull@wits.ac.za Fiona Macalister: fiona.macalister@wits.ac.za Myrtle Adams-Gardner: myrtle.adams-gardner@wits.ac.za
Health Sciences Paula Barnard-Ashton: paula.barnard-ashton@wits.ac.za Mark Allen: mark.allen@wits.ac.za
Science Phiwe Dlamini: phiwokuhle.dlamini@wits.ac.za
Engineering Nozuko Makhuvha: nozuko.makhuvha@wits.ac.za
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Ulwazi Faculty Administrators
Humanities Renee Koch: renee.koch@wits.ac.za
CLM Fiona Macalister: fiona.macalister@wits.ac.za
Health Sciences Ann George: ann.george@wits.ac.za
Science Phiwe Dlamini: phiwokuhle.dlamini@wits.ac.za
Engineering Nozuko Makhuvha: nozuko.makhuvha@wits.ac.za
Ulwazi Help Desk ulwazihelp@wits.ac.za