End of Semester Reminders – Fall 2025
Greetings VCU Faculty,
We hope everyone has had a successful Fall semester. Below are some items to consider as you close out your course heading into Spring.
Spring 2026 Course Shells Available Now
Course shells for the Spring 2026 semester are now available to Canvas instructors. As a reminder, a course will not be visible to students until it has been published by the instructor.
Publishing a course means it is available to students and can now be accessed from their Canvas dashboard. Here, you can find more information on how to Publish and Unpublish a Canvas Course.
Just-In-Time Support
Are you in need of support to complete your end-of-semester checklist? We’re here to help.
For an overview of available support resources for Canvas and Kaltura, please see the “Help & Resources” tab on the Learning Systems website.
Upcoming Course Deletions
Courses older than 5 years will be permanently deleted on June 01, 2026, as we begin our first round of purging courses that have aged out of the records-keeping window.
In order to avoid breaking any course imports for future semesters, we recommend using the Export/Import workflow for transferring your course content from a former course to the next. You also have the option to transfer this content (via Export/Import) to a Primary Course Template using the Canvas Course Creation Tool.
Lon-Capa Discontinued & Möbius Alternative
Lon-Capa has been officially discontinued. VCU now offers Möbius in place of Lon-Capa for your STEM needs! Möbius provides lessons, assessments, and interactive learning activities. It unfolds the potential for the STEM student to acquire knowledge at a guided yet self-defined pace. For more information about Möbius and how to get started, visit the Möbius webpage.
Final Grades & Canvas Grade Passback
Final grades are due by noon on December 18, 2025, via Faculty eServices.
If you use Canvas to store and calculate your course grades, you will now see an option (Course Navigation > Ellucian Grade Passback 1.3) to push them directly into Banner once you are done. For cross-listed courses, faculty should be able to do this all from the merged Canvas roster, precluding the need to go into eServices and enter grades on individual rosters. Only the instructor of record as assigned in Banner will be able to submit grades using this option successfully.
After grades have been pushed from Canvas, we recommend that instructors verify that grade data has passed successfully to eServices. Visit the Banner Grade Entry page for general information regarding grades and support.
For more information, please see: go.vcu.edu/canvas-ilp.
Enrollment Reminders: Ellucian ILP and Canvas
In the Spring 2024 semester, the Ellucian Intelligent Learning Platform (ILP) was implemented to integrate our Ellucian SIS (Banner) with Canvas seamlessly.
What is Ellucian ILP? The Ellucian Intelligent Learning Platform (ILP) acts as a bridge, synchronizing vital information between our SIS and Canvas. It streamlines the exchange of user data, course details, student enrollment, and faculty assignments, eliminating the need for the three-times-a-day Banner import process (for Academic Courses and enrollments).
What does this mean for my course enrollments? ILP allows for real-time updates directly from Banner into Canvas, ensuring that course information, student and teacher enrollments, and user data are always current. If you have any questions about the status of a student or instructor within Canvas, email the Learning Systems team at [email protected].
For more information, please see: go.vcu.edu/canvas-ilp.
Carrying Over Incompletes to the Next Semester
The last day for grades of incomplete to be converted from the Fall 2025 semester is April 2, 2026. See the Academic Calendar for details.
If you have students who are finishing out the course with an ‘incomplete’, there are specific steps the instructor needs to take before the term concludes on December 22, 2025. After this point, you will only be able to access the course in Read-Only mode.
For step-by-step instructions, visit the Managing Students with an Incompletes Status page or contact [email protected].
Training Opportunities
Upcoming Opportunities – For upcoming training, you can register at www.training.vcu.edu (Keyword: Canvas, Kaltura, or Mobius)
Individual or Group Faculty Training
Faculty can request individual or group/departmental training by clicking on the “Request Training” button on the Learning Systems website.
This training is intended for faculty who want to learn how to use the instructional tools supported by Learning Systems (i.e., Canvas and Kaltura).
Training Recordings – We hope that you were able to participate in the Fall semester training opportunities; if not, you can catch up via the recorded training sessions, largely led by Learning Systems’ Learning Support Specialist, Jon Reed, in partnership with the LEDstudio instructional design team.
Visit the Learning Systems Academy for a library of short videos on topics ranging from beginner Canvas to using Kaltura.
Canvas 3rd Party Tools
Canvas 3rd Party Tool changes will soon take place during the upcoming change window. A timeline, deadlines, and a list of all in-progress requests can be found on the Request a Canvas 3rd Party Tool page, as well as what is needed from the requestor, the vendor, and more.
To learn more about these tools and get a list of those already available for use, visit Canvas 3rd Party Tools.
VCU IT Status
Stay up-to-date about IT systems and service outages by subscribing to the IT status page, top right-hand corner. If you have any questions or problems with subscribing, please email [email protected]. The IT Service Management Office will be able to provide any assistance and support needed.
Academic Technologies Support
Academic Technologies frequently posts information about the support services we offer. Below are links to our blogs, and we encourage you to subscribe to all of them, or to the ones that apply to you. When you go to each blog, there is a “subscribe” section on the right side of the screen. Enter your email address and click the subscribe button.
- Adobe Blog – highlights and resources for Adobe Creative Cloud users
- Classroom Technology Blog – notices about classroom technology and support
- Learning Systems Blog – notices and resources for teaching and learning with technology
- Zoom Blog – announcements and tips for using Zoom
Additionally, the Instructional Technologies Toolkit will help you navigate to the information and resources you need.
For any information regarding our team, what we do, what we support, and/or how to get support, visit the Learning Systems website or email [email protected].
For timely updates, subscribe to our blog in the top right-hand corner.
Enjoy your winter break!
Categories Canvas, End of Semester, Faculty, LonCapa, Mobius, Online Teaching and Development, Policy, Teaching with Technology, VCU Academic Notices, Workshops and Training