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Desire2Learn is retiring August 1. Are you ready?

Submitted by stauffeg on

Spring 2019 was the last semester to use D2L on campus, and the system will be completely unavailable starting August 1. If you ever used D2L as an instructor or community course leader, now is a good time to review the D2L Migration and Retirement information page and ensure you have everything you need before you lose access. The key details are summarized below.

For academic courses you taught since Summer 2012, have no fear: if these courses haven't been migrated already to Canvas, OIT will be keeping archived copies in case you ever need them. If you want to reuse content from an old course, start by creating your new course in Canvas. Then, the last version of this course that you taught in D2L will be automatically migrated to Canvas. OIT will notify you and enroll you in the migrated course within two business days. If you need access to a different D2L course copy, contact the IT Service Center with the name and term of the course you want migrated, and OIT will take care of importing it into Canvas for you.

The following courses aren't being archived:

  • Academic courses from before Summer 2012
  • Community courses
  • Sandbox courses

If you want to keep the content from these courses, you can either export it from D2L, or contact the IT Service Center and ask that the course be migrated into Canvas. You must take action before August 1 if you wish to save these courses.

Most student activity data, such as grades, will be archived by OIT. If you ever need to access old student activity data (for example, to write a recommendation letter), the IT Service Center will be happy to provide it. 

Some student work will not be archived by OIT, specifically:

  • Files students submitted to Dropbox folders that did not use Turnitin originality checking
  • Files users attached to Discussions posts or to email messages sent through D2L

If you wish to keep this data for your records, you must download it before August 1. For help with saving Dropbox submissions, visit D2L - Download All Dropbox Folder Submissions.

Keep in mind that D2L access became view-only on May 31. You can still access your courses until August 1, but you cannot make changes to course content, grades, etc.