If you own a project site in SmartSite and wonder what to do with it now that the service is going away, we have updates.

The first is that project sites can continue in SmartSite past spring quarter—but please notice the key phrase, “project sites.” As previously announced, the capability for teaching with SmartSite will conclude after June.

The second update is that Information and Educational Technology is assembling a team to help project site owners identify new locations for the project work they’ve been housing in SmartSite.

At least 1,000 active sites

Project sites are typically managed by students, administrators or instructors for non-instructional purposes. Approximately 1,000 project sites have been active during the past month, and more than 4,000 have been used within the past 12 months. More than 5,000 additional sites exist, though many have not been used in years.

SmartSite’s replacement for instruction is UC Davis Canvas, which is more of pure learning management system than SmartSite was. Therefore, many SmartSite project site owners might conclude that other services are a better fit, for what they want to do, than Canvas is. If they need a site mostly so they can share non-sensitive work files, for example, then Box could be their best option.

The project site transition project team will offer information about different services and options, many of which did not exist when the campus adopted SmartSite a decade ago.

Most faculty and students are already using UC Davis Canvas for teaching and learning.

Deadline, not yet set, will occur during 2017-18

When announcing the move to UC Davis Canvas in early 2016, the campus planned to end SmartSite’s use for project sites, as well as for teaching, in June 2017. The major SmartSite outage in May 2016 disrupted the work plan, and for 2016-17 the campus has focused its resources on helping faculty and students adopt UC Davis Canvas for instruction. Significant assistance for project sites had to be deferred, leading to the decision to loosen the spring deadline for project sites. A firm deadline has not been decided, but will occur sometime during the 2017-18 academic year.

More information about project sites, including guidance, resources, and where to find help, will be posted on the movetocanvas.ucdavis.edu site later this academic year.