Teaching Continuity Plan

Scenario 1: Canvas LMS is down

If Canvas is unavailable (or severely disrupted) and you need to reach your students, use the UCDAccess portal to send a mass email.
Steps:

1. Log into UCDAccess with your CU Denver credentials.

2. Navigate to the email tool or section that allows you to contact your course roster or class list.

3. Compose an email with a clear subject line (e.g., “Course X – Alternate Plan While Canvas is Down”).

4. In the body of the email:

   • Explain that Canvas is currently unavailable (or unreliable) and that you’re using email to communicate.

   • Provide alternate instruction steps: how students should proceed (for example: use email for questions, access materials via a temporary location, etc.).

   • Include a timeline and when you expect normal operations to resume (if known).

   • Provide how students can contact you or the OIT/Support team for further assistance.

5. Send the email to your student list.

6. Once Canvas is back, send a follow-up notification to revisit normal operations and confirm everything is functioning.

Scenario 2: Microsoft 365 (Outlook/email) is down

If email (Outlook or other M365 services) is unavailable, you can use Canvas’s built-in messaging/inbox feature (assuming Canvas itself is still functioning) to reach your students. According to general Canvas guidance:
Steps:

1. Log into Canvas.

2. In the left navigation (global or course-menu), click Inbox or “Conversations”.

3. Click the “Compose new message” (or +) icon.

4. In the course drop-down, select the specific course you want to message.

5. In the “To:” field, select “All Students” (or appropriate group) via the address book icon or roster list.

6. Enter your subject (e.g., “Important: Email Service Outage – Alternate Communication”) and write your message explaining:

   • That email is currently unavailable.

   • You will communicate via Canvas messages/announcements until the email service is restored.

   • What students should do in the meantime (check Canvas Inbox regularly, use your course discussion board or alternate method you’ve set up).

   • When you expect normal operations to resume (if known).

7. If you want each student to receive an individual message (so recipients don’t see each other), check the “Send an individual message to each recipient” box.

8. Click Send.

9. Monitor replies and use the Canvas Inbox Sent folder to track responses.

Navigate360 provides both email and text messaging for faculty and staff to communicate with students, either individually or en masse. Communicating with students through the platform creates records of that communication, which can be accessed by other staff or faculty on your campus. In addition, it allows for a quick and easy way to communicate with more than one student at once. Any faculty or staff member will only be able to view communications in which they have the proper permissions. Permissions allow users to either view only their own communications with students or to view all communications with students. If you are unsure who can view your communications, contact [email protected].

How do I send the emails or texts?

Please call 303-724-4357 with any network or technology issues impacting your course.  During the week between regular business hours (7:30am-5pm) your call will be answered.  If you call during the weekend or after hours leave a message and a technician should call you back within 15 minutes.

View current outages. 

OIT Statuspage is an email and phone messaging system to alert students, staff, and faculty of any system outages. When you sign up, be sure to click both the envelope tab for email notifications and the phone icon tab for text messages. Statuspage allows you to customize your notification options so when you subscribe you can choose what messages and notifications you receive so that you are only contacted with information relevant to you.

To sign up:

• Go to OIT Statuspage (cu-anschutz-denver-oit.statuspage.io), click Subscribe to Updates, and select the email and phone icons, then enter your information.
• Subscribe to individual services (called components), depending on your needs and campus affiliation.
• Not sure what some of the services mean to you? Click the question mark after the name of the service for a brief description.
• Email notifications will be sent when OIT creates, updates, and resolves an incident.
• Text messages are only sent to notify subscribers that there is an incident, and a second text when the incident is resolved (only 2 texts).

When an incident is identified, it is classified on a matrix based on impact.  

Critical Incident: 

• Affects all, or most (+90%), faculty, students, and staff on one campus or both campuses 
• There is a total loss of service 
• There is no viable workaround 
• The outage impacts the university’s ability to meet operational goals
• Service restoration is needed immediately or significant loss of revenue, reputation, or productivity will occur.

Major Incident, Major Outage:

• Affects a substantial subset of users within the university community, department, or school
• Core functionality is significantly impacted or unavailable
• There may or may not be a viable workaround

Major Incident, Partial Outage:

• Affects a subset of users within the university community, department, or school
• Core functionality is affected but with lower impact to operations 
• There may or may not be a viable workaround

Minor Incident, Degraded Performance:  

• Degraded performance of a service. The service is broken for a subset of constituents but working for others or is impacted in some way 
• The service issue is a minor inconvenience to users
• There is a viable workaround available