Leaving Sakai

User access to Sakai will end on June 1, 2025. For content currently in Sakai that you would like to re-use again or save, you have two options: have it migrated into Canvas or download it and save it to your own computer or cloud storage option.

Option 1: Migrate to Canvas

You may request to have content from up to five Sakai sites migrated to Canvas at a time.

A note about migrating content: Canvas sites have a limited storage capacity of 5 GB each. You can check how much content is in your Sakai site before you request to have it migrated by going to "Resources" and clicking "Check Quota" at the top. If you have large PDF or PowerPoint files that you will need to share with students in Canvas, the best option would be to upload those files to Duke Box, create a shared link for each file, and then give students that shared link through Canvas. For videos, review the options for for hosting videos in Canvas page.

Once you have submitted your request, the content on this page provides guidance for what you will need to do to ensure your Canvas sites containing migrated content are correctly set up.

Migration Working Guide

The most up-to-date information on the tools and data that can be migrated can be found in this working guide (view-only Google Doc).

Migration Review Video

The following video is for instructors who have already had content migrated from Sakai to Canvas, and reviews common migration issues and their solutions. 

What Can Be Migrated

The following tools will be migrated:

• Assignments
• Discussions
• Gradebook
• Lessons
• Resources
• Rubrics
• Site Info
• Syllabus
• Tests & Quizzes
• Web Content (URLs)

The goal of the migration tool is to help instructors populate their Canvas course sites for upcoming courses they are teaching. Canvas is not intended to serve as an archive of previously taught courses in Sakai that are unlikely to be taught again. Additionally, some tools in Sakai contain content that is not appropriate for migration (e.g. attendance, calendar, chat, dashboard, email and the email archive, messages, overview, roster, search, section info, and statistics), and no student data will be migrated from Sakai to Canvas.

While both Sakai and Canvas are learning management systems, they think about teaching and learning differently and offer different tools. There is not 100% parity between the two systems and, therefore, there are some types of content in Sakai that will not be imported into Canvas (e.g. blogs, commons, conversations, drop box, news, podcasts, polls, PostEm and Wiki). For tools in this category, if there is content you wish to save and possibly use in Canvas, please contact Learning Innovation for a consultation and we will do our best to find an acceptable alternative for you.

Option 2: Download and Save Your Content

If you have unused, old content you do not need migrated to Canvas but that you are not ready to permanently delete, you can download a copy to your local computer and then backup in your chosen cloud platform (ex: Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc).

Sakai does not have a tool to export content from all tools at the same time, so you will need to go to the desired tool and download content separately. In addition, some Sakai tools do not have a bulk download option so you may need to copy/paste data into a spreadsheet or text document as necessary. 

If you have questions for how to do this in one of your past Sakai sites, please email us canvas@duke.edu. Make sure to include the Sakai site name you are working in and a description of what content you are trying to extract.

Note: When making copies of data, users should ensure that they are following all copyright laws and obtaining permission from the copyright owner where necessary.