How to Manually Override the LMS ID and Manually Resolve Merged LMS Courses

Overview

In most cases, Student Success & Engagement is able to properly map your LMS courses and sections to their SIS equivalents within SS&E using the LMS Course Resolver mapping configured during implementation.

However, from time to time, you may have a handful of LMS courses that do not conform to the mapped configiration. For example some LMS Course ID structures may be different than the rest, when the format is different than what is used by the LMS Course Resolver that runs automatically as a scheduled job, SS&E will be unable to map the LMS course or section to the matching SIS course section.

Note: If the Course Resolver is up to date yet there are too many missing or mismatched LMS Ids that need to be manually overidden, you may escalate this task to Client Services utilizing service credits, further explained here.

LMS Course Resolver Information

• The LMS Course Resolver code maps LMS Course IDs with SIS Course IDs based on information provided to the SS&E implementation consultants during Student Success & Engagement implementation.
• Proper mapping allows SS&E to sync information about your student's interaction tracked within the LMS system to display on the Courses tab along with student enrollment information imported from the SIS system.
• If the LMS Course Resolver is suddenly unable to match LMS courses with SIS courses, the reason is usually that something in the LMS system has changed. If the information used by the LMS Course Resolver to map LMS courses with SIS courses has changed, then the LMS Course Resolver will not be able to resolve the LMS Courses and will stop populating the course section LMS Ids in SS&E.
• If there is a known/planned change happening in your LMS System, please reach out to your Client Success Manager so that your LMS course resolver can be updated to reflect the changes made in the LMS. If the Course Resolver is not updated, LMS data will stop syncing as expected and LMS data will be missing in SS&E.

LMS Course Resolver Missed Mapping Example

For example, when an instructor has split courses or parent/child courses that they want to merge in the LMS, the standard mapping used by the LMS Course Resolver will not work on these courses and they will either be left "unmapped" without a LMS ID or they may be mapped to an incorrect LMS ID.

• Here, the same LMS Course Id will represent multiple course section records imported into SS&E from the SIS system course section data. 
• If the LMS Course Resolver was not designed to handle LMS course mapping for merged courses, the way to fix this is to manually override the LMS ID for the "merged" course sections from within SSE Course Section Administration.
• The LMS ID you will need to enter into Course Section Administration depends on the LMS system you are using.
• The process (explained below) on how to override the automatic LMS Resolver missing or mismatched LMS Course ID is the same for all LMS system types.

Click here for general information on other override options for Course Sections.

How to manually override/set the course section LMS ID in SS&E Course Section Administration:

1. Obtain the LMS Id for the course or section number you want to link to an SS&E course section(s)
2. Log in to SS&E as an administrator and go to the Administrator section
   
   • Select "Admin" from the app list drop-down on the top menu
3. Click "Course Sections" from the left-hand navigation menu
4. Search for the course or section that you want to update and click on its ID in the section list
5. Click the "Edit" option at the top of the section information screen
6. Locate the field that says "LMS ID" and enter the number from step 1
7. Check the "Part of Multi-ID" checkbox (when applicable)
8. Check the "Override LMS" checkbox
9. Click the "Save" button
10. Test "Enrollments from LMS" from the Course Section Administration record

Testing LMS Connectivity

After making changes to the course section LMS ID, it is recommended to test the new LMS ID using the "Enrollments From LMS" button on the course section record in Course Section Administration. This will check the connectivity between the SS&E course section record and the LMS system to ensure that the course enrollment data is syncing correctly from the LMS.

• Note that the response will be JSON, so you may wish to install a JSON formatting extension on your web browser in order to more easily interpret the LMS data.

How Do I Know What LMS ID to Use?

The LMS ID that you use to manually sync LMS data with SS&E varies depending on the LMS system that you are using.

Please see below for LMS-specific information.

Moodle

The needed Moodle ID is the ID of the course you would like to attach to the SS&E course section.

1. In your Moodle instance, you should browse to the home page of the Moodle course that you want to map to the SS&E course section.
2. Look at the web address (aka URL) of the course. You will see the ID at the end of the web address following ?id=.
   • For example in the URL https://samplemoodle. local/course/view.php?id=6345 the ID needed would be "6345"

Canvas

With Canvas you must map an SS&E course section to the Canvas Section Id and NOT to the Canvas Course Id.

• The reason for this is that Canvas supports the concept of a "section" and is not limited to mapping an SIS section to one LMS course.
• SS&E syncs LMS Data with Canvas by making API calls and passing in the LMS ID from the SS&E Course Section into Canvas. SS&E takes the current term course sections, and then for each section, sends the LMS ID to Canvas and requests the enrollments, assignments, grades, etc. for each LMS ID. Finally, the returned data is saved to the course section based on the LMS ID.

1. Log in to Canvas and browse the course you would like to point your SS&E course section(s) to
2. Click "Settings" on the left-hand navigation
3. Click the Sections tab
4. Click the name of the Canvas section that matches the SS&E course section you want to map
5. Look at the web address. The Canvas Section ID you need is at the end of the address
   • For example, in the URL https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/2627433/sections/2784401 the section ID is "2784401" (Important: Do not use the course ID which in this case would be 2627433).

Blackboard

The needed Blackboard ID is the ID of the course you would like to attach to the SS&E course section.

1. In your Blackboard instance, you should browse to the homepage of the Blackboard course that you want to map to the SS&E course section.
2. Look at the web address [aka URL] of the course.  You will see the ID within the web address, after “/courses”

• For example, in the URL https://yourinstitution.blackboard.com/ultra/courses/_67890_1/cl/outline the ID needed would be _67890_1.  SS&E requires the leading “_”

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