SS&E LMS Integration: Canvas Integration Guide

Overview

Student Success & Engagement integrates with Canvas to provide updated LMS data to a student’s success team. This article provides information on the steps needed to configure Canvas to allow SS&E to connect and retrieve information using the Canvas API.

  • The intent is for the Student Success Team to be able to view all important information on a student in a “one stop shop” and avoid the need to navigate between various systems.
  • Automatic alerting, filtering and reporting features leverage LMS data to quickly identify students who may need additional support for their success team.
  • The LMS data is matched with course section and enrollment data within SS&E so that users can view Grades, Assignments, Submissions, and last login data on the student profile.
  • To verify whether or not data is syncing properly from the LMS at a high overview level, you can check the LMS Summary Report, further explained here.

Setup Instructions For Canvas - SS&E Integration

In Canvas

As a Canvas Administrator, log in to your instance of Canvas and complete the following:

Create a Role for SS&E Permissions

  • Click Admin in the left navigation bar
  • Choose the root Canvas account
  • Click Permissions in the left navigation bar
  • Click the Account Roles tab. (You may also refer to the Create a new Account level role: https://guides.instructure.com/m/4214/l/73662-how-do-i-add-an-account-level-role-in-the-permissions-page)
  • Click the Add Role button
  • Insert SSE_Role (formerly AvisoRole) as the role name
  • Add the following permissions to the role:
    • Account-level settings - manage
    • Course Content - view
    • Courses - view list
    • Discussions - view
    • Feature Options - enable / disable
    • Grades - view all grades
    • Groups - view all student groups
    • Question banks - view and link
    • Quizzes - view submission log
    • Reports - manage
    • SIS Data - import
    • SIS Data - manage
    • SIS Data - read
    • Statistics - view
    • Users - view list

Create a User for SS&E Integration

  • Click Admin in the left navigation bar
  • Choose the root Canvas account
  • Click People in the left navigation bar
  • Click +People to create a new user
  • Insert "SSE_User" (formerly AvisoUser) as the Full Name
  • Insert "lms@watermarkinsights.com" as email
  • Click Add User to complete the process
  • Assign the SSE_Role to the SSE_User

Generate Token

  • Login as SSE_User (or AvisoUser) and accept terms of service
  • On the left-hand navigation of Canvas, go to Account > Settings.

  • Under the section Approved Integrations, select New Access Token. You will be presented with a window to create the token and insert a purpose for the token, such as "SS&E Integration".
    NOTE: The expiration date can be left blank. If the token expires, the data integration will no longer work and you will need to generate a new token.

In Student Success & Engagement

Enter Connection Details

An SS&E Administrator must enter the Canvas connection details into SS&E. The Canvas Administrator and SS&E System Admin may work together on this step. 

  • From the SS&E Home screen, open the navigation menu "Advise" with 9 dots. 
  • From SS&E Administration, on the left side navigation menu, navigate to LMS Integration > LMS Integration Configuration.
  • Edit the page, and edit the Integration Type to select Canvas
  • In Canvas Configuration:
    • Check "enabled"
    • Fill the connection details in this section
      • host (LMS domain): Usually this looks something like "yourinstitution.instructure.com". Do not include the "https://".
      • securitytoken: This is the token created in Canvas in the previous section.
  • Save the configuration

Note: It is not recommended to edit the Advanced Configurations.

Test Connection

It may take a few minutes for the integration changes to take effect.

  • From the LMS Integration Configuration page, use the test connection button to confirm that the connection is configured correctly.
    • If an error message is returned, verify the configurations and permissions above are correct. Example error messages:
      • "Unable to connect. Status Code: 404 -- That page doesn't exist." 
      • "Unable to connect. Status Code: 401 -- Unauthorized - invalid credentials." 
    • If valid data is returned, the connection is successful and the setup is complete. An example of a successful connection looks like this.

Once this process is complete and the connection test is successful, please let your Project Manager and/or Technical Consultant know. Next, Watermark staff will need to build the LMS course resolver (for new implementations or LMS migrations). 

Articles in this section

How to Contact Support
There are many ways to reach out! Click here for our support options.
Watermark Academy
Click to access the Watermark Academy for consultation, training, and implementation companion courses.
Customer Community
Can’t find the answer? Ask fellow users how they’re making the most of Watermark in our Community!