Some Courses Are Not Syncing With The LMS

Reported Issue

This article helps explain how to resolve the following type of issues:

  • Some courses are not syncing any data from the LMS system.
  • Some courses are missing the course LMS ID.
  • Some courses display the wrong course LMS ID.
  • All LMS enrollment data is missing on some courses.
  • Students are showing old and/or partial LMS data.
  • New enrollment data is not syncing from the LMS.

Resolution

If some course sections are not syncing any data with the LMS, the most likely cause is that the course section itself is either missing the course LMS ID or assigned a course LMS ID that is incorrect.

  • SS&E/SIS Course Sections sync with the LMS system via the LMS Course Resolver Job.
      • Once the job finds a match between a specific course section imported from the SIS system and the course data received from the LMS API, the course LMS ID is populated in Course Section Administration and used to synchronize the LMS Enrollment Data with SS&E.
  • A less likely reason the course ID is missing is that the LMS Course Resolver (lmsCourseSectionSynchJob) is not running.
      • To check this, go to SS&E Admin - Advanced Administration - Batch Processing to make sure the job has completed recently.
      • If the job is not running and is consistently failing/not completed, please open a support ticket for assistance.

How to check/fix a course LMS ID that is missing or incorrect:

  1. From the Admin page, select Course Section Administration
  2. Select the current term
  3. Identify course sections that are not syncing with the LMS.
      • Filtering on the current term only, sort on the LMS ID column by clicking on the LMS ID header so that course sections that are missing LMS IDs are listed first.
  4. Starting at the top of the list, compare each course section that does not have an LMS ID with the LMS course data within the LMS system.
      • There may be legitimate reasons why the LMS ID is missing.
      • Check if there is a valid reason why the course LMS ID is missing, or if the course section should have an LMS course attached and needs to be manually updated with the LMS ID.
      • For example:
          • If a course section has not yet started then it's not a problem that the LMS ID is missing. Since there is no data syncing for this course yet, it can be left empty for now or manually updated if you already know what the correct course LMS ID is going to be.
          • If a course section was cancelled in the SIS system, it explains why there is no LMS ID.
          • If there are many many course sections with no LMS ID, something may have changed in the LMS system or the LMS API. For further assistance, please open a support ticket sharing examples of which courses are/aren't syncing, including any information about what is different between these courses in the LMS system.
          • If it has been determined by Watermark that it is not possible to match many LMS courses with the SIS/SS&E course section data via the LMS Course Resolver, the unmatched course sections will have to be manually resolved instead. If it is too time consuming to manually enter all the unresolved/unmatched course LMS IDs, you can submit a spreadsheet for a batch update following the instructions found here.
  5. If for any reason, the course LMS ID should have synced and did not populate, or was populated incorrectly, this can be fixed by manually assigning the proper LMS ID from within SS&E Course Section Administration, following the instructions found here.
  6. If the course LMS ID is correct and there is an error syncing the enrollment data, such as "Failed to Fetch Enrollments", refer to the "LMS Enrollment Import Errors" section below.
  • For more information about the LMS Data Synchronization, click here.
  • For more information about LMS Integration Jobs, click here.

LMS Enrollment Import Errors

The LMS enrollment sync job matches up LMS enrollment data with SS&E users/enrollment records imported from the SIS on the Transcript Course datafeed.

  • If there are LMS Import Errors, this usually means that the LMS enrollment/user data received from the LMS API does not match any data found in SS&E.
  • The LMS Enrollment job tries to match the LMS user/enrollment data with the data received from the SIS system via the Person, Course Section, and Transcript Course datafeeds. For example:
      • If user/student information syncing from the LMS system via the LMS API does not find a matching student record in SS&E, this will generate an error.
      • If there is an error and/or no enrollment data is syncing from the LMS for a specific course section, this usually indicates that the course LMS ID in Course Section Administration is not found in the LMS Enrollment API.

How to fix an LMS Import Error:

    1. Compare the course LMS ID in Course Section Administration with the LMS system to verify this was matched up correctly and manually update the LMS ID if needed.
    2. If the LMS ID displayed on the course record in Course Section Administration is correct, make sure the LMS Enrollment job has recently completed.
    3. If the Course LMS ID is correct, and the LMS jobs are running and completing, wait up to 24 hours to check if the enrollment data was temporarily not syncing. If the error went away, most likely there was a maximum quota issue that caused a timeout error and delay.
    4. If the course LMS ID is correct and there is still an import error/no LMS enrollment data syncing with SS&E, please open a support ticket sharing the course section information, course LMS ID, the exact error message, and anything that's different in the LMS system between the course that is not syncing LMS enrollment data and a course that is syncing data with SS&E. Once received, support will verify the error is still happening and consult with technical staff on next steps.

How to Fix LMS Data Missing on One/Select Student(s)

Different LMS Systems use a different LMS API, however the LMS users are usually matched by the SS&E users' username or primary (edu) email address.

  1. If all LMS data is missing from all course sections listed on the student's Courses tab, this indicates that the LMS student/user data did not match any existing SS&E username or email address.
      • The most likely reason is that the student's username/email address is different in the LMS system and does not match any user in the SIS/SS&E.
  2. To fix this, you will need to update the LMS or the SIS/SS&E Person data so that the user can sync.
  3. If there is no match and the LMS user data is correct, then the user does not exist in SS&E.
      • To fix this, you can either fix the user information in the SIS and import the data on the person data feed, or update People Administration with the correct username/email address.
      • To update the record in SS&E, identify the person record that should match the LMS user data, then use Person Override to enter the correct username/primary email address.
  4. The quickest way to fix a missing or mismatched user is to correct this by manually entering or overriding the primary email address or username from SS&E People Administration - Person Override. For detailed instructions, click here.

From the LMS Enrollment Import Error Examples article: 

LMS Import Errors:

Unable to determine person from enrollment / Unable to find Person for LMS lookup

  • These errors indicate that the LMS Enrollment data being synced with SS&E via the LMS API is associated with students that have not yet been imported into SS&E from the SIS or are missing their primary email address/username in People Administration. 
  • In most cases, the quickest way to resolve this type of import error is to add the student's primary edu email address via their Person Override menu from People Administration. For instructions on how to override a student's primary email address, click here.

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