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Canvas User Integration

Updated

The Course Evaluations & Surveys User integration with Instructure’s Canvas LMS has several features which allow you to customize the Course Evaluations & Surveys user experience within Canvas for students, teaching assistants, instructors and Administrators. The following provides setup steps and information on the User Integration functionality between Course Evaluations & Surveys and Canvas.


For institutions that use their OWN custom CSS and JS files, follow the steps below:

  1. In Course Evaluations & Surveys, navigate to Account > Integrations (section) > Canvas > User Settings tab.
  2. Under the Installation section, Step 1, copy the CSS code and paste it into your CSS file that is uploaded to your Canvas theme.
    1. Ensure that the Course Evaluations & Surveys CSS Code comes before all other content and comments in your CSS file.
  3. Next, under the Installation section, Step 2, copy the Javascript Code and paste it into your JS file.
    1. Ensure that the Course Evaluations & Surveys Javascript Code comes before all other content and comments in your Javascript file.

      Canvas_User_Integration_Code.png
  4. Confirm that the changes have been completed and saved within your CSS and JS files.
  5. Within Canvas, go to Admin and select your Canvas account.
  6. On the left-hand side of the page select Themes.
  7. Select Open in Theme Editor for your current theme under Themes.

    Canvas_Theme.png
  8. Make sure that the correct version of your global files have been updated within the Theme Editor.

    NOTE

    Once you make the update, preview Your Changes. If everything appears correct, select Save theme, Apply theme, and OK in the confirmation dialog.
  9. Within Course Evaluations & Surveys go back to Account > Integrations (section) > Canvas > User Settings tab. Under the Installation section, Step 3, click on Deploy so that Course Evaluations & Surveys can create and add the necessary External Tools within your Canvas instance – this is required for the Course Evaluations & Surveys User Integration.

  10. Within Canvas, go into Admin and choose your account again.
  11. To verify the LTI setup, in Canvas, click on Settings > Apps > View App Configurations, and you should now see the below External App. No further action is required here; this step is simply a verification:

    External_Apps_in_Canvas.png

    NOTE

    If setting up the integration at the subaccount level the same External App will appear.
  12. Within Course Evaluations & Surveys go back to Account > Integrations (section) > Canvas > User Settings tab, you can now configure your desired settings for the Automated LTI Links & Customized Survey Notification for Students under the User Integration Setup section.

For institutions that DO NOT USE their OWN custom CSS and JS files, follow the steps below:

  1. In Course Evaluations & Surveys, navigate to Account > Integrations (section) > Canvas > User Settings tab.
  2. Create a new text document in a text editor application, in Notepad for instance.
  3. Next, under the Installation section, Step 1, copy the CSS Code and paste it into your CSS (Notepad) file.

  4. Open another new text document, in Notepad for instance, and this time under the Installation section, Step 2, paste the JS code into your (Notepad) file.



    Complete the following to save the CSS and JavaScript files:
    1. In Notepad for instance, click on Save As and under Save as type select All Files.
    2. When saving your files, include the correct file extension (.css and .js) as seen in the examples below.



  5. Within Canvas, go to Admin and select your account.
  6. On the left-hand side of the page select Themes.
  7. Select Open in Theme Editor for your current theme under Themes.

    Canvas_Theme.png
  8. Click on Upload to select and upload your JS and CSS files respectively, as shown in the screenshot below.

  9. After the files are uploaded, Preview Your Changes. Note: If you Preview Your Changes after uploading either the CSS or JS file, you will need to return to the Upload tab to upload the second file.

  10. After verifying your changes, click Save theme, then Apply theme.
  11. When presented with the confirmation dialog window, click OK to confirm the changes and apply the changes to the entire account in Canvas. This will initialize the User Integration for Course Evaluations & Surveys.

  12. Within Course Evaluations & Surveys go back to Account > Integrations (section) > Canvas > User Settings tab. Under the Installation section, Step 3, click on Deploy so that Course Evaluations & Surveys can create and add the necessary External Tool within your Canvas instance – this is required for the Course Evaluations & Surveys User Integration.
  13. Within Canvas, go into Admin and choose your account again.
  14. To verify LTI setup, in Canvas, click on Settings > Apps > View App Configurations, and you should now see the below External App. No further action is required here; this step is simply a verification: External_Apps_in_Canvas.png
  15. Within Course Evaluations & Surveys under Account > Integrations (section) > Canvas > User Settings tab, you can now configure your desired settings for the Automated LTI Links & Customized Survey Notification for Students under the User Integration Setup section.

Re-Deploying or Removing the User Integration



  1. A Re-Deploy button will appear on the User Settings tab only IF the deployed Course Evaluations & Surveys External Tool has been removed in your Canvas instance, causing the settings to become out of sync with the integration, or changes have been made to the Token Primary Account option for the Canvas Web Service Token on the Canvs Integration > Data Settings tab in Course Evaluations & Surveys. Click Re-Deploy to re-install the Course Evaluations & Surveys User Integration in your Canvas instance. Once deployed, the required Course Evaluations & Surveys External App will be automatically re-added to your Canvas instance.

    NOTE

    If you Re-Deploy, you MAY need update both the .css and .js files in your Canvas instance with the CSS and JS code listed in Steps 1 & 2 above.
  2. To remove the External Tool added after Deploying the integration, return to Account > Integrations (section) > Canvas > User Settings and click Remove to automatically remove the Course Evaluations & Surveys External App from your Canvas instance.

User Integration Setup




User Settings Navigation

NOTE

This static LTI link is not available under User Settings when the access token is created at the Canvas sub-account level. This is by Canvas design.
  1. Under User Settings Navigation, you can display a customized static LTI link on the user account Settings page within Canvas to all Canvas users, even if they are not enrolled in Course Evaluations & Surveys Projects. This link will take users directly to their Course Evaluations & Surveys Dashboard.
  2. Links for Instructors, Teaching Assistants, and Administrators will display at all times, but will only display for students who have active evaluations.

Course Navigation (Instructors, Teaching Assistants, Administrators, Students)

  1. Under Course Navigation for each role, you can enable and customize the LTI links that display in the left-hand navigation in your Canvas courses.
  2. Choose the roles you wish to display links for by checking the Show... checkbox, and customize the link text. These links will take users directly into Course Evaluations & Surveys.
  3. Links for students will automatically display when surveys for a course begin, along with a pill indicating the number of active surveys, and will disappear when the survey period ends (links will not display in courses without surveys).

Student_Canvas_LTI_Link.png

Course Widgets (Instructors, Administrators, Students)

Canvas Course Widgets can be used as an additional access point to Course Evaluations & Surveys, as well as display survey information.

Canvas_Student_Widget.png

  1. Under Widgets for each role, you can display a list of surveys on the right-hand side of Canvas, with a customized header.
  2. For all roles, choose to display the evaluation start date, due (end) date, days left, and current response rate for the course evaluation.
  3. For Instructors, Teaching Assistants, and Administrators, the Widget will display all the time on their Canvas Course Homepage once the project is deployed.
  4. For Students, the Widget will display on their Canvas Course Homepage and/or Dashboard, show a Completed timestamp after the survey has been submitted, and display for the duration of the survey (through your project or course-level dates).
  5. Clicking on the Widget will automatically take users directly into Course Evaluations & Surveys.

NOTE

Multiple instances of the course will display in the Canvas widget for the user if the course code is the same for courses they are enrolled, ordered in descending order (newest to oldest).

 

Students - Survey Notifications (account-level)

This feature allows the CES Administrator to enable a Survey Notification that automatically displays in courses for only those students with an active survey to take, otherwise the Survey Notification is suppressed and does not display. You can customize your Survey Notification message and functionality. The Survey Notification automatically provides a single sign on button at the bottom of the notification to take the student directly to their survey in Course Evaluations & Surveys.

Canvas_Survey_Notification.png

  1. Show Survey Notification on Canvas Course for Course Evaluation projects: If enabled, when a student accesses their Canvas course the system will check to see if the student has an active survey to take for that course, and if so, your customized survey notification will display along with a LTI link to take the user directly to the survey. If the student does not have a survey to take for the specified course the survey notification does not display.
  2. Show Survey Notification on Canvas Dashboard for Course Evaluation projects (Data Integration courses only: If enabled, when a student accesses their Canvas dashboard the system will check to see if the student has an active survey to take for any course they are enrolled in, and if so, your customized survey notification will display along with a LTI link to take the user directly to the survey. If the student does not have a course evaluation survey to take for any of their courses the survey notification does not display.

    Note: This option will not be available if the user token is generated at the sub-account level in Canvas.
  3. Show Survey Notification on Canvas Dashboard for Non-Public General Survey projects: If enabled, when a student accesses their Canvas dashboard the system will check to see if the student has an active general survey to take, and if so, your customized survey notification will display along with a LTI link to take the user directly to the survey. If the student does not have a general survey to take the survey notification does not display.

NOTE

The Show Survey Notification on Canvas Dashboard for Non-Public General Survey projects does not function if the user token is generated at the sub-account level in Canvas.
  1. Customize the Notification display size and header text.
  2. Customize the Notification body text, with plain text, or you can insert HTML.
  3. Customize the Go To Survey Button Text that displays at the bottom of the Notification and takes the student to the survey for the course.
  4. Do it Later Option
    1. Include a Do it later option. This will include a button at the bottom of the notification allowing the student to click Do it later, which will make the survey notification close and allow the student to interact within their Canvas course. The survey notification will display the next time the student logs into that course, as long as they still have an active survey to take for that course.
    2. Exclude the “Do it later” option will remove this option from the survey notification. This will force the student to go to their surveys before being able to interact within their course in Canvas. This option will lock the student out of the course until they have completed the survey for the course.
    3. Schedule the Do it later option to be removed automatically based on X number of days before your Survey End dates. With this option the system checks against your survey end dates setup in Course Evaluations & Surveys, and will remove this option accordingly, if you have enabled it. Again, once the “Do it later” option is removed, the student will not be able to interact with their Canvas course until they have viewed the survey for that course and taken further action.
    4. Hide Survey Notification on the course Quizzes page, when Do it later is enabled.
  5. Enable the Go Directly to Survey option to allow students to go directly to the survey for their Canvas course. If unchecked, the student will go to their Student Dashboard in Course Evaluations & Surveys.

NOTE

If you would like students in an unpublished course to access the evaluation from within Canvas, enable "Show Survey Notification on Canvas Dashboard for Course Evaluation projects (Data Integration courses only)". Because students cannot access an unpublished course in Canvas, consider enabling this option to allow the Survey Notification to fire on the Canvas Dashboard and provide access for these enrollments.

NOTE

The account-level Student Survey Notification can be overridden by the project-level Student Survey Notification Settings feature, which can be used to customize the notification for a specific project.

TIP

The Survey Notification can help set the expectation with the survey taking process, as well as enforce the evaluation culture at your institution. You can customize the Header and Body of the Survey Notification to help set the expectation up front, avoid confusion and frustration, and ultimately help achieve your response rate goals.

Testing the User Integration

  1. Now that you’ve set up the data and user integration, import your test course and test student into your Course Evaluations & Surveys project, and deploy the project. You can then log in as the test student in Canvas to verify the survey notification is received. Make changes in User Settings to walk through the student experience in real-time.

Add Calendar Items with Links Automatically via API

NOTE

If a course is copied, any existing Canvas Calendar event will also be copied. This could cause a duplicated calendar event that would need to be manually removed from the new course.
  1. You can also elect to automatically add a LTI link to access Course Evaluations & Surveys in student’s calendars in Canvas for all courses within a project. The calendar item and link will automatically display in the calendar on the survey start date scheduled (for either project-level or course-level dates, if added).

  1. Within Course Evaluations & Surveys, navigate to Account > Integrations (section) > Canvas > User Settings tab and scroll down to the bottom of the page to the Canvas Calendar Setup section.
  2. To automatically add calendar items containing a LTI authenticated link in student’s calendars in Canvas for all courses within a project, Click on Enable Calendar items with link.
    1. The calendar item and link will automatically display in the calendar on the survey start date scheduled (for either project-level or course-level dates, if added).

USER INTEGRATION - GLOBAL EXTERNAL TOOL ACCESS LINKS

As an alternative to the user-specific LTI links described above, you can setup this feature if you prefer to add an LTI link globally to ALL of your Canvas courses, and always have the link display in your Canvas courses.

Note: To implement this same process within individual courses, you can follow these steps within an individual course:
  1. Log in to Canvas and select your account under Admin.
  2. Select Apps tab to access the Canvas App Center, and Search for EvaluationKIT, or scroll down to find us and click on our icon.

  3. When you click on EvaluationKIT, select Add App, which displays the following:

  4. To populate the above information, log in as an EvaluationKIT Admin into your EvaluationKIT Account and go to Account > Integrations (section) > LTI.
  5. Verify the Username Parameter Name is custom_canvas_user_login_id.
  6. Copy the Consumer Key from your EvaluationKIT Account and paste it in the Add App box in Canvas where it indicates Consumer Key.
  7. Copy the Shared Secret from your EvaluationKIT Account and paste it in the Add App box in Canvas where it indicates Shared Secret.
  8. Copy the entire URL displayed in the LTI section in your EvaluationKIT Account and paste it in the Add App box in Canvas where it indicates Launch URL.
  9. Click Add App in Canvas.
  10. Within the Canvas External Apps page, click on the Edit option next to EvaluationKIT External Tool and change Privacy setting to Public.
  11. Click Submit in Canvas.
  12. The LTI is now enabled and is displayed in courses.

    Note: In order for students to authenticate across the LTI into a survey a project needs to be deployed containing the course and student info.
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