When schools adopt technology, they typically do so to improve their operational efficiency or alleviate the workload of faculty and staff. Often, schools end up with a menagerie of point solutions, and managing those various systems becomes time-consuming for faculty and staff.
Luckily, integrating systems can help alleviate point solution overload.
What is integration exactly? It is the ability for two separate technology systems to interact and work together instead of as separate point solutions. Through integration, systems are essentially communicating and sharing data with one another on a consistent basis, eliminating the need for staff to spend time keeping each separate system up to date.
CourseKey’s career education platform offers integrations with the leading SIS and LMS providers, but this post will focus specifically on its integration with Canvas.
Canvas is a versatile, web-based software that allows institutions to manage digital learning, gives educators the ability to create and present online learning materials and assess student learning, and enables students to engage in courses and receive feedback about skill development and comprehension.
Many institutions that use Canvas have chosen to leverage CourseKey alongside it to handle attendance collection. Through CourseKey’s integration with Canvas, institutions can engage in holistic learning data collection and course management through integrated platforms.
Leverage Single Sign-On
CourseKey’s integration with Canvas leverages Single Sign-On, a feature that allows users to sign in to a system once and be logged in to any other integrated software. This gives students the ability to log in to Canvas and be automatically authenticated and logged in to CourseKey. Only needing to log in once creates a seamless user experience across Canvas and CourseKey.
Auto-Pair Students To Courses
With single sign-on authenticating students in Canvas, administrators can automatically pair students to their courses when modules first start.
Pairing students with their courses in separate systems is typically a manual process that is incredibly time consuming and can be prone to error. Admins spend hours cross referencing course lists to make sure students are paired with the correct course. By leveraging CourseKey to automatically map students to their courses, admins can save hours of time and improve accuracy.
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Collect Live Online Course Attendance
Live online learning has become a leading course model for institutions around the country, either through blended learning or fully online courses. Despite students learning remotely, attendance is still a vital component to both their progression through their programs and to the operations of the institution.
Institutions using Canvas often handle attendance management outside of the LMS, forcing instructors to use multiple systems each class session. But through CourseKey’s integration with Canvas, Instructors can collect attendance without needing to leave the Canvas portal.
Instructors can run CourseKey attendance two ways within Canvas:
- Students check themselves in through the CourseKey app on their mobile devices and instructors conduct “spot checks” throughout the class to make sure the students are staying fully engaged.
- As students enter the virtual classroom (through Zoom, for example) instructors can check them in to class through CourseKey with the click of a button.
By managing attendance in a single system, instructors can see which students are attending classes in real-time, similar to the visibility they used to have when classes were on-ground. In cases of blended learning, admins can see attendance for on-ground and online courses in real-time through centralized admin dashboards in the CourseKey platform.
Seamlessly Transfer Data To SIS
The integration CourseKey has with Canvas can be taken a step further by integrating CourseKey with the SIS in addition to the LMS. By leveraging CourseKey as the liaison between Canvas and an SIS, schools can experience a seamless data transfer from one system to another.
Through integration with an SIS, administrators are spared the extra steps of manually entering student data from Canvas into the SIS. Instead, they can focus on other tasks they have to accomplish while being confident that the data is being uploaded to the systems that require it. What’s more, data is sent within a matter of seconds, updating student records instantly and letting admins start processes like creating LDA reports and reaching out to at-risk students.
Focus On Teaching
Giving instructors the ability to conduct all virtual classroom operations, including tracking attendance, from a single place spares them the hassle of bouncing from one platform to another to perform basic tasks. Instead, it lets them focus on teaching the course and on student comprehension.
Through the Canvas and CourseKey integration, instructors can easily collect attendance in live online courses in the Canvas environment, take advantage of single-sign on and automatic student to course pairing, and seamlessly transfer data to their SIS.
All in all, CourseKey’s Canvas integration enables faculty and staff to drastically increase efficiency and have a more seamless experience in virtual classrooms.
If you’d like to learn more about the various integrations that CourseKey offers and how your school can benefit, fill out the form below to talk with a member of the CourseKey team.
