Canvas - Course Workflow

The Canvas LMS integration provides a range of options for what 'Workflow' will best suit your administrative needs for managing the SMS and LMS data relationship. This article will work to clarify the Course Workflow.

This Canvas Workflow works by pushing across students from enrolled courses into Courses in Canvas.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Explanation of Workflow Purpose/Design
• Course Workflow Terminology
• Workflow Configuration
• How to Trigger Course Workflow
• Course Workflow Field Mapping
• Visual Examples of Course Workflow Mapping

Explanation of Workflow Purpose/Design

Each course in Plus will be mapped across to a single Course setup in Canvas in a 1:1 relationship.

Assignments within the course will be required to be completed to return the result back into Plus.

An example of this setup can be viewed below:

The ideal use case of the Course Workflow is when all of the units required for a completed qualification are contained to a single course. Using the Course Workflow allows you to complete qualifications one by one – making it easy to determine enrolment completions.

The Course Workflow will map to the SMS as shown in the below diagram:

Course Workflow Terminology

The terminology in the Canvas Course Workflow matches up to data in the system as follows:

Workflow Configuration

As part of Configuring Your Canvas Workflow, you will be prompted to enter details based off the workflow method selected. This will appear like so:

There are some unique fields to be configured/reviewed in this area, including:

• Transfer Outcomes to - This is the completed Outcome – in most cases this should be “Competent”.
• Update outcome if current outcome is blank or - This will determine what outcomes are allowed to become Completed or which outcomes can be updated by the next dropdown.
• Update unit/subjects after first graded assignment to - This will determine the outcome that’s selected when a student starts an assignment on Canvas.
• Populate start date with- This can either be Canvas push date or First Assignment Completed Date
  • Special note: “First assessment Completed” will only update based on a grade being passed through the integration for a particular assignment. Assignments that are started by a student, but not graded, will not update with this value. 
• Results last transferred at - This field will update once a Result Transfer has occurred, displaying the details of when that process took place.
• Only transfer results greater than or equal to- This is the percentage value that determines if an assignment qualifies for being a completed passed grade.
  • Special note: The total % on the Canvas grading page does not reflect to the passed to grade score set in the above field. On Canvas the total % simply reflects the score that the student has received for the assignments they have actually started.
• Last Outcomes Transfer Request at - This field will update once a Outcome Transfer Request  has occurred, displaying the details of when that process took place.

How to Trigger Course Workflow

The Course Based workflow is triggered whenever an enrolment is created. The Plus enrolment will become a single Student Enrolment in Canvas. No units are pushed.

The Party is exported as a Canvas user. A first request is made to check if the user already exists in Canvas, if it doesn't, we push the new user, if it does exist, we don't update it.

Once an enrolment is pushed across from Plus to Canvas a Course Section will be created based on the enrolled course on Plus.

Course Workflow Field Mapping

• Party ID is the SIS ID and Integration ID in Canvas (for a user) 
• Course Scope (Program) Code matches a Course SIS ID in Canvas (found under Course Details). 
• Course Trainer is exported as a Canvas user. 

Visual Examples of Course Workflow Mapping

• Course Details Visual Mapping
  
• Course Section Visual Mapping
  
• Assignment Visual Mapping