This advanced article explains how to integrate a multi-section Canvas course or multiple Canvas courses with an Edfinity coordinated course (one coordinator section and multiple member sections). This article assumes:
- You are already familiar with how to integrate Edfinity and Canvas. If necessary, please read Integrating Canvas with Edfinity first.
- You have already set up a coordinated course. See Getting started with coordinated (multi-section) courses for more information.
Use case 1: Integrating with multiple Canvas courses
If you have multiple instructors, each with their own Canvas course, please read and follow these instructions carefully to ensure that the integration works properly.
- Create your Canvas course and child sections. Students should only be enrolled in one Canvas section at a time.
- Create your Edfinity coordinator section.
- Create one Edfinity member section for each Canvas course. See Creating a member section in a coordinated course for more information.
- In each Canvas course, create deep links to the appropriate member section. Do not create deep links to the coordinated course. You have the option of passing back individual grades (default) or a single course-level grade. See Integrating Canvas with Edfinity for more information.
Use case 2: Integrating with a Canvas course that has multiple sections
Canvas supports adding multiple sections to a single course. Course content and grade book are the same for all sections. Students enroll in child sections and can be transferred easily among them. Edfinity supports a similar configuration with coordinated courses. A coordinated course allows each instructor to use the same assignments while managing their own member section(s) within Edfinity with distinct student rosters and assignment availability.
If you have a Canvas course with multiple sections, you can set up a coordinated course within Edfinity that mirrors your Canvas course structure. This lets students easily enroll in the right Edfinity section, and makes it possible to synchronize Canvas section transfers in Edfinity so that student work and grades are preserved.
If you have a single Canvas course with multiple sections, please carefully read and follow these instructions to ensure that the integration works properly.
- If your administrator configured your Edfinity external tool app before July 20, 2021, you will need to have your LMS administrator edit the app settings:
- Edit the Edfinity app.
- Under Custom Fields, add: section_name=$com.instructure.User.sectionNames
- Create your Canvas course and child sections. Students should only be enrolled in one Canvas section at a time.
- Create your Edfinity coordinated section.
- Create one Edfinity member section for each Canvas section. See Creating a member section in a coordinated course for more information.
- Ensure that Canvas section names and Edfinity member section names match exactly. This allows Edfinity to match students coming from your Canvas course to the right Edfinity member section.
- Create deep links to your Edfinity coordinated course from your Canvas course. Do not create deep links to member courses. You have the option of passing back individual grades (default) or a single course-level grade. See Integrating Canvas with Edfinity for more information.
Transferring a student between member sections
To transfer a student between sections:
- Within Canvas, if you are transferring between courses, enroll the student in the new course. If you are transferring between sections, move the student to the new section.
- Within Edfinity, transfer the student to the corresponding member section. See Transferring a student to a different member section in a coordinated course for more information.
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Note: If you have configured Edfinity to pass back individual assignment grades and you are configured using Use Case 1 above, you will need to take additional steps to ensure all grades are transferred.
- You will need to export and re-import the student's grades between courses in Canvas.
- Alternatively, you can ask the student to revisit each of their assignments by clicking on the deep links from Canvas. This will cause Edfinity to re-post the student's grades to the new course.
The above process ensures that all student work is preserved after the transfer is completed.