Ellucian ILP v5 - Colleague -> Canvas

[univsys]

I am researching ILP v5 to see what the pros/cons are. We're currently using informer to generate CSV files which we then upload via SFTP to Canvas. I've roughly implemented posting the CSV files to canvas, but I like how the SFTP upload sends us an email summary at the end of processing. It seems to process the files on the half-hour, so rather than reinvent the wheel with the email summary we're currently leaning towards keeping the status quo. However, if ILP will push data real-time and handle a large percentage of our needs, we may implement it.

From the posts I've read, it sounds as if we need to implement Publisher/Subscriber flavor of Ethos Integration, and not just the Proxy API. I just can't imagine how ILP would be listening for changes to push over otherwise.

It also sounds like we may still need to push in some CSV SIS Imports for blueprints and employee accounts using our current methods. Unless something has changed, I don't believe that ILP pushes over employee accounts. Only students and faculty.

A few questions that I have are found below. Some have been answered in eCommunities with regards to v4.

• Is it possible to assign blueprints to courses using ILP? Or would this be another supplemental SIS CSV import?
• Does ILP un-sticky fields in its API calls?
• How does ILP handle sub accounts?
  • From what a colleague told me, v4 creates sub accounts based upon department the section is in.
  • Are we able to pick and choose which departments get sub accounts?
• Our Course IDs in canvas are SEC.NAME_SEC.TERM, but it sounds like ILP uses the actual COURSE.ID as the identifier. Is this configurable?
  • From what a colleague told me, this is not configurable in ILP v4.
  • From this post it looks like course title is configurable (https://community.canvaslms.com/message/156309-canvas-and-ellucians-ilp )
• I've read that cross-listing is an issue with ILP, where it merges all sections into a single course instead of cross listing the sections in Canvas like we're used to. Is this still the case?
• From what I've read, employees aren't brought over via the sync. It only pushes Faculty and Students. I suppose that we'll still need to supplement with a custom SIS import?
• Does grading via ILP forces you to do grading on the Canvas side? Or can you do a mixture of both? Will grades entered into Colleague push over to Canvas?
  • A colleague replied that in v4, Canvas -> Colleague works one way with regards to grades.
  • Does your institution use Canvas' anonymous grading? Does this play well with ILP?
• How much time did it take to get Ethos Integration Services running? Did you have to do a lot of data cleanup?
• How much time did it take to implement and get ILP up and running?
• Any *gotchas* to look out for?
• As usual, any lessons learned, recommendations, issues encountered, business process changes, etc?
• Very interested to hear about your experience with v5 so far.

[univsys]

Wanted to comment on a recent finding. I've been researching issues relating to JIT provisioning via ADFS and SIS Canvas imports. The response from an SIS tech last September stated that:

To begin, your understanding of 'sticky' fields is correct. It is important to note that the login_id field is also sticky, so if it is ever modified in the UI or through the API, a normal SIS Import cannot affect it. You can send an import with 'Override UI changes' to override these, and can add 'Clear UI changed state' to those types of imports to also 'clear' that sticky status so normal SIS Imports can affect those fields again.

......

I am not entirely certain what the JIT provisioning system would do if you send a 'new' login_id and an existing SIS ID, but I would suspect it should attach to that User. Depending on whether JIT provisioning changes are considered API changes (and thus sticky), you still may or may not want this to occur.

So it sounds like API calls result in the fields they touch becoming "sticky". Which answers my second bullet: "Does ILP un-sticky fields in its API calls?"

[univsys]

kona@richland.edu‌ Can you share this to developers as well?

[Stefanie]

univsys@widener.edu‌, I've shared this into the Canvas Developers group on your behalf. For future reference, anyone who creates a piece of content can use the Share button at the upper right of the page to share the content into any other group of which they're a member.

[bocallaghanhay]

Just to clarify:  Does ILP v5  push grades from Canvas to Colleague?

[univsys]

Yup, that's my understanding. Final grade and the instructor can manually type in the last date of attendance to push over.

[univsys]

Ah ha! Thank you. I wasn't a member before, so that's why I didn't see the option. Appreciate it!