[ARCHIVED] What are your experiences with Pearson MyLab LTI?

[kate_hill]

I am working with our math faculty to develop online courses, and want to know the experiences and possible tips/tricks/troubleshooting that anyone can share regarding Pearson MyLab products. We are using the Math Lab.

Do your instructors use the Canvas page to take quizzes, view resources, etc. - or - do you put the content into your course separately?

Just looking for some advice, experiences, etc.

[kona]

 @kate_hill ​, I'm building an online course right now that uses MyStatsLab. I've got it integrated so that the MyLabs button shows up in the left navigation, have direct links to the e-textbook and Assignments page, and could have the gradebook linked (MyLabs --> Canvas, but no two-way syncing). Overall what I've found is that myStatsLab really doesn't integrate that well back into Canvas. They *say* they do, but when you dig deeper it's more like they provide a link from Canvas to myLabs so that student's don't have to log in twice, and will send gradebook information to Canvas (yet, it's ugly and doesn't do what I'd like it to do), but otherwise it doesn't seem to really "integrate" with Canvas.

For my particular course I'm using MyLabs for testing and homework, but doing discussions and projects in Canvas. I'm also providing extra instructional content - video, handouts, extra-resources - in Canvas. For the gradebook I'm either going to manually move grades from MyLabs to Canvas or (possibly, fingers-crossed) get our Internet Systems Specialist to do some programming that will move them over automatically for me.

[parde]

I've had an experience similar to Kona's. It "integrates" in the fact that a link appears. I originally hoped that MyStatsLab could be integrated with Canvas quizzes so we could have our online Stats course (one of our few online-only courses) use Respondus Monitor that is integrated with LockDown Browser. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. MyStatsLab quizzes takes you to a different environment... I don't think we're in Canvas anymore!

[kona]

Yep, that's exactly what we experienced! I ended up ditching myStatsLab and doing the quizzing directly in Canvas. It's not the same, but it works!

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi  @kate_hill ​...

I wanted to provide some of my thoughts to your question as well.  Just for some background, the Technical College where I work just recently switched from Pearson eCollege's LearningStudio LMS to Canvas a little more than a year ago.  We had only a few courses (College Math, Pre-Algebra, and Economics) that used an integrated MyLab component.  Since eCollege and MyLabs are both Pearson products, the integration was a seamless, single sign-on experience for instructors and students.  Gradebook syncing also occurred between MyLabs and LearningStudio.  Now that we have made the switch to Canvas, we no longer have the full-blown integrated experience.  We now have what Pearson calls the "kiosk" version of MyLabs (think of this as a free "lite" version of a smartphone app...not having all the bells and whistles that you'd have with a paid app).  For the most part, one of our Economics instructors (jhalter) has been the only person who has been using MyEcon lab inside of Canvas.  But, to my knowledge, his grades do not sync from MyEcon Lab back to Canvas.  I have mainly helped Joe get the initial setup of MyEcon Lab completed so that he can use it in his course.

I'm not sure how far along you are in the setup of the MyLabs LTI component, and I'm not sure if you've seen this video, but I'm going to provide it here for your reference.  It does a pretty good job of telling you how to get the "MyLabs and Mastering" button set up in your Canvas course(s).

Hope this helps!!!

[DaleDrees]

Really good Video  @Chris_Hofer ​ for anyone setting up Pearson in Canvas!!! Thanks for the link!

[snugent]

 @Chris_Hofer ​ Can the MyLab LTI be installed at the course level? Or is via admin only?

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi snugent​...

Looks like it can be installed either at the account level or the course level.  We have it installed at the account level.  If you go here, MyLab & Mastering for Canvas (Standard Integration) | Educators | MyLab & Mastering | Pearson, you'll want to click on the link in the first bulleted item under the heading of "Before you get started".  It's Section 3 on Page 6 that you'll want to read through.

[snugent]

Thanks  @Chris_Hofer ​! That was very helpful. It appears from the documentation the LTI needs to be installed at the admin level first before the instructor can enable it in a Canvas course.

I have related question all in the thread. How do you all support students using the textbook publisher software? We have so many instructors now who are using third-party software for a lot of the instruction now and it is hard to support students with the software.

[Chris_Hofer]

I'm not sure that's totally accurate, snugent.  I *think* that you could technically install the Pearson MyLabs LTI app just to one course...but I'm not exactly sure how that works if you install it to another course.  Do you use the same Consumer Key and Shared Secret?  That's what I'm not sure of.  Most of the LTI apps I've set up for our Technical College have been at the Admin level...so that anyone can use them if they want.

[snugent]

From the documentation I got the feeling it had to be at the account level before the instructor could do anything in a course. We have an instructor who will be using a MyLabs product this fall so I guess I will find out soon.

[awilliams]

This is really hard and the main reason I am really down on third-party LMS-ish systems like this. Every user (faculty, student, dean) expects the local technical support people to get involved with these issues but at least in my experience I can't offer much more than the support number and the willingness to contact support on behalf of faculty and help explain the issue technically.

I have a Resource Center for Faculty course and one of the modules is nothing but documentation and support information for these systems. I am also always trying to meet real human beings at these companies and keep their contact information available in case I need something special (like less than a 48 hour turn-around time).

[snugent]

awilliams​ I agree. We basically tell faculty we can't help them with issues and they need to contact the publisher. It is a bit tricky for us dealing with digital resources because we rent textbooks. In the past it was always an issue on how the codes were doled out to students. Publishers are getting better about that but we want to be sure we keep costs down and that there are no "surprises" in total cost because of the rental policy. I have found that most publishers we have dealt with are quite pushy about getting the integration installed. The Pearson representative did come and show the faculty who adopted the MyLab how to use it but she didn't spend much time on the integration and didn't even really know how it worked.  Thanks for the info on the grades sync. That is definitely useful!

[kona]

I was trying to explain some problems we were having to some Pearson reps and they asked if it might be the *version* of Canvas we were using that was causing the problem....

[snugent]

LOL!  That is too funny!

[kona]

Yeah, they wanted to know if we were using the most recent/updated version... I just laughed and said they must not know much about Canvas!

[awilliams]

Here is that Third-Party Tools module I referred to:

Third-Party Tools

  Third-Party Tools

Published. Click to unpublish Third-Party Tools. Add Content to Third-Party Tools  

• Publishers & Integration

    Publishers & Integration

  Unpublished. Click to publish Publishers & Integration.

    Manage Publishers & Integration
• Publisher Integrations

  Publisher Integrations

  Published. Click to unpublish Publisher Integrations.

    Manage Publisher Integrations
• Pearson MyLabs and Mastering Integration

    Pearson MyLabs and Mastering Integration

  Published. Click to unpublish Pearson MyLabs and Mastering Integration.

    Manage Pearson MyLabs and Mastering Integration
• Pearson Support

    Pearson Support

  Published. Click to unpublish Pearson Support.

    Manage Pearson Support
• @PearsonSupport on Twitter

    @PearsonSupport on Twitter

  Published. Click to unpublish @PearsonSupport on Twitter.

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• Macmillan Launchpad Integration

    Macmillan Launchpad Integration

  Published. Click to unpublish Macmillan Launchpad Integration.

    Manage Macmillan Launchpad Integration
• Macmillan Support

    Macmillan Support

  Published. Click to unpublish Macmillan Support.

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• Mcgraw-Hill Connect Integration

    Mcgraw-Hill Connect Integration

  Published. Click to unpublish Mcgraw-Hill Connect Integration.

    Manage Mcgraw-Hill Connect Integration
• Macgraw-Hill Support

    Macgraw-Hill Support

  Published. Click to unpublish Macgraw-Hill Support .

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• EvaluationKIT

    EvaluationKIT

  Published. Click to unpublish EvaluationKIT.

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• EvaluationKit-View-ProjectResults2014.mp4

    EvaluationKit-View-ProjectResults2014.mp4

    Manage EvaluationKit-View-ProjectResults2014.mp4
• Reading Horizons

    Reading Horizons

  Published. Click to unpublish Reading Horizons.

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• Respondus

    Respondus

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• Starfish

    Starfish

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    Manage Starfish
• SMART Board Training

    SMART Board Training

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• End of Third-Party Tools

    End of Third-Party Tools

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[kona]

 @kate_hill , since there's no right or wrong answer for this question, I'm going to switch it over to a discussion. I'm also going to move it over to the Instructional Designers​ groups to see if you can get more responses.

[DaleDrees]

We have it setup like  @kona  mentioned with the Mylabs button on the left navigation and it basically brings over the gradebook columns for you. We have quite a few faculty who use Pearson and McGraw Hill at our school. We have not had any problems with pairing Pearson to Canvas and the grade sync works very well. Right now the faculty member just needs to manually hit grade sync once the two are paired and select what assignments they want to bring over.

McGraw Hill was giving us quite a bit of problems for a long time and the fix was super easy. We have it setup that you add the McGraw Hill link under modules and then the professor clicks on the link and pairs it to Canvas. If you do not select to load in a new tab it will not allow you to pair McGraw Hill and Canvas let alone sync the grades. Once the load in a new tab is selected it walks you through the pairing and then onto grade sync (manually too).

Also, McGraw Hill will not allow you to do any grade sync with Canvas until a student has gone in and taken a quiz. Once any student goes in and takes a quiz then you can click grade sync and bring the quiz scores over into the Canvas Gradebook (just fyi). I worked with a faculty member for a couple of days on the McGraw Hill integration last week and she is working on typing up some instructions on how to navigate the McGraw Hill setup from the teachers viewpoint and is willing to share if anyone else needs help with McGraw Hill.

[janejump]

This is all great information! To expand on this, how does the integration with the Pearson Labs work with the Canvas app on the mobile devices? I'm working with a faculty member who is part of our 1:1 iPad project. She had no trouble syncing the MyLab with Canvas but found some issues when trying to access the links using the iPad. Using the Safari browser on the iPad worked fine once pop ups and cookies were allowed but she is not getting the links through the Canvas app to work.

[DaleDrees]

Just finished working with a student and he was not able to access the MyLab links using the iPad. Frustrating, will have to contact Pearson to see if anything can be done.

[scottdennis]

I had the same experience when I worked at a community college (over and over)

[josephkwashnak]

Thanks for this discussion. I came to the community to ask about the same questions.  Iv'e been experimenting with integrating MyITLab and Canvas and while I can see the assignments and such in the class, I'm having problems with grade integration. I've chosen a set of assignments to sync and they show up in the gradebook, I'm not finding the test grades coming over back into Canvas. I need to have a few more people test this with me, but has anyone found anything special that is needed to bring the grades in?

Also, when I go to edit the linked assignment (because we weight the assignments differently than the points MyITLab assigns) I need to edit the external link URL.  I've chosen the "MyITLab Grades" from the drop down list, but I'm not sure this is correct. Any thoughts from people who have been successful?

Thank you so very much.

J.J. Kwashnak

[blain_c]

We have had nothing but issues with the My Lab and Mastering. I am the admin and the app was properly added and seemed to be working, but now when our new students are using their brand new codes, it is telling them it is invalid. I have a biology instructor that wants to be able to use this product, but has had nothing but problems. We have tried to get a hold of our rep, corporate and tech support and no one will help us. Any help or advice would be very appreciated!

Christine

[kona]

blain.c​, I had the same problem over the summer and the issue was that the code I was originally given was for the non Canvas integrated version of myStatLab. What worked best was having our students return their purchase to the bookstore and buy access directly through MyStatLab. What other students were able to do was contact StatLab support and support went ahead and gave them the correct code; I'm not sure what it took to do this, the students worked with support themselves.

[awilliams]

We use the "Mylabs and Mastering" LTI as well. As others have said, visually it doesn't do much more than provide links to different parts of our MyLabs and Mastering courses. The main reason for us to use it was grade-sync (since as of this semester faculty are required to have their grades in Canvas) and Single Sign-On. For these two purposes it works relatively well.

There are some cons though.

• Grade sync is not automatic, you have to click a button whenever you want it done.
• When you grade sync, the assignments list in the integration interface is random and this is problematic if you want to save time and just sync the latest few assignments rather than selecting all of them.
• If you sync all assignments the first time they will be in that random order in your Canvas course (and thus the grade book).
• If you are using assignment weights in your MyLabs and Mastering product, these values do not get factored into the Canvas assignment point value. This means the two sets of grades students see will never match and you'll spend a lot of time explaining this. The only two options for fixing this are to not use assignment weights in the MyLabs and Mastering side or do the math recreate the weighting with assignment groups and weighted grades.
• If you have a system of awarding extra credit on assignments through your MyLabs and Mastering grade setup, it won't transfer over to Canvas.
• Pearson Support (need I say more?) Well the front line people can almost never address any issues with the LTI but you still have to go through the motions with them and then hope to get transferred to their LMS Integrations team. Many times they've just had to escalate the ticket and I have to wait until they get back to me (sometime in the next couple of days).

[awilliams]

We just ran into another quirk. If your Pearson credentials change, you have to go through their Level 1 and 2 support just to get to the point where you can file a ticket with the Engineering department to have your Pearson account disconnected from your Canvas account so that you may log in with your new credentials.

Luckily, Canvas is a reasonable software company and provides a work around for this. The user can delete the Pearson access token and the next time they use the integration they will be asked to accept the T&C again and provide new credentials. Disclaimer, I have no idea what this would mean for previously linked courses but I would wager it's not good so don't go deleting your tokens unless you can also live with your Canvas/Mylabs courses becoming disconnected. With that out of the way, here's the relevant guide. How do I obtain an API access token for an account?

[jperkins]

Use this URL, find the webinar called "Engage Students Effectively with MyLab & Mastering by Pearson and Canvas". I can't give the direct link to the webinar, but it is 45min video on how it integrates with Canvas.

[garciah]

I'm integrating MyLab for an Accounting course right now, and I'm wondering if anyone has insight into these two questions:

Can I change the points to 0 points after the grade sync, so that the assignment is extra credit?

Do anyone have any tips for making the MyLab assignments extra credit without using weighted grading?

Thanks!

[jaworskd]

At my institution, every time we have integrated MyMathLab with Canvas, everything seems to work properly except for the deep links.  Everything is there and grade sync is functional; however, the deep links themselves act as if they are broken.  If I click on a MyMathLab homework assignments, the following Canvas error message appears: "couldn't find valid settings for this link" and there is a redirect to the Canvas home page for the course.  Out of curiosity, I compared the actual external link between last semester (now functional course) and this semester (broken course), and both are identical to each other.

We have done this three times (different instructors), and all three times this exact issue has happened.  Do you know how to fix it?  I have an escalated ticket with Pearson Support, but it is a hassle to go through this at the beginning of each semester and not know what must be done to fix the issue once and for all.

[haynes_chewning]

You posted this over a month ago so you may have a solution. However, I recently encountered this problem and identified the cause (at least for us). It doesn't appear to be documented in their guides but this tool depends on the instructor having the LTI add and edit permission in Canvas. If an instructor has that permission, the first time they launch the LTI in their Canvas course Pearson will generate about 10 additional LTI configurations. Pearson creates the new integrations with the instructor's API token (instructors authorize Pearson access to their account the first time they open it).

If, like us, your course roles aren't allowed to add or edit LTIs the new integrations will not be created on launch. Everything will appear to work fine until a user tries to open a synced assignment with a deep link.

[ewest]

Hello Deborah,

Did you ever find a solution for this?

Evan