Office 365 Integration

[petern]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

If Microsoft Office 365 was an integrated web service, these two features could be implemented:

1. Homework submissions from Office 365's OneDrive
2. Collaboration using Office Web Apps - Word

  Comments from Instructure...

Canvas Release: Microsoft Office 365 LTI

[achiao]

Hi Peter -

I apologize in advance if I am missing something here. There is a current Microsoft 365 integration that allows students to submit homework from their One Drive. You can go here in the Edu App Center to find more information about the integration. Hope that is helpful!

Thanks!

Agnes

[petern]

Hi Agnes,

Thanks for the reply. Yes you're right.  However, based on the comments for that app, students would have to enter their office 365 credentials in every time they want to submit homework. It doesn't provide collaboration features either.

[macaulayl]

Especially now that Etherpad is going away soon, per this week's notes, schools that are not Google Apps for Education schools, but instead are using Offce365 will want the seamless integration with Office365 (Word) for the Collaborations button.  Honestly, now that Etherpad is gone, and without Office365 as a collaborations option, that button in the Canvas interface is worthless to us.

[jchavarie]

In agreement with Linda - the current option of Google Apps or nothing, leaves us with nothing.

[GideonWilliams]

What if I use Office365 for single sign on to Canvas? Would I need to sign in/out every time when submitting? As per Linda, would like to see a Office365 collaborations option as it offers a more mature and effective manner for collaborting. Etherpad is great but not a favourite with students beyond starter/plenary tasks.

[petern]

Good point Gideon. We're using office 365 for single sign on to canvas next year. Office365 online is becoming much more mature.

[kedgecomb]

Yes, we just started using Office365.  This would be a great integration with our institution. 

[DRBROOKS]

This is understandable. Many students may not be aware of the built in comment/review feature in Microsoft Word. If Canvas is integrated with Office 365 and OneDrive, wouldn't privacy be an issue? A way to isolate the files that need collaboration would probably be necessary.

[karl]

I can't talk on behalf of the Canvas Product Team, but I can provide some insight into ongoing efforts we are working with Microsoft from a partnerships perspective. We have been heavily engaged with the Microsoft Education, Office Mix, OneNote and the Office 365 teams this year. They recently joined our Partner Program as a Premier Partner and we are actively consulting with their product teams regarding LMS integration and IMS standards.

In December, we released the OneDrive for Business Homework Submission LTI application. At InstructureCon, the Office Mix team announced LTI support for Office Mix and recently the OneNote team released a v1 of LTI support for OneNote to Edu App Center. I've also reviewed recent documentation released to support the office web app for the Office 365 for Business/Education and passed that on to the Canvas Product Team for review. I fully expect these offerings to evolve to provide more functionality as LTI services and the integrations themselves mature.

From Canvas' perspective, I would say we're in early discovery phases right now as Microsoft strengthens their services as a Platform to enhance integration/interoperability opportunities. Internally, we are reviewing many opportunities of where and how we can integrate including collaborations, etc.

There should be an official Canvas Product Manager commenting soon who may be able to provide more information regarding collaboration possibilities.

[GideonWilliams]

Fantastic and exciting news Karl and thank you so much for taking the time to explain where everyone is at…