A Few Questions Regarding External Tools

[AndrewImmersion]

Hi Everyone!

We are in the process of starting a new school, and we will be using Edmentum Courseware for our curriculum and building it into Canvas.  I’ve already set up the LTI link between the two, and I’m able to populate content into Canvas using either the Common Cartridge/External Tool method (both of which embed the items as External Tools), or by creating individual assignments then selecting “External Tool” in the “Submission Type” dropdown.  The latter enables grades for completed items to “push” from Edmentum into the associated Canvas assignment, which is ideal (since we’ll be using the Canvas grade book).  However, creating new Assignment for each Courseware item is proving to be very time-consuming.

So I’m wondering if there is a way to do the Common Cartridge method (effectively uploading all content from the Courseware course in one fell swoop) and somehow get the grades to reflect in the Canvas grade book.  As of now, since Courseware items populate as External Tools when using the Common Cartridge method, they don’t include point values or show up as Assignments in the Canvas grade book.  Is there a way to set it up so they appear as Assignments (with point values) instead of External Tools?

On a possibly-related note, our hope is to create “Template” courses in Canvas, with all Courseware activities linked and organized into modules based on our classes’ allotted session count, then create a new copy of the Template course for each new class that’s started.  However, I’m finding that when I make a copy of a course in Canvas for which I have previously embedded Courseware content (regardless of which method I used to embed it), module items in the new copy do not link to the Courseware activities to which they were linked in the original Template course: instead, opening a given module item takes me to the Courseware “Select a Resource” screen and requires me to find and re-link the appropriate Courseware activity.  Is there a way that I can set it up so that a module item in a new copy of a course will automatically link to the Courseware activity to which that same module item was linked in the Template course?

Whew!  I know that was a lot—but I would very much appreciate any insights you all can provide!  For what it’s worth, I did reach out to Edmentum with these questions, but they didn’t seem to have any concrete guidance (at least immediately).  So I’m hoping against hope that someone out there has navigated this process themselves and can help shed some light.

Thanks in advance for your consideration!!

[JeffW · Accepted solution]

Hi @AndrewImmersion!

Thanks for taking the time to reach out in the Canvas Community. 

From personal experience I know that LTI's often don't translate properly when being copied between courses. I personally have always had to re-link most content. That can be an issue when setting up a template like you mentioned. 

I would recommend reaching out to Canvas Support to see if they have any insight as to how the elements of the Common Cartridge might be added to the course as assignments. I suspect that some part of it depends on how it's set up by the developer.