External Tool for EAB Student Success Collaborative

[lblack]

Are any of you using this program/ It would be great to have it linked to Canvas.

[tdelillo]

Hi  @lblack ‌ - It looks like we are starting to use EAB Navigate. Is that the same thing? I actually searched the Community looking to see if anyone had shared anything about it and found this thread. Did you find a way to link it to Canvas?

[rake_9]

We are using it.  If I recall, at the beginning of Ohio State's roll-out a year or so ago, we had a conversation about integration.  The vendor was beginning to think about this.  I am checking the community again to see if anything has changed!

[kona]

 @tdelillo  &  @rake_9 , my College is looking at EAB. Did you ever find out if they integrate with Canvas? Also, how is EAB working on your campus? Do your faculty like it/use it?

Thanks! Kona

[tdelillo]

Our institution implemented EAB Navigate recently, but since no one has contacted me about integrating it with Canvas, I assume there is not an integration. Also, it was implemented by our Student Success division so I haven't been involved at all and haven't heard any feedback yet.

[kona]

Got it! Thank you!

[rake_9]

This is also a student success project at Ohio State. I think of it primarily as an advising tool; that group hasn't been in touch with us after some initial conversations establishing the lack of an integration.  OSU has evidently branded it OnCourse: What is OnCourse | OnCourse 

[hortmank]

We are looking into EAB for retention software, can anyone update me on the integration with Canvas?

[meichin]

We would also like to be in the loop if Navigate integrates into Canvas.  Also, if anyone has developed a marketing campaign for getting students to download the app, please share!!!!

[jillmallek]

We've been using EAB for a few years now. When they were on our campus last year I talked to them about a Canvas integration. They said the only integrations they knew about had been homebrewed - but I thought I'd look to see if there was anything new on it (which is how I ended up here).

[nbarnes]

We are a new EAB customer and are just now implementing the integration piece where "assignments/enrollment assignments/enrollment activities/last login to LMS" data is extracted and pushed into EAB.  Initially we were told that the account used for this integration would only need: Read Course List (read_course_list), View All Grades (view_all_grades), and Read SIS (read_sis).  But once we created the user, we were then told that "They ran into an issue with the provided token because the token does not include the root Account Admin role in Canvas".  I am thinking this would essentially give the user access to do anything in Canvas - am I wrong about that?  I'm curious if other universities have done this integration and if so, what privs did you end up giving this user?

Thank you in advance.

[chriscas]

Hi @nbarnes,

You're not wrong that giving a token for a root admin account would let any person/system with that token do pretty much anything they wanted to in your Canvas instance, which you rightly want to avoid!

We used to be an EAB customer as well and tested their first attempt at a Canvas integration years ago.  I know I had it working with a more limited admin role, but one that was done at thew root account.  Unfortunately, we haven't been EAB customers in a while and I have since deleted the role and account from our Canvas.

One thing you could verify is that you have the user account associated with the token as an admin for the root account and not just a subaccount.  Being an admin in a subaccount only will trip up some of the calls these sorts of integrations do, and their wording might just mean they need some root access, not to be a full root admin (the language is a bit ambiguous).

-Chris

[nbarnes]

Thank you, Chris!  Well, I thought I was certain that I wasn't in a subaccount when I created the token... Is it safe to assume that account 1 (i.e. https://canvas.<university>.edu/accounts/1 ) is the root account?

I'm surprised that a vendor would expect a university to grant this kind of all-encompassing access in order to integrate, but hopeful we can figure out another way that doesn't push our project too far behind.

[chriscas]

Hi @nbarnes,

I've never seen an account "1" that wasn't a root account, so I think your assumption is correct.  On the flip side though (for curious users that may happen upon this thread), there are definitely root accounts that are not "1".  The root account for my institution's instance happens to be "134".

One agonizing approach you could take would be to create a custom "EAB" admin role, starting it with full permissions.  Ensure that works correctly with EAB.  Then one-by-one (or maybe a few at a time) start modifying the permissions for that role, taking away things you don't want it to have (or things you feel it shouldn't need).  Wait a few hours for the permission caching, then verify the EAB integration is still working.  Repeat until the integration breaks, which means you've identified at least one of the permissions it absolutely has to have to function.  Does this make sense to you?

Ideally, EAB would be able to tell you the exact API calls they are doing so you could look up which permissions are needed for them.  At this point, vendors asking for a full root account API ley to function are going to face heavy scrutiny before we'd even consider installing them at my institution.  They are unlikely to get approval unless we hear a very compelling argument form the application vendor.

-Chris