Sync Back & Forth btw Rediker and Canvas

[djoubert]

Though Clever was thrown out there, I need to make sure Rediker and Canvas sync regularly.  Does anyone know the steps to take to ensure this happens?

Thanks, in advance, for any help.

Doug Joubert, Director of Technology

Christian Brothers School, NOLA

djoubert@cbs-no.org

[jchalfant]

Hi Doug,

We worked with John Lynch @ Rediker to develop a custom export that produces users.csv and enrollments.csv. These files are then picked up by the Canvas CSV Gateway and pulled into Canvas. We made the conscious decision to NOT try to automate courses.csv or sections.csv. These are mostly one-time touches each year and didn't seem worth the cost, effort, or risk to automate these.

Our superstar Implementation Consultant  @eamodt1 ​ did a lot of work on this integration. If you want to know more, he or another member of his team may be able to help.

We can't pop the champagne cork just yet as we are doing the final testing today. I will try to remember to update here once we have completed testing.

-J

[emily_beckman]

 @jchalfant  -

How do you handle schedule/enrollment changes once the school year had started? We are a month into the year and we still have schedule changes. I'm just wondering if you are using the Drop/Add log and creating your own import file or if you have some report created in Rediker that will get you exactly what you need. We use the Drop/Add report and then have been using active, deleted and inactive for the new enrollment types for those that have changed their schedules.

-Emily

[jchalfant]

Hello Emily,

We are using a custom (paid) Rediker script and the Canvas CSV Gateway which gets us pretty much what we want. In brief, the process is:

· AdminPlus server runs a daily scheduled task to call an AdminPlus executable.

· That executable queries the AdminPlus DB and exports the enrollments.csv file on the local file system and at an FTP site hosted by Rediker. (The file format follows the SIS Import specification.)

· Canvas CSV Gateway also runs a daily scheduled job to pull the CSV from the FTP site and upload into Canvas, very similar to the SIS import

· The import is treated as an absolute reference – any missing records from enrollments.csv will be interpreted as drops

This has worked pretty well. There was a short hiccup where the Canvas process stopped. But they got that running again right away. Otherwise, it handles course enrollment changes really well. Note that we handle all student account creations and suspension (for students who come to or leave the school in the middle of the term.)

We developed this in conjunction with John Lynch of Rediker and our Elijah Amodt of Instructure. I’ve copied them in case you are interested in pursuing this approach.

Can you tell me more about your process and the Drop/Add report? I could not find that report.

Best,

-J

[emily_beckman]

@jchalfant Do you remember what custom code/set-up you had John at Rediker create. When I met with him in the fall he didn't think we can get the settings to match the below Course and Section SIS settings. I'll be out on leave at the end of summer and for the first month of school so I really need to get this working correctly or we will continue to do things by hand/excel.

Course SIS: CRS#:Term-TeacherLN

Section SIS: CRS#-Section#:Term-TeacherLN

Is this still what you are using for your Course and Section SIS.

How and where are you putting the Term information into Rediker so that pulls into their export?

-Emily

[jchalfant]

Hi Emily,

I double checked with John Lynch about how we set this up. Ours is very similar to yours so I think John has a solution for you.

He said he would reach out to you soon.

Hope this helps!

-J

[djoubert]

Jay,

Rediker says Clever will take Rediker data and send it to Canvas accurately.  We'll find out, I guess.

Meanwhile, Rediker is trying to push something called an LMS Import Tool on us.  They say it will import Canvas grades to Rediker just with a few touches of a button on the Rediker side.

Have you heard of this?

 @emily_beckman ​

[jchalfant]

Hello Emily,

I haven’t heard about the LMS Import Tool.

Please keep me posted on how this and Clever work for you. I’m eager to know.

Best,

-J

[djoubert]

Jay,

Sorry.  I put  @emily_beckman  name in the wrong spot.  I meant to put it in the middle of the email, because she and I have been having Rediker and Canvas discussions for a while.

In the meantime, Rediker just gave me pricing for the LMS Import Tool: $3,400.00 for the first year, then $1,600.00 every year after.  I almost choked on my gumbo!  I emailed my sales person back and told her thanks, but no thanks.

It looks like we're going to do what  @emily_beckman ​ does at her school: Use Rediker's TeacherPlus Gradebook when ever grades need to be sent from Canvas.  We do mid-quarter and end-of-quarter grades.  So, we'll do the same as Emily (unless someone has figured out a better way): have teachers create one column in the quarter and enter the average from Canvas into that column.

If anyone has anything different they do, please let me know.

Doug Joubert, Director of Technology

Christian Brothers School, NOLA

[emily_beckman]

Doug --

 @jchalfant ​ has some information regarding importing grades from Canvas into Rediker that you might like to know about. It might save your teachers time.

Can a teacher import an excel file into their Rediker gradebook? If so that could be another option so teachers don't have to hand enter grades for all their students (for us that's about 125 kids).

-Emily

[MolliePage]

 @jchalfant @emily_beckman @djoubert 

We are adopting Canvas this summer and are using Rediker as our SIS.  We are still unclear on the options for connecting between Canvas and Rediker.  We are pretty sure we can get Clever connecting the two, but we would like to be able to do regular updates with drop/add and hopefully grade passback.  We would love any ideas, tips, suggestions!

Thank you!

Mollie

mpage@eastsidecatholic.org