Admin FAQ: Canvas and Clever

Canvas has developed an automated integration infrastructure between Clever and the Canvas learning management system. The integration will populate Canvas with requisite data enough to create accounts, terms, courses, sections, and users.

This FAQ document aims to answer the following questions regarding the Canvas and Clever integration.

 

 

Clever Implementation

What is required to implement the Clever integration with Canvas? How long does it take?

The process for implementing the Clever integration with Canvas is simple. If you are interested, just contact your Customer Success Manager or Implementation Consultant and they can schedule time for the implementation.

Clever Requirements:

  • District has signed up with Clever (no fee for districts)
  • District has authorized Clever to share data with Canvas

New customers can be up and running in their test environment within a couple of days. After the customer has verified the data in their test account, Canvas will begin the process of moving the data into production. New customers should expect 2–3 weeks to validate the end-to-end process.

Single Sign-On (SSO) or an LDAP implementation, like Active Directory, is highly recommended. The lack of such a system will lead to a slower implementation process, as user login information will have to be configured via only available API fields.

Note: If you are an existing customer with existing data in Canvas, your implementation may take longer depending on the number of existing IDs in Canvas that need to be mapped to the new Clever API ID. Data accuracy is the responsibility of the customer and will not be validated by an Instructure employee. We are happy to assist with any questions during the process, but the onus of data accuracy and data validation is on the customer. Canvas will not be able to assist with the setup of either the required Clever version or the required HTTPS/SSL certificates. Please contact Clever support directly if you require any assistance with these items.

Which SIS's will work with Clever?

Clever is compatible to sync data via SFTP with all Student Information Systems. For many of the most common SISs, Clever also offers an Auto Sync option. This article lists the SISs for which Auto Sync is available. 

What does the Clever integration process look like?

Canvas' implementation team will lead you through the Clever integration process and will check-in with your team weekly on the status of the integration and of other implementation items. The setup is made up of the following 3 phases:

Phase 1 - Setup

  • Create connection between Clever and Canvas
  • Set configurations for the integration. This includes determining: Course naming convention, fields to pull usernames from within Clever, and course structure in Canvas

Phase 2 - Review Test Data

  • Canvas pushes Clever data to customer's Canvas test environment
  • Customer reviews Clever data in their Canvas test environment and signs off to push to Production

Phase 3 - Data in Production

  • Canvas pushes Clever data to customer's Canvas production environment
  • Customer reviews Clever data in their Canvas production environment

Are there limitations to the Clever integration?

Currently parents are not brought over automatically; however, parents can add themselves as observers to Canvas courses and link their accounts to their students. See .

Clever Data

What information do I need to create in Clever?

The Canvas Clever Sync process will pull the following information from Clever:

  • Users (staff and student accounts)
  • Schools (creates accounts and sub-accounts in Canvas)
  • Terms
  • Courses
  • Sections
  • Enrollments

Note: Any changes to the above data should be managed in the district's SIS and pushed through to Clever. Changes to these fields will automatically be reflected in Canvas upon the next pull of data. Any data created in Canvas subsequent to the Clever integration will NOT be pushed back into Clever.

How frequently is data updated in Canvas from Clever?

Data is usually pulled from Clever once overnight. If necessary, this may be adjusted as per the district’s requirements.

Canvas Assignments and Clever

How does Canvas choose which assignments are passed back to Clever?

Currently, the Clever integration is one way only, so no data is actually transferred from Canvas back to Clever.

 

For more information regarding the Canvas and Clever Integration, please contact your Customer Success Manager.