Echo360 has developed multiple modes of interoperability with the Canvas LMS.
- Add an Echo360 app to provide basic course navigation, allowing you to link your Canvas courses to Echo360 sections.
- ALTERNATELY, you can configure an API integration with Canvas that helps automate the Canvas-to-Echo course linking as well as provides consolidated Analytics for course related media.
- Add an Echo360 app to provide a link directly to the user's Echo360 media library.
- Add an Echo360 app that provides an Echo360 "easy embed" button to all content editor toolbars, giving users an easy method for embedding Echo360 videos into Canvas Pages, Discussions, Assignments, etc.
- Add an Echo360 app that allows Students to respond to Canvas course assignments by posting a video from their Echo360 content library.
The steps below provide a high-level workflow for integrating Echo360 with Canvas, and provide links to more specific articles with more detailed procedures as needed. The procedures in the linked articles are provided as guidelines to the Canvas setup process. Refer to the Canvas documentation for additional details or contact Canvas product support if you need further assistance.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN: You will want to determine if your Echo360 Courses and Sections will be created separately in Echo360 and then linked to through the LMS, OR if you want to enable the simplified One-Click Provisioning feature for your institution. The One-Click course provisioning auto-creates the course and section in Echo360 from the LMS link, using the same course code and name as the LMS. This is designed to accommodate institutions who want to limit administrative involvement in Echo360 management, and use Echo360 primarily as a content management solution for instructor class materials. You can still create capture schedules for the sections, to record and publish lectures, or allow instructors to generate ad hoc captures for their sections, if lecture capture is part of your institution's workflow. Beyond the one-click course provisioning feature, all other LMS integration steps remain essentially the same and are described below.
Step 1: Add a Canvas LMS Configuration in Echo360
This step generates an authentication mechanism, allowing your Canvas instance to talk to your Echo360 instance.
To add a Canvas LMS configuration to Echo360
- As an Echo360 Admin, click the Settings icon (it looks like a gear).
- Select Configurations.
The LMS Configurations page appears by default. - In the right side of the LMS configurations page, click Configurations, as shown below.
- Click Add Configuration, then select Canvas from the drop-down list, and click Save.
A Canvas LMS Configuration appears on the page, as is shown in the below figure. The Key, Secret, and URL field values are the values you will copy and paste into Canvas for ALL of your Echo360 tool configurations.
For more detailed procedures, see Generating LMS/LTI Configuration fields in Echo360.
Step 2: Create Echo360 Apps in Canvas
Canvas uses "Apps" to integrate with external systems. Echo360 strongly recommends that the Echo360 Apps you add to canvas are added at the Account level and NOT at the Course level. Adding Echo360 apps at the Account level make those apps and their functionality available to all courses in the Account. We also recommend that you add separate apps for each feature you want to enable, because having them separate allows you to disable or remove them without affecting the others.
As a Canvas admin, navigate to the Account and select Settings from the options on the left. Then select Apps > View App Configurations.
From the App Configurations page, you will use the + App button to add one or more Echo360 Apps into your Canvas installation, depending on what Echo360 functionality you want to provide to users. ALL Echo360 apps must be added using the By XML method. Refer to the following articles for detailed procedures:
- To allow links from Canvas Courses into Echo360 Sections and Classrooms, create an Echo360 Course Navigation app
- To provide a link for users to access their Echo360 media from within Canvas, create a My Echo360 Library app.
- To provide an Echo360 button for embedding Echo360 videos into Content windows in Canvas, create an Echo360 Editor Button app
- To allow Instructors to generate course Assignments that allow students to submit Echo360 videos as homework assignments, create an Echo360 Homework Submission app.
The different Canvas apps are created using different XML cartridges generated in Echo360. Each Echo360 XML cartridge has a different feature enabled. This is done by using the feature sliders located in the LTI Config tab of the LMS Configuration shown below.
Enable the slider for the app you want to create, disabling the others, then click Save. This generates a new XML Cartridge that you can copy from the XML tab of the LMS Configuration. WE STRONGLY RECOMMEND that you add each app SEPARATELY, generating up to four different XML cartridges to use for creating four different Echo360 apps in Canvas. This allows for later upgrades to EACH without affecting the others. If you need to update an app instead of replacing it, use the Canvas API to update the configuration (replacing the existing XML cartridge with the new one from Echo360).
Step 3: Link Canvas Courses to Echo360 Sections/Classes
This is potentially the most complicated set of steps in the process, because there are several different ways to go about it, depending on whether it's the Admin or the Instructor who executes it, whether the instructor is exporting Echo360 analytic data into their Canvas course gradebook, and whether the Echo360 sections already exist for linking or are created as a process of linking through from Canvas.
Use the links below for more information as needed:
- Creating an Echo360 Course Navigation app automatically generates a link to Echo360 on the left side of each Course page. If instructors are NOT exporting data from Echo360 into their gradebook, this may be the only link you need into Echo360. An admin or an instructor can click this link from each course, and then select the Echo360 Section to show to users.
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ALTERNATELY: If One-Click Course Provisioning is turned on, the initial click-through of this link will auto-create the course and section in Echo360, and you are immediately taken to the main section page. It will be empty (no classes) until an instructor creates one or more classes, launches an ad hoc capture, or an administrator configures a lecture capture schedule for the section.
If an Admin performs this step, that user is then enrolled in the Echo360 section as an Instructor; you may wish to unenroll yourself from these sections later. - If instructors DO want to export Echo360 data into their gradebooks, they should remove the Echo360 App link from the left navigation of each course. It does NOT provide a gradebook column for Echo360 data; it also does not allow Echo360 to open in a separate browser tab.
- To allow Echo360 gradebook exports to Canvas, an admin or an instructor can add one or more Assignments links in the Canvas course, selecting the Echo360 Course Navigation app. Each Assignments link creates a column in the course gradebook that can receive Echo360 student analytics.
- Click the new Assignments link to Echo360 and select the Echo360 Section to show to users OR create multiple assignment links and link to individual classes within an Echo360 section.
- Instructor can direct students to the Assignments page for Echo360 content, OR they can place Assignment links into other course locations (such as Modules) in Canvas.
When a student passes through any course link from Canvas into Echo360, they are automatically enrolled into the Echo360 section as a student. If the student is not yet an Echo360 user, their Echo360 account is automatically created when they pass into Echo360.
Canvas course instructors are automatically enrolled into the Echo360 section as Instructors, if they are not already enrolled. Instructors may also have their Echo360 account created if it does not already exist when they pass into Echo360 from Canvas. See also Disabling Automatic Instructor Creation (for LMS users) if this is not appropriate for your institution.
Canvas Admins who pass into an Echo360 section this way are also enrolled as Instructors into the Echo360 course. See LMS to Echo360 User Role Mappings for additional details.
Step 4: Provide Articles to Instructors and Students as necessary
As noted in Step 3, some or all of those procedures can be done by Instructors or Admins. Once the functionality has been added to Canvas, let instructors and students know how to take advantage of it.
- If Instructors are responsible for linking into Echo360 from their Canvas Courses, be sure to provide them with the proper procedures for doing so.
- If you are providing a link to their Echo360 Library, let them know what the link does and then how to navigate their Library and use the media located there.
- If your instructors are going to be exporting Echo360 student engagement analytics into their Canvas Gradebook, be certain they are configuring their section links properly (as Assignments, even if the links themselves are placed elsewhere in the course).
- If you have added an Editor Toolbar button for Instructors and/or Students, be sure they have instructions for embedding videos into Canvas content windows.
- If you have added a Homework assignments app, be sure instructors have the instructions needed to both create assignments that accept Echo360 video submissions, and students have the instructions necessary for submitting their Echo360 videos as homework assignments.