[ARCHIVED] Google Drive Integration LTI

[gaskinsb]

Our team has created courses using the Google Drive Integration LTI. First of all, our district is Google App district. We are all about Google and every student has a district Google Drive account.  Logically we have built courses pulling content and activities via Google Drive.  We have create Google Cloud Worksheets for activities.  Here is the issue we are having, some students are not able to see the Google Cloud Worksheets while others in the same room see it.  

We have tried clearing the cache in the browser and still these students have the same issue.  

Has anyone else encountered this problem? If so, did you find a resolution.

Bill gaskins

[lekern]

The most common error we have with Google Drive and Canvas is students (and

faculty) who are logged into Google with their personal credentials and not

the school credentials - e.g., John Smith has a jsmith@ucsc.edu identity,

as well as a johnnysmith@gmail.com identity. He is logged into Google as

johnnysmith@gmail.com. When he tries to access something in Google Drive

through Canvas, it will most often fail, since items are commonly shared to

those in the domain "@ucsc.edu". Clearing cache doesn't help if they

authorized Google within Canvas while they were logged into their personal

account.

On Tue, Nov 7, 2017 at 1:47 PM, gaskinsb@bcsdschools.net <

[bogardde]

We've been having an issue that sounds like the one you're describing. Canvas engineers are currently working on it but no resolution has been developed yet. Random students of ours will get double spinning wheels that never end and never result in a copy of the Google Cloud assignment (worksheet). Their Drives are authorized properly and they can see their other Google Drive files from within Canvas with no problem. The worksheet just won't materialize for them. It's frustrating because maybe a half dozen students out of 100 will have the problem and there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to why.

Here's a workaround that I've developed:

(1) Make a copy of the Assignment. (In the copy you'll need to connect that same Google doc again through the External Tool window in the editing screen.)

(2) Assign the copy to the students who are having problems with the original assignment.

(3) Have those students open the copied assignment. So far, we've had 100% success in getting the copy to work for those students.

(4) Now have those students go back to the original assignment and open it. Weirdly, the original assignment should now work for them. 

(5) If you look in their Google Drive, they now will have 2 copies of the worksheet (one from the original assignment and one from the copied assignment). So it may be wise to have them delete the copy that went with the copied assignment to avoid confusion later. The teacher can also delete the copied assignment from Canvas at this point.

Hope this helps!

[dloomis]

We've been having the same issues for weeks with a few random students in a course not able to open a Google Cloud assignment. I'm told by our CSM that engineers are working on it, but since it is so random they aren't able to easily replicate. Be sure to open a case with Canvas support - I'm told the more reports they receive of the problem the higher priority it receives.

[vcarmer]

I've been having the same difficulty.  I also have students who have authorized their Google Drive but the embedded document, slides,... don't show up.  It's just a blank space.  This is happening with like 1 or 2 students in the class only.  I've checked to ensure they are logged in with their school email, and they are, so I'm not sure what to do next.

[bogardde]

 @vcarmer   Try the workaround I described above and let me know if that works for you, too.

[jacobsc]

We have been having the same issues and have been working with our CSM and the engineers to resolve it.  We have tried multiple workarounds, but nothing is fixing it for all students.  

[bogardde]

Hey Everyone, we got word today that Canvas engineers have deployed a fix for this problem. Fingers crossed - we're on Thanksgiving Break right now so we won't know if the fix was successful for us until early next week.

[rswengel]

We are a Chromebook district and while some of our students experience this same issue, our helpdesk folks have discovered that the issue is one of two things:

1.  too many tabs open in the browser

2.  student-installed apps and extensions.  The ones that cause the issue most often are games and multi-media apps / extensions such as music players.  Usually, when these are disabled, everything Google Drive related (and others) functions work fine.

[bogardde]

We also have experienced occasional issues with teachers getting a garbled error page instead of the student's Google cloud assignment image in Speedgrader. We believe that, at least sometimes, it is due to students shutting their chromebooks too fast after submitting, interrupting the submission process. When we've had the student click submit again (and be patient about closing the chromebook) the second submission comes through correctly.

[jenna_townsend]

This has happened within my district in the past, and when we encountered it, it was a problem on Canvas's end. I'm now also interested in seeing if it is caused by shutting a Chromebook too quickly, although I imagine we'd see this a lot more in our district if this were the case. Have you been able to replicate this submission error to verify?

[audra_agnelly]

Is anyone now running into issues using the LTI to add a Google Doc in the RCE or through Google Cloud? When I tested it, I was unable to load a doc into the RCE of a page or an assignment. It gave me a 414 Error-URI too large. This was a 3 line test doc that I've uploaded before. When I used the Google Cloud External Tool to add the document to an assignment, the error message says http_generic_error and that endless circle appears on the screen. 

[bogardde]

We are not seeing those problems currently. Everything seems to be running fairly smoothly here.

[jenna_townsend]

We've had this problem as well, and the following usually fixes it:

1. Visit the user's account settings in Canvas. Unregister Google Drive under "Registered Services."

2. Under "Approved Integrations," delete Canvas.

3. Within the student's Google Drive account, visit "Settings" and then "Manage Apps."

4. Next to Canvas, click "Options" and "Disconnect from Drive."

5. Students will now have to re-authorize Google Drive from the LTI assignment page, or re-register Drive from the user's settings page in Canvas.

As mentioned by others, personal Google accounts also cause a problem. I most often see this issue when students are using Canvas at home--if they have their personal account open/active in any other tab or window within the browser, it'll make Canvas grumpy. For students/families who are heavy Gmail/Drive users at home, I recommend using a different browser for Canvas to keep everything separated.

These two fixes have solved the problem in about 95% of cases!