Instructor Help: Using PowerTeacher Pro in Canvas

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erinhmcmillan
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni
‎09-13-2017 04:59 PM

    Official Canvas Document

This document helps instructors with frequently asked questions and troubleshooting tips when Canvas is integrated with PowerSchool’s PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook.

Preparing Assignments in Canvas

How does the PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook integration work with Canvas assignment groups?

As an instructor, you can open your PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook and then open Canvas to import grading categories. You should mirror your PowerTeacher Pro grading categories in Canvas Assignment Groups to have cross-platform consistency.

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

Canvas passes back any assignment, graded discussion, or quiz that includes a check mark in the Sync to SIS option. This option determines what assignments are sent to PowerSchool. The Sync to SIS option may already be selected for you; Canvas admins can enable an account-level setting that automatically enables all assignments, but you can still manually remove a check mark from any assignment that you do not want to pass back to PowerSchool.

Additionally, Canvas assignments are also subject to the following details:

  • Due dates are required to send an assignment to PowerSchool.
  • All assignment names must be unique or they cannot be identified by PowerSchool. If a Canvas assignment has the same name as already exists in PowerSchool, Canvas will not push data for that assignment to PowerSchool.
  • Canvas assignments assigned to individual students in a course or MasteryPaths via differentiated assignments do not post to PowerSchool. PowerSchool does not support this functionality. Assignments must be assigned for a specific section or for Everyone.
  • Assignment names cannot be longer than 30 characters.

If the SIS Integration feature option is enabled, validation settings can be added to Canvas requiring due dates on assignments and assignment names equal to or less than 30 characters. Talk to your Customer Success Manager about enabling the SIS Integration feature option.

Assignments: Canvas Guides

For help with SIS assignments, see the following Canvas Guides lessons:

SIS functionality is also supported in the following Canvas features:

Syncing Grades

How do I use the Canvas Gradebook?

Canvas does NOT receive any grade-level information from PowerSchool. The Canvas Gradebook should be the source of all additions, changes, etc., that need to be altered in the PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook. Following this best practice allows consistent data flow between systems and accurate data in both systems.

Please be aware of the following behaviors in the Gradebook:

  • If an assignment is scored with a decimal (e.g. 10.5), Canvas passes the entire score to PowerTeacher Pro, but the assignment column only displays the grade as a whole number. Opening the assignment detail in PowerTeacher shows the score with the decimal.
  • If an assignment is scored with an "EX", that will successfully pass to PowerTeacher Pro.
  • Canvas only passes back assignments in courses and/or sections that contain an SIS ID. If your course or section does not include an SIS ID in Course Settings, please contact your Canvas admin.
  • If an assignment is given more points than the total amount of points possible (e.g. 30 points out of 20), Canvas assigns the extra points as extra credit to the corresponding assignment submission in PowerSchool.
  • The Attendance assignment in the Gradebook is not passed back to PowerSchool.
  • The Learning Mastery Gradebook is not passed back to PowerSchool.
  • Canvas does not pass back any weighted assignment information. To weight assignments, you must log into PowerSchool and weight the assignments there.
  • Canvas passes back late designations for assignments but does not pass missing designations.
  • Muted assignments are treated the same way as non-muted assignments. If you do not want to pass back a muted assignment, edit the assignment so the Sync Grades to SIS checkbox is not selected.
  • If an assignment with an identical name already exists in PowerSchool, Canvas does not sync any grades; the assignment information will not be duplicated.

How do I sync grades to PowerSchool?

Canvas supports an API-based integration for the PowerTeacher Pro gradebook. The workflow is as follows:

  • If you are using the legacy Canvas Gradebook, click the Export button and look for Sync to PTP - followed by the name of your institution.
  • If you are using the new Canvas Gradebook, click the Action button and look for Sync to PTP - followed by the name of your institution.

If you don't see an option to sync grades in the Gradebook, please contact your SIS administrator or Canvas Support for assistance.

Grades: Canvas Guides

For help see the following Canvas Guides lesson:

Viewing Grades in PowerSchool

How do I view grades from Canvas in PowerSchool?

To view grades posted from Canvas, you must refresh PowerSchool and open the Gradebook.

  • Grade distribution is a one-way sync from Canvas to PowerSchool:
    • In PowerSchool, if you change the name of an assignment that was previously pushed from Canvas, the connection between PowerSchool and the original Canvas assignment is preserved.
    • In PowerSchool, if you change a category name, the next time you pass back grades, PowerSchool puts assignments in the original category. If you want to create a new category in PowerSchool, you must import the new assignment group in Canvas—PowerSchool always matches the assignment groups imported into Canvas.
    • In PowerSchool, if you change a grade for an assignment that was previously pushed from Canvas, the grade is not reflected in the Canvas Gradebook. The next time grades are pushed to PowerSchool, the grade will be overwritten with the existing grade in the Canvas Gradebook.
    • If you push a Canvas assignment to PowerSchool and later delete the assignment from Canvas, you have to manually delete the assignment from PowerSchool.

How do I sync grades from previous courses?

In order to pass grades to PowerSchool for previous courses, you need to retroactively edit the assignments, quizzes, and/or graded discussions and select the Sync to SIS checkbox in the Assignments page. Then open the Gradebook and click the Sync to PTP - [Your institution’s name] (located in the old Gradebook in the Export button; for the new Gradebook, the Action button).

Note: You may need to contact your main Canvas Admin to be able to make changes in courses where the term has already concluded.

How does changing an instructor's enrollment affect courses in PowerSchool?

When an instructor leaves an existing course, PowerSchool keeps track of the teacher's record and notifies Canvas accordingly. Teachers may leave a course for various reasons, such as if they leave the school for another position, a new teacher is hired, or a teacher is sick and needs to be replaced with a substitute for an indefinite period of time.

When a teacher is unenrolled from a course in PowerSchool, a deletion record is sent to Canvas with the teacher's courses and corresponding student enrollments. When a new teacher is assigned to the course, a new course record is sent to Canvas with new enrollments for the corresponding students. The new course enrollment, however, does not let the new teacher see any of the previous teacher's work, such as grades assigned to previous student submissions. To allow the new teacher to view all prior coursework, an admin needs to crosslist the new sections with the old teacher's courses.

1 Solution

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catherine_carne
Community Participant
‎10-13-2020 04:06 PM

"

"Canvas assignments assigned to individual students in a course or MasteryPaths via differentiated assignments do not post to PowerSchool. PowerSchool does not support this functionality. Assignments must be assigned for a specific section or for Everyone."

This is no longer true. I have assigned mastery paths and individual assignments in Canvas and they appear in PTP with no problems.

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