The information below shows how to pass graded Canvas assignments back to your Student Information System (SIS).
This guide includes three parts:
- Part I - How do I align Canvas assignment groups with SIS categories?
- Part II - How do I set up an assignment to be sent to my SIS?
- Part III - How do I sync grades from Canvas to my SIS grade book?
Part I - How do I align Canvas assignment groups with SIS categories?
Note: For some SIS providers, you can also align Canvas assignment groups by name to your SIS categories. Best practice is to sync Canvas assignment groups to SIS grading categories, but in some cases, you can align assignment groups and SIS categories by using matching names.
*The following steps also apply to Quizzes and graded Discussions.
In Course Navigation, click the Assignments link.
Click the +Assignment (or Quiz or Discussion) button on the right-hand upper corner.
To edit an assignment that has already been created, click the name of the assignment [1] and then click the Edit button [2].
In the assignment details, check the Sync to SIS checkbox. *The SIS label may display the name of your institution's SIS.
The SIS option is not available for Non-Graded assignment types.
*Note: You can also enabled the "Sync to SIS" option directly on the Assignments tab by toggling the "Sync to SIS" checkmark or 'X." See image above.
Click the Save button.
Note: For new assignments, you can click the Save & Publish button.
If you cannot save your assignment and you receive an error message, check for required due dates and/or your assignment name. Due dates can only be assigned to individual sections or Everyone (differentiated assignments by user will not work) for Grade Passback. Long Assignment names (length requirements vary by SIS) may also prevent you from saving the assignment. The error will show which requirement needs to be resolved before the assignment can be enabled to be synced to your SIS. Correct the error then save the assignment again.
Part III - How do I sync grades from Canvas to my SIS gradebook?
In Course Navigation, click the Grades link.
Click the Actions menu and select the option to sync to your SIS.
By default, all your assignment (that are marked as Sync to SIS) grades will be selected to passback to your SIS. If you want only selected assignments to pass to your SIS, deselect the assignments you do not want, or click that box at the top to deselect all, and then select the assignments you want to pass grades back for. Once you have selected your assignments, click the Post Grades button.
Even though you may have selected all assignments for grade passback, only assignments with grades attached will be sent during the sync for creation in your SIS. If you update an assignment in Canvas and would like to update the assignment in your SIS, you'll have to modify at least one score for a student in the gradebook for that assignment for the changes to take place.
After clicking Post Grades, the pop-up will change to say, "Scheduled. Click to see progress." By clicking on "click to see progress" text, you will be redirected within your Canvas course to the Grade Sync tab.
The Grade Sync page is where you can view the status of your grade sync. You can see when you started the sync to your SIS, what stage (out of five) that the process is in, its completion status, as well as how many assignments you sent at a time.
Note: A single score in Canvas is only sent back once during the grade passback process. Updates to Submission Status (None, Late, Missing, or Excused) will not mark the grade/score to be resent to your SIS. To resend a score to your gradebook (with a new Submission Status), you need to update the score of the assignment and Post Grades again (or trigger a Remaster Grade Passback event). You can trigger a Remaster Grade Passback event by going to the Grade Sync tab on the course navigation, and then to Settings. Remaster Grade Passback resends scores, submission statuses and assignment details (for assignments with grades and marked as Sync to SIS) to your SIS.
