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Canvas System Dependencies and Configuration

Canvas System Dependencies and Configuration

Canvas is linked to several information systems used elsewhere at Florida Tech. These systems provide Canvas with data about students, instructors, and courses automatically. The data sources Canvas uses are listed below. This information may be useful in determining the source of data errors that show up in Canvas. Most information is processed daily, so changes to source data may take 24 hours to display.

Banner/Access

  • Terms and their respective start and end dates (e.g. Fall 2014)
  • Campus, College, and Subject (e.g. Melbourne, College of Business, Management)
  • Course Codes, CRN, Title, Section, and Instructor (e.g. ASC1000, 54321, University Experience, Section 01, Veronica Giguere)
  • Multiple instructors assigned to individual courses.
  • Student enrollments in courses.
  • Crosslisted courses.

LDAP

  • Name, email, and status (e.g. Eric Donath, edonath@fit.edu, Staff)

CAS

  • Username and password.

faces.fit.edu

  • Student id photos.

assets.fit.edu

  • Campus/college banners.
  • Coming Soon: Profile Badges

SEMTEK

  • Course and student data for Continuing Education programs. (Please contact abasupport@fit.edu for more information.)

How the Data is Used

Canvas uses campus, college, and subject data associated with courses to create a natural hierarchy out of institutional divisions found in Banner. This hierarchy is designed to allow collaboration and control within departments. Departments that would like to make use of this structure should contact Eric Donath (edonath@fit.edu) for more information. Divisions are as follows:

  • Main Campus, Extended Studies, and Special Programs are top-level divisions.
  • Main Campus is divided into colleges, then subjects.
  • Extended Studies is divided into individual campuses, then subjects.
  • Special Programs is a catch-all for courses with unrecognized campus codes.

In Canvas term information is independent of campus divisions. Term codes are standardized in Banner, however the start and end dates can vary on a course-by-course basis. To accommodate for this, term dates are based on the most common dates found in the course catalog, and individual course dates are set to override the term dates. The override dates are found in the course section information and can also be manually set.

Outside of enrollments, Canvas doesn't get user information from Banner. Canvas uses a unique identifier found in both Banner and LDAP to associate course enrollments with TRACKS accounts. User accounts in Canvas do not have a status associated with them. Student and faculty accounts have the same global options by default. Permissions are specific to courses, groups, or organizational units.

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