CourseKey (Attendance)

About CourseKey Integration

CourseKey is a third-party vendor specializing in recording student attendance. Campus Cafe offers an integration with CourseKey to facilitate the transfer of information between the two systems. Customers are responsible for contracting with CourseKey directly.

This process integrates courses, students, instructors and enrollments from Campus Cafe to CourseKey. As students are enrolled in courses in Campus Cafe, they will be enrolled in the corresponding CourseKey course. As instructors are assigned to courses in Campus Cafe, they will be assigned to the corresponding course in CourseKey. The process will create in CourseKey students and users who do not exist already in the system.

The process also retrieves attendance from CourseKey and imports it into the Campus Cafe attendance module.

Prerequisites

  • Contact CourseKey to obtain your School IDs, Auth Keys and Time Zones for each set

  • Establish course sites in Campus Cafe using STParm RCCONO if you do not have sites set up already.

  • All courses must have an associated course site in Campus Cafe

 

Cautions

  • For a single attendance record that spans multiple days, Campus Cafe will record only the total time attended, not the days.

  • Customers are discouraged from manually setting a student's individual course last day attended in Campus Cafe and instead allowing the connection to CourseKey to determine the last day attended. Manually adjusting the last day attended in Campus Cafe will delete attendance records after that date in Campus Cafe but not in CourseKey thereby creating a mismatch between systems.

Campus Cafe STParm Configuration

CourseKey Attendance Names (also known as Delivery Method or Attendance Config) must be established in Campus Cafe. Attendance Names are associated with individual Campus Cafe course sections.

  1. Navigate to Admin > STParm

  2. Locate Parameter Code RGENCD to view a list of existing CourseKey attendance names

  3. To add an option, in the Parameter Code box enter RGENCD

  4. In the Parameter Value box enter a short code to describe the option

  5. Click Add

  6. In Description enter the Course Key Attendance Name as defined in CourseKey beginning with the enrollment code number.  For example, the STParm description of enrollment code 4 (which is sent to CourseKey as attendanceName) also needs to begin with a '4:'(e.g., Internship would be entered as 4:Internship).

  7. In Long Description enter text to characterize the option

  8. Click Save and Back

  9. Repeat steps 3-8 to add additional options

  10. Refresh the cache by navigating to Admin > Refresh Data Cache

Campus Cafe Web App Configuration

  1. Navigate to Admin > Web App

  2. Locate and set values for the below parameters

Parameter

Description

COURSEKEY_API_NAME

Enter CC_CKY

COURSEKEY_AUTO_QUEUE_ITEMS

If set to Y, the system will queue courses and enrollments created prior to the number of days specified in COURSEKEY_COURSE_DAYS_ACTIVE_BEF_BEGIN and COURSEKEY_ENROLLMENT_DAYS_ACTIVE_BEF_BEGIN for creation in CourseKey.

COURSEKEY_AWARDED_TIME_ATTENDANCE_NAMES

Attendance Names for courses that use the Awarded Time default value. List multiple CourseKey attendance names separated by |. For example: Flexible Lab|Blended Capstone

COURSEKEY_AWARDED_TIME_MINUTES

Default awarded time in seconds for asynchronous assignments

COURSEKEY_BASE_URL

If connecting to the CourseKey test environment enter https://staging.thecoursekey.com
If connecting to the CourseKey production environment enter https://api.thecoursekey.com

COURSEKEY_COURSE_ADMINS

List of course admin Campus Cafe ID numbers separated by |. Users will be made admins to all CourseKey integration courses.

COURSEKEY_COURSE_DAYS_ACTIVE_BEF_BEGIN

Number of days before course begin date that courses are setup in CourseKey

COURSEKEY_COURSE_NAME_FORMAT

Controls the short name of the course section created in CourseKey. Variables supported are @SEMESTER@, @COURSE_NUMBER@, @COURSE_SECTION@, @COURSE_TITLE@ and @SEMESTER_DESCRIPTION@. For example, for the Fall 2021 class (Intro to Math, MTH101, Section 4 setting this value to @COURSE_NUMBER@ - @COURSE_SECTION@: @COURSE_TITLE@ in @SEMESTER_DESCRIPTION@ would create the section in Canvas called "MTH101 - 4: Intro to Math in Fall 2021"

COURSEKEY_COURSE_OWNER

CouseKey username (email) of course owner. Must be valid user for all CoursKey Auth Keys.

COURSEKEY_COURSE_TITLE_FORMAT

Controls the long title of the course section created in CourseKey. Variables supported are @SEMESTER@, @COURSE_NUMBER@, @COURSE_SECTION@, @COURSE_TITLE@ and @SEMESTER_DESCRIPTION@. For example, for the Fall 2021 class (Intro to Math, MTH101, Section 4 setting this value to @COURSE_NUMBER@ - @COURSE_SECTION@: @COURSE_TITLE@ in @SEMESTER_DESCRIPTION@ would create the section in Canvas called "MTH101 - 4: Intro to Math in Fall 2021"

COURSEKEY_CUTOVER_SEMESTER

The Campus Cafe semester numerical code (e.g. 20210) of the first semester to sync between Campus Cafe and CourseKey

COURSEKEY_EMAIL

Email account that should receive Campus Café CourseKey Connector error notifications. Can enter multiple emails separated by commas.

COURSEKEY_ENROLLMENT_DAYS_ACTIVE_AFT_END

Enrollments will stop syncing after the course end date if this is set to 0. Set a higher number for enrollments to stop syncing after the course end date. For example, set 5, enrollments would stop syncing file days after the course end date.

COURSEKEY_ENROLLMENT_DAYS_ACTIVE_BEF_BEGIN

Enrollments will sync for registrations starting the entered number of days prior to the course start date. Registrations that occur prior to this date will not be processed in CourseKey unless COURSEKEY_AUTO_QUEUE_ITEMS is set to Y.

COURSEKEY_EXPORT_BASE_URL

If connecting to the CourseKey test environment enter services-dev.thecoursekey.com
If connecting to the CourseKey production environment enter services.thecoursekey.com

COURSEKEY_EXPORT_TIME_ATTENDED_DAYS_PRIOR

The number of days of attendance to retrieve from CourseKey and import to Campus Cafe. This should be double the amount of the frequency you run the export. For example, if you run the export daily, then the minimum value here would be 2. This will allow the process to 2 chances at retrieving time attended.

COURSEKEY_INSTRUCTOR_ADD_ONLY

If set to Y, the connector will only add instructors from Campus Cafe courses to CourseKey sections. If set to N, the connector will add instructors and remove them from CourseKey courses if removed from Campus Cafe courses.

COURSEKEY_NO_ATTENDANCE_SESSION_SYNC

CourseKey attendance names that do not sync sessions with CourseKey. List multiple CourseKey attendance names separated by | For example: Flexible Lab|Blended Capstone

COURSEKEY_REMOVE_FROM_QUEUE_DAYS

How long to keep a technical log of sync actions. Campus Cafe recommends "30"

COURSEKEY_SEND_EMAIL_TO_NEW_USER

If set to Y, CourseKey will send newly created users in CourseKey an email with instructions for logging in

COURSEKEY_SET_USER_PASSWORD

Users created by the connector in CourseKey will have their password set to their Campus Cafe password. If no Campus Cafe password exists, the password will be set to the Campus Cafe maintenance password.

COURSEKEY_TIMEZONE

Enter the timezone of your institution. US/Eastern; US/Central; US/Mountain or US/Pacific Case sensitive

COURSEKEY_USE_LMS_EXCLUDE_FLAG

If set to Y, then courses with the Exclude from LMS box checked will not be included in the integration

Campus Cafe Custom Control Configuration

  1. Navigate to Admin > Custom Control

  2. Locate ProgramID CRSKEYAUTH

  3. Next to CRSKEYAUTH Sequence 1, Paramater 1 click the pencil icon

  4. In Parameter Value 1 box enter the Course Key Auth Key and time zone separated by two pipes || Time zone format is in the tz database format For example US/Eastern. Complete list.

  5. In Parameter Value 2 box enter the Course Key School ID and course site separated by two pipes ||

  6. For an additional Auth Key /School ID pairs use Parameter Value 3 (for the Auth Key and time zone) and Parameter Value 4 (for the School ID and course site). May use all available parameter values to accommodate additional pairs. Click Save (If more than five pairs are required create a Prog ID CRSKEYAUTH Seq #2. )

Configure Courses

Attendance Name

All course sections must be associated with a CourseKey Attendance Name to indicate the type of attendance. 

  1. Navigate to Filters > Courses

  2. Locate the desired course and click the magnifying glass next to it

  3. Click the Codes tab

  4. In Enrollment Code 4 choose the attendance name

  5. Click Save

Hours

Blended courses must be configured with the number of synchronous and asynchronous hours.

  1. Navigate to Filters > Courses

  2. Locate the desired course and click the magnifying glass next to it

  3. Click the Course tab

  4. In Contact Hours enter the number of synchronous hours

  5. In Lab Hours enter the number of asynchronous hours

  6. Click Save

Manual Sync

Enrollments and course creations and changes made in Campus Cafe will be queued to send to CourseKey. To send these changes to CourseKey for processing, launch the manual sync.

Permission #1236 is required to access this function.

View number of pending changes

  1. Navigate to Registrar > LMS Management

  2. Click the Course Key Management tab

  3. The number next to Unprocessed Entries indicates the number of changes waiting to sync.

Queue enrollments and send to CourseKey

You can direct Campus Cafe to send all enrollments for an entire semester or specific course or specific section to CourseKey regardless of when the students registered.

  1. Navigate to Registrar > LMS Management

  2. Click on the Course Key Management tab at the top of the screen

  3. Select the Campus Cafe semester code (e.g. 202110) from the Semester dropdown

  4. Optionally, to limit the enrollments all sections of a course, in the Course box enter the full course code (e.g. MTH100)

  5. Optionally, to limit the enrollments to a single section of a course, in the Section box enter the section number (e.g. 14)

  6. Click Enqueue Enrollments

Queue courses to be created in CourseKey

You can direct Campus Cafe to create all courses for an entire semester or specific course or specific section.

  1. Navigate to Registrar > LMS Management

  2. Click on the Course Key Management tab at the top of the screen

  3. Select the Campus Cafe semester code (e.g. 202110) from the Semester dropdown

  4. Optionally, to limit course creations to all sections of a course, in the Course box enter the full course code (e.g. MTH100)

  5. Optionally, to limit course creations to a single section of a course, in the Section box enter the section number (e.g. 14)

  6. Click Enqueue Courses

Process all pending changes

This queue represents all changes (enrollments, changes to names, etc.) made in Campus Cafe that are waiting to be sent to CourseKey.

  1. Navigate to Registrar > LMS Management

  2. Click on the Course Key Management tab at the top of the screen

  3. The number next to Unprocessed Entries indicates the number of changes waiting to sync

  4. To manually run entries, enter the number of entries you wish to process in the box next to the Unprocessed Entries

  5. Click Manually Run

Automatic Sync

After testing the connection, contact Campus Cafe support to request a near real-time connection be activated if desired. Changes made in Campus Cafe will typically update in CourseKey within a half hour.

Upon Sync Error

If a change cannot be made in CourseKey, the system will send an email to the email address listed in the Web App Config COURSEKEY_EMAIL. The email will only be sent for changes that fail. Other transactions in the queue that did not encounter issues will still process. Put another way, a single failure will not prevent other changes from processing.

Queue History Log

The queue history log shows the results of synchronization attempts between Campus Cafe and CourseKey. For example, if a student's enrollment is not transferred to CourseKey, the history log will show why.

Access the log

  1. Log in to Campus Cafe

  2. Navigate to Registrar > LMS Management

  3. Click CourseKey Queue

Importing CourseKey attendance into Campus Cafe

You can direct Campus Cafe to import time attended data for all CourseKey courses that belong to the School IDs and Auth Keys that have been configured (see section Campus Cafe Custom Control).  Remember to set the import specific Campus Cafe Web Application Configurations  COURSEKEY_EXPORT_BASE_URL and COURSEKEY_EXPORT_TIME_ATTENDED_DAYS_PRIOR (see section Campus Cafe Web App Configuration).

Manual Sync

  1. Navigate to Registrar > LMS Management

  2. Click Student Participation Import

  3. Enter Start Date of Retrieval Range

  4. Enter End Date of Retrieval Range

  5. Optionally, enter and ID for specific student

  6. Click Import

  7. Once the import process is finished, an email will be sent to the email address specified in Web App Configuration to receive emails regarding CourseKey.

Automatic Sync

After testing the manual sync, contact Campus Cafe support to request a scheduled import to be activated if desired. Changes made in Campus Cafe will typically update in CourseKey with a nightly import.

Upon Sync Error

The system will send an email to the email address listed in the Web App Config COURSEKEY_EMAIL, every time the import is run. The email will provide a summary of records imported as well as any errors for records that were unable to updated in Campus Cafe.

 

Asynchronous vs. Synchronous Course Last Date Attended Import

To allow LDA/Last Participation date from either Canvas or CourseKey to be imported in for Asynchronous courses but leaving the manual attendance functionality active for synchronous courses, Custom Control LDA_INSTRUCTION_METHODS is used to include certain course instruction methods to import LDA dates and exclude non-listed instruction methods from the import. An administrator may input multiple instruction method codes in a comma separated format that they wish for the LMS integration to import LDA for. Leaving the control blank will not import LDA dates by default.

There is an overnight process that will copy the LDA from the Student Attendance Data (ATSENT) to Student Enrollment Data (RGENRL) for the courses with the instruction methods defined in the Custom Control; which allows for the attendance being taken in either an asynchronous automatically or synchronous manner manually through the course roster to appear in the student finder and other reports.

Importing of Canvas or CourseKey Participation/attendance grades must be turned on for this to take effect.

Added Permission 1278 when set to NA to prevent a user from entering attendance for students after their enrollments' Last Date Attended. Removing NA will allow a user to enter/change attendance after and LDA is entered or automatically imported from an LMS integration.

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