Actively Learn Assignment Sync and Grade Passback with Canvas
Sync Actively Learn assignments and pass grades back to Canvas.
This article applies to districts that use the SSO and Auto-Rostering Access Service. SSO applies to districts that use an SSO portal, district website, or Learning Management System (LMS) to access McGraw Hill digital programs. Auto-Rostering means that account creation, class setup, and roster management are automated through a process handled by your district.
Not sure which Access Service your district uses? Click here to learn more about the four Access Services that we support.
This article walks teachers using Canvas and Actively Learn through the Assignment Sync and Grade Passback process.
For a full page view of the demo, click here.
For a Spanish version of the demo, click here.
To view a PDF copy of the process, click here.
The McGraw Hill LTI® Link: Grades and Assignment Integration tool syncs assignments and grades between Actively Learn on the McGraw Hill platform and your Canvas Learning Management System (LMS).
Article Contents
Class Pairing
Prior to syncing assignments and grades between your McGraw Hill classes and Canvas, you need to pair your class(es). Your McGraw Hill class is automatically generated by your district's nightly roster file sent to McGraw Hill.
1. Click on the class tile from the Dashboard or select the class from the Courses (A) list.
2. Click on the kebob button at the top-right.
3. Select McGraw Hill LTI® Link: Grades and Assignment Integration from the menu.
Installation of this app is completed by your District Administrator. If you do not see the app, please reach out to your District Administrator or Curriculum Coordinator.
4. Click Pair to the right of the course tile.
Important! Make sure to only click Pair on the course tile that matches the course you selected.
5. On the Course section pop-up, click Select on the course tile that matches the course you selected.
Complete these steps for every class that needs to be paired with the course you selected.
Alternative Option: Smart Pairing
Some schools may have access to the Suggest Pairings (B) option. This button will automatically pair your classes to the selected course.
If you do not have the button available, this means your district does not have a matching identifier between your McGraw Hill classes and your Canvas classes. You will need to reach out to your district IT team to further inquire about this new feature.
If using this option:
- Once your classes are paired, verify that the correct classes are linked to the course by scrolling through the list of classes on the pop-up.
- If a class was incorrectly paired, follow the Unpairing Classes steps.
6. Click the Save Pairings button.
C. If you would like to start over with pairing classes to the selected course, click the Click to Unpair this course section link.
Stop and Double Check - Take time to double check and ensure your class pairings are correct before moving on. Incorrect class pairings, and any resulting issues, is a common issue.
7. If you have two or more course sections, click the Create Primary Section button.
Note: This option is grayed out until all Canvas sections are paired with a McGraw Hill class.
This will create an empty class within Actively Learn with "Canvas Course" affixed to the title of the class. This class will not have any students rostered to it but will serve as the primary class for creating assignments.
Important! Do not archive the primary section or any of your classes on the McGraw Hill platform. Archiving these classes will prevent the integration between your McGraw Hill classes and Canvas classes from functioning properly.
8. Click Launch or Launch Primary Section depending on how you want to create assignments for your classes.
D. Clicking Launch Primary Section will allow you to create assignments for all paired classes at one time.
E. Clicking Launch from a section will allow you to create assignments for that specific class.
Unpairing Classes
If a class has been paired by mistake and/or incorrectly, you can unpair it. Only classes paired in error should be unpaired.
Note: McGraw Hill content and assignments will not launch from your Canvas course if you unpair the class.
Important!
If a Canvas class section is deleted prior to unpairing it from the McGraw Hill class, you will not be able to fully unpair it. You MUST first unpair the classes before deleting or unlinking the Canvas class.
If you deleted the Canvas class before unpairing it, you will need to contact our DTS Customer Support team.
This also applies to crosslisted classes. You MUST unpair your classes within the McGraw Hill LTI® Link tool before de-crosslisting any classes. Failure to do so will break the connection to Canvas and prevent you from pairing the classes again at a later time.
1. Click on the class tile from the Dashboard, or select the class from the Courses (A) list.
2. Click on the kebob button at the top-right.
3. Select McGraw Hill LTI® Link: Grades and Assignment Integration from the menu.
Installation of this app is completed by your District Administrator. If you do not see the app, please reach out to your District Administrator or Curriculum Coordinator.
4. Click the Unpair link to the right of the class tile.
Creating Assignments
1. Click on the class tile from the Dashboard or select the class from the Courses (A) list.
2. Click on the kebob button at the top-right.
3. Select McGraw Hill LTI® Link: Grades and Assignment Integration from the menu.
Installation of this app is completed by your District Administrator. If you do not see the app, please reach out to your District Administrator or Curriculum Coordinator.
4. Click Launch or Launch Primary Section depending on how you want to create assignments for your classes.
A. Clicking Launch Primary Section will allow you to create assignments for all paired classes at one time.
B. Clicking Launch from a section will allow you to create assignments for that specific class.
5. Click the Create Actively Learn Assignment button.
Actively Learn will open in a new browser tab.
6. Create an Actively Learn assignment as normal. Refer to the Grades & Assignments blade on the DTS Community Help site for more information.
You can create more than one assignment at a time, if preferred.
Note: If you clicked Launch Primary Section, when selecting the class to assign the assignment to, make sure to select the one with "Canvas Course" in the class name. If you clicked on Launch for a specific section, only select that section when assigning the assignment.
7. Close your Actively Learn tab and return back to your Canvas tab.
8. Click the Sync Assignments button.
Wait for the screen to close automatically. The loading screen may take 10-20 seconds to process the new assignments before closing.
If you close the screen manually, the assignments will not be created successfully.
Launching Assignments
You can view your assignments in Canvas from within your Assignments and/or Module pages.
Note: Student View will not function for viewing assignments from a student perspective. The Student View generates a fake student user in Canvas that enables you to view items from a student's perspective. Since this fake account does not exist within the McGraw Hill platform, any attempt to launch assignments will result in an error screen.
1. Click on Courses from the side menu.
2. Click on Assignments or Modules.
3. Click on the name of the assignment.
4. Hover over the assignment and click Open to launch Actively Learn.
Note: It may take 2-3 minutes for assignments to appear for students and before the assignment can be successfully launched within Canvas. If you attempt to launch the assignment too quickly after creation, both students and teachers will receive a "CI2" error message.
Students won't have access to the assignment until you publish the assignment from within Canvas. To do so, click the Publish button to the right of the assignment name.
Adjusting Assignment Settings
Important!
If you need to later make adjustments to the settings of an assignment, you must complete these changes within the McGraw Hill platform directly, or by launching the assignment as a teacher in Canvas.
If you attempt to make assignment edits within Canvas, they will not be reflected within McGraw Hill and may result in stopping the assignment from functioning in Canvas.
1. Click on Courses from the side menu.
2. Click on Assignments or Modules.
3. Click on the name of the assignment.
4. Hover over the assignment and click Open to launch Actively Learn.
Note: It may take 2-3 minutes for assignments to appear for students and before the assignment can be successfully launched within Canvas. If you attempt to launch the assignment too quickly after creation, both students and teachers will receive a "CI2" error message.
5. Make any changes needed to the assignment.
These changes will not be reflected in Canvas until you have resynced the assignments.
Resyncing Assignments
Resyncing assignments is an option available within the McGraw Hill LTI® Link: Grades and Assignment Integration tool. This option syncs all assignments and their settings from McGraw Hill into Canvas.
This allows you to sync settings back into Canvas if you made any changes to your assignments. This also gives teachers a direct way to manually trigger the assignment syncing process in the event any assignments have not automatically appeared in Canvas.
1. Click on the class tile from the Dashboard, or select the class from the Courses (A) list.
2. Click on the kebob button at the top-right.
3. Select McGraw Hill LTI® Link: Grades and Assignment Integration from the menu.
Installation of this app is completed by your District Administrator. If you do not see the app, please reach out to your District Administrator or Curriculum Coordinator.
4. Click Launch or Launch Primary Section depending on how you created assignments for your classes.
A. Clicking Launch Primary Section will allow you to create assignments for all paired classes at one time.
B. Clicking Launch from a section will allow you to create assignments for that specific class.
5. Click the Sync Assignments button.
McGraw Hill will automatically check to see if there are any assignments that have not yet been synced to Canvas. These will be listed in the area below the Sync Assignments button.
Wait for the screen to close automatically. The loading screen may take 10-20 seconds to process the new assignments before closing.
If you close the screen manually, the assignments will not be created successfully.
Resync Grades
1. On the Course Dashboard, click on the course tile, or select the class from the Courses (A) drop-down.
2. Click on the kebob button at the top-right.
3. Select McGraw Hill LTI® Link: Grades and Assignment Integration from the menu.
Installation of this app is completed by your District Administrator. If you do not see the app, please reach out to your District Administrator or Curriculum Coordinator.
4. Click Launch or Launch Primary Section depending on how you created assignments for your classes.
A. Clicking Launch Primary Section will allow you to create assignments for all paired classes at one time.
B. Clicking Launch from a section will allow you to create assignments for that specific class.
5. On the Re-Sync Grades tile, checkmark the assignment(s) that needs to be resynced.
6. Click the Sync Grades button.
Troubleshooting Tips
Error Messages on Student Launch
Common Errors: ID5, ER4, SE4 Most likely caused by a rostering mismatch between Canvas and McGraw Hill.
1. Ensure your class(es) are paired correctly. If your class(es) are not paired correctly, then the rosters will not match.
2. Ensure the student is properly enrolled in the class within McGraw Hill. New students may take several days after enrollment to sync into McGraw Hill.
3. Ensure you are not using a “Student View” in Canvas. This view will not work and is not indicative of the experience students will have.
Most of the time this is caused when launching an assignment too quickly after creation.
1. Ensure you and students are waiting 2-3 minutes after assignment creation to launch it.
2. Ensure the assignment “start date” has passed. Assignments with future start dates cannot be launched by students.
"L500" Error Message
Often indicative of a greater issue with the district's installation of the app. The issue may exist on either the district side or the McGraw Hill side.
Reach out to your District Administrator contact support for this error.
Assignments and Grades Not Syncing Properly
Most of the time this is caused by incorrect class pairings.
1. Ensure your class(es) are paired correctly by reviewing the class pairings section. If your class(es) are not paired correctly, assignments and grades will not function as needed and may result in additional errors.
2. Ensure you're creating assignments at the proper level. The Primary Section should be used if assigning to all classes. If creating assignments directly within McGraw Hill, ensure you are creating assignments within the class tile that has "Canvas Course" in the title.
Grades Not Syncing for Some Students
If only some students within a class do not have grades populating in the Canvas Gradebook, but other students do, this indicates some students have not launched an assignment directly from within Canvas this school year.
Ensure the student launches an active assignment from directly within Canvas. You can then manually sync grades through the McGraw Hill tool to populate all grades for this student within the Canvas Gradebook.