Actively Learn Assignment Sync and Grade Passback with Schoology®
Sync Actively Learn assignments and pass grades back to Schoology.
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 Schoology 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® 1.3: Grade and Assignment Integration app syncs assignments and grades between Actively Learn on the McGraw Hill platform and your Schoology® Learning Management System (LMS).
Article Contents
Sections and Course Tiles in Schoology
Configuring Schoology® Gradebook
Sections and Course Tiles in Schoology
Schoology has a few options for how teachers can have their sections configured. It's important to understand how particular sections are set up, and how that relates to available Course Tiles, so classes can be paired correctly.
Course Tile: Tiles available from your Courses drop-down and Course Dashboard. Though course tiles may share a common course, different course tiles do not communicate with each other.
Course: This is the course used for your classes. This course may or may not be spread across multiple course tiles.
Section: Class(es) available within each course tile. Each course tile may be for only one class or multiple if they have cross-linked sections.
Cross-Linked Section: These are the classes from the same course that have been linked together into the same course tile. This allows you to have multiple classes/sections in a single course tile instead of one tile per class.
Class Pairing
Prior to syncing assignments and grades between your McGraw Hill Actively Learn classes and Schoology, you need to pair your class(es). Your McGraw Hill class is automatically generated by your districts nightly roster file sent to McGraw Hill.
Note: If you plan to use section linking for your classes, this must be done before completing the class pairing steps. However, additional classes can be added and paired in the future as necessary.
1. On the Course Dashboard, click on the course tile, or select the class from the Courses (A) drop-down.
2. Click the Add Materials drop-down.
3. Click on McGraw Hill LTI 1.3: Grade and Assignment Integration from the menu.
Note: 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 Schoology 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. Click the Create Primary Section button.
This will create an empty class within Actively Learn with "Schoology® 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 Schoology classes from functioning properly.
8. Click the Launch Primary Section button to create Actively Learn assignments.
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 Schoology course if you unpair the class.
Important!
If a Schoology class is deleted or unlinked 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 Schoology class.
If you deleted the Schoology class before unpairing it, you will need to contact our DTS Customer Support team.
This also applies to any linked classes. You MUST unpair your classes within the McGraw Hill LTI 1.3 app before unlinking any classes. Failure to do so will break the connection to Schoology and prevent you from pairing the classes again at a later time.
1. On the Course Dashboard, click on the course tile, or select the class from the Courses (A) drop-down.
2. Click the Add Materials drop-down.
3. Click on McGraw Hill LTI 1.3: Grade and Assignment Integration from the menu.
Note: 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 on the class tile.
Creating Assignments
1. On the Course Dashboard, click on the course tile, or select the class from the Courses (A) drop-down.
2. Click the Add Materials drop-down.
3. Click on McGraw Hill LTI 1.3: Grade and Assignment Integration from the menu.
Note: 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 Launch Primary Section button.
Note: All Actively Learn assignments must be created through the primary section. All of your course sections linked to the selected course will automatically receive the assignment upon creation.
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.
7. Close your Actively Learn tab and return back to your Schoology 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 easily view assignments within Schoology from your Materials list.
Note: Student View (Preview Course) will not function for viewing assignments from a student perspective. The Student View generates a fake student user in Schoology 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. On the Course Dashboard, click on the course tile, or select the class from the Courses (A) drop-down.
2. Click on Materials from the side menu.
3. Click on the assignment from the list.
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 Schoology Classroom. If you attempt to launch the assignment too quickly after creation, both students and teachers will receive a "CI2" error message.
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 Schoology.
If you attempt to make assignment edits within Schoology, they will not be reflected within McGraw Hill and may result in stopping the assignment from functioning in Schoology.
1. On the Course Dashboard, click on the course tile, or select the class from the Courses (A) drop-down.
2. Click on Materials from the side menu.
3. Click on the assignment from the list.
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 Schoology. 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 Schoology until you have resynced the assignments.
Resyncing Assignments
Resyncing assignments is an option available within the McGraw Hill LTI 1.3 tool. This option syncs all assignments and their settings from McGraw Hill into Schoology.
This allows you to sync settings back into Schoology 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 Schoology.
1. On the Course Dashboard, click on the course tile, or select the class from the Courses (A) drop-down.
2. Click the Add Materials drop-down.
3. Click on McGraw Hill LTI 1.3: Grade and Assignment Integration from the menu.
Note: 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 Launch Primary Section button.
Note: All Actively Learn assignments must be created through the primary section. All of your course sections linked to the selected course will automatically receive the assignment upon creation.
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 Schoology. 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.
Configuring Schoology® Gradebook
Before you'll be able to see assignment scores in your Schoology gradebook, you'll need to configure the gradebook through the Grade Setup page.
Add Gradebook Categories
1. Click on Grade Setup from the left menu.
2. Click the +Add button.
3. On the Add Grading Category pop-up, enter a Category Name.
4. Select the preferred Calculated by from the drop-down.
5. Select the Drop lowest option.
6. Click the Create button.
7. Click the star icon to the right of the category to make it the default.
This will allow assignments to automatically appear in the gradebook; otherwise, assignments will be "ungraded" by default, and you will need to edit the category via the Bulk Edit page.
Note: Assignments will not show in the gradebook until they've been assigned to a category. If you have a starred category, that option will be used as the default category and assigned to the assignment automatically.
Bulk Edit Gradebook Sections
1. Click Gradebook from the left menu.
2. Click the kebob icon to the right of the page.
3. Click Bulk Edit from the menu.
4. Make any preferred changes to the different sections.
5. Click the Save Changes button at the bottom.
Resync Grades
1. On the Course Dashboard, click on the course tile, or select the class from the Courses (A) drop-down.
2. Click the Add Materials drop-down.
3. Click on McGraw Hill LTI 1.3: Grade and Assignment Integration from the menu.
Note: 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 Launch Primary Section button.
Note: All Actively Learn assignments must be created through the primary section. All of your course sections linked to the selected course will automatically receive the assignment upon creation.
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 Schoology 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 “Preview Course” in Schoology. 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 are creating assignments at the proper level. The Primary Section should be used if assigning to all classes. If creating assignments directly within McGraw Hill, make sure you are creating assignments within the class that has "Schoology Course" in the title.
Grades Not Syncing for Some Students
If only some students within a class do not have grades populating in the Schoology Gradebook, but other students do, this indicates some students have not launched an assignment directly from within Schoology this school year.
Ensure the student launches any active assignment from directly within Schoology. You can then manually sync grades through the McGraw Hill tool to populate all grades for this student within the Schoology Gradebook.