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These instructions, and the video overview at the end of the article, describe how to add a SchoolCity assessment to a Canvas course as an External Tool.
1. Create the Assignment in Canvas
- Click the Assignments link in the course menu on the left side of the screen.
- Click the +Assignment button in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Enter the title of the SchoolCity assessment you are adding into the Assignment Name box. In this document, the title will be "Demo SchoolCity Assessment."
- Set Points to whatever point value you would like this assessment to be worth in Canvas.
- Set Submission Type to External Tool
- Choose whether or not to Load This Tool in A New Tab by checking the box or leaving it unchecked.
- Click the Find button
- A 'Configure External Tool' pop-up window will display with a list of tools that are connected to your instance of Canvas.
- Choose the SchoolCity tool and then click the Select button.
The name and description of the SchoolCity tool may vary. The name displayed is assigned when SchoolCity is configured in your district’s Canvas system. It could be “SchoolCity,” “SC,” or some variation of the SchoolCity product name. If you are unable to find the SchoolCity tool, contact your district’s LMS administrator.
- Save the assignment by clicking either the Save button or the Save & Publish button at the bottom of the screen. (If you only use “Save,” the assignment will not be visible to students until you publish it.)
An assignment will be created in Canvas and the SchoolCity Assignment Chooser will display. (If you checked the box to load the assignment in a new tab, you’ll be prompted to click a button to “Load assignment name in a new window”)
This document outlines the process of choosing an existing assessment, but users may also select an option to create a new assessment (shown below) using the standard SchoolCity setup process. At this time only Item Bank type assessments can be created through the LTI interface.
2. Choose an Assessment
- Click the "A link to an EXISTING assessment" button.
- A list of the assessments to which your SchoolCity account has access will display, sorted into categories.
- Click a category to view its contents.
- From the search box under each category, you can type in the box to find a specific assessment by matching on its name. Select an assessment by clicking the Choose button.
The assessment will be added to Canvas and the teacher view of the assessment will display.
- Select Student Preview to view the assessment the way a student would.
- Select Online Admin to activate, reactivate, set accommodations, etc.
- Select Score Online button after students have taken the assessment to grade students’ responses in Canvas.
- This is only applicable if the assessment contains one or more Constructed Response or Writing Prompt items.
- Select Test Results after students have taken the assessment to view information on student level overall performance data for this assessment.
3. Ensure Students are Activated in SchoolCity
All students will see the link to the assessment in your Canvas course as soon the link is published, but will only be able to take the assessment if they’ve been activated in SchoolCity, as is the case when students access the assessment through the SchoolCity Student Portal.
Instructions below describe how to activate students; again, this process works exactly the same way for assessments linked from an LMS course as for assessments being delivered through the SchoolCity Student Portal.
If you have access to the assessment’s Setup or Online Settings, we recommend using auto activation for low-stakes cases (e.g. homework, quick checks) and manual activation for high-stakes cases, such as tests and important assignments.
Auto Activate Students
- To auto activate students click the Advanced tab for the assessment.
- Check the Auto Activation and Auto Reactivation checkboxes in the “Properties” section of the Advanced Settings page.
- Click the Save button in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
- Click OK on the pop-up message that appears to auto activate students.
If activation settings have been locked by the district, then manual activation will be necessary. Use steps “To manually activate students:” below.
Alternatively, you can auto activate students by clicking the Setup tab of Assessment Setup, selecting the Show button next to “Online Settings,” and following the activation steps outlined above.
You can also auto activate students when authoring the assessment by clicking the Online Administration button in SchoolCity and following the same activation steps.
Activate Students Manually
- In the By Students tab, select the students you wish to activate by clicking the checkbox next to their names in the leftmost column
- Click the Activate button above the checkboxes to activate the selected students.
4. How Students Take an Assessment
- Student clicks the assignment link in Canvas.
- Assessment loads in Canvas.
- Student completes and submits assessment.
- Assessment results display (depending on Online Settings for the assessment).
- Score displays in the Canvas gradebook.
If assessment includes constructed response questions, the student’s score will not display in Canvas until those questions have been scored by the teacher.
Here is a video summary of the steps covered in this help article.
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