LMS Connect - Overview

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v3.1 Only

LMS Connect API endpoints are only available on v3.1 of the Clever API. If you are interested in getting started with LMS Connect, reach out to [email protected].

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Secure Sync Required

This product is only available to existing Secure Sync partners. To learn more about Secure Sync, please review this documentation.

Introduction

LMS Connect simplifies and accelerates the process of building LMS integrations by providing a single interface that connects to any popular LMS. It leverages your application’s existing integrations with Clever APIs and extends your capabilities in supporting learning in the classroom.

How It Works

1. District Setup:
   • School districts connect their LMS to Clever through a simple self-service flow.
2. Data Synchronization:
   • Once the LMS connection is established, Clever reads student, teacher, and course data from the LMS, allowing for integrations like grade passback (GPB) and LTI Single-Sign-On (SSO).
   • Clever algorithms match this data to the existing data in Clever.
3. Support:
   • Districts collaborate with the Clever support team to resolve any connection or matching issues.

Features

Your application can either send an LMS Connect invitation to any school district or accept an LMS Connect request from a district customer. Once the connection is established you can support:

1. LTI 1.3 Launch:
   • District users can use LTI 1.3 SSO to launch into your application from the LMS. More on this can be found in this Help Center article.
2. Gradebook Access:
   • Your application can read and write assignments and gradebook entries in the LMS gradebook.
3. Data Consistency:
   • LMS Connect handles the translation from Clever IDs to LMS IDs, preventing duplicate users or misaligned courses.

By using LMS Connect, you streamline the integration process and ensure seamless data management between your application and the LMS.

Getting Started

With Clever’s grade passback API, assignment creation and student submissions happen within your product. This gives you control over when to sync this data with the LMS.

Design Considerations

Before designing a grade passback API integration, consider the following questions:

• When should my product push assignments to the LMS gradebook?

  • This could happen automatically whenever an assignment is created, or only in response to a teacher action (e.g., pushing a “Sync to LMS” button).

• When should my product push student results to the LMS?

  • This could happen whenever a student completes any work (e.g., an auto-graded quiz), or after teacher action/approval (e.g., a teacher-graded essay).

• Will my product import changes to assignments or submissions from the LMS?

  • The simplest integration model will only push results to the LMS. However, you can also read from the LMS gradebook if you want to pull any manual edits a teacher makes to assignments or submissions in the LMS gradebook back into your product.