Top Hat - Syncing Grades and Rosters with Canvas (LTI 1.3)

This document explains several ways that instructors can sync Grades and Rosters between Top Hat and Canvas.

 

Linking Top Hat to your Canvas Course

Single-section Courses

  1. In Canvas, navigate to Courses and select a course.

  2. Click on the Top Hat link in the Canvas Navigation Bar. (Top Hat is automatically enabled in the Canvas Navigation Bar for all UW-Madison Courses)
    Canvas_Nav_Bar_Shown_With_Top_Hat_Highlighted

    • Top Hat will open in a new tab automatically (unless pop-up blocker is on)

  3. Select the Top Hat course from the drop-down menu.
    Connect Your Courses prompt displayed with Continue highlighted

  1. Click Continue.

  2. When prompted, allow Top Hat to access Canvas.

  3. Click through following messages

  4. You should see a success message in Top Hat.
    Top Hat Success message says "Your Courses Are Connected"

Multi-section Courses

If you are connecting a multi-section course (a course that has more than one enrollment section), you will be presented with a dialog where you can map each Canvas section to a Top Hat section. In Top Hat, multi-section courses are called MSM courses.

  1. Select a Top Hat Course for each section.

  2. Click Connect.
    Pair Your Sections page is shown with Connect highlighted

  3. Each enrollment section’s roster will go to its respective Top Hat course. However, the content within the sections will be identical.

Setting up your multi-section course

There are 3 setups for multi-section courses (as shown below). Top Hat only supports these three setups.

  1. Canvas Multi-Section Course to Top Hat Multi-Section Course (Recommended)
    Image depicts LMS Multi Section Course pairing with Top Hat MSM Course

  2. Canvas Multi-Section course to Top Hat Individual Course
    Image depicts a Canvas Multi Section Course combining into a Top Hat individual course

  3. Single Canvas course to Top Hat Multi-Section Course 
    Image depicts a single Canvas course pairing with 1 section of a Top Hat MSM course

The process for setting up an this kind of integration is the same as with single-section courses:

  1. Open the course menu and select the LTI launch link (on the left side) 

  2. Select the multi-section Top Hat course from the drop-down

  3. Follow the prompts to complete the mapping process 

Syncing your Canvas roster to Top Hat

Rosters sync automatically when a student clicks on any Top Hat link in your Canvas Course. Until students click on a link to Top Hat in Canvas, they will not be automatically enrolled in your Top Hat course.
Note: If you have linked your Top Hat and Canvas courses, students must join your Top Hat course by clicking on a Top Hat link in your Canvas Course. If they join through a Join Code, they will be unenrolled every night at 11:59PM when Top Hat performs an automatic sync with the Canvas Roster. Students who do not join using a link in Canvas will be unenrolled at that point. (If you are not using the integration, feel free to have students join using a Join Code)

Linking Content and Syncing Grades

  • You can deep link to any content type in Top Hat. The student can reach that content that has been assigned. If the content is not assigned, the student will reach an error page. 

  • Grades are synced with Canvas automatically for all content types, when the grades are released to students in Top Hat.

  • You can Deep Link Top Hat content to Canvas through Canvas Modules or through a Canvas Assignment.

Creating a Deep Link from a Canvas Module

  1. Select Modules from the Canvas Navigation Bar, and click the blue +Modules button at the top right of the screen. Next, name your module.

    Canvas +Module button is shown
  2. Select Add Item to add it to the module. From the pop-up that appears, you can name your Module. From the dropdown menu, select External Tool to add the Top Hat LTI 1.3 tool.
    Animation depicts adding an item to a module
  3. Once you select the tool, the Top Hat Content Tree will appear. Choose which content you wish to Deep Link to from your Top Hat course. You can also choose to sync the grades of the content, by selecting the checkbox at the top right.
    Image shows Top Hat content tree, which you can use to select content to add
  4. After selecting the content to deep link, a confirmation page will display to confirm the setup is correct. 

    1. Verify that the selected content has also been assigned as Homework, with due dates applied, in your Top Hat course.
      Animation showing cursor selecting "Confirm"

    2. Students cannot access unassigned Top Hat content from Top Hat or Canvas.

  5. After you confirm the content in Top Hat, publish the content on Canvas so your students can access it.
    Animation depicts cursor publishing Canvas modules

Creating a Deep Link from a Canvas Assignment

  1. Find Assignments Tab in the Canvas Navigation Bar, and select + Assignment
    Screen Shot of Canvas assignments page with +Assignment button highlighted

  2. Under Submission Type select External Tool
    Submission type menu is open, with External Tool highlighted

  3. Next, select Find
    External Tool menu in Canvas shown with "Find" highlighted

  4.  You can type Top Hat into the search bar or scroll down until you find Top Hat and select it.
    Canvas "Configure External Tool" menu shown

  • When you create a graded Deep Link, it will automatically create a gradebook column in Canvas. Whenever those grades are released to students in Top Hat, they will automatically sync back to the Canvas gradebook.

  • It is very important to remember that if content has to be assigned in both Top Hat and Canvas, otherwise you will receive Error 404 when clicking on the Deep Link.