Ellucian ILP Meets Canvas

In collaboration with Administrative Systems & the Registrar’s office, we are thrilled to announce a significant enhancement to our Canvas Learning Management System that will revolutionize the way we manage course data and student information. Starting with the Spring 2024 semester, we will be implementing the Ellucian Intelligent Learning Platform (ILP) to seamlessly integrate our Ellucian SIS (Banner) with Canvas. This integration will usher in a new era of efficiency and real-time updates for our institution.

What is Ellucian ILP? The Ellucian Intelligent Learning Platform (ILP) acts as a bridge, synchronizing vital information between our SIS and Canvas. It streamlines the exchange of user data, course details, student enrollment, and faculty assignments, eliminating the need for the three-times-a-day Banner import process (for Academic Courses and enrollments).

Key Benefits

• Real-Time Updates: ILP allows for real-time updates directly from Banner into Canvas, ensuring that course information, student and teacher enrollments, and user data is always current.
• Inactive Students: Students who drop a course during the registration window and during Add/Drop will no longer show as ‘inactive’ in a course. Only those who withdraw after the Add/Drop period will retain an inactive status in the course. 

Important Changes

• Ellucian Grade Passback
• Course/Term Dates: Courses are sent into Canvas using the course start and end dates as defined within Banner (with a 14 day buffer to the start & end of the course dates). This accommodates courses that fall outside of the standard term start/end dates. The courses still need to be published for students to be able to access the content. For more information, please see Instructure’s documentation on Term vs Course participation dates. Note: that we are not sending start/end dates at the Section level, only the Course level.
• Course Naming: With ILP in place, instructors will no longer be able to change the names of courses in Canvas. This adjustment is necessary to maintain data consistency and integrity. You can still append your course nicknames on the Canvas Dashboard.
• Display Names in Canvas: Display names will be overridden by your name of use recorded in Banner.
• Secondary instructors: Secondary instructors will now be added to the course as they are listed in Banner.
• Course Data Format: The format for course names and codes will change. Instead of the “SUBJ-COURSE-SECT-SEMESTER” format, we will now use a “CRN.TERM” format.
• SIS ID: The SIS ID for courses will also shift to the “CRN.TERM” format, further aligning our systems. (SIS ID = Student Information System; it is a unique identifier attached to each course ID in Canvas)
• Manually Cross-listed Courses: when instructors manually crosslist courses in Canvas, the course name will automatically derive from the parent course and cannot be modified. Instructors and students may still choose to nickname a course at their convenience. Students can locate their course section through two methods:
  • “People” page in Canvas: Once enabled by the instructor in the course navigation.
    • Instructors must enable the “People” page within the course navigation to grant students access to their respective section information. The “People” page is enabled by default. For detailed instructions on managing Course Navigation links, please refer to the guide: “How do I manage Course Navigation links?” 
  • eServices: An alternate route for accessing course section information.
• Banner Cross-listed Courses: Official cross-listed courses will have sections automatically merged, but their SIS ID will follow a modified format. 

Here is an example (Non-Cross-listed):

As you can see, the format for courses officially cross-listed in Banner is different than non-cross-listed courses. This only affects a small population of courses (~3%). This will not affect courses where an instructor will manually merge the course into another course.

We are excited about the increased efficiency and data accuracy that Ellucian ILP will bring to Canvas. If you have any immediate questions, please feel free to reach out to our support team at LSRequest@vcu.edu.