Quick Adjustments in Canvas 

Can you believe it's midterms already?! Since this year we have more teachers using Canvas than ever before, we felt it was a good time to look at the sync process from Canvas to MyStudent. Most of you probably have this information memorized and could cite the exact hours your course syncs over but for the rest of us, it's good to have a reminder. In order for an assignment to sync over to MyStudent there are few things that have to be set in order for it to qualify. These may seem obvious but before reaching out to your EdTech Coach check to make sure all of these are in place.

Four Things for Grade Syncing

First. the assignment must have points assigned. Without points, there's no information to sync. 

Second, the option to include the assignment in the sync must be selected.

Third, the assignment must have a due date that is within the quarter's dates. This is how the sync process knows that it belongs in the quarter's grades. The sync will look for any date that is assigned to either a section or everyone and will utilize the first date.

Lastly, the assignment must be published. Any unpublished assignments are ignored by the sync process. 

One more thing to check. If you select the option to not count the assignment on the final grade then our sync will also ignore it. Make sure it is not selected.

To quickly check that everything is set up correctly, navigate to your Assignments Page. Here you can check all 4 settings in one view. Look down the list and make sure the basics are set.

A few more helpful reminders:

• Before you delete an assignment make sure to remove the sync status.
• The sync only travels one direction Canvas ---> MyStudent and not the other way.
• Be patient. If you grade late at night (you know who you are) it may not show up until later the next morning in MyStudent.

So what does this button do?

Think of the sync as having three distinct locations. Using the illustration of a few buckets below with each bucket holding grades information that will be transferred from one to another during certain processes. When you update grades in Canvas that information is stored there until the sync runs Monday through Friday from 7 am to 9 pm hourly. That process initiates on the hour, meaning that pouring all that data from one bucket (Canvas) into the next bucket (Cache) may take up to 40 or so minutes for your data to come over. Waiting around two hours during those time slots would ensure that the process has had sufficient time to run. Once that data resides in the Grades Cache location it waits until MyStudent is either opened or refreshed to pour the updated information. If you open your gradebook in the morning at 7 am unless you close the gradebook and reopen or click the Canvas Sync button, your data will remain what was loaded at 7 am. The Canvas Sync button takes the information waiting in the Grades Cache location and brings it into your gradebook (MyStudent). It's more of a refresh button. It doesn't initiate the sync but instead pulls any info waiting from the sync process.

 If you are interested in reading our FAQs about the sync process click here.

More Canvas Sync Information
Grades
- Mon-Fri 7am-9pm hourly
Course creation and enrollments 
- Elementary: Mon-Fri 8am-5pm hourly
- Secondary: Mon-Fri 4am-4pm every four hours
- WOL: Mon-Sat 3:30am
- Library courses: Sat 12am
User creation and updates
- Students/Employees: Mon-Fri 7am-4pm hourly
- Guardians: Mon-Sat 3am