1.0 - SIS Integration
Campus (optional)
Filename: campus.csv
Some Institutions are “system” Institutions with multiple Campuses. These may include “virtual campuses” that represent online programs, which is common to many Unizin Members.
Institutions may choose to model Campuses and define the relationship of Sections to a specific Campus. Usually, the Campus associated with a Section defines the campus responsible for teaching the Section, and may be pertinent to specifying Course coordinator permissions.
A Campus will have a unique identifier and name associated with it. The Order Tool can ingest Campus data, providing an additional level of granularity for Course Coordinator permissions.
Campus data is optional. If this data file is not provided, then Unizin will create a default campus for your Institution and identify all Courses with that campus.
Organization
Filename: organization.csv
Some Institutions define Schools, Programs, and Departments in their SIS with unique codes, and associate their Sections with those Schools, Programs, and Departments. Generically, we refer to Schools, Programs, Departments, and other such entities as Organizations.
Organizations are used to modulate Course Coordinator permissions, but are not required for the ordering process. Organizations must have unique identifiers and your Sections must be associated with an Organization.
Organization data is required. If this data file is not provided, then your Sections will not be associated with any Organizations.
User
Filename: user.csv
The Unizin Order Tool requires Institutions to provide user information for all faculty, instructors, students, and any other staff who may teach courses, submit content orders, or enroll in courses as a student. The Unizin Order Tool uses User data in the following ways:
It is required to enable the Faculty, Instructor, Course Coordinators, Student, and Administrator roles and workflows.
Without user data, we are not able to identify and authenticate users, determine teaching assignments, or determine student enrollments.
Without student enrollment data, we cannot automate Publisher reporting and Institutional billing (both depend on section enrollments).
Without student enrollment data, we cannot support a roadmapped feature of Order Tool: enabling student opt-out from Engage content delivery.
Term
Filename: term.csv
The Term concept is used to define a single, general calendrical period during which courses are offered. Terms should be defined along the lines of "Fall 2018," "Spring 2019," and "Summer 2019."
Session
Filename: session.csv
A Session is an administrative unit that defines an actual instructional period during a term. Consequently, Sessions define the ordering periods during which users may order content and the date after which Unizin may bill institutions for the courses taught during that session. Sessions always belong to a particular term and should be identified accordingly.
This concept will be populated with data from an Institutional SIS. It requires a new feed whose formatting adheres to those required of other feeds.
Course
Filename: course.csv
A Course is a unique entry in the course catalog of an Institutional Campus.
An sis_campus_id is not required if you do not send campus.csv. If no sis_campus_id is provided for a course in the feed, then that course will be automatically associated with your default campus.
Courses must represent a unique Course Offering for a particular Session in an Academic Term. Courses defined in your feeds will always be particular to a Session and therefore an Academic Term.
Section
Filename: section.csv
A "Section" is the administrative unit that instructors are assigned to teach and in which students can enroll. They always belong to a particular Course (via sis_course_id). Course sections are usually offered by particular Departments or Schools; such data is captured in sis_org_id and the Organization object. Organization data is useful for managing Course Coordinator permissions. A Section's relationship to a Course (and its relationship to a Session) defines the Term in which a Section is available.
The lms_id value is essential in this feed. For any given section, its value must be identical to the string generated by the Learning Management System to uniquely identify the section in an LTI launch. This value is required to ensure that content ordered in the Unizin Order Tool is delivered via Unizin Engage in the LMS.
An sis_org_id is required in your data feed.
Teaching assignment
Filename: teaching_assignment.csv
The Unizin Order Tool must know which sections are assigned to which users to teach (if available). This data is used to provide the right instructor experience. It is also used to inform Course Coordinators about who is teaching particular sections.
Student enrollment
Filename: student_enrollment.csv
Student enrollment data is used to tabulate final billing & invoicing.
Depicting the relationships
The relationship model between the above concepts is defined as such:
Courses are explicitly Course offerings.
Best practices
We recommend the following best practices when implementing your Order Tool SIS Integration.
Generating composite identifiers
In nearly every case, Institutions generate composite identifiers as the sis_*_id values in their data feed. This is encouraged since it enables them to produce a dataset designed for Order Tools operational needs. As you consider how to generate your feed's compose identifiers, we recommend a simple pattern that corresponds to the relational nature of the data.
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