C4E Canvas LTI Integration - Accessibility, Adoption, Support, and Data & Security Information

C4E Canvas LTI Integration - Accessibility, Adoption, Support, and Data & Security Information 

 

Accessibility

• Does the Connect For Education LTI integration have accessibility compliance documentation?

C4E Accessibility Statement: Connect For Education, Inc. is committed to making its courses and learning platforms accessible to all learners, including those with disabilities. Through a dedicated company-wide task force and feedback from our users, Connect For Education continuously seeks to identify and evaluate opportunities for improving the usability and accessibility of our products in accordance with the AA level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, the EN 301 549 Standards, and Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act. 

Compliance to Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1, and EN 301 549 Standards is measured by the Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR). To request a copy of our latest ACR, please contact Connect For Education Support. (https://connect4education.com/accessibility-statement/)

For a list of Connect For Education's current VPAT compliance details, please see here. 

• Are Connect For Education's online support materials or videos Section 508 accessible?

Most of the C4E course lesson videos have closed captioning (CC). Course videos that do not have captions are supplemental and, if needed, their inclusion in the text can be suppressed without compromising the academic integrity of the materials. Course audio is labeled with title, composer, and timings information, but most audio does not include transcripts for lyrics or other text alternatives. However, lyrics are included in the text when they are essential to the understanding of the music content, and important selections will have a ‘Listening Guide’ provided. Additionally, Spotify has recently added lyrics for many of their audio selections. Courses that utilize Spotify for course audio will now have access to this resource. We do not use live video and audio feeds in our online course titles.

Currently, C4E course tools are partially Section 508 compliant. We are working diligently to bring these supplementary tools to full compliance. When requested, C4E is glad to provide 508-compliant pdf documents and supplementary documents containing accessible essential course resources enabling students to access the “Listen To Lecture” component of the course pages and other valuable tools.

In terms of end user technical support materials, C4E is close to being fully compliant. We are actively addressing the few issues that remain (e.g., color contrast) to reach full compliance in this area.

Adoption

• Have any other schools used Connect For Education LTI integration for Canvas?

Yes, several of our customers currently use Connect For Education LTI integration for Canvas. As LTI integration becomes more common, we are seeing more and more schools transition from a C4E-hosted solution to a Canvas simple or deep link LTI solution. To learn about simple vs. deep link integration for Canvas, please feel free to review our FAQ here.

• By what date would the faculty need to begin using the Connect For Education integration to build their new courses?

Ideally, we suggest at least two weeks’ notice for course builds with LTI integration. This provides our support team adequate time to set up and customize the course based on instructor requirements, and for you to coordinate the Canvas LTI integration with your school's Canvas Support team. Please note: We recommend submitting deep link requests as early as possible as this integration requires the completion of initial backend steps to be performed by your LMS admin, which may take time. 

• Is there a campus license for the Connect For Education integration, or cost to each student?

Connect For Education does not require a campus license, and there is no cost to the college/university or to the students to use this integration. The cost to students is only the purchase of the access code that unlocks the course content. Access codes can be purchased from the campus bookstore or directly from the Connect For Education online store (http://store.connect4education.com/).

Support

• Is there online support contacts or tutorials for students and instructors to use with the new Connect For Education integration?

Connect For Education offers an extensive database of support materials for both instructors and students, which includes video tutorials, step by step guides, and FAQs with corresponding answers. C4E help site is available at https://c4e.zendesk.com/hc/en-us. Additionally, this help site (along with a link to contact our support team) is accessible via the ‘Help’ button in every course page.

• What are the hours of availability for support, response time, and holidays?

The Connect For Education support team is available from 9 am – 6 pm EST Monday through Friday. C4E is closed on weekends and most major holidays. Outside of business hours, C4E IT and Support teams continue to monitor all systems to detect/resolve any issues and ensure that courses remain functional and available 24/7 to end users. During business hours, most support inquiries are answered within 1 hour. Most issues, if not resolved immediately, are resolved within the same day depending on the nature of the support request.

• Does administrator documentation exist for the Connect For Education integration?

Connect For Education provides comprehensive and detailed LTI documentation to school administrators. Documentation includes step-by-step guidance on how to create and configure the simple or deep link LTI integrations within the Canvas course shell. Examples are provided below. Additional guidance/support/documentation can be provided as needed.

• Creating the Simple Connect For Education LTI Link (w/ final grade passed back)
• Creating the Simple Connect For Education LTI Link (w/ no grades passed back, this is for text-only courses that have no coursework)
• C4E Deep Link LTI Guide

Data & Security

• What version of LTI is used?

LTI version 1.1 is currently used. Our application is recognized by IMS Global as complying with LTI v1.0. More information is available at https://www.imsglobal.org/compliance/c4elink.

We are actively investigating the necessary steps needed to upgrade to LTI 1.3. Based on the effort involved, we estimate that the upgrade will be launched mid-year 2024.

• Is a developer key or access token needed to make API calls?

For simple LTI integration, a developer key or access token is not necessary. An automatically-generated developer key and access token are required for deep link LTI integration.

• Would a 3rd party middleware provider or billing service be involved as an intermediary between our Canvas system and Connect For Education servers?

No third-party middleware provider or billing service needs to be involved as intermediary between your school's Canvas system and C4E servers. When students access C4E content in Canvas for the first time, they are required to provide a previously purchased course registration code. This registration is not handled by a third party.

• Is HTTPS being used to transmit data between Canvas and the Connect For Education integration?

Yes, all LTI integrations are transmitted via https.

• What data is being passed between Canvas and Connect For Education's servers? ( what user info, grades, etc.)

C4E requests that privacy settings be set to “public” which will allow the Canvas system to send the user’s name, email, CanvasID, SIS ID of the course, and SIS ID of the user to the C4E system. The key components are the user’s first name, last name, and email address. With simple LTI, final grades will be transferred from C4E to Canvas. With deep link LTI, grades for ALL coursework items will be transferred from C4E to Canvas.

• What data is stored by Connect For Education? ( e.g. what user info, grades, activity )

The following data is stored by Connect For Education:

- First name
- Last name
- Email
- Grades
- Activity

• What piece of user information ties a user’s Canvas account to records in the Connect For Education integration? ( e.g. email address, numeric ID )

Based upon privacy settings in the LTI setup, a unique username is generated when the user first enters via LTI. The user’s email address along with their userID and course SIS ID help connect the user accounts in both platforms. 

• How is data stored by the vendor being protected and secured? (FERPA is being complied with, data is being removed when no longer needed, etc. )

"FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children's education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level. Students to whom the rights have transferred are "eligible students." Connect For Education serves higher education, where students are largely above the age of 18. In any case, all academic information of students taking Connect For Education courses is governed by the FERPA rules published at https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html and FERPA implementation of those rules at the school where the student is taking the Connect For Education published course. Our FERPA policy is part of our Privacy Policy published at https://connect4education.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Website_PrivacyPolicy.pdf

• Is the vendor willing to add/modify Terms of Service/EULA amendments to ensure practices acceptable to our school?

Yes, Connect For Education is willing to add/modify Terms of Service/EULA amendments to ensure practices acceptable to your school.

• Does the Connect For Education integration use other IMS Global standards? ( e.g. Common Cartridge, Caliper, QTI, APIP )

Our application is recognized by IMS Global as complying with LTI v1.0.
See: https://www.imsglobal.org/compliance/c4elink.