Canvas Catalog and Populi

Question

Hi,

My institution is considering the viability of Canvas catalog for some asynchronous online courses. Can a Canvas Catalog course be set up to work with the Canvas to Populi grade sync? And, related to this, can it be set up so that when someone enrolls in a Canvas Catalog course it automatically adds them to the roster in Populi as well?

Thank you,

Tim

Máté Kiss · Accepted Answer

Hi Tim,

Good question and one worth being precise on before you commit.

The Populi-Canvas integration uses the Canvas SIS Import, with Populi as the source of truth. Populi pushes courses, enrollments, and user accounts into Canvas, and Canvas sends grades back for courses that map to a Populi course. Grade sync only works for a course that exists in Populi (LMS Sync set to Canvas, matching SIS ID) and for students who already exist in Populi with matching username and email, enrolled in that course.

Canvas Catalog works differently. A Catalog enrollment creates the user and the enrollment directly in Canvas, not in Populi. There is no built-in reverse sync that adds that person to the Populi roster, so the answer to your second question is no, it does not happen automatically. And because that student does not exist in the matching Populi course, the Canvas-to-Populi grade sync has no Populi record to update, so grades will not flow back on their own either.

If you need Catalog enrollments to land in Populi, that is custom integration work against the Populi API or a middleware layer that creates or matches the person in Populi and enrolls them in the corresponding course, keeping SIS IDs and usernames aligned so grades can sync afterward.

Best,

Máté