Overview
The ExPrep Grader is an automated grading tool for educators using Microsoft Excel in the classroom. ExPrep is integrated into Canvas as an external tool (LTI), and this tool is available in CRN courses offered by Lundquist College of Business.
The ExPrep platform can make student enrollment seamless by enabling single sign-on (SSO; Duck ID authentication) capabilities. With SSO, your students can connect to ExPrep through Canvas and have their accounts created and registered for them.
This article explains how to create ExPrep assignments in Canvas courses, launch the ExPrep tool, and sync ExPrep assignments/exams with Canvas courses.
How to create ExPrep assignments in your Canvas course (for faculty)
- Navigate to your Assignments page and select the + Assignment button from the course navigation menu.
- Scroll down to the Submission Type field on the assignment page. From the drop-down menu, choose External Tool and click Find.
- Choose ExPrep Grader from a list of external tools and click Select.
- Scroll down in the dialogue box to the bottom of the box, check the Load in a new tab checkbox, and choose Select to complete this step.
- Save the Assignment.
How to launch and log into ExPrep Portal through SSO (for faculty and students)
- Open the Canvas assignment that uses ExPrep. You should find a button to load ExPrep SSO. Click the button to load the tool.
- You should see a new tab opening in the browser with your account logged into ExPrep-Portal.
How to sync ExPrep assignment/exams with your Canvas course (for faculty)
Please Note: The below steps should be performed by the instructor before having the students enroll in the ExPrep Class. By following the steps below, instructors create the assignments/exams on ExPrep Portal and sync/push them to Canvas. If the sync of assignments is not done, then the grades would not pass to Canvas for the student’s submissions.
- On the ExPrep Portal, navigating to the Exams/Assignments tab from the left-side navigation menu. You will see the Sync Assignments button. If not, please reach out to contact@excelpreparation.com.
- Create new ExPrep assignments or exams on the ExPrep Portal.
- Once the assignments or exams are created on the ExPrep Portal, click the Sync Assignments button so that an authorization with Canvas will take place.
- Once the authorization is complete, click the Sync Assignments button again and then you should see a success message.
- Once you complete the above steps, Assignments/Exams should be visible in your Canvas course.
Considerations
- The Course is created on Canvas and selecting the SSO link creates it on ExPrep. The assignments/exams are created on ExPrep and Sync Assignments would create them on Canvas. It is also possible to do this the other way around.
- When a user whose account is created through SSO tries to submit to an assignment or exam in a class that has LTI enabled for the first time, the user is asked for authentication/authorization by signing into the Canvas system. Once the authorization is done, the student submissions are pushed to Canvas Gradebook.
- If the Sync Assignments for the assignments from the ExPrep Portal is not done, then the grades would not pass to Canvas.
- Any changes with respect to the assignment or exam (e.g., due dates, close dates, published, allowed attempts) should be done on ExPrep and then synced to Canvas, this would help prevent potential technical issues.
- A user would have to login to ExPrep to use the ExPrep application, to do this the user would have to select the SSO link in the course, if the SSO link is not clicked then the user might be directed to the Login page on ExPrep.