Canvas Consortium Setup

If your Canvas environment is a consortium — a parent instance with multiple child instances (e.g., one per school or region) — there are additional configuration steps required beyond the standard Canvas integration.

This guide is for Canvas administrators managing a consortium. You should complete the standard Canvas Integration Guide first, then follow these steps to enable AutoMark across child instances.

What is a Canvas Consortium?

A Canvas consortium is a hierarchical setup where one parent Canvas instance (the hub) manages multiple child instances (individual schools or regions). Each child instance operates semi-independently with its own courses, teachers, and students, but shares certain configuration from the parent.

Example:

• Parent: district.instructure.com
• Child: school-a.instructure.com
• Child: school-b.instructure.com

Why Consortium Requires Extra Setup

Canvas developer keys (OAuth credentials) do not inherit from parent to child instances. Even though the LTI tool installed on the parent propagates to children, the API credentials used for course sync and grade passback are specific to each instance.

This means:

• LTI launches work — teachers on child instances can open AutoMark from their Canvas sidebar
• API access doesn't work automatically — each child instance needs its own API credentials for AutoMark to sync courses and grades

AutoMark handles this by allowing you to register per-instance API credentials from a single parent organization.

Prerequisites

• Completed the standard Canvas Integration Guide (Parts 1 and 2) on your parent Canvas instance
• Canvas admin access on each child instance (to create API developer keys)
• Access to AutoMark Organization Settings (admin role)

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Part 1: Register Child Instance URLs

First, tell AutoMark which Canvas instances belong to your consortium. This enables automatic linking when teachers launch from child instances.

Step 1: Open Organization Settings

In AutoMark, navigate to Organization Settings. Scroll down to the Canvas Consortium Instances section.

Step 2: Add Each Child Instance

For each child Canvas instance in your consortium:

1. Click Add Canvas Instance
2. Enter the Instance URL — the full base URL of the child Canvas instance (e.g., https://school-a.instructure.com)
3. Optionally enter a Display Name to help identify the instance (e.g., "School A")

Repeat for every child instance that needs AutoMark access.

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Part 2: Create API Keys on Each Child Instance

Each child Canvas instance needs its own API developer key. You'll create these in Canvas and then enter the credentials in AutoMark.

Step 3: Create a Developer Key on the Child Instance

Log in to the child Canvas instance as an admin. Navigate to Admin → Developer Keys and create a new API Key (not LTI — the LTI key is inherited from the parent).

Configure the API key with:

1. Key Name: AutoMark
2. Redirect URIs: Enter the redirect URI from your AutoMark Organization Settings
3. Enforce Scopes: Enable this and select the same scopes as the parent instance:

Category	Scopes
Accounts	url:GET|/api/v1/accounts, url:GET|/api/v1/accounts/:id
Assignments	url:GET|/api/v1/courses/:course_id/assignments, url:GET|/api/v1/courses/:course_id/assignments/:id, url:PUT|/api/v1/courses/:course_id/assignments/:id
Courses	url:GET|/api/v1/courses, url:GET|/api/v1/courses/:id, url:GET|/api/v1/courses/:course_id/users
Submissions	url:GET|/api/v1/courses/:course_id/assignments/:assignment_id/submissions, url:GET|/api/v1/courses/:course_id/students/submissions, url:PUT|/api/v1/courses/:course_id/assignments/:assignment_id/submissions/:id
Tokens	url:DELETE|/api/v1/users/:user_id/tokens/:id
Users	url:GET|/api/v1/users/:user_id/profile

4. Save the key and make sure it's toggled ON
5. Copy the Client ID and Client Secret

Step 4: Enter Credentials in AutoMark

Back in AutoMark Organization Settings under Canvas Consortium Instances, find the child instance you added in Step 2. Enter:

1. Client ID — from the API key you just created
2. Client Secret — click "Show Key" in Canvas to reveal it

Once saved, you'll see a green API Credentials Configured badge next to the instance.

Step 5: Repeat for Each Child Instance

Repeat Steps 3–4 for every child Canvas instance. Each instance needs its own API developer key with credentials entered in AutoMark.

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Part 3: Teacher Setup

Once the admin has configured all instances, teachers can connect from their child Canvas instances.

How It Works for Teachers

1. A teacher opens AutoMark from their Canvas course sidebar (on a child instance)
2. AutoMark automatically detects which Canvas instance they launched from
3. AutoMark links their account to the parent organization
4. The teacher is prompted to Connect to Canvas — this authorizes AutoMark to access their courses and grades on that specific instance
5. After authorizing, their courses sync and grade passback is enabled

Important: Per-Instance Authorization

Teachers need to authorize AutoMark separately on each child instance they use. Canvas tokens are instance-specific — a token from school-a.instructure.com cannot access courses on school-b.instructure.com.

If a teacher works across multiple child instances, they'll authorize once per instance. AutoMark stores and manages these tokens automatically.

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Troubleshooting

Teacher sees "Connect to Canvas" but authorization fails: Make sure the API credentials for that specific child instance have been entered in AutoMark Organization Settings. Check that the API key is toggled ON in Canvas and that the correct scopes are selected.

Teacher's courses don't appear after connecting: Verify that the instance URL in AutoMark matches the Canvas instance exactly (including https:// and no trailing slash). Also confirm the teacher has active course enrollments on that specific Canvas instance.

AutoMark doesn't detect the child instance: The child instance URL must be registered in AutoMark (Step 2). AutoMark detects the instance from LTI launch data — if detection fails, check that the instance URL is entered correctly.

Grades aren't syncing on a child instance: Each child instance needs both the LTI tool (inherited from parent) and API credentials (configured per-instance). If grades sync on the parent but not a child, the child is likely missing API credentials.

"No API Credentials" warning in Organization Settings: This means the instance URL is registered but no API key has been configured for it yet. Complete Steps 3–4 for that instance.

For additional support, email us at support@automark.io.