Edlink Powers LMS Interoperability

by Kaiden Gray

In today's edtech landscape, interoperability reigns supreme. Schools need diverse learning tools to work seamlessly together, creating a smooth user experience for both educators and students. Enter Clever LMS Connect, a new Clever offering, powered by Edlink technology, that streamlines communication between edtech applications and popular LMS providers.

“Edlink is proud to partner with Clever on LMS Connect. This collaboration leverages Edlink's technical expertise and Clever's market-leading platform to create a more interconnected edtech ecosystem. Together, we're building a smoother learning experience for educators and students alike.”
- Dakota Gordon, CEO of Edlink

What Is Clever LMS Connect?

Clever LMS Connect expands districts’ and application partners’ interoperability with integration features like assignment sync and grade passback. Clever LMS Connect, using part of Edlink’s Unified API, enables school IT admins to initiate a connection to their district’s LMS from the Clever dashboard. This makes it possible for edtech applications to sync assignments and grades to the district’s LMS and for students and teachers to launch their applications from their LMS. This is an additional service for Clever application partners who already use Clever’s SSO & Secure Sync services.

Despite being a new service in the Clever lineup, this functionality (assignment syncing and grade passback to the LMS) has been accessible by current Edlink clients in production for 4+ years. Clever will be the main point of contact for servicing LMS Connect customers (and their districts). Edlink will provide product training and technical support to aid Clever’s team in this offering.  

“ Our partnership with Edlink is the next step in allowing our partners to focus on innovating instead of grappling with complex LMS integrations, so that we can collectively improve access and learning outcomes in the classroom.”
- Trish Sparks, CEO of Clever

LMS Connect: Why Now?

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, interoperability within the edtech space has become critical for districts. Interoperability is a key conversation in today’s edtech news, discussed at conferences, and written into RFPs. More than ever, districts expect the learning tools they adopt to provide interoperability and seamless digital experiences for students and educators.

That’s why Clever has chosen to collaborate with Edlink, to help meet the increased interoperability demand quickly and effectively. Through Clever LMS Connect, Clever and Edlink expand interoperability options for the edtech space.

Clever LMS Connect: LMS Providers & Use Cases

Clever LMS Connect enables Clever application partners to connect to a district’s Canvas, Schoology, or Google Classroom instance. This connection allows Clever application partners to use the new assignment sync and grade passback integration features, powered by Edlink’s Unified API, in addition to their existing Clever SSO and rostering abilities.  

Is Clever LMS Connect for you? It might be if you are:

  1. A current Clever application partner looking to provide assignment sync or grade passback to the LMS to your district customer.
  2. A current Clever application partner with a district that has Google Classroom, Canvas, or Schoology as their LMS.

That being said, there are some situations in which LMS Connect may not be the right solution for you. In particular, if you are:

  1. An Edlink client that wants to offer grade passback or assignment sync to a district (you already have access to this functionality through your relationship with Edlink).
  2. An edtech app that wants to connect to LMS providers other than Canvas, Schoology, and Google Classroom (Clever LMS Connect is limited to these three LMS providers for now).
  3. Looking for attendance data, deeper demographics, or other data types not supported by Clever Secure Sync or LMS Connect (example: School Calendars, Attendance, or Behavior data).

Right now, Clever intents to launch Clever LMS Connect generally available for back-to-school season, June 2024.

"I’m delighted to partner with Edlink, a trailblazer in LMS integrations, so that edtech vendors of all sizes can build high-quality LMS integrations quickly, easily, and affordably. Together we can create integrated edtech experiences throughout Clever’s network of over 100,000 schools, making copying gradebook entries and siloed systems a thing of the past.”
- Dan Carroll, Co-Founder and Strategic Advisor

In Summary

Clever integrated with Edlink to provide Clever LMS Connect. This solution lets district IT admins to create a connection to their LMS from their Clever dashboard. When an IT admin establishes an LMS connection, the application partner can use grade passback and assignment sync with a district that uses Schoology, Canvas, or Google Classroom in combination with Clever’s SSO and rostering services. Together Clever and Edlink’s collaboration will provide more interoperability options to edtech tools and districts across the United States with Clever LMS Connect.

Got more questions on Clever LMS Connect?

  1. Ask your Edlink Client Success Manager, or
  2. Click this page, and fill out the contact form. Someone from Edlink will respond to your question shortly.

Interested in LMS Integrations?

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