Data Enrichment is a pretty powerful feature in Edlink and it can be used in a variety of ways. Here are some of the most common use cases.
Forming a More Complete Data Set
Sometimes, data might be spread across multiple systems. For example, one system might have basic student details (e.g. name, email) and another might have more detailed information (e.g. demographics). Edlink can be used to combine the two data sets so that you have a single source of truth for all student information. The same set of people will come through our API, but now they will have all the information from both systems.
Joining Two Partially Overlapping Data Sets
Sometimes, people themselves might be spread across multiple schools systems. For example, one system might have student data and another might have staff data. Edlink can be used to combine the two non-overlapping (or partially overlapping) data sets so that you have a single source of truth for both student information and teacher information.
Adding in an SSO Provider
Often times, schools will have a different provider for SSO than they do for other functionality like rostering or grades. For example, it is common for schools to use Google for SSO and something like Infinite Campus for rostering and grades. In this case, Edlink can be used to combine the two data sources so that you can have a single source of truth for rostering and SSO. Edlink deals with the challenge of syncing and matching the data between the two providers so that you don't have to.
Adding Additional Functionality to Integrations
This one is the most complex use cases that we can support. When you merge two data providers together and both are capable of say, receiving assignments and grades, it is possible for Edlink to pass back the grades to both data providers. Functionality can't necessarily be mix-and-matched, but in certain use cases, we may be able to help. If you think you have a situation where this may be useful, please reach out to our support team and we can help you figure out if Data Enrichment might work for your use case.