An org unit type mapping is required so that IPSIS knows how to interpret messages of a particular type from a source system. For example, a SIS might communicate messages about Faculties, but IPSIS should interpret those as Departments in Brightspace.
An administrator must coordinate with the source system vendor to obtain the org unit type text strings communicated to IPSIS in its messages. The text strings might depend on the source system vendor or on how the source system is configured.
Several org unit types are not communicated within messages. Learning Information Services (LIS) v2.0 does not include org unit type information in four of the message types (course templates, offerings, sections, and section associations). This doesn't mean, however, that org unit type mappings are not required for LIS v2.0 integrations. An organization might want, for example, for IPSIS to understand course offering messages from the SIS as course sections in Brightspace. Or perhaps the organization isn't using course sections, but the SIS sends course section messages to IPSIS; in this case, the organization wants the SIS course sections to be created as course offerings in Brightspace.
Because IPSIS needs to know how to map SIS messages of a particular type to Brightspace org unit types, and because LIS v2.0 excludes org unit type information from several messages, the IPSIS LIS v2.0 adapter looks for mappings with specific SIS Org Unit types. A misspelling in the SIS Org Unit type would mean the IPSIS LIS V2.0 adapter would not find the mapping.
The adapter recognizes mappings with specific spelling of the following SIS Org Unit types:
- CourseTemplate
- CourseOffering
- CourseSection
- SectionAssociation
When to create a Course Template mapping
When to create a mapping:
- You want to make use of templates, have them as parents to course offerings, and show that relationship in Brightspace.
- Your SIS sends course template message to IPSIS (via LIS replaceCourseTemplate).
- Your SIS sends messages to IPSIS that you want to interpret as course templates (via LIS replaceGroup).
When not to create a mapping:
- You do not use course templates and do not want them created in Brightspace.
When to create Course Offering mapping
When to create a mapping:
- Since the course offering is the most basic and important org unit type for Brightspace, you should always create a course offering mapping.
When not to create a mapping:
- The only time to not create a mapping is during initial setup of the integration; not having a mapping limits the number of system changes, which helps to verify results.
When to create a Course Section mapping
A course section is a special category of the Group org unit type. Course section doesn't appear as a type of org unit in the Brightspace Org Unit Type drop-down. All Brightspace groups belong to a group category. Sections within an offering, while not visibly being associated with a category, are part of a hidden category called Section.
When to create a mapping:
- You want to make use of sections or groups within offerings in the Brightspace.
- Your SIS sends course section message to IPSIS (via LIS replaceCourseSection).
- You want to make use of groups, and the SIS sends messages to IPSIS (via replaceCourseSection) that you want to interpret as course groups.
Note: Brightspace supports the creation and use of both groups and sections within a course offering. However, IPSIS can create one type or the other, not both at the same time via replaceCourseSection.
When not to create a mapping:
- You do not use course sections or groups within course offerings and do not want them created in Brightspace.
When to create a Section Association mapping
A section association isn't a Brightspace org unit type, but an entity type under LIS. This type relates one or more sections together into an entity called a section association. In Brightspace, the closest entity that relates sections together is a course offering.
Depending on your SIS, it might not have a direct understanding of course sections. Consequently, each time it creates a section in the Brightspace via LIS, it also creates a course offering. This means that for every section, there is a unique offering, and no offering has more than one section. In practice, however, you often want a course offering divided into multiple sections. The SIS may communicate the relationship between its courses via LIS using section associations (replaceSectionAssociation).
Note: The LIS section association does not contain real course or section information. It only serves to relate sections together and org unit type mappings for course sections and offerings are still required. The SIS would pass the section/offering information to Brightspace so they first exist in the Brightspace prior to relating them with section associations.
When IPSIS receives a section association, it creates a new org unit and then creates the sections identified in the request to the new org unit based on the referenced sections. The most appropriate type of org unit that IPSIS would create is a course offering.
Note: The Section Association request does not include start or end dates for the new course offering. By default, Brightspace’s LIS 2.0 uses start and end dates from merged course offerings. The oldest start date and latest end date are used for the newly created course offering.
Original course offerings (created via replaceCourseOffering) and what would appear to be duplicate course offerings (created via replaceSectionAssociation) show up, and it is recommended that instructors manage which course offerings are visible to their learners either by inactivating course offerings, or adjusting their availability dates.
When to create a mapping:
- You create associations in your SIS and want them reflected in Brightspace.
When not to create a mapping:
- Your SIS may not support section associations.
- You want to manage associations entirely from within Brightspace (IPSIS Section Association tool)
When to create another org unit type mapping
Often organizations want to synchronize entities such as Departments and Semesters between their SIS and Brightspace. Any custom, organization-defined org unit type appears in the Brightspace Org Unit Type drop-down and can be used in a mapping.
In the LIS, creates, updates, and deletes for entities other than course templates, offerings, sections, associations, enrollments, and people is done through replaceGroup and deleteGroup. The essential part of the mapping is the exact text string sent by the SIS when communicating about a particular type of org unit.
Other types of groups that can be integrated with the Brightspace might include: College, Faculty, or School.
When to create a mapping:
- You want to have groups of different types created in the Brightspace and managed through LIS.
- Your SIS sends group messages to IPSIS (via LIS replaceGroup).
When not to create a mapping:
- You have no need to keep org units other than those for courses in sync between the Brightspace and SIS.
- You intend to manually manage both non-course-related org unit types and the relationships between them and courses.