The open source R package vvcanvas provides a convenient interface to interact with the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) API. It allows users to authenticate, retrieve course information, fetch specific details, and perform various operations within the Canvas LMS.
You can install the vvcanvas package from GitHub using
the following command:
devtools::install_github("vusaverse/vvcanvas")It is also possible to install from CRAN:
install.packages("vvcanvas")To see which functions are available in which section based on the
CANVAS LMS API structure, please refer to the reference page of the
vvcanvas package. The reference
page provides a comprehensive list of functions available in the
package, organized by category.
Additionally, the package includes vignettes that provide more detailed information on how to use the functions in the package.
To begin using the vvcanvas package, you need to
authenticate with the Canvas LMS API by obtaining an API key and base
URL. Follow these steps to get started:
Acquire an API key from your Canvas LMS instance. You may need to consult your Canvas administrator or refer to the Canvas API documentation for instructions on obtaining an API key.
Once you have the API key, load the vvcanvas library
and use the canvas_authenticate function to authenticate
with the Canvas LMS API. Provide the API key and the base URL of your
Canvas instance as parameters. Here’s an example:
library(vvcanvas)
# Replace the placeholders with your API key and base URL
api_key <- "YOUR_API_KEY"
base_url <- "https://your_canvas_domain.com/"
# Authenticate with the Canvas LMS API
canvas <- canvas_authenticate(api_key, base_url)
## Alternatively, you can set system variables
# Set the API key and base URL as environment variables
Sys.setenv(CANVAS_API_KEY = "YOUR_API_KEY")
Sys.setenv(CANVAS_BASE_URL = "https://your_canvas_domain.com/")
# Authenticate with the Canvas LMS API
canvas <- canvas_authenticate()With the authentication step completed, you can now utilize the
various functions provided by the vvcanvas package to
interact with the Canvas LMS.
In order to retrieve a dataframe with all courses you can use the following function:
# Pass the canvas object to the get_courses function
courses <- get_courses(canvas)The canvas-analytics
project provides a data pipeline for extracting, aggregating, and
analyzing data from the Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) using
the vvcanvas package. It aims to facilitate data retrieval
and analysis at student, course, and program levels, enabling
data-driven insights and decision-making in education and learning
analytics. Key features include: