Setup automated class creation and enrolment in Microsoft Teams for Education

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction
• Essential requirements before you start
• Set user permissions
• Copy managed group for the API key
• Create an API key in Zunia
• Create inbound SDS flow (API)
• Create Users and Groups Sync from SDS to Microsoft Teams
• Setup access to your class in Microsoft Teams
• Completion Checklist
• Troubleshooting Tips

Introduction

You can now automatically create and update Microsoft Teams (MS Teams) virtual classrooms using class information set up in Zunia.

Using the OneRoster standard, Microsoft’s School Data Sync (SDS) reads class details in Zunia to create virtual classes in Microsoft Teams and syncs every 12 hours, automatically updating any changes to teacher or student enrolments in MS Teams.

To complete your setup, you will need to:

1. Set user permissions.
2. Copy managed group for the API key.
3. Create an API key in Zunia.
4. Create inbound SDS flow (API).
5. Create Users and Groups Sync from SDS to MS Teams.
6. Setup access to your class in MS Teams.

Note: This integration is for class rostering and will not sync student grades back into the Zunia marks book.
 

Essential requirements before you start

To set up class rostering from Zunia enrolment data, you will need to have the following pre-requisites:

• Student accounts created in MS Teams for Education Active Directory.
• Administrator access in Zunia.
• Microsoft School Data Sync (SDS) Version 2.
• MS Teams for Education.

Set user permissions

First, you will need to provide your user who will setup the LMS class rostering integration with the correct permissions. 

1. Create a new role called “Class Rostering for MS Teams”.
2. Add the newly created role to the existing group called “Class Rostering for MS Teams”.
3. Add the newly created role to your user who will setup the LMS class rostering integration.  

Copy managed group for the API key

Next, you will copy a “managed group” to allow your API key to have the correct permissions to manage the integration.

Go to Security > Groups. 

1. Search for the group called “Class Rostering for MS Teams”.
2. Select the 3 dots icon and select Duplicate.
3. Enter the name as “Class Rostering for MS Teams API”.
4. Select Save. 

Create an API key in Zunia

Next, you will need to create an API key for Zunia to access your data. To create an API key, go to System configuration > API keys.

1. Select Generate key.
2. For Type, select Standard.
3. Enter a name for the API, for example ‘Class Rostering for MS Teams’.
4. Select Advanced.
5. Select Get, Post, Put, Patch and Delete.
6. Select Generate key.
   Note: Copy the Client ID and Secret as these will not be available after this step.
7. Select the sub-menu Groups to view the list of groups you can give permission to access the key.
8. Filter the Available groups list by entering "class rostering" to find the following group you created earlier, choose it, then move it to the Assigned groups list.
   • Class Rostering for MS Teams API.
9. Select Save.
   Note: Keep secure any saved copy of Client ID and Secret.

Create inbound SDS flow (API)

For this, you will need the following:

1. OneRosterHost: https://public-api-ap-se-2.zunia.com
2. OneRosterAPIToken: https://public-api-ap-se-2.zunia.com/api/token
3. A Zunia API Key created previously.

You can find detailed instructions at the following link at Microsoft:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/schooldatasync/data-ingestion-with-oneroster-api

The following are important information during your setup:

• Map “Email Addresses > UserPrincipleName”. Ensure to select API and map email addresses (not by username) for Staff and Students.
  In the Azure directory email is actually userPrincipalName. If you choose to use username as the sync mapping, you will need to ensure that the Community member Records have Network ID.
• Email is a mandatory field for student and staff users. If Zunia has no email for the staff/student, then their class enrolments will fail.

Create Users and Groups Sync from SDS to Microsoft Teams

You will need to do the following:

1. Setup the User Flow from SDS to MS Teams for Education using the instructions at the following link:
   https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/schooldatasync/create-microsoft-365-users-flow
2. Setup the Group Flow from SDS to MS Teams for Education using the instructions at the following link:
   https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/schooldatasync/create-microsoft-365-groups-and-teams-flow
   Note: Only Teacher and Student roles are supported.

Setup access to your class in Microsoft Teams

You will need to do the following:

1. Set up early access for your teaching staff using the instructions at the following link:
   https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/activate-early-access-class-teams-created-by-your-it-admin-0d154696-66ab-4fcf-b22f-c3d9a82aaf78?ui=en-us&rs=en-us&ad=us
2. Activate the Class on day 1 of teaching (or when you want your students to get access to the class in MS Teams).

Completion Checklist

Use this checklist to confirm that you have set up your roster sync correctly:

1. Your student and staff email addresses map across Microsoft Active Directory and Zunia.
2. The Active classes you have in Zunia Class Management are now appearing as teams in MS Teams.
3. In MS Teams, find your class team name and select the "manage team" menu using the 3 dots icon , then check that the following is correct:
   • The head teacher is the "owner" of the team.
   • The students are "members and guests" of the team.
   • The Owner is the Teacher.
   • The Members are the Students.

Troubleshooting Tips

Zunia

When setting up Zunia, you will need to ensure that both the administrator setting up the API and the API itself has the correct security permissions. See instructions above to Set User Permissions and Create an API key in Zunia.

Check to ensure that the user group you created for the API key has the following permissions which is required for the API to work:

• View classes
• Community Search
• View school configuration of enrolment year
• View Maintain school configuration of enrolment period
• Staff view
• Student view
• Future student view
• Past student view
• Staff search
• Student search
• Future student search
• Past student search

SDS

(For SDS configuration support, you should contact Microsoft support)

When setting up Microsoft SDS, make sure you setup the inbound flow and examine the downloadable CSV report to confirm that students and staff records are accurately mapped. Ideally you will have no errors nor warnings.

When mapping Students and Staff, it is best to map email addresses.

If you want SDS to create users in MS Teams, the Inbound flow will error for users that don’t exist in the tenant. In the creation of the Outbound flow, you would select that you want missing users to be created. Many schools have other integrations that automatically create users in Microsoft 365, most commonly it’s through an On-Premises Active Directory and then syncing up to Azure Active Directory with Azure Active Directory Connect.

Surname is not a mandatory field in Zunia, but it is in SDS. If you see user sync errors, please add a surname for the student/staff that is not syncing.

Only the following characters are allowed in Student and Staff names: A-Z a-z 0-9 ‘ . - _ ! # ^ ~

The sync will automatically occur every 12 hours.

MS Teams

(For MS Teams configuration support, you should contact Microsoft support)

When viewing the classes in MS Teams, check the membership.

For classroom access in MS Teams, the team will need to be activated before students can access the class.

If you deleted a class in Zunia, the class team will not be automatically removed in MS Teams.