Using Zotero with Canvas

[jesho...@gmail.com]

We are currently in the process of implementing Canvas as our learning management system at my institution.  Many faculty have asked about the possibility of Zotero being an "app" or "LTI" in Canvas.  I do not see Zotero listed in the app center on Canvas.  Trying to figure out if Zotero has a proprietary partnership with Canvas and if not can this be established?  

Thanks!

Jessica

[Bruce D'Arcus]

Not speaking for Zotero, but I can't see any impediment to anyone (including Instructure) implementing this.

And I agree, it's be helpful, if the integration was deep.

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[Sebastian Karcher]

There is no such agreement, no.
I'm not familiar with Canvas, only with blackboard. What type of
integration are people requesting? I.e. what do they want to be able to
do with Zotero within Canvas?

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[Chip Maguire]

One method of doing this is to add the Zotero add in information much as it is added via fields in Word. For example the text below is from a Canvas page:

As described in RFC 1235 [1] multicast distribution of files can be used with a multicast media such as WLANs.

Were [1] is a reference to RFC 1235 in Zotero. In Word this citation would be inserted as:

<w:instrText xml:space="preserve"> ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"XfPocvlw","properties":{"formattedCitation":"[1]","plainCitation":"[1]"},"citationItems":[{"id":1990,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/683389/items/34CDPXTJ"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/683389/items/34CDPXTJ"],"itemData":{"id":1990,"type":"article-journal","title":"Coherent File Distribution Protocol","container-title":"Internet Request for Comments","volume":"RFC 1235 (Experimental)","abstract":"This memo describes the Coherent File Distribution Protocol (CFDP). This is an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard.","URL":"http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1235.txt","ISSN":"2070-1721","author":[{"family":"Ioannidis","given":"J."},{"family":"Maguire","given":"G."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1991",6]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} </w:instrText>

Later one could produce the bibliography: [1] J. Ioannidis and G. Maguire, ‘Coherent File Distribution Protocol’, Internet Request for Comments, vol. RFC 1235 (Experimental), Jun. 1991 [Online]. Available: http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1235.txt

In Word this would be done by having a field that says:

<w:instrText xml:space="preserve"> ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY </w:instrText>

The trick to achieve this is to embedded the ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM and ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL into an a tag that Canvas will not remove, then use a tool that can walk a set of pages and update the content of the page by calling upon a Zotero server.

For example, we might put the zotero addins in a <q> tag, then use the cite attribute to store the data. For example:

As described in RFC 1235 [1] multicast distribution of files can be used with a multicast media such as WLANs. 

----------------------------------------------

The last light above is actually the following when view in the HTML Editor:

<p>As described in RFC 1235 <q title="ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {&quot;citationID&quot;:&quot;XfPocvlw&quot;,&quot;properties&quot;:{&quot;formattedCitation&quot;:&quot;[1]&quot;,&quot;plainCitation&quot;:&quot;[1]&quot;},&quot;citationItems&quot;:[{&quot;id&quot;:1990,&quot;uris&quot;:[&quot;http://zotero.org/users/683389/items/34CDPXTJ&quot;],&quot;uri&quot;:[&quot;http://zotero.org/users/683389/items/34CDPXTJ&quot;],&quot;itemData&quot;:{&quot;id&quot;:1990,&quot;type&quot;:&quot;article-journal&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Coherent File Distribution Protocol&quot;,&quot;container-title&quot;:&quot;Internet Request for Comments&quot;,&quot;volume&quot;:&quot;RFC 1235 (Experimental)&quot;,&quot;abstract&quot;:&quot;This memo describes the Coherent File Distribution Protocol (CFDP). This is an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard.&quot;,&quot;URL&quot;:&quot;http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1235.txt&quot;,&quot;ISSN&quot;:&quot;2070-1721&quot;,&quot;author&quot;:[{&quot;family&quot;:&quot;Ioannidis&quot;,&quot;given&quot;:&quot;J.&quot;},{&quot;family&quot;:&quot;Maguire&quot;,&quot;given&quot;:&quot;G.&quot;}],&quot;issued&quot;:{&quot;date-parts&quot;:[[&quot;1991&quot;,6]]}}}],&quot;schema&quot;:&quot;https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json&quot;}">[1]</q> multicast distribution of files can be used with a multicast media such as WLANs.</p>

Yes, it would be painful to write the above by hand, but that is what tools are for. As I imagine it there are two tools needed:

1. An interactive tool to let the user pick items from Zotero to enter in a Canvas page

2. A batch tool that ran periodically and if a page has been update since the last time the tool was run it would update the body of the "q" tag to contain the new formatted reference for citations and insert the bibliography for the ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL instance.

The above thoughts were inspired by earlier projects that two students did in my lab:

Jens Baetens, Improving the Quality of Web Content through Automated Metrics: An attempt to process course pages at the kth.se website, IK2553 Project report, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, TRITA-ICT-EX-2015:92, June 2015  http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-168729 

Ruben Lejeune, Adding citations to PowerPoint slides from Zotero: Making referencing in PowerPoint easier, IK2553 Project report, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, TRITA-ICT-2015:10, August 2015 http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-174039 

[Chip Maguire]

Where I could use some feedback from Zotero developers is: (1) I believe that there is a need to have at least two types of bibliographies: one per page and one per course and (2) I do not know how dynamic to make the citations and bibliographies.

The first would be used so that any citations to a reference on a page could have their bibliographic entry on that page. The second would be used over the set of pages for a course, so that one can have a bibliography for a complete course. My question is what should be the form of the ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL for these two different uses? Or is my reuse (or abuse) of (Word) field codes the wrong direction to go for integrating Zotero with Canvas? With regard to the latter, it might seem that the best integration with using Javascript and talking to a Zotero client, but Canvas strips out Javascript from pages (either because of TinyMCE or their CanvasSanitize module).

Currently I have addressed the first problem in PowerPoint slides by putting the bibliographic entries for a page in the notes part of the page and later creating a Word document that has both the slide and the notes. The second problem I have addressed by having a Zotero group for the entire course (such as https://www.zotero.org/groups/ik1552 and https://www.zotero.org/groups/ik2554).