Student data lies at the very core of most functions performed within educational institutions on a daily basis – from attendance management to assessments to parent communications and more. Yet this critical data remains fragmented across siloed systems like the school ERP, learning management systems, fee payment gateways and education apps spanning homework, transportation, IoT sensors and vastly more. As schools aim to digitally transform operations by plugging diverse technology solutions for specific tasks, the challenge of interoperability looms large. How do disparate systems accessing segregated data pools coalesce to deliver streamlined end-to-end processes? This is where One Roster provides potent capabilities by unifying access to master student, teacher and course data.
OneRoster – Genesis and Vision Recognizing this pressing need, leading edtech standards body IMS Global partnered with the Apereo Foundation to birth the OneRoster specification. By providing a standardized API layer and data model, OneRoster allows applications to query, retrieve, create and update student rostering information from the authoritative source, while also enforcing appropriate access rules. Being implementor-neutral, OneRoster can work with student information systems and data stores built on any technology stack.
OneRoster Entities, Attributes and API Patterns
At the heart of One Roster model are key entities like Students, Teachers, Classes/Courses, Schools, Enrollments and Assignments. Granular metadata attributes are defined for each entity – for example Student details encapsulate fields like name, ID, birth date, year/grade, disability information, custom extensions and links to other systems. Similarly Courses cover details like subject, timings, location and teacher linkage.
The OneRoster specification relies on REST architecture with JSON payloads and OAuth security. Main API functions focus on search/filtering records, retrieving full entity profiles, managing roster assignments and enrollments, plus updating a subset of writeable fields. These patterns allow education apps to access latest contextual rostering data from SIS to enable personalization and automation.
Unlocking the Potential of Unified Data
The value additions unlocked by usage of OneRoster APIs are manifold:
- Instant synchronization of student/teacher profile updates, enrollments and course changes to supplementary applications to trigger aligned processing. For instance, assignment deadlines can auto-adjust based on modified class schedules based on latest roster data.
- Multi-layered analytics combining transactional data from payments, attendance, assessments etc. layered on student/class contextual data from OneRoster data store. This leads to superior visualization and segmentations.
- Enabling teachers with a unified view and easy management of students assigned across courses, sections, activities for streamlined tracking.
- Enterprise-grade automation scenarios spanning admissions management, progress monitoring, graduation qualification becomes achievable riding on programmatic access to master roster data.
- Opportunities for global data sharing partnerships between institutions leveraging common OneRoster data interchange frameworks.
SIS Vendors Embracing OneRoster
Industry leading student information system and enterprise resource planning platforms have been quick to assimilate OneRoster support, indicative of its immense value potential:
- Infinite Campus added OneRoster APIs to link its centralized student data repository with third-party applications
- Ellucian unveiled Enterprise Integration Platform with native OneRoster compliance to facilitate app and data integration
- PowerSchool embedded OneRoster compliant REST APIs within Unified Classroom suite to interoperate with supplementary educator tools
As more software partners integrate deep OneRoster alignment, the vision of a seamless end-to-end education technology ecosystem steps closer to reality.
OneRoster Ushering a New Era of Integrated Education
In the context of schools and higher education institutes accelerating technology adoption, OneRoster is positioned perfectly to emerge as the lynchpin underpinning seamless data interchange. By tapping into authoritative and up-to-date rosters, third party solutions focused on learning, administration, payments, analytics and more can interoperate smarter to unlock new possibilities. As a unifying rostering language comprehended widely across the edtech landscape, OneRoster heralds an exciting era underpinned by integration advancing innovation hand-in-hand.