The Canvas Badges and Machine Type Relationship
If you plan on using Pinpoint's Canvas Badges features to track and grant permissions to equipment in your space, it is important that you first understand how Pinpoint uses Canvas Badges and Machine Types. This page will explain these concepts at a high level, while other guides will explain how to integrate and setup both Canvas Badges and Machine Types.
Looking for information on Tool Categories? Despite having a similar name, they're completely different from Machine Types. Checkout our seperate guide on Tool Categories for more info.
Concepts and Definitions
Canvas Badges
Canvas Badges are an optional Canvas feature that allows Badges to be earned by students enrolled in a Canvas course. Canvas courses are broken into modules that include assignments, quizzes, and more. Each module when completed can grant a user one or more Badge, indicating that a user has earned a level of proficiency in a skill.
Canvas Badges is what Pinpoint uses for verifying users have completed the required module to use a tool in a makerspace. Canvas has features for automatically awarding badges on module completion. When a Canvas Course is connected to a Canvas Badges group, all users will have accounts auto-generated and imported, and any badges they earned will be populated into their backpack.
To set up your makerspace with Canvas Badges, the course for your makerspace must be registered with a group under the Makerspace Initiative Issuer on Canvas Badges. Otherwise, users enrolled in your course and who complete your modules will not have Canvas Badges accounts, and will not be able to sign into labs using Canvas Badges.
To get your course set up with a group on Canvas Badges, reach out to a makerspace initiative administrator.
Machine Types
Machine Types are a Pinpoint-specific feature that is used to group machines together across different makerspaces. Machine types are global across all spaces, meaning that any machine type can be used by any makerspace. Machine types do not need to group machines strictly off their make/model, they should be used to group together machines that require the same trainings (i.e. Canvas module completions) to use. Because Machine types are global, machines with the same training requirements can be grouped together across labs. Every machine in every space is required to have a machine type.
Machine types can be associated with Badges via the Pinpoint UI, such that when a user earns a badge, they "earn" access to all individual machines under that machine type. There is a many-to-many relationship between machine types and badges. This means that 1 badge can be used to grant permission to multiple machine types. One machine type could also be earned through the completion of any 1 of many badges it's associated with.
In Pinpoint when more than 1 badge is associated with a single machine type, this means that any one of those badges can be used to earn access to that machine type. It does NOT mean that a user needs to earn all badges to earn access to that machine type.
There is no way to require multiple badges to gain access to 1 machine type. Consider combining your separate modules into 1 and associating a badge to that module, or setting up a chain of pre-requisite modules in Canvas and awarding a badge on completion of the final module.
Earning Access to Machine Types
Here's the intended workflow for how makerspace users can earn access to equipment. A user first enrolls in a course for a makerspace on Canvas, like the Terrapin Works ELMS course. Assuming the course is linked to a group on Canvas Badges, that user will have a profile imported into Canvas Badges and will be able to log in using their @terpmail.umd email account. The user can then begin completing modules in the course.
If the user completes a module associated with a badge, they will earn that badge and have it added to their backpack. When the user signs in to a space with Canvas Badges integration enabled, Pinpoint will check the Badges a user has earned against the badge-to-machine type relationships setup in Pinpoint, to determine the machine types a user has access to. Any machines in the current space that fall under a machine type the user has earned will be selectable, and any that don't will be grayed out.
Organizing Machines into Machine Types
For machines that require very specialized training, there may only be specific models of machines under 1 machine type. If the user earns this machine type, they only have access to that specific machine, but they'll have access to it in any participating spaces with that machine (i.e. that have a machine under that same machine type).
For machines that don't require specialized training, i.e. basic 3D printers, multiple machine models could be under the same machine type. For example, we could have a machine type called Basic 3D Printers, and could have all basic 3D printers across all spaces under the machine type, i.e. prusa's, ultimakers, makerbots, etc. This would allow a single training module to grant access to multiple models of 3D printers, as long as those 3D printers are relatively close to each other in actual functionality.
Don't let the name "machine type" limit how you group tools. Multiple machines of different models could be under the same type. This creates a more simplified training module structure.
The below diagram shows the above 3D printer machine type situation. Here, any module from within the RPC, IFL, or Sandbox courses could be used to earn the "Basic 3D Printer" badge. This badge gives access to the "Basic 3D Printer" machine type, which gives access to 3D printers in each space. Granting the badge from multiple modules allows the user to earn the badge by completing any training module under any participating space.
Getting Started
Ready to get started using Machine Types and Canvas Badges with your lab? Click here.