Update 8: Data deep dive (Part 2)

This week, we’ve been further developing our understanding of how to access school data, focused for now on meeting the data requirements of “The Form Filler” proof of concept we explained in a previous post.

This led us to research a number of providers across various EdTech categories.

With a background in “general” Software as a Service (SaaS), we had a few expectations. Namely, that APIs would exist for such data-driven systems and that documentation would be publicly accessible and reasonably comprehensive.

Unfortunately, as is often the case, the reality proved to be something different.

The first hurdle was that very little information is publicly available about most of the APIs in question. Some providers list integration partners, but anything beyond that requires us to apply for access, which we duly did.

The second hurdle was that a useful API is far from universal. Some providers that offer "integration" in fact only support data ingestion — meaning we can send data in but can't query it out, which is unfortunately what we need most.

The third hurdle was documentation quality. One provider offered a GraphQL instance with a full dump of available objects. This is great if you already know the data structure intimately and just need the right field name, but less great if you're trying to understand the data and the relationships between different objects.

We were impressed by Wonde, which exists to improve connectivity between EdTech providers and schools and offers publicly accessible API documentation without requiring us to sign anything draconian. Much of their functionality is self-serve, which has made our work considerably more efficient. Its limitation, however, is universality — for the most comprehensive integration with a specific provider, we still need to go directly to the source.

We wish you a fantastic weekend.