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D2L Brightspace (LTI 1.3) LMS Admin Install Guide

D2L Brightspace (LTI 1.3) LMS Admin Install Guide

Owned by Adam Blake
Last updated: Jun 25, 2024
5 min read

This guide is for LMS admins installing the CourseKata application so that it can be used for all courses on a D2L Brightspace learning management system using the LTI 1.3 protocol.

 Prerequisites

To follow this guide, you will need

  • an instructor account at CourseKata. If you do not have one, you can request one (free) at our website. Make sure to mention that you are an LMS admin, and use your institutional email address.

  • permissions to install external LTI tools into your LMS.

  • a class in your LMS to test the installation in.

If you are using domain blocking, you may also want to add domains used in our content to your allow list.

  How CourseKata Works

CourseKata content is built and hosted on our servers and delivered via <iframe> over the LTI protocol to your Learning Management System (LMS). To make this work, you will need to install both the CourseKata application as an external LTI tool, as well as the content as modules in your course. This document will start by explaining how to install the tool—and then how to get the course content linked up with your class.

  Registering the Tool

Registering your Platform on CourseKata

  1. Start at our platform registration page.

  2. If you see a platform listed for your institution, congrats! It looks like someone has already installed this on your platform and assigned you as the owner. You can check that the settings there are correct, and move on to Importing Content below. If not, click Register Platform at the top right.

  3. Enter the information for your platform there, then click Register Platform to continue.

  4. Choose the IMS LTI 1.3 pathway and then leave the page open at this step.

Registering CourseKata on your Platform

  1. On Brightspace, open the settings menu and click Manage Extensibility.

 

  1. In the LTI Advantage tab, click Register Tool.

  1. Choose Standard registration and enter the following information:

    1. Name: CourseKata

    2. Domain: https://coursekata.org

    3. Redirect URLs: https://coursekata.org/lti/authentication/new

    4. OpenID Connect Login Url: https://coursekata.org/lti/login

    5. Target Link URI: https://coursekata.org/lti/launch

    6. Keyset URL: from the page on CourseKata that you opened in the last section, copy the Keyset URL over

  2. Click on Register and keep the Registration Details up. Back on the CourseKata registration page copy the Client ID to the Client ID text field and make sure the other URLs match (updating as needed).

  3. Click Save on the CourseKata page.

🎉 Congrats! The CourseKata tool should be installed in your LMS and you should see the ready icon on the CourseKata page. If this is not the case, please don’t hesitate to reach out at tech@coursekata.org for help.

Deploy your tool so that instructors can use it

  1. On Brighspace, click the Settings icon and then External Learning Tools

  1. Click the New Deployment button.

 

  1. Enable the tool and turn on Auto Migrate Links. In the dropdown menu for Tool choose the CourseKata tool that you just registered in the previous section.

  1. Ensure the following settings are selected/configured:

    • Org Unit Information

    • User Information

      • Name

      • Email

      • User Id

      • Username

      • Org Defined ID

    • Link Information

      • Title

      • Description

  2. Under Make tool available to click Add Org Units and share the deployment with the correct Org Units.

Importing Content

CourseKata is now installed and ready for your instructors to use. From here, you can test that the installation is working properly by creating a test course. This is the same process that an instructor would follow to create their course.

  1. From the menu on the top right of CourseKata, choose My Classes under Teaching.

  2. Click the New Class button and choose New Class

A Continuation Class is something you might use if your course is split over two academic periods (semesters, quarters) but you have a separate LMS class for each period. The first period you will select New Class and the second period you would select Continuation Class to connect the class. Using this class will let your students pick up from where they left off the last period.

  1. Fill out the form with your institution’s information, and make sure to mark that This is a test class (real instructors will choose real class) but this helps us categorize cleanups. If you are unsure of which book, you can just choose our flagship College / Statistics and Data Science (ABC), though it doesn’t really matter which you choose. When you are done, click Create Class.

  1. Copy and paste the URL to your Brightspace course into the textbox click to the next step where you will download your cartridge for the course.

The cartridge is specifically built for the book and version you have chosen. Once you install that cartridge into your LMS class and link it to your CourseKata class, you should not change the cartridge—it may appear that everything is working, but it is likely to fail at some point.

  1. In your D2L test class template, click Edit Course

  1. Click Import / Export / Copy Components

 

  1. Choose Import Components and in the dialog box, upload the cartridge that you downloaded (the file extension should be .imscc). Then choose Import All Components

The content should now be properly imported! Click View Content, then click Modules in the sidebar for the class and you should see an outline of the textbook that was imported from the cartridge. Open one of the CourseKata modules like My Progress + Jupyter. When you access the module, you should see a sign in page where you can sign in and choose which class on CourseKata matches the one that you are in.

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