Brightspace Integration (Admin)

Why use LTI?

While it’s possible to share media with students using direct links or video embed, an LTI integration allows users to:

• View media uploaded to TechSmith Knowmia directly in Brightspace using their login credentials.
• Automatically transfer completed quiz results from media uploaded to Knowmia into the Brightspace gradebook.

To complete the LTI integration, you will need access to both the Knowmia Site Administration controls and the administration panel of Brightspace.

Process Overview

Successfully integrating Knowmia with Brightspace is a multi-step process:

1. Create the LTI integration in Knowmia. (Knowmia Site Admin)
2. Enable the Content Item Messaging (CIM) org variable in Brightspace. (Brightspace Administrator – requires Brightspace version 10.6.5 or later)
3. Create a new Remote Plugin via Quicklink (CIM) in Brightspace. (Brightspace Administrator)
4. Adjust the security settings for the LTI Tool Provider. (Brightspace Administrator)
5. Test the integration.

Read on for full instructions.

Create an LTI Integration in the Knowmia Site Admin Dashboard

1. Log in to your Knowmia website as a site administrator.
2. Click the Site Admin tab.
   
   
   
3. Under Settings, locate the LTI Integrations section. Click Add a new integration.
   
   
   
4. Select Other from the LMS options in the dropdown. Enter “Brightspace” in the text field and click Create.
   
   
   
5. The integration details are displayed. In the next section, we explain where to copy and paste these fields into Brightspace to complete the integration.

Note: The Consumer Key and Secret are randomly generated and unique to your Knowmia website. You may use these values for multiple Brightspace instances such as testing and production environments. 

If you need to open the Integration Details at a later time, click the view icon next to the integration name.

Enable the Content Item Messaging (CIM) Org Variable in Brightspace

1. Log in to Brightspace as an administrator.
2. Under Admin Tools, select Config Variable Browser.
   
   
   
3. In the Config Variable Browser, locate the “d2l.Tools.Lti.ContentItemMessaging.IsEnabled” org variable. Click the variable name to open the variable settings. (For more information on this particular variable – including when it was introduced – see this Brightspace support article.)
   
   

Tip: Use the search box to search for the term “contentitemmessaging”, then select the variable from the search results.

4. Set the variable Org Value to On, and then click Save.
   
   

(Optional) Set the ‘Auto LTI Grade Item’ Variable

When an instructor adds a Knowmia video to their course using the LTI integration, they can choose to associate that content with a Brightspace grade item. If they associate the video with a grade item, Knowmia reports viewer data and the grade item is scored automatically. If an instructor does not associate the video with a grade item, there are two scenarios depending on how the administrator has set the following Brightspace variable:

• This variable ON – a grade item for each video will be automatically created in the Brightspace gradebook, and scores will be reported based on Knowmia viewer data.
• This variable OFF – no grade items will be automatically created in the Brightspace gradebook.

Select the setting that is best for your organization. Other things to note:

• Viewer data is always available within Knowmia, no matter how this variable is set.
• Any automatically created gradebook items (above variable is ON) can be edited after they are created. For example, instructors can change the points possible, grade category, grade visibility, etc.

Create a New Remote Plugin in Brightspace

1. From the Brightspace Admin Tools section, select Remote Plugins.
   
   
   
2. Select New Remote Plugin.
   
   
   
3. From the Plugin Type dropdown menu, select Quicklink (CIM).
   
   

Note: You must select “Quicklink (CIM)”. Selecting a standard Quicklink will cause the integration to fail. If you do not see the Quicklink (CIM) option in the dropdown, please see the steps above for enabling the Content Item Messaging variable.

4. Using the unique LTI integration Consumer Key and Secret values previously generated in Knowmia (see above), fill out the Remote Plugin text boxes:

• ​​(A) Name – Give your Quicklink a name (we strongly recommend “Knowmia”). This name will be visible to your Brightspace users.
• (B) Launch Point URL – Paste the unique Launch URL from Knowmia.
• (C) LTI Key – Paste the unique Consumer Key from Knowmia.
• (D) LTI Secret – Paste the unique Consumer Secret from Knowmia.
  
  

5. Under “Make available to:”, click Add Org Units.
   
   
   
6. Select the org unit in which you would like to make the Knowmia Quicklink (CIM) available.
   Important: Select the “All descendants” option (A) for that particular org unit. Then, click Insert (B) to confirm.
   
   
   
7. On the New Remote Plugin screen, click Save.
   
   
   
8. The newly-created Quicklink (CIM) is displayed in the list of existing Remote Plugins.
   
   

Adjust the Security Settings for the LTI Tool Provider

1. From the Brightspace Admin Tools menu, select External Learning Tools.
   
   
   
2. Under the Manage Tool Providers tab (A), locate your Knowmia tool, and choose Edit Tool Provider (B).
   
   
   
3. Under the Security Settings section, please select the following options:

a. Send tool consumer information to tool provider
b. Send context information to tool provider
c. Send course information to tool provider
d. Send LTI user ID and LTI role list to provider
e. Send user name to tool provider
f. Send user email to tool provider

4. Click Save and Close.
   
   

Test the Integration

Your Knowmia integration is now complete! To test the integration, log in as a Brightspace instructor who has existing Knowmia media and try adding content to an existing course using the Quicklink (CIM). For step-by-step directions on adding media to Brightspace courses from the instructor perspective, see the following tutorial: Add Media to Your Brightspace Course.