EchoVideo has developed multiple modes of interoperability with the Brightspace LMS.
- Add EchoVideo as an LTI Tool Provider in Brightspace, so you can link your Brightspace courses to EchoVideo sections.
- Alternatively, you can configure an API integration with Brightspace that helps automate the Brightspace-to-Echo course linking as well as provides consolidated Analytics for course related media.
- Add a Remote Plugin to Brightspace that points to a user's EchoVideo content library (or for Admins, to all video content they have access to). The Plugin adds an EchoVideo option to the Insert Stuff button on content windows, providing users with an easy method for embedding EchoVideo videos into Brightspace Pages, Discussions, Assignments, etc. Configuring the plugin along with enabling the d2l.Tools.Lti.ContentItemMessaging system configuration variable provides unique viewer information for embedded videos in D2L / Brightspace content windows.
The steps below provide a high-level workflow for integrating EchoVideo with Brightspace, and provides links to more specific articles with more detailed procedures as needed. The procedures in the linked articles are provided as guidelines to the Brightspace setup process. Refer to the Brightspace documentation for additional details or contact Brightspace product support if you need further assistance.
BEFORE YOU BEGIN: You will want to determine if your EchoVideo Courses and Sections will be created separately in EchoVideo and then linked to through the LMS, OR if you want to enable the simplified One-Click Provisioning feature for your institution. The One-Click course provisioning auto-creates the course and section in EchoVideo from the LMS link, using the same course code and name as the LMS. This is designed to accommodate institutions who want to limit administrative involvement in EchoVideo management, and use EchoVideo primarily as a content management solution for instructor class materials. You can still create capture schedules for the sections, to record and publish lectures, or allow instructors to generate ad hoc captures for their sections, if lecture capture is part of your institution's workflow. Beyond the one-click course provisioning feature, all other LMS integration steps remain essentially the same and are described below.
Step 1: Add a Brightspace LMS Configuration in EchoVideo
This step generates an authentication mechanism, allowing your Brightspace instance to talk to your EchoVideo instance.
To add a Brightspace LMS configuration to EchoVideo
- As an EchoVideo Admin, click the Settings icon (it looks like a gear).
- Select Configurations.
The LMS Configurations page appears by default. - In the right side of the LMS configurations page, click Configurations, as shown below.
- Click Add Configuration, then select Desire2Learn from the drop-down list, and click Save.
While the selection option says Desire2Learn, once the configuration exists, you can edit the LMS name in the text box then click SAVE if you prefer it read "Brightspace".
A Brightspace / D2L LMS Configuration appears on the page, as shown in the figure below. The Key, Secret, and URL field values are the values you will copy and paste into Brightspace / D2L for ALL of your EchoVideo tool configurations.
Step 2: Create an EchoVideo External Learning Tool Provider in Brightspace
Brightspace uses External Learning Tools to integrate with external systems. Echo360 strongly recommends that the EchoVideo Tool you add to Brightspace are added at the Account level AND applied to "all descendants" in the desired organizations / departments. Adding tool providers at the Account / Organization level (rather than at the individual course level) makes those tools and their functionality available to all courses in the organization(s).
As a Brightspace admin, navigate to the Account and select the Settings icon from the top right corner. Then select External Learning Tools from the options shown.
Complete the fields in the External Tool form, using the URL, Key, and Secret values from the LMS Configuration in EchoVideo created in Step 1 above.
BE SURE to configure the Security Settings and the Link availability settings properly. At a minimum, EchoVideo requires the user name, user email address, and role. Other selections may aid in the LTI communication required for future integration, so unless you have a specific reason not to, checking all the options is recommended. You should make the link available to all descendants under the account / organizational unit. See Adding EchoVideo as an External Tool in Brightspace for additional details.
Step 3: Enable Content Item Messaging
To enable “d2l.Tools.Lti.ContentItemMessaging” system configuration variable click on the admin gear and select “Config Variable Browser”.
Then navigate to Tools Lti ContentItemMessaging and edit to enable.
Step 4: Create a Remote Plugin for EchoVideo for Embedding Videos
While this step is optional, if you want to allow users to embed EchoVideo videos directly from their EchoVideo content library into Brightspace content windows, you need to create a Remote Plugin that, like the External LTI Tool configured in Step 2, points to your EchoVideo instance using the LMS Configuration field values. The Remote Plugin will provide an EchoVideo option in the Insert Stuff button selections in content windows in Brightspace.
As a Brightspace admin, navigate to the Account and select the Settings icon from the top right corner. Then select Remote Plugins from the options shown.
Complete the fields in the External Tool form, using the URL, Key, and Secret values from the LMS Configuration in EchoVideo created in Step 1 above.
See Adding an EchoVideo Remote Plugin for Embedding EchoVideo Videos for more specific instructions on creating the plugin, and for how to enable the d2l.Tools.Lti.ContentItemMessaging system configuration variable if not already enabled.
Step 5: Link Brightspace Courses to EchoVideo Sections / Classes
This is potentially the most complicated set of steps in the process, because there are several different ways to go about it, depending on whether it's the Admin or the Instructor who executes it, whether the instructor is exporting EchoVideo analytic data into their Brightspace course gradebook, whether the EchoVideo sections already exist for linking or if one-click course provisioning is turned on, and whether or not additional links beyond just a link to the main EchoVideo section are needed (such as to individual classes).
See Adding an EchoVideo Link to Brightspace courses for information beyond the basic steps provided below.
The basic steps are as follows:
- Navigate to a Brightspace course and add a Module to the course content.
-
Add an Existing Activity to the module, selecting External Learning Tools, then select the EchoVideo External LTI Tool created in Step 2 above.
- Click the external tool link you just created and use the screen that appears to select a Term, Course, and Section in EchoVideo to link this Brightspace course to. See Linking LMS Courses to EchoVideo Sections for additional details.
If an Admin performs this step, that user is then enrolled in the EchoVideo section as an Instructor; you may wish to unenroll yourself from these sections later.
- Alternatively, if One-Click Course Provisioning is turned on, the initial click-through of this link will auto-create the course and section in EchoVideo, and you are immediately taken to the main section page. It will be empty (no classes) until an instructor creates one or more classes, launches an ad hoc capture, or an administrator configures a lecture capture schedule for the section.
- After selecting and linking the EchoVideo section, scroll to the bottom of the frame where the EchoVideo section appears and add an Assessment entry for the EchoVideo link. This adds a column in the Gradebook to receive exported EchoVideo student engagement analytics.
- We also recommend that you edit the properties of the activity tool link to EchoVideo and check the Open as External Resource checkbox. This allows EchoVideo to open in a new tab, providing more viewing space for classes and the media.
Once the initial Brightspace-to-EchoVideo linking is complete, instructors may choose to create multiple module / links and link to individual classes within an EchoVideo section.
When a student passes through the link from Brightspace into EchoVideo, they are automatically enrolled into the section as a student. If the student is not yet an EchoVideo user, their EchoVideo account is automatically created when they pass into EchoVideo.
Brightspace course instructors are automatically enrolled into the EchoVideo section as Instructors, if they are not already enrolled. Instructors may also have their EchoVideo account created if it does not already exist when they pass into EchoVideo from Brightspace. See also Disabling Automatic Instructor Creation (for LMS users) if this is not appropriate for your institution.
Brightspace Admins who pass into an EchoVideo section this way are also enrolled as Instructors into the EchoVideo course. See LMS to EchoVideo User Role Mappings for additional details.
Step 6: Provide Articles to Instructors and Students as necessary
As noted in Step 3, some or all of those procedures can be done by Instructors or Admins. Once the functionality has been added to Brightspace, let instructors and students know how to take advantage of it.
- If Instructors are responsible for linking into EchoVideo from their Brightspace Courses, be sure to provide them with the proper procedures for doing so.
- If you have configured one-click course provisioning, refer your Instructors to Instructor How-Tos for One-Click Course Provisioning, to provide them guidance on what to do with their new (likely empty) section.
- If your instructors are going to be exporting EchoVideo student engagement analytics into their Brightspace Gradebook, be certain they are configuring their section links properly (adding an Assessment for the EchoVideo link as described above).
- If you have added an EchoVideo option for the Insert Stuff button for Instructors and / or Students, be sure they have instructions for embedding videos into Brightspace content windows.