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EchoVideo: Creating the Consolidated Analytics Placement in Blackboard

Echo360
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BUILDING BLOCK END-OF-LIFE ANNOUNCEMENT

As of 30 Dec 2024, the Anthology (Blackboard) Building Block has officially reached its end of life for use with EchoVideo.

Prior to the end-of-life date of December 30th, 2024, all Building Block content must have been converted to LTI 1.1 Deep Links. For more information from Anthology, please see Convert Building Block Content to LTI.
For more information from us, please see Building Block to LTI Migration Overview and Converting Blackboard Building Block Content to LTI 1.1 Deep Links.
NOTE that while migrating to LTI 1.3 may appear to be an option within Blackboard, it has not been fully tested by us. We are only supporting migrating to LTI 1.1.

Who can do this?
The procedures on this page must be performed by a Blackboard Administrator who is also an EchoVideo administrator, or working with an EchoVideo administrator.

The EchoVideo Media Analytics LTI 1.1 & LTI 1.3 tools provide viewing data for all of the EchoVideo media currently associated with the Blackboard Course where the link is accessed. Clicking the analytics tool link opens a consolidated media analytics page in EchoVideo, showing view data for all of the EchoVideo media currently embedded in the Blackboard course as well as for media located in any EchoVideo section linked to this Blackboard course.

Instructors can use this to get at-a-glance information about Student views of course media as well as polling responses for embedded interactive media or section-published presentations.

Who Can See EchoVideo Analytics? Media viewing data is only allowed for EchoVideo instructors and administrators. Meaning the role the user has in a Blackboard course determines whether the link shows the EchoVideo media analytics page, or takes the user to their EchoVideo Library. EchoVideo observes IMS mapping as listed in LMS to EchoVideo User Role Mappings.
If you are not sure of your IMS role mapping, this table in the Blackboard documentation may help: https://help.blackboard.com/Learn/Administrator/SaaS/Integrations/Learning_Tools_Interoperability#lti-role-mapping_OTP-7

Adding an EchoVideo analytics link for instructors involves creating a placement for the link that provides easy user access. If you already have other EchoVideo placements, these procedures will look very familiar.

The most important aspects of this creation are naming the placement to be recognizable as the tool for EchoVideo analytics, configuring the placement as a Course Tool so it's easy for instructors to access, but not available for students, and adding the necessary blackboard_course_id parameter to the tool so that EchoVideo can retrieve all of the relevant media data for the Blackboard course.

To create the EchoVideo analytics tool placement

  1. While logged in as a system administrator, open the Administrator Panel.
  2. Select LTI Tool Providers from the Integrations section of the admin panel.
    System Admin panel of Blackboard with LTI Tool Providers option identified for selection as described
  3. Find the EchoVideo LTI tool you have already created, and hover over it to expose the menu arrow (also called a "chevron"). If you do NOT yet have an EchoVideo LTI tool, see Add EchoVideo as an External LTI Tool in Blackboard.
  4. From the menu select Manage Placements.
    LTI provider tool list with menu options showing and Manage Placements identified
  5. Click Create Placement, located at the top of the Placements list.
    Manage Placements list with Create Placement button identified for steps as described
  6. Add a Label that clearly identifies this link as one to the user's EchoVideo Library. We suggest "EchoVideo Media Analytics". This label appears in the Course Tools list for selection.
  7. Add a description if desired. This field is optional.
    Create placement form in blackboard with label and description and Handle fields shown for steps as described
  8. Enter a Handle or text that uniquely identifies this tool placement. This is what will appear in the Placements list for the tool (for Admins).
  9. For Availability select Yes.
  10. In the Type section of the form, enable the Course Tool radio button.
  11. Make sure that Allow student access is NOT checked, as shown in the figure below. Students cannot see viewing analytics in EchoVideo.
    Create placement form in Blackboard with Type section fields and selections shown for steps as described
  12. Enable the Launch in New Window checkbox. We recommend doing this to provide the full window space available for viewing your EchoVideo media analytics, but it is not required.
  13. OPTIONALLY: Use the following URL to obtain an EchoVideo icon to use for this tool: https://echo360qa.dev/assets/images/0a11772a218c58bd62b8c46ab5bf90dc-favicon.png
    1. Navigate to the above-linked URL page (changing the base domain to your regional domain).
    2. Right-click the image to save it locally.
    3. Upload it to the Icon entry in the form.
  14. Scroll down to the Tool Provider Information section of the form.
  15. In the Tool Provider URL field, copy / paste the Host URL from the Blackboard LMS configuration fields in EchoVideo.
  16. Place your cursor at the END of the pasted URL and manually type in /launch/analytics. THIS IS CASE SENSITIVE!! Be sure to enter the text in all lowercase, exactly as provided here and shown in the below figure.
    BB_CreateAnalyticsPlacement_ToolProvider_withParamsArrowCircle.png

    TIP: The Host URL is also visible on the LTI Provider Tools list in Blackboard and can be copied from there for pasting into the Tool Provider URL field. Be sure to append the URL as cited above.

  17. In the Tool Provider Key field, enter the Consumer Key value from the Blackboard LMS configuration fields in EchoVideo.
    If the LTI tool has this set globally (and not "per link") you can skip this step.
  18. In the Tool Provider Secret field, enter the Consumer Secret value from the Blackboard LMS configuration fields in EchoVideo.
    If the LTI tool has this set globally (and not "per link") you can skip this step.
  19. In the Tool Provider Custom Parameters text box, enter the following exactly as provided here and as shown in the above figure:
    blackboard_course_id=@X@course.pk_string@X@
  20. When finished, click Submit.

The custom parameter is necessary so that the tool will pass the Blackboard course identifier that EchoVideo needs so that the Analytics page can properly gather and present all course-related EchoVideo media to the user.

Once the placement is done, an EchoVideo Media Analytics link is now available under the Course Management area for all courses for all instructors (and admins).

In Learn view courses, click Course Tools under Course Management in the left navigation to expand the available list and see the new EchoVideo Media Analytics tool. This is shown in the below figure.
Location of media analytics tool shown in Blackboard Learn courses as described

In Ultra view courses, click Books & Tools to open a side panel with selections, then select the EchoVideo Media Analytics tool, as shown in the below figure.
Location of media analytics tool shown in Blackboard Ultra courses as described

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