LMS: D2L Integration Setup

Visible Body Courseware integrates with D2L Brightspace for a seamless teaching and learning experience. Once integrated, Courseware content appears within D2L for easier access and course management. This integration is available for both site license and student purchase (including bulk codes) customers.

To get started, follow the steps below. You'll need an administrator to access both D2L and Courseware to complete the setup.

If, at any point, you need assistance during this setup, contact us at implementation@visiblebody.com or send us a support ticket.

Administrator Setup

In order to successfully complete the Visible Body (LTI 1.3) setup within D2L, you will need the help of a Visible Body Courseware administrator as well as a D2L LMS administrator. They can be the same person. If you don’t have a Courseware administrator account associated with your institution’s Visible Body account, please request one.

Part 1: Enable D2L inside Courseware

Sign up for a Visible Body admin account if you do not already have one. Reach out to implementation@visiblebody.com to be provided a setup link.
In Visible Body Courseware, go to the LMS Integration page on the left-hand side. Open the D2L Brightspace 1.3 tab and copy the URL to paste later.

Part 2: Register Visible Body (LTI 1.3) as a tool in D2L

In D2L, click Admin Toolsin the upper right hand corner. ClickManage Extensibility.
Navigate to the LTI Advantage tab and click Register Tool.
Select Dynamic and paste the Dynamic Configuration URL (from part 1) into this field. Check off Configure Deployment and click Register.
The link will appear as “Visible Body (LTI 1.3)” and will come in as disabled. Check it off to select it and hit Enable. You should see a confirmation that one registration was enabled.
Click the title of the tool “Visible Body (LTI 1.3).” This will open the Edit page. We don’t recommend changing any other settings. Make sure to save before moving to deployments.
On the bottom of this page, click View Deployments.
Click “Visible Body (LTI 1.3)” again. After registering the tool, you can also view deployments by clicking External Learning Tools in the Admin Tools dropdown.
Navigate to Security Settings and make sure Org Unit Information and User Information are both checked.
Navigate to Configuration Settings and uncheck Auto Create Grade Items (if applicable). Then, select Grades created by LTI will be included in Final Grade. Changing other settings is not recommended.
Under Make tool available to, click Add Org Units and select the relevant courses you want to give access to Visible Body. We recommend checking “This unit and all descendants” to allow the integration to be added to any copied courses.
Click Save.

Click View Links on the View Deployments page to see the details of the two placements that you’ve added with this integration. The first is the Visible Body Home. The second will be the Visible Body Assignment Library, which is coming soon. If you like, you can further specify viewer settings on this page.

From this point onward, administrators or instructors with appropriate permissions can continue the process. They should have a destination or sample Brightspace course ready for the next steps.

Part 3: Manage placement and confirm setup in D2L

We recommend adding our Course Home to your D2L course. This is optional, but will make Courseware and our apps more accessible to your students! With the tool set up in D2L you can now manage placements. There are two options:

Add Courseware Home to the navbar
Add Courseware Home to your course as a module

Option 1 (recommended): Add Courseware Home to the Course Navbar

Add the Courseware Home to the navbar in your courses by following these steps:

Go to the course where instructors and students will use Visible Body. You must be logged in as an admin.
Navigate to the Options link at the end of the Course Navbar. Click Edit This Navbar.
Under Links select Add Links. On the top of this popup, select Create Custom Link. Fill out the Create Custom Link page as follows:
Enter a tool name. We recommend "Visible Body (LTI 1.3)". Alert all instructors that this is the name of the link they will add.
Under URL, click Insert Quicklink.
Scroll to Third Party and select “Visible Body (LTI 1.3) Home”.
Under Behavior keep the default: New window/tab. This allows the homepage to be within your course.
We recommend adding this description: Interactive health and life science teaching made easy! Visible Body Courseware does the assignment and assessment work for you and gives students everything they need to succeed, all in one place! Pick from our huge collection of visual life science assignments and easily edit to suit your needs. Instructors can manage their Courseware assignments and students can get to the complete reference app.
Click Create.
You should still be in the Add Links page. Click on the link you just created and hit Add.
Back on Edit Navbar, click Save and Close.
Visible Body (LTI 1.3) should now be in your course navbar. Click to access the Visible Body 1.3 homepage.
You will be asked to confirm that you have set up this integration. Please read through the information and confirm.
Click Connect. You will see a notice confirming that you have successfully connected your institution with Visible Body.
1. If you do not see this prompt, try refreshing the page and clicking the Visible Body tool again.

You will need to link a course to complete this integration. If you don’t have one, you can choose a sample course or create a new course from the course linking page.

Select Manage Sync Options from the Course Home, or select the settings icon within the Assignment Library to link a course. Once any course has been linked, this integration is ready to go. Note: your instructors will link their own courses.
1. You can verify your connection by going into the Courseware LMS Integration page and checking the 1.3 D2L tab for Connected.

Option 2: Add Courseware Home as a “Content” module in your course

Go to the course where instructors and students will use Visible Body. You must be logged in as an admin.
Navigate to the Content tab.
Create or navigate to the module where you would like to add Visible Body (LTI 1.3).
Select Add Existing or Existing Activities depending on your D2L course.
Select "Visible Body (LTI 1.3) Home" to add into this module.
Now select "Visible Body (LTI 1.3)" on the left, so it appears on the right side. Click the 3-dot menu on the right in the content area and select Edit.
On the Edit page, select Open in a new tab, then click Save.
Visible Body will now be an item in your course. Click to access the Visible Body 1.3 homepage.
You will be asked to confirm that you have set up this integration. Please read through the information and confirm.
Click Connect. You will see a notice confirming that you have successfully connected your institution with Visible Body.
1. If you do not see this prompt, try refreshing the page and clicking the Visible Body tool again.

You will need to link a course to complete this integration. If you don’t have one, you can choose a sample course or create a new course from the course linking page.

Select Manage Sync Options from the Course Home, or select the settings icon within the Assignment Library to link a course. Once any course has been linked, this integration is ready to go. Note: your instructors will link their own courses.
1. You can verify your connection by going into the Courseware LMS Integration page and checking the 1.3 D2L tab for Connected.

Important: Once the integration is set up, any student added to the D2L Course will have access to Visible Body. Once they click a Courseware link, they will either be counted as part of the site license arrangement (if the integration is set up as a site license) or start the purchase process.

Instructor Setup

This section of the article assumes an administrator has already registered and managed the placement of Visible Body (LTI 1.3) in D2L. If they have not, see the Administrator Setup section.

These steps are for instructors who want to use Visible Body with their D2L course. When students are added to your D2L course, they will be automatically added to Visible Body after the student selects a link or accesses an assignment. With this setup, you will also be able to more easily deep-link to your assignments.

Each Visible Body assignment linked to D2L will add a column in your D2L gradebook. Scores from your students will automatically update in the gradebook as your students work on those activities. You can edit the activity points as you add the links, or you can set activities not to count toward your grades. You can edit any Visible Body scores in the D2L gradebook, but the results shown in Courseware will not reflect those edits until you change them there, too.

Follow the steps below to begin setting up your D2L Courseware integration.

Log Into Courseware and Link Your Courses

Visible Body (LTI 1.3) should be available in your course’s left hand navigation already. Your administrator may have named this tool something else. We recommend that your admin add our Course Home to all courses using Visible Body. This makes it easier to manage course content and gives students and instructors one-click access to the full Visible Body Suite app.

However, if they have not installed Courseware Home you can still manage your courses in the Assignment Library. Additionally, if your administrator has given you permission to add external tools to your course, you can follow below to add Course Home yourself.

To log in and link your courses:

Once you’ve selected Visible Body, you’ll be prompted to sign in using your Visible Body account email and password. You’ll only have to do this once in D2L.
Choose the Visible Body course you want to associate with your D2L course. If you don’t have one set up yet, you can create one.
Click Link Course. There will be a confirmation message asking if you are sure. Click OK.
Your course is now linked. From the Visible Body (LTI 1.3) homepage, by selecting Go To Courseware, you and your students are directed to the connected course in Courseware.

Add Course Home

If you have permission and your admin hasn’t already added Course Home to your Visible Body courses, you can set this up to give your students easier access to the Courseware website and Visible Body’s apps.

Go to the course where you’d like you and your students to start accessing Visible Body. You’ll be placing the Courseware Home in a toolbar to do this.
Navigate to the option at the end of the Course Navbar. Click Edit This Navbar.
Under Links, click Add Links.
Select “Visible Body (LTI 1.3)” and hit Add. It’s possible your administrator has named this tool something else. Please check with your administrator if you are having trouble finding it. It’s also possible your administrator has not set up Visible Body (LTI 1.3) as a quick link. You may be able to do it yourself by following the process in Part 3 of the Administrator Setup section.
Back on Edit Navbar, click on Save and Close.
Visible Body (LTI 1.3) should now be in your course navbar. If you don’t have the necessary permissions to edit your D2L course navbar, your admin can add Visible Body (LTI 1.3) to your course by following the steps in the Administrator Setup section.

Link an Assignment

The Visible Body Assignment Library displays all published assignments within your linked course. Click on any assignment to open it and view its activities, you'll see a toggle next to each activity that allows you to mark it as graded or ungraded - this will determine whether or not the assignment populates your LMS gradebook. Select the checkbox next to the assignment to link it to your course.

To make edits or publish new assignments, simply click Manage Assignments, and you will be taken directly to your linked Courseware course.

To update your linked course, click the settings cog in the upper right corner.

To link an assignment, follow these steps:

Go to the course where you’d like to add one or more links to Visible Body assignments.
Navigate to the Content tab.
Create or navigate to the module where you would like to add links to Visible Body assignments.
Select Add Existing or Existing Activities depending on your D2L course.
Find Visible Body (LTI 1.3) Assignment Library and select it. If you haven’t signed in and linked the integration to your Visible Body course you will be prompted to do so.
Back in the Assignment Library, you should see a list of published assignments from the Visible Body course that you have linked. If you don’t see the ones you want, select Manage Activities to navigate to Visible Body Courseware. There, edit and publish any assignments you want to add as direct links, and then return to the tab with the Assignment Library, where you will see the new or updated assignments ready for linking.
Check off one or more assignments that you want to link. These assignments will also be automatically added to your gradebook, awaiting scores from your students’ activities.
Select Link Assignments and direct links to your assignments will appear in the content module of your course!
You can move the assignments around and edit the title and dates as you need.

You can also add a single link into a D2L assignment, if you use D2L Assignments. In a new Assignment you can select Attach a link to an existing activity, and then find and use the Assignment Library as above.

Be sure to open these assignments in a separate window. To manage these settings, click the arrow next to the linked assignment, select Edit Properties in Place, and check Open as External Resource.

Course Management

Adding and Transferring Students and Instructors

To ensure students or co-instructors can access the Visible Body materials in your course, simply have them added to your D2L course or section. You no longer need to use the Invite People feature in the Courseware platform to do this. Once you or your administrator has added any student to your course in D2L, and they can see the Visible Body (LTI 1.3) homepage or linked Visible Body material, they’re ready for immediate access!

To transfer your students, ensure they have been transferred to the correct course in Courseware first, then transfer them into the corresponding course in the LMS. They will still have automatic access.

If you transfer your students in the LMS before moving them in Courseware, instructors will need to drop the students from the initial course in Courseware and have the student connect to the correct D2L course to ensure they’re only in the course you intend.

Unlink your Courseware and D2L courses

If you've accidentally linked the incorrect Courseware course to your D2L course, you can follow these steps to unlink your courses.

Navigate to your Visible Body (LTI 1.3) homepage and click Manage Sync Options. Alternatively, navigate to the Visible Body (LTI 1.3) assignment library and click the settings icon.
On this subpage, find the course that is currently connected and click Unlink Course. There will be a confirmation message asking if you are sure. Click yes.

Now that the incorrect courses are unlinked, connect the intended Courseware course to your D2L course by clicking the Connect Course option that will appear on Manage Sync Options. Selecting this option will bring you back to the course connection process

Student Help

You can share this LMS student help article with your students for extra help accessing their Visible Body material in your LMS.

Common Setup Questions

As an admin, why am I not being prompted to accept the integration? Does that mean I’m done?
You need to accept by confirming the integration and linking a course, Visible Body (LTI 1.3) will not be connected until you finish this process. Check that you are logged into D2L with an admin account and that you are not impersonating a teacher or student.
My LMS integration page says connected, so why do my teachers see an error that the admin has not completed the integration?
Check that the course is in the same sub-account. If all courses are considered their own sub-account or the LTI is added to each course separately, the admin may need to accept the integration for each course.
Why do I not see the LTI 1.3 tab in the Courseware LMS Integration page?
Email your Visible Body sales representative or implementation@visiblebody.com
How can I fix my students seeing third party cookie errors?
See this article about third party cookies for students.

Check out our full LTI 1.3 integration FAQ for more information. If you have further questions, contact us at implementation@visiblebody.com or send us a support ticket.