Blackboard Ultra LTI 1.1

We have a new Perusall integration method available (it is called LTI 1.3). Benefits include: group sync, roster sync, seamless grade pass back, and no need for the Key & Secret! Learn more about the difference between the integrations.

For this setup process, your IT Administrator is required to do the installation. If your IT administrator chooses to proceed, they can view our set up guide here Blackboard Admin Setup. 

For instructors to add Perusall to their Blackboard courses, the Blackboard Administrator must first allow Perusall's placement in courses. (Steps 1-4 are for the Blackboard Administrator).

Admin Step 1: Request Key & Secret

To connect Perusall to Blackboard, contact support@perusall.com to obtain the institution’s Consumer Key & Shared Secret. Please email in from your official university email address using the subject line “Key and Secret Request.” For security verification purposes, please provide a link to an institutional web page that shows your name, email address, and title/affiliation.

Admin Step 2: Manage Global Properties

• Navigate to System Admin > LTI Tool Providers > Manage Global Properties.

• On the Global Properties page, select "Yes" for the tool to be enabled in courses and enabled in organizations.

• For the field "Creation of Tool Provider Links", select your preference. 

• Select "Yes" to allow configured tool providers to post grades.

• Scroll down to Default Configuration and select to send user data only over SSL.

• For User Fields to Send, enable role in course, name, and email address. 

• Finally, select "yes" to Allow Membership Service Access and press submit. 

Admin Step 3: Register Perusall in your Blackboard environment

• Navigate to System Admin > LTI Tool Providers > Register LTI 1.1 Provider.

• Enter app.perusall.com in the provider domain field.

• Choose "approved" in the Provider Domain Status field.

• Choose "set globally" in the Default Configuration field.

• Enter your institution’s Consumer Key in the Tool Provider Key field.

• Enter your institution’s Shared Secret in the Tool Provider Secret field.

• Choose "send user data only over SSL" in the Send User Data field. 

• Enable role in course, name and email address in the User Fields to Send field.

• Click Submit.

Admin Step 4: Creating a placement

• Navigate to System Admin > LTI Tool Providers, locate app.perusall.com and click on the dropdown menu.  Select Manage Placements > Create Placement.

• Enter "Perusall" in the Label field.

• Enter a Handle.

• Choose "yes" in the Availability field.

• Choose Course content tool and enable Allows grading in the Type field.

• Enable Launch in a New Window.

• In the Tool Provider URL field, enter:

  https://app.perusall.com/lti/launch 

• Click Submit.

Instructors are now able to add a Perusall link to their Blackboard course. 

For Instructors: Creating your Perusall course.

• Enter your Blackboard course content area, click +Add Content > Create > Teaching Tools with LTI Connection.
• Enter Perusall (or anything) in the Name field.
• Make this Visible to students.
• Under LTI Link Details
  • The Configuration URL is https://app.perusall.com/lti/launch.
  • Enable Open in new window and Allow class conversations.
• Click Save, and click on the new link in your course content to launch Perusall.

After you've set up your Perusall course, you can create assignment links in Blackboard for your students to access your Perusall course content.  When a student clicks on a Perusall link in your Blackboard course, a Perusall account will be created and they will automatically be enrolled in your course.

Grade Sync to your Blackboard Ultra Course

You can sync students' average or total assignment scores OR students’ individual assignment scores back to Blackboard.  Click on the toggles below to learn more.

• Syncing the average or total score rather than individual assignment scores saves time because an instructor will only need to create one Perusall link in a Blackboard content area rather than a specific assignment link for each assignment. Students will access Perusall through this link.

  • To enable average or total grade sync, launch into your Perusall course, click Settings > Scoring > Grade Sync to LMS, select Automatically sync students' average or total scores back to the LMS, and save changes.
  • Return to Blackboard Ultra, locate the Perusall link you created in your content area, and click edit. 
    • Under Grading, enable Create gradebook entry for this item
    • Under Maximum points, enter the highest possible score a student can earn.
    • For average grade sync, this can be found under Settings > Scoring > General > Assignment score range.
    • For total points sync, this is the total number of points of all Perusall assignments that students will be completing over the duration of your course.
    • Click Save.

  Students will click the Perusall link you created to access their Perusall assignments, and Perusall will pass their average or total scores back to Blackboard as you release assignment scores in Perusall.

• To enable individual assignment grade sync, you will create assignment specific links in a Blackboard content area for every assignment you created in Perusall.

  • Launch into your Perusall course > click Settings > Scoring> Grade Sync to LMS and select automatically sync students' individual assignment scores back to the LMS

  • Next, select course home > Assignments > and select an assignment you would like to sync back to Blackboard > click copy full title for LMS. The assignment name will be copied to the clipboard

  • Enter your Blackboard course content area, click +Add Content > Create > Teaching Tools with LTI Connection, and paste the assignment’s title into the assignment name field.

  • Make the link visible to students.
  • The Configuration URL is https://app.perusall.com/lti/launch.

  • Enable open new window, allow class conversations, and create grade book entry for this item.

  • Remove any due dates, make sure the Maximum points matches the Perusall assignment score range (Located under settings > scoring > general), and press Save.

  Repeat this process for each Perusall assignment.
  
  We suggest hiding the generic Perusall link (created in For Instructors: Creating your Perusall course) from the students’ view in Blackboard by going to your content area with the generic Perusall link and selecting the dropdown menu next the button > click Edit, and make it Hidden from students.

In order to successfully sync individual assignment scores, students must access each Perusall assignment by clicking its assignment specific link in Blackboard. If a student does not, there will be a red mark next to the students' grade in the Perusall gradebook symbolizing that Perusall is not able to send the student's scores back to the Blackboard.

Troubleshooting

If you use a Learning Module, Blackboard will attempt to open Perusall within an iframe. However, as a security measure, Perusall prevents itself from being "framed" within another app, so if you try to launch Perusall from a Learning Module you will get a message indicating that the browser couldn't launch Perusall. To fix this, we suggest avoiding the use of Learning Modules; instead, use folders to organize your Perusall links in the Blackboard course.

Links on the left-hand navigation pane in Blackboard won't work with Perusall as they cannot point to tool providers. Instead, click Content > Perusall (from the Build Content dropdown menu) to create a Perusall link in the main content area of Blackboard.

On July 28, 2017, Blackboard issued an advisory that some LTI tools may not work correctly in Safari. If your institution uses an older version of Blackboard (prior to the Q2 2018 release), we suggest avoiding use of Safari when accessing Perusall through Blackboard.

See our general LMS troubleshooting page for other common issues.