The Moodle integration with Courseware is available for Site License customers. (It is not yet available for Courseware student paid and activation code users.) If you are a customer interested in trying out this integration, follow all the steps below. These steps can be completed by anyone with administrator access to both Courseware and Moodle.
If at any point you need assistance during this setup, contact us at support@visiblebody.com.
Administrator Setup
Prerequisites
In order to successfully complete the Visible Body (LTI 1.3) setup within Moodle, you will need the help of a Moodle administrator as well as a Visible Body Courseware administrator account. They can be the same person. If you don’t have a Courseware administrator associated with your institution’s Visible Body account, please request one.
You will also need an active Visible Body site license set up before you can complete the setup. Please contact our Sales or Customer Experience team to do this.
Follow along with the steps below to begin setting up your Moodle Courseware integration.
Register Visible Body (LTI 1.3) as a Tool in Moodle
To begin, you will need the dynamic configuration URL found by logging into Visible Body Courseware, and navigating to the LMS integration page. Click the Moodle tab and then copy the URL. If you’re having trouble finding it, reach out to support.
Once you have the dynamic URL:
- In Moodle, navigate to the Site Administration tab.
- Under the Site Administration tab, select the Plugins tab.
- Under Activity Modules, look for the External Tool section, and select Manage tools.
- Paste the dynamic link that you copied from your Courseware LMS Integration page and click the green Add LTI Advantage button.
- Visible Body (LTI 1.3) should now appear under Tools on this page. Click the Edit pencil in the top right corner of the new Visible Body (LTI 1.3) tool.
- Update three of the default settings:
- By Tool Configuration Usage, choose Show in activity chooser and as a preconfigured tool.
- For the default launch container, select New window.
- We recommend adding an icon URL so your institution can identify Visible Body. To add this:
- Select Show More at the bottom of the Tool Settings section.
- Add the following to the icon URL and Secure icon URL fields:
https://www.visiblebody.com/hubfs/branding-and-distribution/visible_body_courseware_icon_transparent_500.png
We recommend you keep all the rest of the default settings as-is.
- At the bottom of the settings page, click Save changes.
- You should be brought back to the Manage Tools page. Click Activate on the Visible Body (LTI 1.3) tool and it will now be available.
Finish Setup and Manage Placement
With the tool added to Moodle, finish the setup by confirming the integration. You can also now manage placements on the platform. We recommend adding Visible Body (LTI 1.3) directly into a course, to finish the setup. This could be in a sandbox or test course for now.
- Navigate to a course where you would like to add Visible Body (LTI 1.3). This could be a sandbox course.
- Under More, select LTI External tools.
- Find the Visible Body (LTI 1.3) tool and make sure the Show in activity chooser option is enabled.
- Back in your course contents, turn on Edit mode.
- Choose a section and select Add an Activity or Resource.
- Find Visible Body (LTI 1.3) in the list and select it. On the New External tool page, to add overall Visible Body Home, we recommend using the activity name Visible Body Home. The Select Content option is for adding links to activities with grade return, and instructors can do later if necessary.
- For an activity description, we recommend: "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 Save and return to course at the bottom of the page. Visible Body Home should now be available in your course. Click to access the Visible Body 1.3 Course Home and start the account pairing process.
- You will be asked to sign in with a Visible Body Administrator account.
- Then confirm that you will set up this integration as a site license. Please read through the information and confirm that you agree. Select Connect when done.
- You will see a notice confirming that you have successfully connected your institution with Visible Body.
To finish setup:
- You will need to link a course to finish setting up this integration. If you don’t have one, you can create a sample course right 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.
After you have completed this process, you and your instructors will be able to use Visible Body (LTI 1.3) in this or any other course. If you would like your instructors to add Visible Body (LTI 1.3) into their courses themselves, just make sure they have the requisite permission within Moodle and have them follow the same steps.
Important: When you add Courseware in this way, or as deep-links (see below), any student added to the Moodle Course will have access to Visible Body. Once they click a Courseware link, they will be counted as part of the site license arrangement.
Instructor Setup
Note: This section of the article assumes your administrator has already registered the tool and managed the placement of Visible Body (LTI 1.3) in Moodle. If they have not, they will need to complete the setup by following the steps in the Administrator Setup section above.
Student Courseware accounts are automatically generated once students navigate to a Visible Body link or access a Visible Body assignment in your Moodle course. Once the tool has been added to your Moodle course and linked to a Visible Body course, you can deep-link to your assignments and have student grades automatically update in your Moodle gradebook.
Each deep-linked Courseware assignment populates a column in your Moodle gradebook. Student scores from deep-linked quiz assignments (if true) 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 set activities not to count toward your grades. You can edit any Visible Body scores in the Moodle gradebook, but the results shown in Courseware will not reflect those edits until you change them there, too.
Link an Assignment and Give Your Students Access
In order to set up links to your Visible Body assignments:
- Navigate to your course and turn on Edit mode.
- Select a section and click Add an Activity or Resource.
- Select Visible Body (LTI 1.3).
- In the General category of a new External tool assignment, click Select Content
- Check the assignments and activities you want to link. If you haven’t signed in and linked your Visible Body course you will be prompted to do so. For further instructions on course linking, see the section below on how to log into Courseware and link your courses.
- Assignments carry over settings from Visible Body, so they’re ready to go immediately after they are linked! If you link one assignment, you can edit the assignment detail settings further after linking. If you select multiple assignments at once they will be added after you click Save, and if you want to edit the assignment details you will have to go in after saving.
- Select Link Assignments at the bottom and a deep-link to your assignments will appear in the content! Assignments dates must be manually entered here, but names and points will transfer. Graded assignments will appear in your gradebook.
Log into Courseware and Link Your Courses
Visible Body (LTI 1.3) should be available in your course. Your administrator may have named this tool something else. Please check with your administrator if you are having trouble finding the tool. Additionally, if your administrator granted you permission to add applications to your course you can add the Visible Body (LTI 1.3) tool by following the steps in the "Register Visible Body (LTI 1.3) as a Tool in Moodle" section above.
- Once you select Visible Body (LTI 1.3), you’ll be prompted to sign in using your Visible Body email and password. You’ll only have to do this once in Moodle.
- Select the Visible Body course you want to associate with your Moodle course. If you don’t have one set up yet, you can create one at this stage.
- 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, selecting Go To Courseware will take you and your students to the associated course in Courseware.
Adding and Transferring Students
To ensure students or co-instructors can access the Visible Body materials in your course, simply have them added to your Moodle 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 adds a student to your course in Moodle, and they can see the Visible Body (LTI 1.3) homepage, they’re ready for immediate access!
To transfer your students, make sure that you first transfer them to the correct course in Courseware and then to the corresponding course in the LMS. They will still have automatic access.
If you transfer your students in the LMS before doing so in Courseware, they will need to be dropped from the initial course in Courseware to ensure they’re only in the course you intend.
Add Course Home
When using the assignment library, you will be prompted to link your courses. If you haven’t used the assignment library yet, or are using this integration without it, you can sign in and access Courseware through our Course Home. To add Course Home:
- Navigate to your course and turn on Edit mode.
- Select a section and click Add an Activity or Resource.
- Select Visible Body (LTI 1.3).
- We recommend using this activity name: Course Home
- Don’t select content, simply save the activity. This will now bring your students to the linked Courseware course.
Unlink Your Courseware and Moodle Courses
If you've accidentally linked the wrong Courseware course to your Moodle course, you can follow these steps to unlink your courses.
- Navigate to your Visible Body (LTI 1.3) homepage or access the Assignment Library and select 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 select Unlink Course.
- There will be a confirmation message asking if you are sure. Click yes.
Now that your courses are unlinked, you may connect a new Courseware course to your Moodle course by selecting the “Connect Course” option that will appear on “Manage Sync Options” after unlinking a course is complete. Selecting “Connect Course” will bring you back to the course connection process.