Using the Blackboard LTI Integration

How to use the integration between Blackboard and BetterExaminations

Linking a Blackboard Course to a course in BetterExaminations

Once an LTI integration has been configured you can create a link between a Blackboard course and BetterExaminations. This will allow ensure that users are automatically enrolled within BetterExaminations and will give you the ability to add Exams from BetterExaminations to your courses in Blackboard.

Course between Blackboard and BetterExaminations are linked and the enrolment list updated every time you follow a link from Blackboard to BetterExaminations.

There are two types of links you can follow from Blackboard to BetterExaminations.

Course links (Resource links)
Exam links (Deep links)

Opening a Course link from Blackboard to BetterExaminations

Once the BetterExaminations integration has been added by your Blackboard Admin, you will see a link to BetterExaminations from your Tools menu in the left sidebar.

Clicking on this link will:

Bring you to the corresponding course in BetterExaminations where you can create your exams
Sync the users and students enrolled in the course with BetterExaminations

Adding BetterExaminations Online exams to a course in Blackboard

Once you have created an exam in BetterExaminations you can add it as content in your course in Blackboard.

In a course go to the Course Management > Content > Build Content and select Sync Course with BetterExaminations

2. If the course in BetterExaminations has exams you can now select them from the list and add them as content to your course.

This will add a Content link in your course that you and your students can use to get to the Exam within BetterExaminations.

This process also creates a column in your Gradebook for this exam.

Following Deep Links

The previous step will create a link in your Course to an Exam in BetterExaminations. What happens when you click on that link depends on your user type and whether or not the exam is completed.

If a student clicks a Deep Link

If a student clicks a Deep link they will be brought to the Start page of their exam (assuming a sitting has been scheduled).

If the student is assigned to multiple Exam Sittings they will be brought to the start page of the latest scheduled exam sitting.

If the exam is over and results have been released, students will be brought to the feedback page for their submission.

If a non-student clicks a Deep Link

If an Instructor or any other non-student clicks a Deep link they will be brought to the Edit Exam page where they can edit the Exam or Schedule an exam sitting.

When a non-student follows a Deep link we will also re-sync the enrolments in a course ensuring your Users and Students are always up to date in BetterExaminations.

Syncing Grades from BetterExaminations to Blackboard

Once you've finished grading an exam in BetterExaminations you can sync these grades back to the Blackboard Gradebook.

For each submission BetterExaminations will send the overall score the student received in the exam as well as the "Overall feedback" that was added to the submission by the marker.

Note: Question level feedback is never sent to Blackboard and is only stored in BetterExaminations.

To sync grades from BetterExaminations to Blackboard:

In BetterExaminations the exam Sitting you want to sync to Blackboard
From the Submissions tab, click "Options" and "Send results to Blackboard"
Once the grades have successfully been sent to Blackboard you'll be shown a success message in the bottom left of the screen.

Note: You will still need to "Release results" in BetterExaminations if you'd like your students to be able to review their Feedback to the exam within BetterExaminations