Digital Credential Solution Integration Spotlight

D2L Brightspace integration with Accredible enables teachers and instructors to automatically issue Accredible digital credentials from within their D2L Brightspace instance. Using the integration, teachers can create, manage, and deliver credentials for students to access from their Brightspace login.

What is Desire to Learn Brightspace?

Brightspace, delivered by Desire to Learn (D2L), is a learning management system (LMS) used to support fully online, blended, and flipped learning environments. Brightspace is designed to work in school, higher education, association, and corporate settings to facilitate education delivery. Brightspace LMS work with education and training providers to transform virtual learning and improve learning outcomes for their students.

What is D2L Brightspace Integration?

D2L Brightspace integration enables teachers using Brightspace LMS to create, manage, and distribute digital certificates and open digital badges from within the Brightspace instance. Using Brightspace integration, issuers can:

Deliver feature-rich digital credentials to students and learners
Sync course data automatically between Brightspace and Accredible
Update certificate and badge settings within modules
Create certificates and badges automatically when students click the module
Use Single Sign On to authorize students to automatically update, interact, and manage their digital credentials within Brightspace
Use Single Sign On to allow teachers and admins to manage designs, badge information, and revoke awards.

Issuers can set the completion criteria for both digital certificates and digital badges and use gamification to motivate students towards completing modules and courses.

The benefits of using D2L Brightspace Integration

Brightspace offers an inbuilt Awards Tool that enables the creation of badges and certificates. Brightspace badges follow the Open Badge format which students can choose to add to their personal profile, eportfolio, or their open badge backpack. The certificates created are standard PDF documents which represent reaching the end of a course or program.

Although PDF is a popular format for delivering certificates, PDF credentials are:

At risk of unauthorized reproductions
Restricted in their shareability
A low barrier to fraudulent credentials
Potentially unverifiable

Feature-rich digital credentials including digital certificates and digital badges benefit both the issuer and recipient. By utilizing the D2L Brightspace integration, issuers can:

Ensure security against unauthorized amendments and removals
Report on detailed analytics that track sharing and engagements
Maintain a trusted method of verification
Enable students to receive and print verifiable certificates
Design fantastic looking credentials with easy-to-use drag and drop design software
Provide evidence of learning and skill in the credential detail

The Accredible platform is enterprise-ready and regularly tested to maintain bank-level security for digital credentials. We also ensure accessibility across our products to meet Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 guidelines.

Reduce Fraud

PDF certificates are considered the most popular method for delivering official achievements, however PDF certificates also have the lowest barrier to fraud compared to digital solutions. A PDF can be easily reproduced in commonly used design and document-creation software including Photoshop and Microsoft Office. Password protected PDFs offer some security, but can be difficult for learners to effectively share and manage, and can be bypassed in Mac preview and Adobe software.

Digital credentials enable learners to download a high-quality PDF for printing and traditional display and include a QR code that provides a scannable link to the live credential. This protects against unauthorized reproduction. Any printed credential that is created through Accredible with a QR code and then shared, can be traced back to the live credential for verification.

Empower Learners

On receipt of an award the most common next step for a learner is to share their achievement and use it to further themselves professionally or in education. The most popular avenue for sharing is social media, where recipients can instantly inform friends and family of their celebration. Enabling recipients to share their credential in one-click improves the share rate to social media. The share rate increases further with a direct call to action to share in the credential delivery email.

To improve their employability and assist their professional development, recipients add their credentials to resume documents, CVs, and/or their LinkedIn profile. It is difficult to share a PDF certificate to these platforms and provide a simple method of verification. Copies of awards that are shared without an easy method of verification risk becoming ‘ghost shares’. Ghost shares are credentials that are visible but not verifiable and can cost recipients employment opportunities. Digital credentials ensure that evidence and verifiable proof of credentials can be instantly retrievable, on the go via digital wallet cards, or included as the unique credential URL on resumes.

User-Generated Marketing

A benefit of empowering recipients to share their digital credentials is utilizing shares as a channel of marketing. User-generated content is one of the most effective methods of marketing for organizations and receives the best response. 79% of consumers said they were influenced by user-generated content, compared to 13% that were influenced by brand generated content.

LinkedIn is considered the ‘professional social network’ and individuals are often followed by peers, colleagues, and network connections. Many organizations choose to encourage LinkedIn shares in the delivery email as their recipients' following also satisfies their target marketing audience.

As more organizations start to fill the professional skill gaps unfulfilled by traditional education, visibility of their programs is key for both them and their potential recipients. Digital credentials provide an authentic and organic way to build visibility, without incurring additional marketing costs.

How to set up D2L Brightspace Integration

Watch our video guide for setting up Accredible’s D2L Brightspace integration below:

Detailed written instructions for D2L Brightspace integration are also available on the AppFinder.

How to use D2L Brightspace Integration

D2L Brightspace LMS LTI integration makes it easy for teachers to add digital certificates and digital badges to courses and modules. To get started with the integration, the same email address needs to be used for:

The Brightspace admin account.
The Accredible account with access to API & Integrations.

Creating a Digital Badge or Certificate

Digital credential designs are created via the Accredible dashboard. Designs can be made and amended at any time and must be created prior to allocation to a Brightspace LMS module or course for the design to appear.

Guidance on how to create digital credentials is provided in our knowledgebase, view our help articles below:

Adding a Digital Badge or Certificate

To get started with the Accredible Brightspace integration:

In the Brightspace instance, choose which course to add the integration to.
Once in the course, click ‘Add Existing Activities’ and choose ‘External Learning Tools’ from the list.
Select the link name for the integration set up at the time of installation to add it to the course.
On the course screen, click the added link to go to the management interface.
Select ‘Manage Certificate Design’ or ‘Manage Badge Design’ to go to the Accredible dashboard.
In the Accredible dashboard, the course data will have automatically synced. Select the course and then add an existing credential design or create a new one.
Once the design has been selected, close the Accredible dashboard window to return to the management interface and refresh to see the design.

D2L Brightspace Integration FAQs

Find answers to the most commonly asked questions regarding the D2L Brightspace integration below:

Q: Where do I add course completion criteria to automate the process of issuing digital credentials?

A: Completion criteria for courses and modules is set within the Brightspace LMS instance.

Q: I have allocated a digital credential design and set up Brightspace course completion criteria, but the credential hasn’t been issued?

A: Students must meet all the course completion criteria and then click the link name on the course or module content tab to view their digital credential.

Q: Where do students find their new digital credentials and digital badges?

A: Once logged in, students need to navigate to the content tab of the course they have been awarded a credential for. There they will see the named link which will take them to their new achievement and from here, the student can manage, share, and embed their credential.

Q: I have installed the Accredible Brightspace integration and added the external learning tool to my course but the credential is not appearing?

A: Before digital credentials can be automatically issued, a design for the course or module must be selected via the Accredible dashboard.

Q: One of my teachers is not able to issue credentials although they have a Brightspace instance with the Accredible Brightspace integration?

A: All teachers and instructors must use the same email address for both their Brightspace account instance and the Accredible account to use the integration.

In Summary

Accredible’s D2L Brightspace LMS integration is an easy to set-up and use plugin that allows teachers to automatically issue feature-rich digital credentials to students using our digital credential software. Replace the default PDF certificates with secure, verifiable, and portable digital credentials that students can share online or on-the-go.
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Book a D2L Brightspace LMS integration demo by scheduling a call with the Accredible sales team.