Faculty overview of Digication integration with Brightspace

Version: Kora Courses, October 4, 2023 or later

Permissions required: Faculty

To connect your Brightspace course to Digication, first make sure that you are enrolled in the Brightspace course as an instructor.  Only an instructor can initiate course connection with Digication. 

Add a Digication link to your course navigation

• Click the menu (1) and select “Customize This Navbar” (2).
  
  
  
• If the navbar is shared, you will need to create a copy (3) in order to add links to the Navbar. Select “Yes! I’ll work with a copy of the navbar” (4) to make a copy that you can edit.
  
  
  
• Click “Add Links” (5).
  
  
  
• Click “Create Custom Link” (6).
  
  
  
• Give the link a name (7), which is how it will appear on your Navbar. Then click “Insert Quicklink” (8).
  
  
  
• From the Insert Quicklink Menu, select “External Learning Tools” (9).
  
  
  
• Select Digication (10).
  
  
  
• On the “Create Custom Link” (11) screen, under Behaviour (12), select “New window/tab”(13). Click “Create” (14) to create the Custom Link.
  
  
  
• Then click “Add” (15) to add the custom link to your Navbar.
  
  
  
• Click “Save and Close” (16) to save your Navbar.
  
  
  

Then, click the Digication link to create the course connection to Digication. This link will take you to the dashboard of your Digication course.

New Digication user

If you do not yet have a Digication account, you will see one of two screens, depending on your school’s Brightspace integration settings. 

If your school allows your Brightspace integration to create new Digication accounts, you will be logged directly into Digication with your new account, and you will need to accept the terms and conditions to proceed. 

If your school has disabled account creation via your Brightspace integration, you will see the following message:  "You do not have a Digication account" (1).

Existing Digication user

If you already have a Digication account, you will be immediately logged into your account. If your school’s system settings allow it, the integration will create a course that has the same course information as your Brightspace course, and you will be taken to the home page (1) for your new Digication course.

Assignments in Digication

The Assignments area in Digication is where you can provide instructions, prompts, and templates to your students.

When creating assignments for your students, the recommended workflow is:

1. Create Digication assignments in Digication.
2. Optionally add a direct link to the Digication assignments in Brightspace. 
3. Have your students access the Digication assignments and complete and submit their work in Digication.
4. You can review student submissions directly in Digication. This grading area allows for grading, outcomes assessments, and comments on student submissions. Grades saved in Digication can be automatically posted in Brightspace.

• Click “Create New Assignment +” (1) to create a Digication assignment. 
  
  
  

  If you wish to import previously created assignments to your courses, please see the following articles for more information: 

  For importing assignments into a single course, please see "Import assignments," and for importing assignments into multiple courses, see "Kora Course admin tool."
  
  
• You’ll be taken to the Assignment creation screen (2), where you can add all the details of your assignment.
  
  

Options to send grade to Brightspace

• Enable “Send Grade to Brightspace” (1) in the assignment settings.
• A grade column will be created automatically in the Brightspace gradebook when you grade your first submission.
  

If you would like to create direct links to specific Digication assignments within Brightspace, for more information please see “Advanced features: integration with Brightspace”.

Grading assignments

• To grade a Digication assignment, locate the assignment on your Digication dashboard and click “REVIEW SUBMISSIONS” (1).
  
  
• You’ll be taken to the first assignment submission. Click “GRADE” (2) to enter a grade. Click “SAVE” (3) to save the grade. 
  
  
  
• Once you’ve saved your grade, a HISTORY link will appear. This provides a log of all grading activity for this submission.

Grade sync to Brightspace

If the assignment you are grading has the Brightspace grade sync enabled, your grade should automatically be sent to Brightspace after you save the grade. This may take a few seconds after you save the grade. 

• You can confirm that the grade was sent to Brightspace by clicking HISTORY (1).
  
  
  
• You can also check the Gradebook (1) in Brightspace to see that the grade has been sent.
  
  
  

Please note that the grade sync is a one-way sync from Digication to Brightspace. 

• Any grade changes made and saved on the Digication assignment will be updated in the Brightspace Grade area.
• Any grade changes made in the Brightspace Grades area will not be reflected in  Digication.

For more information about making changes to a Digication assignment that is connected to Brightspace and troubleshooting the grade sync connection, please see "Advanced features: integration with Brightspace”.

Roster management

Once you connect your Brightspace course to Digication, all members of your Brightspace course can access Digication via the Digication course link. When each user clicks the Digication link, they will be enrolled in the Digication course.

You can see who has accessed the Digication course by viewing the People tab in your Digication course.

Advanced options for Brightspace integration

There are some additional advanced features available in the Brightspace integration for Kora. These optional features are not necessary for basic Brightspace integration with Digication:

• Create direct links to specific Digication assignments
• Checking Brightspace connection
• Editing details of connected Digication assignments 
• Copying linked Brightspace assignments
• Troubleshooting grade sync
• Brightspace Student View

For more information about advanced options, please see  "Advanced features: integration with Brightspace”.