• Adding a link to your publisher course within your Brightspace course allows students to go directly to the publisher dashboard from Brightspace.

• Enabling Gradesync allows the grades to flow from the Publisher site to Brightspace, so students can see their grades within their Brightspace course.

• Adding deep links to publisher content and assessments in Brightspace, so students have direct access to everything within their Brightspace course.

Only You Can Prevent Integration Disintegration

On a serious note, it is very important to make sure you go through the necessary steps, which can be quite different across publishers, to set up a publisher integration correctly in Brightspace. Integration problems at semester start are a major so that you and your students have a smooth start to the semester. Read on to learn how to integrate publisher content with your course in five key steps:

1. Set up Your Publisher Course

2. Pair/link your TN eCampus Brightspace Course with your Publisher Course

3. Enable Gradesync Check Brightspace Gradebook to Ensure No Errors

4. Add Deep-links to Publisher Content and Assessments (if applicable)

5. Add/update Student Instructions to Access and Use Publisher Materials

Step 1. Set up Your Publisher Course

• Make sure you have an instructor account with the publisher site so you can create, edit, and delete content in your publisher course.

• If you are a section instructor, you may be able to "copy from an existing course" using the course key shared by the course developer.

• Create/copy/update your publisher course for the current semester. Ensure appropriate course start/end dates and assessment open/close dates.

• Once your publisher course is set up for the current semester, you are ready for Step 2.

Step 2. Pair/Link your Brightspace Course with your Publisher Course

• When you are ready to pair/link your Brightspace-Publisher courses, log in to TN eCampus D2L Brightspace using your Instructor account (NOT Developer account).

• Next, locate the External Learning Tool for your publisher. Typically, the external learning tool link or widget is already made available for your course, and can be found in one of the following areas within your Brightspace course:
  • Course Home-page widget (e.g. Pearson MyLab Mastering)
  • Course Admin >  Course Builder (e.g. Cengage Learning tool, Cengage WebAssign tool, Pearson deep linking tool, etc.)
  • Content area > Appropriate content folder for publisher materials > Specific tool for your course (e.g. MGH Connect, VHL etc.)
  • Note: If you don't see the correct external learning tool for your course, please open a HelpSpot ticket and we will enable it for you.

• Click on the appropriate tool for pairing and login with your publisher account credentials. This will establish a Single Sign On (SSO) between D2L Brightspace and the Publisher site, which means that the next time you click on the tool link from Brightspace, you will automatically be signed into the publisher site as well. The same will happen for your students once they link their Brightspace-Publisher accounts.

• Once you have established the SSO, make sure you locate the current semester's publisher course that you have prepared and established pairing with it. Step-by-step video tutorials for each publisher integration is shared below in the Quick-reference section. You can also request a meeting with the publisher rep to help you with the pairing (see Request Help section below).

Step 3. Enable Gradesync and Check Brightspace Gradebook

• You must enable Gradesync after you have paired your Brightspace-Publisher courses so that student grades flow seamlessly from the Publisher grade book to the Brightspace grade book.

• Enabling Gradesync is especially important if you have graded assessments in your publisher course. If you don't enable Gradesync, students may not realize that they may be missing assessments on the publisher site, and it can give them an inaccurate grading score when they look at their Brightspace Gradebook.

• Remember that the direction of the grades flow is one-way, which means if a student's grade is updated on the publisher site, it will be updated within Brightspace (if Gradesync is enabled). But, if you update a student's grade in Brightspace, that doesn't automatically update the grade in the Publisher site, so you must update it there as well.

• Finally, remember to check your Brightspace Gradebook and make sure that the total number of categories and items as well as points or weights match what you have stated in your Syllabus grade distribution.

Step 4. Add Deep-links to Publisher Content and Assessments (if applicable)

• The following publishers allow deep links to publisher content and assessments directly within Brightspace: Cengage Learning, Cengage WebAssign, MGH Connect (deep integration), Pearson MyLab & Mastering, TestOut LabSim, VHL. You can add deep links in one of the following ways:
  • Go to Course Admin > Course Builder and use the widget for your respective publisher, and then choose the publisher items to link to from a list. (e.g. Pearson, Cengage)
  • Use the deeplink external learning tool itself to pair your Brightspace course with your Publisher course and allow deploying of assessments from publisher to Brightspace. (e.g. MGH Connect, VHL)

• The following publishers don't allow deep-linking at this time: Pearson REVEL, EVIA Learning.

• Note: Some publishers and OER providers require a full course package import (e.g. Lumen Learning, Paradigm Cirrus, QuickBooks, etc.) which should be requested in advance by creating a HelpSpot ticket.

Step 5. Add/Update Student Instructions to Access and Use Publisher Materials

• You have worked hard to pair your Brightspace-Publisher courses so your students can have a smooth learning experience. But, they won't know this until you share updated instructions on how they can access the publisher content, and what they are expected to do once there.
• The Course Developer may already have an instructions page for the students that you can review and update if needed. Often, the Publisher site will include student registration instructions that you can share with your students as well.
• TN eCampus Instructional Designers are available to help you create custom student instructions for your course if needed.

Quick-reference - Guides & Tutorials

• Cengage - Integrate MindTap With Your D2L Brightspace Course
• Cengage - Integrate WebAssign With Your D2L Brightspace Course
• Cengage MindTap-D2L Brightspace Training Resources
• McGrawHill Connect-D2L Brightspace Integration Video
• Pearson MyLab-D2L Brightspace - Get Started Guide (PDF)
• Pearson MyLab-D2L Brightspace Integration Video 1 - Pair, Onboard, Enroll
• Pearson MyLab-D2L Brightspace Integration Video 2 - Gradesync, Assess, Renew
• Pearson REVEL-D2L Brightspace Integration Video - Pair & Gradesync
• Working with a Publisher (Knowledge Books)

On the Struggle-bus? Request Help

• We are committed to getting you off the struggle-bus when it comes to publisher integration in your course. To request help, open a TN eCampus HelpSpot ticket and select Category as Instructional Support > Publisher Integration. 
  • Make sure to include your course and section number, the more detail the better!
  • If you are getting an error please include a screenshot for faster resolution.
• We have excellent publisher representatives who can walk you through the Pairing-Gradesyncing-Deeplinking Process in a virtual meeting. If you need this service, please request it in advance since the publisher reps tend to get very busy right before and after the semester launch.