Blackboard LTI 1.3 with Advantage - Linking to Class Assessments

A best practice is to start the CertMaster LMS integration in a Sandbox Course (that is a course which is isolated from real teachers, students, etc. that are currently attending live classes). This can be in your development or production environments.

As part of our LMS integration testing, it is recommended that the Sandbox pseudo instructor account and pseudo student account are provided to CertMaster for basic testing of the SSO links and score return (if applicable).

Testing as a pseudo instructor and student in the sandbox is the primary way we can confirm the experience will be successful when the LMS courses are live and in session.

Note:  If your integration was configured before June 2024, your tool title may use ‘LabSim’ or ‘TestOut’ instead of ‘CertMaster’

Linking to TestOut Pro Certifications

1. Within your Blackboard course, navigate to the desired content folder within which you desire to create assignment links to CertMaster Course Resources. Then select CertMaster LTI 1.3 (or a name similar to this) from the Build Content menu. 

Note: The process to add course content in the Blackboard Ultra View is similar to the Original View (pictured below) ... with one slight change.  Add content by clicking the + on the Content Page. After clicking the + navigate to the Content Market and search for CertMaster or TestOut.  Upon selecting CertMaster or TestOut you can continue with Step 2 below. 

2. Once the app loads on the page, click Pro Certifications. 

3. On the next screen, click on the Select a Certification drop down menu and select the Class Assessment for the product that you are using.

4. Next, you can choose to have the assessment graded by selected the Graded box and assigning a point value in the Point Value field.  Then click the Create button.

5. The link to the Class Assessment will then be available within the content section of your Blackboard course.

Important Information:

Automatically Creating a class and Enrolling students

AS THE INSTRUCTOR: 

Click one of the CertMaster assignment links in your LMS course. When you click on the link, a like-named class is automatically created in CertMaster. You can view this class on your home (MY School) page within your CertMaster account. As applicable, make sure to click a link from each of your LMS courses. When you do, again, a class matching your LMS course's name will be automatically created in your CertMaster account. As a best practice, don't rename, archive, or manually create a duplicate of this class in CertMaster.  However, you may archive the class after your semester ends.

DO NOT create your class manually in CertMaster.  

Note:  It is critical that at least one initial assignment be clicked to establish integration between your LMS and your CertMaster account, which involves the creation of the automatic class within your CertMaster account, as well as its associated start/end dates. See below for additional information around class dates. 

INSTRUCT YOUR STUDENTS: 

Click one of the CertMaster assignment links inside your LMS course. Upon clicking, a student account will automatically be created for the student in CertMaster, and the student will be enrolled in the corresponding class in CertMaster. It is critical that at least one initial assignment be clicked to establish integration between your LMS and the CertMaster student and instructor accounts. This is how the CertMaster platform knows that your student exists, and is also important for multiple aspects of integration functionality, such as score return from CertMaster to your LMS.

Licenses: If your agreement with CompTIA involves pre-purchased licenses or usage-based billing, a courseware license is also automatically activated and applied to the billing method in question.

Access Keys:  If your students will be gaining access through Access Keys (usually purchased by the student ahead of time via a bookstore or https://shop.testout.com/), they will be prompted to enter their access key when they click their first CertMaster link. If purchasing from https://shop.testout.com/ a student purchase price code can be obtained from your school's CompTIA Customer Success Manager.  

• For students who already have CertMaster accounts, make sure that the email address associated with their CertMaster account is the same as the email address of their LMS account. This way, the integration will be able to find and connect to the existing student CertMaster account. 
• DO NOT create your students' accounts inside CertMaster through CSV, individually, or through email. 
• Students DO NOT need to create their accounts through testout.com.

Regarding Start and End Dates of your CertMaster class

• If the LMS course start date is known via the integration, this date will be used as the start date for the CertMaster class. 

• If the LMS course end date is known via the integration, this date will be used as the end date for the CertMaster class. The end date shouldn’t exceed 18 months from when a course is first created in CertMaster.

• If the LMS course start date is NOT known via the integration, the date when the first initial TestOut assignment link is clicked will be used as the start date for the CertMaster class. 

• If the LMS course end date is NOT known via the integration, the CertMaster end date will be 12 months from the start date (the start date is based on the standards set above). 

• If the LMS course end date is set to continuous, the CertMaster end date will be 12 months from the start date (the start date is based on the standards set above).