Blackboard LTI 1.3 with Advantage - Installation Guide

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

1. Navigate to Administrative Tools and select LTI Tool Providers

2. Select Register LTI 1.3/Advantage Tool 

3. In the Client ID field, add: cd443148-5eaf-4533-bfe0-f69596573faf. Click Submit.

4. The following fields should auto-populate. Please ensure the fields match the below screenshot.

5. Open the link provided by your CompTIA Representative (provided in the initial email sent to you) to send us the needed return parameters. Enter the Client ID from step 3.

6. The Deployment ID you enter into the form will be found in different locations depending on your institution's circumstances:

• If your institution owns your Blackboard instance and wants the integration tool to be available to the entire instance, enter the Deployment ID from Step 4 (yellow block in the screenshot above), then click Submit. Your integration is now complete, and you may ignore the remainder of this article.
  
  
• If your institution shares your Blackboard instance with other institutions (for example, you are a school that shares a single Blackboard instance with other schools in your state), do not use that Deployment ID, and instead go through the section below.

Configuring a Deployment (Shared Blackboard Instances only)

Note: This will only function for Blackboard instances that are organized around Blackboard's "Institutional Hierarchy" nodes. If your Blackboard is shared and utilizes "Domains" instead, it will be impossible to set up a dedicated deployment/CertMaster campus for your institution.

1. Return to the list of LTI Tool Providers.
2. Mouse over the tool you created above (CertMaster LTI 1.3), click the small arrow to the right, and select Manage Deployments.
3. Click Create Deployment in the upper left.
4. Give the Deployment a name that includes your institution's name (such as CertMaster LTI 1.3 - <Your Institution Name>)
5. Leave Description and Deployment ID blank, and Deployment Tool Status as Approved.
6. Under Institutional Hierarchy Nodes, click Find Node. Search for and select the Blackboard Institutional Hierarchy Node designated to your institution. Click Submit.
7. Back on the Deployment configuration screen, click Submit.
8. Finally, copy the Deployment ID from your institution's row in the table that appears, and enter it into the form sent by your CompTIA representative, along with the Client ID from the first section, and click Submit.

Your integration is now complete.

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).