Blackboard Store Integration Guide Version 1.2 for Blackboard Learn 9.1 2012 Black boar d Inc. Propr iet ar y a nd Co nf i de nt ia l
Publication Date: Revision 1.0 Worldwide Headquarters Blackboard Inc. 650 Massachusetts Avenue NW Sixth Floor Washington, DC 20001-3796 International Headquarters Blackboard International B.V. Paleisstraat 1-5 1012 RB Amsterdam The Netherlands +1 800 424 9299 toll free US & Canada +1 202 463 4860 telephone +31 20 788 2450 (NL) telephone +1 202 463 4863 facsimile +31 20 788 2451 (NL) facsimile www.blackboard.com www.blackboard.com Copyright 1997-2011. Blackboard, the Blackboard logo, BbWorld, Blackboard Learn, Blackboard Transact, Blackboard Connect, the Blackboard Outcomes System, Behind the Blackboard, and Connect- ED are trademarks or registered trademarks of Blackboard Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. U.S. Patent Numbers: 6,988,138; 7,493,396; 6,816,878. Sun, Java, JDK, JVM, JDBC, Solaris, Microsoft, Windows, Windows Server, Windows Vista, SQL Server, Internet Explorer, Oracle, Red Hat, Enterprise Linux, Apple, Mac OS, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Safari, Apache Tomcat, Tomcat, Mozilla, Firefox, JAWS for Windows, VMware, Xen, Wimba Pronto, Acxiom IdentifyX, NBC, Follett, Macmillan Higher Education, Bedford/St. Martin s, W.H. Freeman, Worth Publishers are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. No part of the contents of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher, Blackboard Inc. Integration Guide for Blackboard Store and My Digital Bookshelf Page 2
Table of Contents About Blackboard Store... 4 About Blackboard Store Building Block...4 Benefits...4 About the Blackboard Store Integration...5 Integration Guide... 5 Integration with Blackboard Store and Blackboard...5 Entering a Support Ticket... 9 Integration Guide for Blackboard Store and My Digital Bookshelf Page 3
About Blackboard Store About Blackboard Store Building Block The integrated Blackboard virtual bookstore allows instructors to search for and adopt course materials. Students can see a comprehensive list of all necessary course materials and make purchases from directly within the Blackboard Learn platform. The Blackboard Store Building Block provides three tools: Course Materials Hub: A faculty center for researching course materials, collecting digital and physical resources into adoption lists, and sharing those lists with students and colleagues. The Course Materials Hub is available to all clients, whether or not they have an agreement in place with the Blackboard Store to provide their course materials. Blackboard Store: Presents students with a list of their course materials available for purchase. Blackboard Bookshelf TM : Includes an advanced e-reader, digital bookshelf and mobile compatibility. The Blackboard Store is compatible with Blackboard Learn 9.1, Service Packs 11 and later. It will initially be offered as a building block and then bundled into future Service Packs. It is Blackboard s goal to embed this virtual bookstore into the Blackboard Learn interface and make it a core part of the technology. The Partner Cloud Building Block must be properly installed prior to the installation of the Blackboard Store Building Block. You can find documentation for the Partner Cloud Building Block at Behind Blackboard or https://blackboard.secure.force.com/btbb_articleview?id=ka070000000pdxn. Benefits For Institutions Increased textbook and material adoption Better integration between courses and supporting content Increased usage of technology investment Incremental revenue from the 50% of students currently spending in non-institutional channels For Faculty Easier student textbook and material adoption Ability to search for books and materials, store and organize links, record your evaluation and collect materials that you might want to incorporate into a future course Access to ratings for books Ability to track which students have acquired the materials, opened an ebook, and/or viewed assigned pages, time on task, in an e-textbook Customize adopted e-textbooks with contextualized resources Streamlined processes for communicating course material changes/updates with the bookstore For Students Personalized buying experience and increased convenience due to integrated materials list and onestop shop functionality Integration Guide for Blackboard Store and My Digital Bookshelf Page 4
Diverse offering of used, rental, new and e-textbooks all in one location with known savings Lower prices for print textbooks Guaranteed print buyback options Increased convenience of storing all digital content in one location 24/7 service About the Blackboard Store Integration To deliver this fully integrated commerce-based service, Blackboard partnered with MBS Direct, the industry leader in providing virtual bookstores with comprehensive print and digital inventories of required course materials. Founded in 1992, MBS Direct, LLC is the nation s premier, internet based, course material provider. MBS Direct partners with nearly 950 educational institutions for innovative bookstore services. During the last 12 months, MBS Direct serviced nearly 1 million students, processed over 1.8 million orders, and shipped over 5 million items in partnership with client institutions. Integration Guide Integration with Blackboard Store and Blackboard Blackboard/MBS integration assumes a common system of record (SOR), usually an institution s student information system (SIS). Data for courses is pushed to both systems, Blackboard Learn and MBS, is pushed from the SIS; however, user and course membership data (i.e. user participations within a course having a distinct role) is passed exclusively to Blackboard Learn from the SIS. Integration Guide for Blackboard Store and My Digital Bookshelf Page 5
The Blackboard/MBS integration involves the pairing of course records in Blackboard Learn with the corresponding course records in MBS. The [external] course keys in Blackboard must match with the CRNs in MBS in order to successfully pair. To pair course records between the two systems, the Blackboard Store Building Block (B2) provides a Publication of Data service, which can be accessed in Blackboard Learn by admin users. From the System Admin tab, under the Cloud Management module, a link exists for Blackboard Store Settings. Clicking on this reveals a link to Blackboard Store and Bookshelf Settings, the target page for which includes the Publication of Data step (4). The Publication of Data service is manually initiated by clicking the Run Now button. Doing so invokes a web service from Blackboard to MBS. The request payload contains a list of active (enabled) courses in Blackboard Learn. If the send all check box is selected, all active (enabled) courses in Blackboard Learn will be sent to MBS. If this is not selected, only those courses that have not been previously reported will be sent. Integration Guide for Blackboard Store and My Digital Bookshelf Page 6
The web service [JSON] payload contains the external course key (as which must match that in MBS), and the course id, shown as follows: { } "@type": "ContextList", "contexts": [ ] { }, { } "@type": "Context", "@id": "1b2a2283-f7df-43a4-88e7-56db06c72d6b:_2393_1", "external_course_key": " HIST101-03", "course_id": "HIST101-03", "context_id": "dabdfc1abe0f85f971399610ec7c7145", "display_name": " Introduction to History ", "enrollment_count": 30, "membership_count": 30 "@type": "Context", "@id": "1b2a2283-f7df-43a4-88e7-56db06c72d6b:_2394_1", "external_course_key": " HIST101-04", "course_id": " HIST101-04", "context_id": "5359d6f53f9ff599d92f8cfb8e79e0b3", "display_name": "Introduction to History", "enrollment_count": 30, "membership_count": 30 In addition, the context id for the course (as passed in LTI Launches from Blackboard Learn to MBS), the display name for the course as it appears in Blackboard Learn, the [student] enrollment count and total course membership count are included. If the course has been copied from another course in Blackboard Learn, the context id of the parent course is also passed as the parent id. User and course membership records will be passed to MBS from Blackboard Learn during the LTI Launches for the Bookstore (Blackboard Store), Bookshelf (Blackboard Bookshelf), and Adoption Tool ( Course Materials Hub ). When a user clicks on a link to MBS within Blackboard Learn, the LTI Launch to MBS provides the user context as well as the active (enabled) course memberships for that user. If no corresponding account exists for the user in MBS, one is automatically provisioned by MBS. The course memberships passed in the LTI Launch are employed by MBS to identify materials that the student may wish to purchase associated with their enrollments. Integration Guide for Blackboard Store and My Digital Bookshelf Page 7
Note that an enabled user enrollment is not necessarily visible within Blackboard Learn. The user will see participation within a course via the My Courses module if the enrollment is available (available_ind=y). If the course role is learner (student), the course must also be available (available_ind=y). Regardless of the value of the availability indicator on the course and enrollment records, the LTI Launch to MBS will pass the course membership if the course and enrollment records are enabled. This allows institutions to provide users access to the Blackboard Store, Blackboard Shelf, or Course Materials Hub without access to the course in Blackboard Learn. Course Row Status Course Availability Enrollment Row Status Enrollment Availability Role Bb Access Disabled - - - - No No Enabled No Disabled - - No No Enabled No Enabled No Learner No Yes Enabled No Enabled Yes Learner No Yes Enabled Yes Enabled No Learner No Yes Enabled Yes Enabled Yes Learner Yes Yes Enabled No Enabled No Instructor No Yes Enabled No Enabled Yes Instructor Yes Yes Enabled Yes Enabled No Instructor No Yes Enabled Yes Enabled Yes Learner Yes Yes MBS Access Observe that access to a course for learners (students) requires the course be enabled and available; however, instructors can access the course so long as it is enabled. Regardless of role, an enrollment must be available for access within Blackboard Learn, but need only be enabled for access to MBS provided tools: Blackboard Store; Blackboard Shelf; Course Materials Hub. Integration Guide for Blackboard Store and My Digital Bookshelf Page 8
Entering a Support Ticket When entering a Behind the Blackboard ticket for issues found with the integration, it is important to designate the Issue Topic as Building Blocks/Extensions, the Functional Area as by Blackboard and the Category as Blackboard Store. Integration Guide for Blackboard Store and My Digital Bookshelf Page 9