Brightspace (D2L) LTI 1.3 - Configuring Vevox sessions

New to using Vevox in Brightspace as a lecturer or not sure how to add Vevox as a Brightspace activity?  In this article, we will look at how to add Vevox as content within a course in Brightspace.

Linking Vevox to a course in Brightspace

1. In the course view section and inside a module, select the Existing Activities option.
2. Locate and select the Vevox tool from the drop down list.

Choosing which Vevox activity to link

1. When launching the Vevox tool you will be presented with a list of your Vevox sessions.  Select the session you would like to use.

2. You now have an option as to which Vevox activity you would like to link to your course.  You can choose between ‘Live polling’ or any of the self-paced ‘Quiz’ or ‘Surveys’ you have.

   It is assumed that you have already created your content within Vevox. If you haven’t, you can setup a new survey from here but you will need to go to your Vevox dashboard to configure the questions you would like to include.

   

3. Next, you can choose the scoring and identification options you would like to use.
   • Anonymous – This will be a completely anonymous session.  With anonymous sessions, it is not possible to pass back any scoring details to Brightspace.  An anonymous session will provide a convenient way for students to access Vevox from within Brightspace in order to participate.
   • Identified – Identified is the default option. This will allow you to pass student scores back to Brightspace from Vevox.  

1. There are 3 different scoring options you can use.
   •  
     • Correct answers / performance – This will create a column in the gradebook and students will be graded on the number of questions they answer correctly.  This option is only available if you have questions that have correct answers assigned to them.
     • Participation – This will create a column in the gradebook and students will be graded on the number of questions that they provide an answer for, regardless of whether they answered correctly.  This option can be used for any type of questions you have (e.g. correct answer questions or opinion based questions that do not have a correct response).  Participation scoring provides a way to track whether and to what extent students have been engaging and participating with the Vevox activity.
     • Combined - This option will create one single column in the gradebook with a combined score.  You can move the slider to adjust what proportion of the score should be weighted towards participation and answering correctly.

It is recommended to select just one of the scoring options however, it is possible to select both Correct and Participation at the same time if you want to create 2 scoring columns in the gradebook.  It is also possible to select none (if you don’t want to pass any scoring information back to Brightspace).

You can specify the number of points you would like this activity to be scored out of (10 is the default).  This value sets the score that will appear in the gradebook but can also be changed later by editing the scoring options directly from the Brightspace activity.

5. LTI Score Synching refers to when you would like the scores to synch with the Brightspace gradebook.  The default and recommended option is automatic.  This means that scores are synced from Vevox to Brightspace immediately when the activity is completed.  For example, in a self-paced activity that is as soon as the student submits their self-paced survey or quiz.  In a live polling activity this when the live poll is closed.
   The manual sync option means that scores are never passed from Vevox to the Brightspace gradebook unless you actively trigger the synchronisation yourself.  This is done from the data page in the Vevox dashboard.
   
   A scenario where you might want to do this is if you are using lots of scored 'live polling' activities. With automatic sync, each time a live poll is closed the gradebook will update the students score, in some cases, students might have email notifications configured to send out emails every time their gradebook gets updated which might be quite a few times if you are running lots of live polls.  The manual sync method allows you to avoid this by only pushing the gradebook sync at the end of your lecture or whenever you want to.

Editing a linked activity

You can check the settings of a linked activity or make changes from you Vevox dashboard.

If you have linked live polling as the activity then at the top of the Polls page in your Vevox dashboard you will see an LTI button.

If you have linked a survey or a self-paced quiz then you will see the LTI button alongside that activity in the Surveys page of your Vevox dashboard.

It is not recommended to change any of the scoring settings of activities that you already have results for.  Vevox will not retroactively change scores that have already been passed over to the LMS.  Therefore, it is advised to clear out any old scores first before you adjust the scoring settings.

Participating as a student

1. Students will see the Vevox activity listed within their course view.
2. When selecting the activity students will be taken into the Vevox app where they can participate.
   • If the activity is a general Live Polling/Q&A activity then participants will be greeted by the Vevox app home screen where they can navigate to the Q&A if enabled or await a live poll to be asked.
   • If the activity is a self-paced quiz/survey, then participants will be taken directly to the survey so they can complete it.