The message is "Application Microsoft Teams v1.0 by Ivu is trying to access your information. Would you like to proceed?"The Brightspace Course Connector for Microsoft Teams® is available for purchase and is set up as a Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI®) integration. It allows administrators and instructors to seamlessly create teams based on a course in Brightspace Learning Environment. This integration automatically synchronizes the class list with Microsoft Teams daily. Administrators can also manually trigger a class list synchronization on-demand for any course from the ShuffleExchange™ platform.
Once a course is connected, a link on the course homepage provides access to your Teams environment from within Brightspace Learning Environment. This integration provides enhanced communication and collaboration between instructors and learners.
Figure: The Course Connector for Microsoft Teams widget.
This article outlines the process for integrating your Microsoft Teams platform with your Brightspace Learning Environment and upgrading to the latest version of Brightspace Course Connector.
Note: For guidance on various types of integration, refer to the Limitations section.
Integrate Microsoft Teams platform with Brightspace Learning Environment
The following sections describe how to integrate Microsoft Teams® platform with Brightspace Learning Environment.
To integrate Microsoft Teams platform with Brightspace Learning Environment
- Register a new LTI Advantage tool for Course Connector in Brightspace Learning Environment. This workflow also includes configuring an LTI launch of Course Connector as a basic launch widget and making it available to the appropriate Org Units.
- Register a new Valence API application for Course Connector in Brightspace Learning Environment.
- Obtain student and instructor roles.
- Register the ShuffleExchange LTI tool.
Register a new LTI Advantage tool for Course Connector in Brightspace Learning Environment
This section describes the steps to create a widget on the course homepage.
Note: You require administrator privileges to create a widget.
To create a widget on the course homepage
1. Log in to Brightspace Learning Environment.
2. From the Admin Tools menu, click Manage Extensibility.
Figure: The Admin Tools menu.
3. On the LTI Advantage tab, click Register Tool.
4. On the Register a Tool page, enter the following details:
- Keyset URL:
- Canada - https://teams-ca.shuffleexchange.com/lti/jwks
- EMEA - https://teams-eu.shuffleexchange.com/lti/jwks
- US - https://teams-us.shuffleexchange.com/lti/jwks
- Australia - https://teams-au.shuffleexchange.com/lti/jwks
- Singapore - https://teams-asia.shuffleexchange.com/lti/jwks
- OpenID Connect Login URL:
- Canada - https://teams-ca.shuffleexchange.com/lti/OidcLogin
- EMEA - https://teams-eu.shuffleexchange.com/lti/OidcLogin
- US - https://teams-us.shuffleexchange.com/lti/OidcLogin
- Australia - https://teams-au.shuffleexchange.com/lti/OidcLogin
- Singapore - https://teams-asia.shuffleexchange.com/lti/OidcLogin
- Redirect URLs:
- For Canada - https://teams-ca.shuffleexchange.com/teams/portal
- EMEA - https://teams-eu.shuffleexchange.com/teams/portal
- US - https://teams-us.shuffleexchange.com/teams/portal
- Australia - https://teams-au.shuffleexchange.com/teams/portal
- Singapore - https://teams-asia.shuffleexchange.com/teams/portal
- Domain:
- Canada - https://teams-ca.shuffleexchange.com
- EMEA - https://teams-eu.shuffleexchange.com
- US - https://teams-us.shuffleexchange.com
- Australia - https://teams-au.shuffleexchange.com
- Singapore - https://teams-asia.shuffleexchange.com
- Name: Enter your preferred name for the tool. For example, Microsoft Teams.
5. How would you like to register your tool?: Select Standard registration.
6. Keep all remaining default values and click Register. Your registration details appear.
Figure: LTI Advantage tool registration details
7. Note your Client Id and Issuer URL.
You can now configure the LTI launch of Course Connector.
To configure the LTI launch of Course Connector
1. Click View Deployments.
2. On the LTI Advantage tab, click New Deployment.
3. To make the tool available to all Org Units, on the Deploy Tool page, enter the following details:
- Security Settings: Select Org Unit Information and User ID.
- Name: Your preferred name for the deployment. For example, Microsoft Teams.
- Tool: Select the tool name you specified in step 4 above.
Figure: In Security Settings select the information to share by clicking the check boxes.
4. Make tool available to: Click Add Org Units and select all the course offerings where the tool should be made available.
5. Keep all remaining default values and click Register. Your deployment registration details appear.
Figure: Deployment registration details.
6. Note the Deployment Id.
7. To configure the widget, click View Links.
8. Click New Link and provide the following details:
- Type: Basic Launch Widget, Height: 300.
- URL:
- Canada - https://teams-ca.shuffleexchange.com/teams/portal
- EMEA - https://teams-eu.shuffleexchange.com/teams/portal
- US - https://teams-us.shuffleexchange.com/teams/portal
- Australia - https://teams-au.shuffleexchange.com/teams/portal
- Singapore - https://teams-asia.shuffleexchange.com/teams/portal
- Name: Enter your preferred name for the tool. For example, Microsoft Teams.
9. Keep all remaining default values and click Save and Close.
Register a new Valence API application for Course Connector in Brightspace Learning Environment
The Brightspace Course Connector for Microsoft Teams uses a Valence API to access course, section, and enrollment information. This section details the steps to create a Valence application and credentials to access Brightspace APIs.
Note: Registering a Valence application and creating credentials requires Brightspace Learning Environment administrator privileges.
To register a new Valence API application for Course Connector
1. Log in to Brightspace Learning Environment.
2. From the Admin Tools menu, click Manage Extensibility.
3. On the ID Key Authorization tab, click Register an App.
4. On the Register an Application page, provide the following details:
- Select I accept the Non-Commercial Developer Agreement.
- Trusted URL:
- Application Name: Enter your preferred name for the tool. For example, Microsoft Teams.
5. Keep all remaining default values and click Register Application. Your registration details appear.
Figure: Valence API registration details.
6. Note the Application ID and Application Key.
7. In incognito mode, navigate to the API Test Tool page and specify the following details:
- App Key: Application Key from Step 6 above.
- App ID: Application ID from Step 6 above.
- Port: 443
- Host: Your Brightspace Learning Environment host URL without https or a trailing slash. For example, d2l.com
8. Click Authenticate. An access confirmation message appears.
Figure: Access confirmation message.
9. To populate the User ID and User Key, click Continue.
10. Note the User ID and User Key.
You are now ready to obtain student and instructor roles.
Obtain Learner and Instructor Roles
To ensure the correct users are created as team owners and members in Microsoft Teams, ShuffleExchange, the partner platform, requires the associated role IDs mapped to course instructors and learners.
To obtain learner and instructor role IDs
- Log in to Brightspace Learning Environment.
- From the Admin Tools menu, click Roles and Permissions.
- Click on a learner or instructor role. Refer to the browser URL field to note the role ID.
- Repeat Step 3 for each role and note all the role IDs for learners and instructors separately.
Register the ShuffleExchange LTI Tool
The ShuffleExchange (SE) LTI Tool requires the details captured in the earlier steps to enable the Teams integration with your Brightspace Learning Environment instance. Contact the ShuffleExchange Team to configure your credentials and then follow the steps below to configure your LTI Tool.
Integration Settings
Enter the following integration settings:
- In incognito mode, navigate to:
- (for Canada),
- (for EMEA),
- (for US)
- (for Australia)
- (for Singapore)
- Log in with the credentials supplied to you by your D2L partner after purchasing this add-on.
Figure: The ShuffleExchange Course Dashboard.
- Integration Type: Select the integration type you want to use to connect to your Office 365 environment.
- Standard Team (Application Permissions) doesn’t require a service account but requires administrator consent for the application to run on behalf of the tenant.
- Standard Team (Delegated Permissions) requires a service account and the service account is the default owner of every team created.
- Class Team is created as a Class Team rather than as a Standard Team. The team creation follows the guidelines proposed by Microsoft, which makes the team compatible with other Microsoft LTI tools. The Class Teams are created through Application Permissions.
- Refresh Token: Click Connect and log in as a global administrator to install Brightspace Teams Connector. Your tenant token displays.
- Brightspace URL: Your D2L Tenant URL/Brightspace Learning Environment domain name, without the trailing slash
- Client Id: Client Id noted in the Register a new LTI Advantage tool for Course Connector in Brightspace Learning Environment section (step 6)
- Deployment Id: Deployment Id noted in the Register a new LTI Advantage tool for Course Connector in Brightspace Learning Environment section (step 11)
- Issuer URL: Issuer URL noted in the Register a new LTI Advantage tool for Course Connector in Brightspace Learning Environment (step 6)
- Instructor Role ID(s): a comma separated list of instructor role Ids noted in the Obtain student and instructor roles section (step 4)
- Student Role ID(s): a comma separated list of student role Ids noted in the Obtain student and instructor roles section (step 4)
- App Id: Application Id noted in the Register a new Valence API application for Course Connector in Brightspace Learning Environment section (step 6)
- App Key: Application Key noted in the Register a new Valence API application for Course Connector in Brightspace Learning Environment section (step 6)
- User Id: User Id noted in the Register a new Valence API application for Course Connector in Brightspace Learning Environment section (step 10)
- User Key: User Key noted in the Register a new Valence API application for Course Connector in Brightspace Learning Environment section (step 10)
- Brighspace Tab Name: The name of the Tab in the Team’s General Channel where you access your Brightspace course.
- Group Mail Prefix (obsolete): This setting is replaced by the Group Mail Format.
- Group Mail Format: The email address format to be used while creating the group. Include {0} in the format string to insert the course ID. For example, where the course ID is 6744, course-{0}-group creates course-6744-group@yourdomain.com.
- Course Name Format: The format to be used for naming the team. Include {0} in the format string to insert the course name. For example, where the course name is Getting Started, Brightspace {0} Team creates Brightspace Getting Started Team.
- Name Blocked Words: The words that you want to remove from the Brightspace course name before using it in the Course Name Format. This feature is typically used when Office 365 has Team/Group name restrictions.
- Team Archive Waiting Period (In days): Number of days to wait after the end date of the course before the team is archived. 0 indicates that the team is not archived. This feature does not apply when you manually delete a course in Brightspace. If you delete a course in Brightspace, the related Team is unlinked.
Figure: ShuffleExchange LTI tool registration details.
Once all ShuffleExchange LTI tool registration details are entered, click Save.
Course Connector Homepage Widget
Instructors can now add the Brightspace Course Connector widget for Microsoft Teams their course homepage.
To add the Brightspace Course Connector widget for Microsoft Teams to the course homepage
- From your course homepage, click Course Admin > Homepages.
- Click to select the homepage you want to edit.
- In the Widgets area, click Add Widgets.
- Select Microsoft Teams and click Add.
- Click Save and Close.
Figure: Image of the Main Course Connector Panel.
Figure: Image showing the Edit Settings Panel. The settings may differ depending on Global options.
Figure: Image showing the Main Panel once a Course and Team are synchronized.
Once a Team is synchronized, the main panel will allow the operator to navigate to the Team or to adjust the Settings. If there are multiple Teams then the panel shows all the Teams available to this user.
Figure: Image showing the Main Panel once a Course and multiple Teams are synchronized.
Error Reporting on First Synchronization
If any errors occur after the first synchronization, they are reported within the Course Widget.
Errors are listed only for the first synchronization, and they are not persisted if the screen is refreshed. The administration panel in the ShuffleExchange tool displays all errors on the initial and subsequent synchronizations.
Figure: Error report after first synchronization. The error may reference a list of users. Click the participants drop-down to expand the list to view the users.
Microsoft 365 IP Trust List
Microsoft 365 environments may reject requests made by the ShuffleExchange platform due to an unrecognized IP address.
To troubleshoot an unrecognized IP address, we recommend adding add the ShuffleExchange IP address range to your Microsoft 365 environment. For security reasons, contact D2L support or your account representative for further support.
Validate the Brightspace Course Connector Settings
Administrators can validate their setup using the Test Tools tab on the ShuffleExchange Platform.
Figure: ShuffleExchange Test Tools
The following tests are available:
- Use the Access Test to confirm that the Valence API settings are correct. A dialog box displays that indicates whether or not the settings are correct and the tool can connect to Microsoft Office 365.
- Use Class Tests to confirm that the Course Connector is connected to the corresponding Teams class. The Check Instructors option verifies that an instructor is present in the class, and the instructor account is valid in Office 365.
Figure: Verification information that the valence credentials are valid.
- Use Email Tests to confirm that a user is configured in the Microsoft 365 environment. Enter the email or UPN for the user, and a dialog box displays the results of the test.
Upgrade Brightspace Course Connector
- Log into the ShuffleExchange platform.
- From the environment selector in the upper right corner of the screen, select the environment to upgrade.
- On the left navigation pane, click Settings and then click Connect.
- A Microsoft 365 global administrator must grant consent to install the new Brightspace Teams Course Connector application.
- Once the application is installed, click Save.
- Repeat the above upgrade steps for each environment in your ShuffleExchange account.
- Once all upgrades are complete, a Microsoft 365 administrator can safely uninstall the following:
- ShuffleTeamsApp (the previous version of the Course Connector application).
- The previously created Microsoft 365 service user.
Note during this step: The user should have permissions to give tenant wide consent to the Brightspace Course Connector application. The Microsoft documentation (Grant tenant-wide admin consent to an application - Azure AD | Microsoft Docs) indicates: Granting tenant-wide admin consent requires you to sign in as a user that is authorized to consent on behalf of the organization. This includes Global Administrator and Privileged Role Administrator, and, for some applications, Application Administrator and Cloud Application Administrator. A user can also be authorized to grant tenant-wide consent if they are assigned a custom directory role that includes the permission to grant permissions to applications.
When authorizing as an admin you are providing permissions to the Graph API for:
ShuffleExchange Administration Panel
Operators will use the Administration Panel to manage settings, manage synchronized courses, and to perform validation.
Dashboard Tab
Figure: ShuffleExchange Administration Panel
The Dashboard tab lists all the synchronized courses. You can search for specific courses in this list, and you can perform two actions on individual courses.
For each course this list will identify the Brightspace Course Identifier, the course name, and details about the synchronization.
The Course Status column can take on the following values:
Status | Description |
|---|
Error | The Team creation failed. |
Pending | Course creation is currently happening or scheduled to happen. |
Completed | The course is created and is synchronizing. |
The Sync Enabled column indicates if the ShuffleExchange connector is attempting to synchronize a selected course. This value is true until there are ten consecutive sync failures. After ten consecutive failures the synchronization attempts stop. A successful manual resynchronization returns this field to true and the Course Status field to Completed.
The Failed Count field shows the number of consecutive failed synchronizations attempts since the most recent successful synchronization event. Without any other manual intervention, the system performs one synchronization attempt per day.
The Last Sync Status column indicates the status of the most recent synchronization attempt. It displays one of the following values:
Status | Description |
|---|
Pending | The sync is currently happening. If it doesn’t change to COMPLETED, there may be a sync error. |
Completed | The most recent synchronization was successful. |
The Last Sync Details column may include additional details about a recent synchronization attempt.
Actions:
Resynchronize Course: Manually synchronize a Course to the Team.
Delete Synchronization Connection: Delete the course connection in Course Connector.
Important: Delete Synchronization Connection does not modify the Team or the course. If you have deleted the connection, there are two ways to recreate the connection. (a) delete the corresponding Microsoft Team and return to the Course Widget to create a new team, or (b) raise a support ticket with ShuffleLabs to re-connect the Course with the original Team. Settings TabThe settings in this tab are discussed earlier in this document.Test Tools TabAdministrators can validate their set up using the Test Tools tab on the ShuffleExchange Platform.
- Choose from the following test tools:
- Access Test: Run this tool to confirm that the Valence API settings are correct. A dialog box will informs the user that the settings are correct and the tool can connect to Office 365 or the settings are incorrect.
- Class Tests: Run this tool to confirm that the Course Connector is connected to the corresponding Teams class. The Check Instructors option checks that instructors are present in this class, and the instructor account is valid in Office 365.
- Email Tests: Run this tool to confirm that this user is configured in the Microsoft Office 365 Environment. You can enter the email or the UPN of the user. A dialog box provides the results of the test.
Test Tools Tab
Administrators can validate their set up using the Test Tools tab on the ShuffleExchange Platform.
Figure: Figure: ShuffleExchange Test Tools
Choose from the following test tools:
- Access Test: Run this tool to confirm that the Valence API settings are correct. A dialog box will informs the user that the settings are correct and the tool can connect to Office 365 or the settings are incorrect.
- Class Tests: Run this tool to confirm that the Course Connector is connected to the corresponding Teams class. The Check Instructors option checks that instructors are present in this class, and the instructor account is valid in Office 365.
- Email Tests: Run this tool to confirm that this user is configured in the Microsoft Office 365 Environment. You can enter the email or the UPN of the user. A dialog box provides the results of the test.
Limitations
There are several limitations imposed by Microsoft Teams.
There are limitations on the number of teams that may can be created. If delegated permissions are selected, a maximum of 1,000 Teams and a maximum of 250 Team members may can be create created.
If Class Teams application permissions are selected, the Teams are created by the system, rather than by a delegated user account. There are no limits on the number of teams or numbers of team members.
If a team is archived, a member remains a member of that Team. To remove the membership, either unenroll the user, or delete the Team.
Currently a maximum of 30 private channels may can be created per Team and each private channel may enroll a maximum of 250 members.
