Question

How do I create deep links and grade sync assignments in Sage Vantage in Moodle?

Solution

This guide will walk you through the process of pairing Sage Vantage with your Moodle course. Once paired, you can create deep links to Vantage content and set up grade sync for any Vantage assignments you wish to include in your Moodle gradebook.

· Video Tutorials

· Create a Vantage Course

o Create a New Course

o Copy an Existing Course

· Deep Links and Grade Sync in a New Moodle Course

o Excluding Grades for Completion from the Moodle Gradebook Calculations

· Deep Links and Grade Sync in a Moodle Course Copy

Video Tutorials

Tutorial videos for Vantage and for using Vantage with your Moodle course are available on the Vantage Technical Support website:

· Sage Vantage Instructor Videos

Create a Vantage course

Before you can add deep links or grade sync items to your Moodle course, you must create your Sage Vantage course. If you have additional sections in the same term or will teach the course again in a new term, you can copy an existing Vantage course to use with the additional sections.

Visit https://vantage.sagepub.com to Login or Sign Up for Vantage. If you are not sure what your password is, you can click the "Forgot Password?" link to reset it.

Do you want to…

· Create a New Course

· Copy an Existing Course

Create a New Course

If you have never created a Vantage course, when you first login you will be taken directly into the course creation process. If you have created a course before, you can use the Create Course button at the top right of your My Courses Dashboard to create a new course.

1. Click Create a New Course to begin.

The "Create a Course" page allows you to create a new course. In this image, no other courses exist in the Vantage account so only the option to create a new course is available. The option to copy an existing course is greyed out.

2. Complete the Course Information page (1. Enter Course Information). Mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk.

a. Select an Institution and Department. If you do not see your institution or department in the dropdowns, follow the directions on the right of the page to update your information.

On the "1. Enter Course Information" page, begin the course creation process by selecting your institution and department in the dropdown menu options. If your institution or department are not listed, instructions are included on the right of the page which allow you to request a profile update.

b. Locate the title you wish to use. There are two ways to find it.

You can start typing to search by author or title.

The default option to search for a title is by using the author or title name. This option is selected by default, so you can start typing to bring up results that match what you are looking for.

You can also search by discipline. Once you choose the discipline, you can further refine your search by choosing a Course Area. All titles available for the discipline and course area combination you select will display. Choose your title from the list.

You can locate your title by browsing through available titles in the discipline of your choice. Use the dropdown menus to search in a discipline and specific course area within that discipline. Available titles will appear based on your selections.

c. Complete the Course name, Section Name, Course Start and End dates, Time Zone, and Course Description fields. Section Name and Course Description are optional fields, but all other information is required.

The course creation page will require details about your course including the course name, start and end dates, and time zone. Section name and course description are optional fields. Once you add the course details, click the "Next" button to proceed to the next section.

d. Click Next once you complete your course details.

3. On the next page (2. Choose Gradebook and Assignment Settings), default settings for your gradebook and assignments are selected. The images below show the default settings, but you can make changes based on the needs of your course.

a. Gradebook Settings
Default: Accept late assignments, Assign short answer questions and Critical Thinking Checks

Page 2 of the course creation process (2. Choose Gradebook and Assignment Settings) gives you the chance to set your default settings for your course. The first section is Gradebook Settings where you can choose whether or not to accept late assignments. You can also choose to assign short answer questions and Critical Thinking Checks.

b. Global Assignment Settings by Type

i. Chapter Tests
Default: Assigned for a grade, one attempt, Unlimited Chapter Test reviews

The default settings for Chapter Tests are assigned for a grade with one attempt. You can update these settings during the course creation process.

ii. Knowledge Checks
Default: Assigned for completion, Hints are allowed, Unlimited attempts

The default settings for Knowledge Checks are assigned for completion with unlimited attempts. You can update these settings during the course creation process.

iii. Critical Thinking Checks
(If you elected not to assign short answer and Critical Thinking Checks earlier on this page, you will not see this section)
Default: Assigned for completion, Unlimited attempts

The default settings for Critical Thinking Checks are assigned for completion with unlimited attempts. You can update these settings during the course creation process. If you decided not to use short answer questions earlier on this page, you will not see the section for Critical Thinking Checks.

iv. Multimedia Activities
Default: Assigned for completion, Unlimited attempts

The default settings for Knowledge Checks are assigned for completion with unlimited attempts. You can update these settings during the course creation process. Click the "Review" button to check your settings before creating your course.

c. Click Review to verify your course settings.

4. On the Review page (3. Review & Complete Course), you can double check the settings you made for your course.

a. Review the Course Details. If you need to make changes, click the pencil icon to the right of this section.

On the review page (3. Review & Complete Course), you can confirm the course details you entered. Click the pencil icon to the right of this section to make changes.

b. Review the Gradebook Settings. If you need to make changes, click the pencil icon to the right of this section.

Confirm the gradebook settings you entered. Click the pencil icon to the right of this section to make changes.

c. Review the Global Assignment Settings. If you need to make changes, click the pencil icon to the right of this section.

Confirm the settings you entered for each assignment type. Click the pencil icon to the right of this section to make changes.

d. Click Complete to finish creating your course. On the course creation confirmation page, you can click the respective Copy buttons to copy your course link (used for non-LMS integrated courses only) or Course ID. You can then paste these details to wherever you want to store the information.

You can also click the Send button to email a copy of this information to yourself. Once you are finished on this page, click Back to My Courses to return to your My Courses Dashboard.

The course creation confirmation message shows you the Course ID and the course link to use for standalone Vantage course. Click the "Send" button to email the Course ID and link to your email address.

5. Once your course is created, you can go to the Assignments tab from the course tile on your My Courses Dashboard page. This will allow you to apply more granular settings for each Chapter and/or assignment.

After creating your Vantage course, you can go to the Assignments tab of your course tile to make further edits to course content.

6. Once you have finished editing Chapters and Assignments, your Vantage course can be paired with your Moodle course.

Copy an Existing Course

If you have created a Vantage course in the past, you may wish to copy that course to use for another section in the same term or for a new term.

TIP: Copying a course is a one-time action. You should finish customizing the assignments and due dates of your course before making a copy of it. After you finish the copy process, changes will need to be made to both courses separately.

1. Click Create Course at the top right of your My Courses Dashboard.

The "Create Course" button is at the top right of the My Courses dashboard.

2. Click Copy an Existing Course.

If you have courses in your Vantage account and click the "Create Course" button from your dashboard, you will have two options: Create a New Course or Copy an Existing Course.

3. You will see a list of all of your courses available to copy.

a. Choose the course you wish to copy.

b. If the course dates of your old and new courses match – for example, if you are running multiple sections of the same course in a single term – you can copy the due dates as well. Tick the "Copy due dates" checkbox to retain them.

During the course copy process, you choose the course you want to copy. If appropriate, you can tick the checkbox to copy all due dates - useful if you are teaching multiple sections with the same course dates.

c. Click Next to start the course creation process.

4. The Course Details of your chosen course will appear. You will see a banner message to change the Course Name, Section Name or Start and End Dates. Once you change one or more of these fields, click Next.

When you copy a course, you will be prompted to change the Course Name, Section Name, or Start/End Dates.

5. On the Review page (3. Review & Complete Course), you can double check the settings you made for your course.

6. Once your course is created, you can go to the Assignments tab from the course tile on your My Courses Dashboard page. This will allow you to apply more granular settings for each Chapter and/or assignment.

After creating your Vantage course, you can go to the Assignments tab of your course tile to make further edits to course content.

7. Once you have finished editing Chapters and Assignments (if necessary), your Vantage course can be paired with your Moodle course.

Deep Links and Grade Sync in a New Moodle Course

For best results, create your Vantage course before you are ready to pair it with your Moodle course.

TIP: When adding deep links, we recommend using Firefox. When using Chrome, Moodle has a bug that will log you out when trying to add deep links. Once you have added deep links to your course, you (and your students) can access those links in Moodle with Chrome or Firefox.

You can add a module specifically for your Sage Vantage content or you can include the Vantage links within existing modules (for example, if you set up your Moodle course with a module for each chapter). The layout of your Moodle course depends entirely on your instructional design preferences.

1. In your Moodle course, go to the module you wish to add content to. Select the link to Add an activity or resource.

This image highights the "+ Add an activity or resource" link within a topic module.

2. In the list of activities, click Sage Vantage.

TIP: If you do not see Sage Vantage in the list of activities, click External Tool instead. You can then expand the dropdown for "Preconfigured Tools" to pick Sage Vantage from the list.

In the list of activities, choose Sage Vantage. If you do not see Sage Vantage in the list, click on External Tool.

3. Click on the Select Content button.

Underneath the "Activity name" textbox, click the Select Content button to begin pairing to your Vantage course.

4. Locate the Vantage course you wish to pair with, then click Select. If you only have one Vantage course in your account, it will automatically be selected for you.

This image shows Vantage courses that can be paired with the LMS course.

5. Once you filter the content, the sorted list will show only those items matching your selection. You can choose items from the resulting list to create deep links and/or grade syncs in your Moodle course.

For each item in the list, there are two columns on the right of the page. The left column (Link to Course) refers to the deep link that is added to your Moodle module. The right column (Grade Sync) determines if an assignment is synced with your Moodle gradebook.

If an item is not gradable – such as a chapter reading – the grade sync column will not have a checkbox. It will instead have a dash indicating it cannot be synced. If you have previously grade synced an assignment, the Grade Sync column will show a dash as well indicating it's already synced.

This image highlights gradable and non-gradable items in Vantage. Activities that are not gradable will have a checkbox only in the Link to Course column. Activities that can be graded will have a checkbox in both the Link to Course and Grade Sync columns.

a. Create deep links (with or without grade sync):

To create a link in your Moodle course, tick the checkbox in the "Link to Course" column for that item. If you select a gradable item (such as a Knowledge Check, Video Activity or Chapter Test), the Grade Sync column is automatically ticked as well. This allows you to create a link and a grade sync item at the same time.

Note: Moodle is limited to creating only a single link at a time. For example, if you want to link to each chapter reading in a text with 15 chapters, you will need to create each link separately. Alternatively, you could create a single link to the Course Dashboard or Chapter 1 reading, then students could navigate to anywhere in the text from there.

This image shows the Course Dashboard ticked in the "Link to Course" column. Since this is not a gradable item, there is no checkbox in the Grade Sync column.

After you've selected the link to add to your Moodle course, click Continue to review your selection. This button is available at the top and bottom of the page.

You can double check your selection on the "Confirm LMS Selection(s)" page.

Click Continue on the "Confirm LMS Selection(s)" page to return to Moodle. Within Moodle, click Show More.

Click "Show more..." to expand available settings on the Vantage content link.

Click on the dropdown for Launch container and change set it to New window.

Next to "Launch container," click the dropdown to see the options. Choose "New window" which will open Vantage content in a new browser tab.

Click Save and return to course at the bottom of the page. The deep link will appear in your module. If you linked an item with grade sync, a gradebook column is created at the same time.

This image shows a Vantage link in the course module.

Repeat this process to add all links you want to include in your Moodle course.

b. Create grade syncs only (without deep links):

You can add grade sync assignments without adding deep links for them. For example, you may want to link only a single chapter reading in your Moodle module, but still have all assignments from that same chapter grade synced with your Moodle gradebook.

TIP: Unlike deep links which need to be added one at a time, Moodle supports adding multiple grade sync items in one go.

If you want to grade sync only specific assignments, you can tick the Grade Sync checkbox next to those assignments. Only the items you choose to grade sync will create a gradebook column in Moodle. In this example, a Knowledge Check and Video Activity are selected for grade sync, but the Data Activity is not.

In this image, only specific assignments are chosen to grade sync. The Video Activity and Knowledge Check grade sync checkboxes are ticked which chooses them for grade sync with the LMS. The Data Activity grade sync checkbox is empty, so will not be included in the grade sync.

If you want to grade sync everything in the filtered list – for instance, if you filter by Chapter Tests and want to grade sync all of them – you can tick the "Select All" checkbox above the Grade Sync column. All items will be selected for grade sync.

To add a grade sync for everything in the sorted list, the checkbox for "Select All" can be ticked. This checkbox appears at the top of the page, just above the "Grade Sync" column.

When you choose to Grade Sync an assignment, a gradebook column is created in your Moodle gradebook for the assignment. After you've selected one or more items to grade sync, click Continue to review your selections. This button is available at the top and bottom of the page.

You can double check your selections on the "Confirm LMS Selection(s)" page.

The Confirm LMS Selection(s) page will show all items selected to add to the course. This page shows which items will be linked and which items will be grade synced in the LMS. At the top and bottom of the page, the "Go Back" and "Continue" buttons can be used to either pick more content or complete adding the content to the LMS.

If you want to add more grade sync items, you can use the Go Back button to add more grade syncs. Once you have picked everything you want grade synced, click Continue on the "Confirm LMS Selection(s)" page to complete the grade sync.

After a few seconds, you will see a pop-up message indicating that no links were created. Click OK to return to Moodle. You can visit your Moodle gradebook to see the new columns that were added for your assignment selections.

This image shows the pop-up message that gradebook items were created, but no actual links were created in the LMS course.

6. When you are finished adding deep links and grade sync items to your Moodle course, click on a Vantage link to complete the grade sync connection. If you do not click on a Vantage link, Vantage will not send grades to your Moodle gradebook.

Note: If you add new grade sync items at a later date, you must click on a Vantage link again to complete the grade sync connection for the new items.

Click any Vantage link in a module within your LMS course. This image highlights a couple of examples of Vantage links in a module (a chapter reading link and a knowledge check).

Excluding Grades for Completion from the Moodle Gradebook Calculations

Knowledge Checks, Video Activities, etc. are often assigned for completion instead of a grade in Vantage. If you choose to grade sync these assignments, the gradebook column in Moodle will record the point value to show the assignment was completed.

While you may want your Moodle gradebook to show these assignments were completed, you may not want to include these points in the final grade calculations. You can exclude these assignments from the final grade, but still allow them to display in the gradebook to show the assignment was completed.

1. Go to your Moodle gradebook.

2. Go to the Setup tab.

In the top navigation menu of the gradebook, Setup is the second tab from the left.

3. At the bottom of the page, click Add Category.

To add new grade categories to the gradebook, click "Add category" at the bottom of the page.

4. Name this category. The name can be what makes sense for your course. In this example, we are using Ungraded Activities.

In the "Category total" section, tick the checkbox for Weight adjusted. Set the weight to 0. Click Save changes at the bottom of the page.

When adding the new category, give the category a meaningful name. Tick the "Weight adjusted" checkbox and set the weight to 0. Click "Save changes" to create the category.

5. On the Gradebook Setup page, tick the checkboxes in the Select column for all Vantage assignments that you want to exclude from the final grade calculations.

The far right column on the Gradebook Setup page allows you to choose specific items. Check the box next to all Vantage assignments that you want to exclude from the final grade calculations.

6. At the bottom left of the Gradebook Setup page, click the dropdown for Move selected items to. Choose the category you created for these assignments.

Once you have checked the boxes for all assignments you want to exclude, click the dropdown menu next to "Move selected items to" at the bottom left of the page. Pick the category you created.

7. Since the excluded assignments are placed in a category with a weighting of zero, the point values are not included in the final grade calculations.

In this example, the Video Activities, Data Activities and Knowledge Checks were placed in the Ungraded Activities category. Chapter Tests 1 and 2 are the only graded items for 15 points each. The possible Course Total correctly reflects 30 points.

Deep Links and Grade Sync in a Moodle Course Copy

For best results, create or copy your Vantage course before you are ready to pair it with your Moodle course copy.

1. Follow your school's normal process to make a copy of your Moodle course including the Vantage links.

2. Once your Moodle course copy is complete, go to a module and click on any Vantage link to begin the pairing process.

Click any Vantage link in a module within your LMS course. This image highlights a couple of examples of Vantage links in a module (a chapter reading link and a knowledge check).

3. On the Vantage "Copy Course Selection" page, choose the option to Pair your LMS course to an existing Vantage course.

When you click a Vantage link in your LMS course copy, you can choose how to pair with Vantage. Ideally, you create your Vantage course copy before attempting to pair with the LMS course copy. If your Vantage course copy is ready, click "Pair your LMS course to an existing Vantage course."

4. Locate the Vantage course you wish to pair with, then click Select.

5. After you select the course, you will see the student preview of the content for the link you clicked to initiate the pairing process.

This image shows the return page after completing the Vantage course copy. In this instance, it returns to Chapter Test 3 which was the link clicked in the LMS course copy to trigger the Vantage pairing process.

6. You can close the student preview and return to your Moodle course. No further action is required.