Teamwork is at the core of every modern organization. By fostering collaboration, it’s a defining characteristic of every successful institution. You can enhance all the capabilities and features of Blackboard Learn by pairing them up with Microsoft Teams classes.

Your classes may include real time conversations, video meetings, or asynchronous interactions. You can add file sharing and co-creation experiences for your students. All in one place. Microsoft Teams classes with Learn Ultra redefine the dynamics of teaching, and what effective learning means.

Important Information

Ensure that you have successfully setup the Institution Email field in your SIS.

Please note that the Microsoft Teams classes integration relies on the institution email field in your SIS to map to the correct Microsoft Azure Active Directory’s User Principal Name (UPN). If no institution email has been provisioned, this will default to the existing email, but it’s recommended that this field be set for every user to ensure their data is synchronized correctly, and that there is no conflict of email data between Microsoft Azure Active Directory (ADD) and Blackboard Learn. If you haven’t set this field appropriately in your SIS mapping, the integration will continue to work, but users may not appear in the Teams classes created and errors may occur.

Information for testing

Clients who want to test the Microsoft Teams classes integration in their Blackboard Test and/or Staging instance are highly recommended to follow these steps:

  • Engage with their Microsoft Account team to request a Microsoft Test tenant under their Institutional Licensing Agreement.
  • Alternatively, clients can request a trial at https://aka.ms/edutrial. This trial lasts 6 months. If you need to extend the trial for a longer period of time, please contact your Microsoft account representative.

If you require support from the Microsoft Customer Team in respect to this integration, then please complete the following online form https://aka.ms/lmsintegration.

Using a Microsoft Test tenant with your Blackboard Test or Staging environments prevents introducing potential data duplication issues when you come to deploy the integration in your Blackboard Learn Production system.

Supporting Institutional Data Mapping – Institution Email SIS Field

As part of the evolution with Cloud provider integrations, Blackboard has created a new Institution Email field, in both the Student Information System Framework integration and public REST APIs, allowing institutions to manage the data synchronization process effectively between Blackboard Learn Ultra and Microsoft Azure Active Directory.

What does the Institution Email mean and what does it support?

The Institution Email field allows customized field mappings between a client’s externally supported data sources and Blackboard Learn Ultra. In the case of data sources that are cloud providers, such as Microsoft, the User Principle Name (UPN) is a primary unique identifier for each user consisting of a UPN prefix (the user’s account name) and a UPN suffix (a DNS domain name) joined together with an @ symbol. This creates a unique email address for each specific user within the Microsoft Azure Active Directory.

To ensure data is accurate and enrollments or memberships between Blackboard Learn Ultra and Microsoft Teams classes are correctly achieved, a user’s email address must match between both systems. In Blackboard Learn, a user can change or override their existing email address in the user interface, which could result in sync errors occurring and the user not being correctly added to a class Team. The Institution Email field mapping ensures this level of security and validation checking can be correctly managed, regardless of if the user has changed their Email within Blackboard or not.

When two email addresses are different, either:

  • A decision must be made as to which source has precedence and will be taken as both the Person and Institution Emails, or
  • An institution can set a custom field mapping in their Institution Email which can resolve a potential conflict.

The Institution Email field mapping is now available for all existing SIS integration types at Advanced Configuration Settings > Users Learn Object Type > Field Mapping.

This is an example LIS 2.0 script for populating the institution email field using the Use a custom script  text box:

(function() {
       var v = data.person.extensions.get('inst_email');
       return v ? v.value : null;
}());

It’s important to note that, by default, the Institution Email is set to the Person Email for all SIS formats and requires to be unique for each person. All existing integrations that are setup and running will have this data mapping in place, as SIS will fail to import users if their email is duplicated. If an institution requires to be able to change the Institution Email to custom, they'll need to manage this through the Advanced Configuration Settings in the SIS.

Requirements

The integration supports an Ultra course enrollment size up to the same user limit Microsoft has determined for Microsoft Teams. A Microsoft 365 Education plan is required.

The Microsoft Teams classes integration is available for Ultra Course View courses only. Your institution needs to complete these requirements to use it:

  • Have Blackboard Learn SaaS with Ultra Base Navigation enabled
  • Enable LTI for use in courses: Go to the Administrator Panel > LTI Tool Providers > Manage Global Properties. Then, select LTI Enabled in Courses, and optionally, select Enabled in Organizations. Select Submit.
  • Must have LTI configured
  • Add Blackboard Learn Ultra Teams Classes LTI Integration
  • Add Microsoft Teams classes LTI 1.3 Tool
  • Add the REST API Tool and Cross-Origin Resource Sharing
  • Configure and approve Microsoft Teams classes Integration

Add the Blackboard Learn Teams classes LTI 1.3 tool

  1. From the Administrator Panel, select LTI Tool Providers.
  2. Select Register LTI 1.3 Tool.
  3. In the Client ID field, type or copy and paste this ID: f1561daa-1b21-4693-ba90-6c55f1a0eb41
  4. Review all settings that have been pre-populated and in Tool Status and select Enabled.
  5. In Institution Policies select Role in Course, Name, and Email Address.
  6. Select Yes for both Allow grade service access and Allow Membership Service Access.

Add the Microsoft Teams classes LTI 1.3 tool

  1. From the Administrator Panel, select LTI Tool Providers.
  2. Select Register LTI 1.3 Tool.
  3. In the Client ID field, type or copy and paste this ID: 027328b7-c2e3-4c9e-aaa1-07802dae6c89
  4. Review all settings that have been pre-populated and in Tool Status and select Enabled.
  5. In Institution Policies select Role in Course, Name, and Email Address.
  6. Select Yes for both Allow grade service access and Allow Membership Service Access.

Add the REST API tool

  1. On the Administrator Panel, navigate to Integrations and select Rest API Integrations.
  2. Select Create Integration.
  3. In the Application ID field, type or copy and paste this ID: f1561daa-1b21-4693-ba90-6c55f1a0eb41
  4. Type a user for this integration. This user will be the one with home API access from which the application is associated
  5. Select Submit.

We recommend to select a user who has the ability to manage REST integrations, and has the associated privilege of Course/Organization Outline > Microsoft Teams > Configure

Add the Cross-Origin Resource Sharing

  1. From the Administrator Panel, navigate to Integrations and select Cross-origin Resource Sharing.
  2. Select Create Configuration.
  3. In the Origin field, type of copy and paste this URL: https://bb-ms-teams-ultra-ext.api.blackboard.com
  4. In the Allowed Headers field, type Authorization.
  5. Set Available to Yes.
  6. Select Submit.

Configure and Approve Microsoft Teams classes Integration

To successfully integrate your Blackboard Learn instance with Microsoft Teams classes, you'll need to make sure the Blackboard application is approved for access within your Microsoft Azure tenant. This is a process that your institution’s M365 Global Admin needs to complete.

This process can be done either before or after you have configured the LTI applications in your Blackboard Learn Instance.

Before configuring LTI applications

If you choose to approve the Blackboard Teams classes Azure app before configuring the LTI integrations, you'll need to redirect to the Microsoft Identity Platform Admin Consent Endpoint. The URL is shown below:

https://login.microsoftonline.com/{tenant}/adminconsent?client_id=2d94989f-457a-47c1-a637-e75acdb11568

You’ll replace {Tenant} with your specific institutional Microsoft Azure tenant ID.

Learn more on How to find your tenant

This image outlines the permissions required for the Microsoft and Blackboard Application:

After configuring LTI applications

  1. From the Administrator Panel, navigate to Tools and Utilities and select Microsoft Teams Integration Admin.
  2. Select Enable Microsoft Teams.
  3. Add your Microsoft Tenant ID into the available text field.
  4. If the app has pre-consent, it will show a small checkmark. If the checkmark appears select Submit.
  5. If consent hasn’t been approved, follow the steps described to Generate the URL for consent and send it to the M365 Global Admin for approval.
  6. Once you have confirmation of approval, select the Retry button to confirm.
  7. Once confirmed, select Submit.