Blackboard Learn

Acreditta Platform integrates with Blackboard Learn (Anthology) through LTI 1.3 Advantage. Once connected, your instructors add Acreditta as a tool inside the course and issue digital credentials to the earners who meet the rules you define, without issuing them one by one.

On the Blackboard side you complete three setups: register the LTI tool, create a placement so it shows up in courses, and authorize a REST integration so Acreditta can read the course participants and grades. Then you connect everything from Acreditta.

Before you start

Have these on hand:

  • Administrator access to your Blackboard Learn (Administrator Panel).
  • Access to Integrations → External Tools in Acreditta.
  • The URL of your Blackboard Learn (for example, https://blackboard.your-university.edu).
  • Acreditta’s Application ID. It is the same for every institution:
89bb4aff-6db8-4835-9fa7-823d57e12670

🔎 Note: Blackboard uses two similar values, the Application ID and the Application key. This guide always uses the Application ID. You never need the Application key or its secret.

1. Register the LTI 1.3 tool in Blackboard

  1. Open the Administrator Panel and go to LTI Tool Providers.
  2. Click Register LTI 1.3/Advantage Tool.
  3. Paste the Application ID in the Client ID field and click Submit.

⚠️ Important: register the tool with Register LTI 1.3/Advantage Tool. Don’t use Register LTI 1.1 Provider, and don’t register your Blackboard domain as an LTI 1.1 provider.

2. Approve the tool and set its policies

  1. In LTI Tool Providers, open the Acreditta tool’s menu and choose Edit.
  2. Set the values in the table:
Field Value
Tool Status Approved. With Excluded the tool doesn’t launch.
User Fields to Send Turn on Role in Course, Name and Email Address.
Allow grade service access Yes. Acreditta needs it to read the course grades.
Allow Membership Service Access Yes. Acreditta needs it to know the course participants.
  1. Click Submit.

3. Copy the Deployment ID

  1. In LTI Tool Providers, open the tool’s menu again and choose Manage Deployments.
  2. Copy the value of Default deployment ID. You’ll paste it in Acreditta in step 6.

4. Create the placement

The placement makes Acreditta appear in the list of tools in your courses.

  1. In LTI Tool Providers, open the tool’s menu and choose Manage Placements.
  2. Click Create Placement and fill in:
Field Value
Label The name instructors will see. For example, Acreditta Badges.
Handle A unique identifier with no spaces. For example, acreditta-badges.
Availability Yes.
Type Course content tool. Don’t choose Deep Linking content tool.
Target Link URI https://lti.acreditta.com/lti
  1. Click Submit.

🔎 Note: if Manage Placements already lists an Acreditta placement, you don’t need to create another one.

5. Authorize the REST integration

Without this step Acreditta can’t read grades and the connection fails with a 401 error.

  1. In the Administrator Panel, open REST API Integrations and click Create Integration.
  2. Fill in the fields:
Field Value
Application ID Acreditta’s Application ID. Not the Application key.
Learn User Click Browse and choose a user with read permission on participants and the gradebook. We recommend creating a dedicated user, for example acreditta_rest.
End User Access Yes.
Authorized To Act As User Service Default (No).
  1. Click Submit.

🔎 Note: Acreditta uses the permissions of the Learn User you choose. If that user can’t see a course’s grades, Acreditta can’t evaluate them either.

6. Configure the external tool in Acreditta

  1. Go to Integrations → External Tools.
  2. Click Add.
  3. In the Lms selector, choose Blackboard Learn.
  4. Fill in the fields:
Field Where it comes from
Name The name you want to give this Blackboard instance inside Acreditta.
LMS URL Your Blackboard Learn base URL, including https://.
Issuer Url Already filled in with https://blackboard.com. Don’t change it.
Client ID Acreditta’s Application ID (89bb4aff-6db8-4835-9fa7-823d57e12670).
Token URL Already filled in. Don’t change it.
Login URL Already filled in. Don’t change it.
Keyset URL Fills in automatically when you type the Client ID. Don’t change it.
Send notification Turn it on so Acreditta emails each earner when they receive their credential.
Deployment ID The Default deployment ID you copied in step 3.
  1. Click Save.

7. Add Acreditta to a course

The instructor or administrator adds the tool inside the course content:

  1. Open the course and go to Content.
  2. In the right-hand panel, under Books & Tools, click View course & institution tools.
  3. Choose Browse all course tools.
  4. Click the + on the Acreditta tool (it shows the name you set in Label).

  1. Leave the item visible in Course Content.

⚠️ Important: always open Acreditta from the course content. If you open it from the Administrator Panel or from LTI Tool Providers, Blackboard doesn’t send the course context and Acreditta can’t read the grades.

8. Link a template and issue

When you open Acreditta from the course, you see the same Recognition templates screen as in Moodle and Canvas. There you link a credential template, define its rules and issue. The details are in Field mapping and bulk issuance (Canvas), which works the same way in Blackboard.

Two Blackboard specifics:

  • Available criteria: today you can evaluate the Final course grade (percentage) and the Final course grade.
  • Final grade: the course needs a final grade in the Gradebook (Overall Grade, or an external grade column). If an external grade column exists, Acreditta uses it first. If there is no final grade at all, nobody meets the rule.

Common problems

Symptom Most common cause
The tool doesn’t open Tool Status isn’t Approved (step 2).
Acreditta doesn’t show up in Books & Tools Tool Status is Excluded, the placement Type isn’t Course content tool, or Availability is No (steps 2 and 4).
Grade service error (AGS_ENDPOINT_MISSING) You opened Acreditta outside the course, or Allow grade service access is No (steps 2 and 7).
Unregistered platform or deployment error (UNREGISTERED_PLATFORM, DEPLOYMENT_ID) The Deployment ID in Acreditta is wrong or empty (steps 3 and 6).
401 error when connecting to Blackboard The REST integration is missing, the Learn User lacks permissions, or you pasted the Application key instead of the Application ID (step 5).

Still can’t connect? Write to us at tech@acreditta.com with your institution’s name and the error message.

Next step


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