Courses is available in Element Success. See our packages overview for details.

Overview

The Brightspace LMS integration seamlessly syncs real-time academic and enrollment data from Brightspace into Element451. This guide will walk you through the setup process, from configuring Brightspace settings to completing the integration within Element451.

📌 Note: This is a one-way integration. Element451 reads data from Brightspace but does not write back any data.

Overview of the Setup Process

To get started, there are two main steps outlined in detail below.

Set Up Authentication in Brightspace (Register an App)
Provide Brightspace Credentials to Element451

Step 1: Set Up Authentication in Brightspace

To allow Element451 to securely connect to your Brightspace environment, you’ll need to register a new OAuth 2.0 application.

🚨 Important: You must be a Brightspace admin with access to manage the extensibility tool in order to complete this step.

How to register an Application on Brightspace:

Log in to your Brightspace admin account.
Navigate to Manage Extensibility > OAuth 2.0 tab.
Click Register an app.
Enter a name, the redirect URI, and the scope for the application. You can find these details in the table below.
After saving, Brightspace will generate your Client ID and Client Secret. Copy them and keep them somewhere safe—you’ll need to share them with your Element451 team in the next step.

Application Settings:

Detail	What to Enter	Purpose
Name	Element451 Integration (or your preferred label)	Identifier
Redirect URI	`https://api.451.io/clients/integrations/brightspace/oauth2`	Allows secure communication between Brightspace and Element451
Scope	'organizations:organization:read' 'users:userdata:read' 'role:detail:read' 'enrollment:orgunit:read' 'orgunits:course:read' 'sections:section:read' 'enrollment:orgunit:read' Note: Element451 only needs read permissions. No data will be written back to Brightspace.	Determines the actions that Element451 can perform

For detailed instructions on registering an OAuth2 Application, refer to the official Brightspace guide: Registering an Application.

Step 2: Authenticate the Integration in Element451

Once you have registered your application in Brightspace, you'll need to authorize Element451 to access your Brightspace data using OAuth.

Click on your avatar/profile picture in the top right corner of the orange navigation menu.
Navigate to Settings > Integrations.
From the left-hand menu, select Brightspace LMS.
Click the Authenticate button and follow the prompts.

You'll need your Client ID and Client Secret.

Step 3: Configure Preferences

Once you've authenticated your integration, you can access the LMS integration settings.

To review and adjust your preferences, click the pencil icon in the top right corner of your LMS integration card.

Data Sync Preferences

Courses¹: Import course information from Brightspace, including course name, code, department, and other relevant details.
Sections¹: Import individual course section information from Brightspace, including dates, instructor names, etc.
Enrollments: Import student enrollment records from Brightspace, including student grades
- Match Student Contacts²: Add enrollments for students already in the Element451 database
- Insert Student Contacts: Create new contacts for students previously not found in Element451, and add their enrollments
- Update Student Contacts: Overwrite existing contact data with data found in Brightspace, such as name and email

¹Setting is required and cannot be disabled.

²Setting is required when Enrollments is enabled.

Settings

Target Semesters: Only data from courses with a section within the selected semesters will be imported.
Auto Import Semesters: When enabled, Element451 will automatically sync the selected resources (courses, sections, or enrollments) for new semesters that are added to the LMS.
Target Teacher Roles: Brightspace supports multiple roles for teachers. Select the roles you use for teachers in your Brightspace instance.
Target Student Roles: Brightspace supports multiple roles for students. Select the roles you use for students in your Brightspace instance.

Next Steps

Once your Brightspace integration is authenticated, Element451 will automatically start syncing academic data. This data lives in Courses (Data + Automation > Courses), where you can view course records from your LMS.

Now that your course data is flowing into Element, you can begin using it to:

Build targeted segments
Trigger workflows + communications
Assign tasks or academic support resources
Personalize student experiences in StudentHub

To explore how to make the most of your LMS data, check out our Getting Started with Courses article.

Field Mapping

Once your LMS integration is active, Element451 automatically syncs data from your system into organized, consistent fields. This eliminates manual data entry while ensuring all information flows seamlessly between platforms.

Element451 automatically creates data sources for your course data directly from your LMS. No manual setup required—everything is generated automatically during the integration process.

The tables below show exactly which LMS fields map to which Element451 fields:

Course

Element451 Field	Brightspace Object	Brightspace Field
Institution ID	template	Identifier
Name	template	Name
Code	template	Code
Departments¹ -Institution ID -Name	course course course	Multiple values supported -Department->Identifier -Department->Name
Term²	course	Semester->Code
Description	-	Not available
Subject	-	Not available
Number	-	Not available
Credits	-	Not available
Version	-	Not available
Total Students	-	Not available
Grading	-	Not available
Status	-	Not available
Type	-	Not available
Timezone	-	Not available

Section

Element451 Field	Brightspace Object	Brightspace Field
Institution ID	se\|co³	Identifier
Code	se\|co³	Code
Status¹	course	IsActive
Term²	course	Semester->Code
Instructor¹	user	FirstName + LastName
Instructor Email	user	ExternalEmail
Start Date	course	StartDate
End Date	course	EndDate
Instruction Mode	-	Not available
School	-	Not available
Section Type	-	Not available
Version	-	Not available
Campus	-	Not available
Total Meetings	-	Not available
Max Enrollment	-	Not available
Current Enrollments	-	Not available
Timezone	-	Not available
Times	-	Not available

Enrollment

Element451 Field	Brightspace Object	Brightspace Field
Enrollment Status¹	enrollment	IsActive
Current Grade (Text)	-	Calculated⁴
Current Grade (Number)	-	Calculated⁴
Final Grade (Text)	-	Calculated⁴
Final Grade (Number)	-	Calculated⁴
Last LMS Activity	enrollment	LastAccessed
Institution ID	-	Not available
Last Attended Date	-	Not available
Total Active Time	-	Not available
Total Absences	-	Not available

¹ Automatically creates a data source in Element451
² Matched against existing terms in Element451 using term code
³ Uses section data if available, otherwise falls back to course data
⁴ Calculated automatically by Element451 (see Calculation Logic below for details)

Brightspace Grade Calculation Logic

Element451 retrieves both calculated and adjusted grades from Brightspace for each user’s course section. Based on the section’s status and the type of grade available, the system determines where to store the grade values.

Grade Logic Explained

Step 1: Check if the section is open or closed

A section is considered open if:
- Its status is active, and
- Today’s date falls between the section’s start and end dates.
If either condition is not met, the section is considered closed.

Step 2: Determine which grade to save and where

If the section is open:
- If an adjusted grade is available → save it to the current_grade field.
- If no adjusted grade but a calculated grade is available → save it to the current_grade fields.
- Save to:
  - current_grade_text if the grade is text
  - current_grade_number if the grade is numeric
If the section is closed:
- If an adjusted grade is available → save it to the final_grade fields.
- If no adjusted grade but a calculated grade is available → save it to the final_grade fields.
- Save to:
  - final_grade_text if the grade is text
  - final_grade_number if the grade is numeric