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Courses Integration: Blackboard Learn LMS

Michael Stephenson avatar
Written by Michael Stephenson
Updated this week

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


Overview

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

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

Overview of the Setup Process

To get started, you'll work through three steps outlined below in detail.


Step 1: Set Up OAuth Authentication in Blackboard

To allow secure communication between Blackboard and Element451, you'll first need to register a REST API application in Blackboard. This generates a Client ID and Client Secret you'll use later in the setup.

  1. Log in to your Blackboard account as a System Administrator.

  2. Navigate to System Admin > Integrations > REST API Integrations.

  3. Click Create Integration.

  4. Fill in the required information:

    • Application ID: f7835300-48bb-4051-b8a8-e43af1c7edc0

    • Learn User: Select a user account with sufficient read permissions (usually an admin-level service account)

    • End User Access: Set to No

    • Authorized To Act As User?: Set to No

    • Set the following Redirect URI: https://api.451.io/clients/integrations/blackboard/oauth2

  5. Enable the following permission sets:

    • Courses

    • Users

    • Memberships

    • Organizations

    • Grades

🔗 For more detailed instructions, see Blackboard's guide on Registering an Application.


Step 2: Authenticate the Integration in Element451

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

🚨 Important: The user performing the authentication must be a Blackboard System Administrator and have read access to: Courses, Users, Memberships, Organizations, and Grades.

  1. Click on your avatar/profile picture in the top right corner of the orange navigation menu.

  2. Navigate to Settings > Integrations.

  3. From the left-hand menu, select Blackboard LMS.

  4. Click the Authenticate button and follow the prompts.

You'll need your Blackboard Instance URL (typically something like https://youruniversity.blackboard.com).


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 Blackboard, including course name, code, department, and other relevant details.

  • Sections¹: Import individual course section information from Blackboard, including dates, instructor names, etc.

  • Enrollments: Import student enrollment records from Blackboard, 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 Blackboard, 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: Blackboard supports multiple roles for teachers. Select the roles you use for teachers in your Blackboard instance.

  • Target Student Roles: Blackboard supports multiple roles for students. Select the roles you use for students in your Blackboard instance.


Next Steps

Once authentication is complete, Element451 will begin syncing data from Blackboard. 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

Blackboard Object

Blackboard Field

Institution ID

course

id

Name

course

name

Description

course

description

Code

course

courseId

Status¹

course

availability->available

Term²

course

termId

Subject

-

Not available

Number

-

Not available

Credits

-

Not available

Version

-

Not available

Total Students

-

Not available

Departments

-

Not available

Grading

-

Not available

Type

-

Not available

Timezone

-

Not available

Section

Element451 Field

Blackboard Object

Blackboard Field

Institution ID

course

id

Code

course

code

Status¹

course

status

Instruction Mode¹

course

type

Term²

course

termId

Instructor¹

user

name->given + name->family

Instructor Email

user

contact->email

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

Start Date

-

Not available

End Date

-

Not available

Times

-

Not available

Enrollment

Element451 Field

Blackboard Object

Blackboard Field

Institution ID

enrollment

id

Final Grade (Text)

-

Calculated³

Final Grade (Number)

-

Calculated³

Last LMS Activity

enrollment

lastAccessed

Enrollment Status

-

Not available

Current Grade (Text)

-

Not available

Current Grade (Number)

-

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 Calculated automatically by Element451 (see Calculation Logic below for details)

Blackboard Grade Calculation Logic

This logic handles how a student’s final grade is saved based on the type of grading scale used in Brightspace. The system supports multiple grading types, including Percent, Score, Letter, Tabular, Text, and Complete/Incomplete. Note: This logic applies only to final grades.

Grade Logic Explained

Step 1: Pull grade data

The system attempts to retrieve:

  • Score: the numeric value the student earned

  • Possible: the total possible points

  • Text: a grade label like “A” or “Complete”

  • Scale type: defines how to interpret the grade

Step 2: Process based on the grading scale type

Percent:

  • If a score exists and the possible points are greater than 0:

    • Calculate a percentage: (score / possible) * 100

    • Save this to final_grade_number (rounded to 2 decimals)

    • Save the formatted version (e.g., “87.50%”) to final_grade_text

Score:

  • If a score exists:

    • Save the numeric score to final_grade_number (rounded to 2 decimals)

    • Save the same number (e.g., “87.50”) as text in final_grade_text

Letter:

  • If a text grade exists:

    • Save the text (e.g., “A” or “B+”) to final_grade_text

Tabular:

  • If a score and possible points are available:

    • Calculate and save the percentage to final_grade_number

  • If a text grade is available:

    • Save the text to final_grade_text

Text or Complete/Incomplete:

  • If a text grade exists:

    • Save the text to final_grade_text

Doesn’t match any of the above:

  • No action is taken


Reviewing Imported Semesters

To review your imported semester data, navigate to Settings > Integrations and click on your LMS from the left-hand menu.

On the Imported Semesters card, you'll see:

  • Semester

  • Status

  • Added At

  • Started At

  • Last Sync Completed At

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