Overview
This article provides instructions for connecting Planning & Self-Study measures to assessment data within D2L. The alignment process allows institutions to link defined measures to specific rubrics or activities—such as assignments, quizzes, or graded discussions—to streamline the collection of student performance data. This process is intended for users with permission to manage measures and assessment plans.
Creating an Alignment to a Measure
The first step of pulling D2L data into Planning & Self-Study is to create a measure against an outcome. Once this is complete, alignments can be established to connect those measures to rubrics or activities inside D2L.
Note: Alignments are not plan-specific, meaning they can be created interchangeably within the Measure Library or directly from within an Assessment Plan.
The implementation steps are divided by alignment type:
- Adding an Alignment to a Rubric
- Adding an Alignment to an Activity
Adding an Alignment Directly from the Assessment Plan
When users edit a measure within an assessment plan, the Results section includes a Learning Management System (LMS) Integrations option. This option appears automatically for institutions with an Advanced D2L integration, providing a direct path to manage alignments to LMS activities and rubrics without leaving the plan workspace.
- Access an assessment plan and navigate to a measure.
In the Results section, select LMS Integrations.
- Choose either Align by Activity or Align by Rubric to proceed.
Adding an Alignment via the Measure Library
- Click Organization Management.
- Click into a program or organization.
- Click Program Information.
- Click Manage Measures under an Outcome.
Create a new measure, or click into an existing measure.
If using an existing measure, click Edit Measure.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Add Alignment.
Adding an Alignment to a Rubric
Click Add Alignment.
Select D2L Brightspace as the source and click Next.
By default, the system selects Align by Rubric. Click Next to continue.
Select one or more rubrics from the list, then click Next. All rubrics used for assessing assignments, quizzes, or graded discussions within the organization's associated course sections appear in this list.
Review selected items by clicking View Selected Rubrics in the upper right.
Upon opening the review page, users can inspect details for each chosen rubric, including:
- Name of the Rubric
- Term: Terms associated with the course section where the activity was assessed.
- Course: Course associated with the course section.
- Course Section: Name of the course section using the rubric.
- Count of Activities: Number of activities assessed using the selected rubric.
Users can remove selections dynamically from this screen. Once removed, that rubric no longer appears as selected on the main list.
Conduct a final validation of selected rubrics on the comprehensive summary layout.
- Click Align Rubric to complete the process.
Finalize the step by selecting Create Measure. This step is only required if the measure has not yet been created. If the measure already exists, users can save edits directly.
Note: Once a rubric has been aligned in a measure, users cannot align it again within that same measure.
Adding an Alignment to an Activity
- Click Add Alignment.
- Select D2L Brightspace as the source.
Select Align by Activity and click Next.
Select Terms: Check one or more academic terms. Selecting terms populates the interface with assignments, quizzes, or graded discussions published within course sections attached to the organization.
Note: Only terms linked to the organization’s course sections are available for selection.
Select Activities: Choose one or multiple activities from the generated list, then click Next.
Upon accessing View Selected Activities, users can review the selection details:
- Name of the Activity
- Term: Terms associated with the course section where the activity was assessed.
- Course & Course Section: Academic course details associated with the activity.
- Grading Method: Displays the classification configuration coming from D2L:
- Point-based activities: Displays the total points allocated for the assessment.
- Rubric-based activities: Displays the name of the rubric used for assessment in D2L Brightspace.
Users can remove any activity selection from this review screen before finalizing.
- Filter Activities: Users can isolate entries using cascading drop-down selectors structured hierarchically: Course > Section > Rubric.
- Upon selecting a course, users view only the course sections and rubrics associated with that selected course.
- Upon selecting a course section, only the rubrics used to assess the activities of those selected sections appear.
- Click Align Activity to complete the alignment link.
- Click Create Measure to deploy the complete setup into the workspace plan.
Note: Once an activity has been aligned in a measure, users cannot align it again within that same measure.