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Embedding Research Guides in Desire2Learn (D2L)

The LibApps Research Guides feature in D2L allows you to embed content from the George Brown College Library’s Research Guides into your D2L course. Students can then easily access this content from within their course on D2L.

Research Guides contain subject- and program-specific content such as links to specialized databases and journals. The guides are created by librarians in order to assist students and faculty in their resource selection. If you have questions or concerns about the content of a guide, please contact your liaison librarian.

 

Step 1: Create a Research Guide link in D2L

  1. Add or open a module within your D2L course (in the example below, Week 1 is the module).
  2. Click the Existing Activities button.
  3. Choose External Learning Tools from the drop-down menu.

an open module in D2L, Existing Activities button clicked, External Learning Tools option highlighted

 

  1. When the Add Activity menu appears, scroll down and click the Create New LTI Link button.

  1. In the Title field, type a name for your link (e.g., “Library Research Guide”). This is what students will see and click on to access the guide.

 

IMPORTANT:

  1. Into the LTI URL field, paste this link: https://georgebrown.libapps.com/libapps/lti1p3/launch/brightspace/12313

 

 

  1. After pasting the URL in the LTI URL field, click the Tool field and wait for it to autofill with the text LibApps.
  2. Click Create and Insert.

Step 2 - Option A: Adding a full Research Guide to your D2L course

  1. Click on the research guide link you just created (e.g. “Library Research Guide”)
  2. Open the LibGuides Site drop-down menu and select Research Guides – researchguides.georgebrown.ca.
  3. Open the Content Type drop-down menu and select Full LibGuide.
  4. Open the Guide drop-down menu and select the guide you wish to link to your D2L course. Guides are listed in alphabetical order; you may need to scroll down on the menu to find your guide.
  5. Open the Guide Page drop-down menu and select the page that you would like to have displayed when students click on your guide. We recommend selecting Home or Getting Started, as this will link to the main page of the guide.
  6. Click Embed Content.

completed selection of a full research guide in D2L

 

Step 2 - Option B: Adding a portion of a Research Guide to your D2L course

In addition to linking to a full research guide, you can use the Research Guides feature to link to individual pages of a guide, or to content items (boxes) within a page. This allows you to embed more specific pieces of information into a section of your D2L course.

 

Adding a page from a research guide

  1. Open the relevant Module in D2L and click on your research guide link.
  2. Open the LibGuides Site drop-down menu and select Research Guides – researchguides.georgebrown.ca.
  3. Open the Content Type drop-down menu and select Single Page.
  4. Open the Guide drop-down menu and select the guide you wish to link to your D2L course. Guides are listed in alphabetical order; you may need to scroll down on the menu to find your guide.
  5. Open the Guide Page drop-down menu and select the page to which you would like to link (e.g. “Indigenous Research Methods”).
  6. Click Embed Content.

 

Adding a content box from a research guide

  1. Open the relevant Module in D2L and click on your research guide link.
  2. Open the LibGuides Site drop-down menu and select Research Guides – researchguides.georgebrown.ca.
  3. Open the Content Type drop-down menu and select Content Box.
  4. Open the Guide drop-down menu and select the guide you wish to link to your D2L course. Guides are listed in alphabetical order; you may need to scroll down on the menu to find your guide.
  5. Open the Guide Page drop-down menu and select the page where the content box you intend to link is located (e.g. “Indigenous Research Methods”).
  6. Open the Box drop-down menu and select the box that you would like to embed (e.g. “Journal Articles”).
  7. Click Embed Content.

 

Modifying your research guide selection

  1. Open the relevant module in D2L and click on the drop-down arrow beside your research guide link.
  2. Click the relevant option. You may hide, move, or edit the information available. To add dates, restrictions or a description, click Edit Properties in Place.

     

    Note: to link to a different research guide, choose Delete Topic and begin the process again.
  3. To add new content, click on your research guide and follow the steps described in the Adding a full research guide to your D2L course or Adding a portion of a research guide to your D2L course sections above

 

Viewing your guide

Viewing your research guide

  1. Beginning on your D2L course page, open the module in which your guide is embedded.
  2. Click on the title of your guide.

Previewing your guide as it will appear to students

  1. Beginning on your D2L course page, open the module in which your guide/list is located.

  1. In the top navigation bar, click your name, then choose View as Learner from the drop-down menu.

 

Adding Additional Guides

Adding a link to a DIFFERENT Research Guide

Once you have created a link to a Research Guide within your D2L module, that link will be available as an External Learning Tool in your list of Existing Activities. If you want to add an additional link to a DIFFERENT Research Guide, be sure NOT to use the same link as before. You will need to repeat the process from the beginning, creating a new link each time (note the URL you paste in will be the same, but the tool will prompt you to link to another research guide).

 

  1. Add or open a module within your D2L course (in the example below, Week 1 is the module).
  2. Click the Existing Activities button.
  3. Choose External Learning Tools from the drop-down menu.

 

an open module in D2L, Existing Activities button clicked, External Learning Tools option highlighted

 

  1. When the Add Activity menu appears, scroll down and click the Create New LTI Link button. Note: Do NOT click the link you created previously, unless you want to link to the same research guide as before.

 

External Learning Tools list, Library Research Guide crossed out

 

add activity menu scroll down to create new LTI link

 

  1. In the Title field, type a new name for your link (e.g., “Library Research Guide 2”). This is what students will see and click on to access the guide.

IMPORTANT:

  1. Into the LTI URL field, paste this link: https://georgebrown.libapps.com/libapps/lti1p3/launch/brightspace/12313

  1. After pasting the URL in the LTI URL field, click the Tool field and wait for it to autofill with the text LibApps.
  2. Click Create and Insert.

 

Follow Step 2 above