B2 Installation Guide

B2 Installation Guide

Introduction

The Biometric Signature ID (BSI) Building Block for Blackboard Learn 9.1 provides a mechanism to require a user/student to validate their identity when needed. This process is split between enrollment for the user to create their initial profile, and subsequent times when they need to validate themselves. Validating can be configured for three scenarios. Before a course can be opened, right after the “Begin Quiz” button is clicked, or as any other content item via adaptive release conditions.

The current (as of July 8th 2022):

IMPORTANT: The "Biometric Signature ID" Building Block (B2) is on the whitelist of B2's with extended support into 2024 (link to "Behind the Blackboard" article), and installation will still be possible after the deadline at the end of 2023. It is important to create a path towards Ultra View, because the LTI support in Original View does not support the complete range of BioSig-ID™ features. We are working with Blackboard Partner Support to add as many as possible, but the lack of Premium APIs and Ultra Extended Framework (UEF) available for Ultra View courses makes this challenging.

CHANGE LOG: Copied and/or imported course-packages retain their BioSig-ID™ quiz-intercepts configuration. Quizzes set to "BioSig-ID options (Enabled)" in the original course will reflect this in their copied or imported course copy. Blackboard Admins with enough access can update/install WAR files via the Admin > Building Blocks (within the "Integrations" section) >  Installed Tools > "Upload Building Blocks" button.

Quality-Assurance testing has been performed with:
  1. Blackboard v3700.0.10-rel.12+2ad3637
  2. Blackboard v3800.17.0-rel.21+0b17a13
  3. Blackboard v3900.44.0-rel.15+6dda17e

ULTRA VIEW: Blackboard partner support has helped us finalize the LTI 1.3/Advantage-Proctoring integration that relies on the Ultra Extended Framework. This means full BioSig-ID™ and BioSight-ID™ feature support is now functional. Please refer to the Ultra View Installation guide more.

Hierarchy

We recommend that the "Biometric Signature ID" building block is ON/Active at system level and then disabled for the nodes that you do not wish to use it in. Otherwise Course-Tool menu entries don't appear and the product does not fully work as intended.

Installation

The BSI Building Block is installed in the same way as any other Learn 9.1 Building Block. For example:

  1. Login into Learn 9.1 as a System Administrator
  2. Navigate to the list of installed tools:

a. Click on the "System Admin" tab

b. Click on the "Building Blocks" link inside the "Building Blocks" section

c. Click on the "Uploading Building Blocks" button

  1. Browse to the Building Block war file and finalize the process with the “Submit” button
  2. Locate the Biometric Signature ID Building Block in the list of Installed Tools and change its state from “Inactive” to “Available” in the Availability column
  3. Click on the “Approve” button
  4. Optionally you may change the state from “Unavailable” to “Available” in the Course/Org Default column

The building block is now available for use within Learn 9.1.  To alter the availability of the building block within courses use the following:

  1. Log into Learn 9.1 as a Systems Administrator
  2. Navigate to the list of installed tools:

a. click on the "System Admin" tab

b. click on the "Tools" link inside the "Tools and Utilities" Section

  1. Locate the Biometric Signature ID Building Block in the list of Installed Tools and change its state

More information on this process can be found in the Blackboard manuals on how to work with building blocks.

Note:  Quick alternative is to disable the availability for all courses would be to uninstall and reinstall the building block.

Configuration

Before the BSI Building Block will work it needs to be configured:

  1. Log into Learn 9.1 as a System Administrator
  2. Navigate to the list of installed tools:

a. click on the "System Admin" tab

b. click on the "Building Blocks" link

c. click on the "Installed Tools" link

  1. Locate the Biometric Signature ID Building Block in the list of Installed Tools and open the "Settings" page.
  2. In the System Identification section of the Settings page enter the following details as provided by BSI:

Configure BSI Building Block

a. SSO URL - URL for single sign-on (SSO) connections to Biometric Signature ID server

b. Shared code - Shared secret code which authenticates the primary system to BSI

c. System ID - Unique identifier assigned to the primary system

d. Customer ID - Unique identifier assigned to the customer of the primary system

e. Default Locale - Default locale code specifying the language and locale (e.g. en_US)

  1. In the Encryption Settings section of the Settings page enter the following details which are provided by BSI:

Encryption Settings  

a. Pass phrase (to be used to generate the encryption key)

b. Salt value (to be used to generate the encryption key)

c. Initialization vector (must be 16 ASCII characters)

  1. Optionally, in the Default content values section of the Settings page enter the following details:


Default Content Values


a. Title - default title of new instances

b. Description - default description of new instances

  1.  Additional settings can now be configured depending on how BioSig-ID is used within Blackboard:


Other Settings


Automatically Delete Gradebook Item

Adding a BioSig-ID building block instance inside a course, via “Tools” drop-down menu, creates a corresponding grade book column for adaptive release conditions.

If this option is activated with a checkbox, then removing the “Biometric Signature ID” instance from a course will automatically delete the corresponding gradebook column at the same time.

Intercept Test Launches

This option can be used concurrently with any adaptive released based instance, and will add a new setting in the drop-down menu for any quiz item or other supported course content item.
The new entry acts as “Set BioSig-ID status (current status)”, and results in:

Intercept Test
 

“Set BioSig-ID status (Disabled)” == BioSig-ID is not used

“Set BioSig-ID status (Enabled)” == BioSig-ID will intercept the quiz before it starts

Changing the status is as easy as clicking on the entry in question to toggle between the two.

** If the option is not listed, then please verify that the building block is active for the course.


Enable Test Intercept by Default

Activating this setting will cause all quiz items across every course to intercept the quiz before it starts if BioSig-ID is enabled/active for that course. Individually the status can then be disabled again with the same drop-down menu as shown earlier. **This setting is inherited.

Institution Roles

BioSig-ID can be limited to only be used by the “Role” entries selected in the listed table. If nothing is checked then *ALL* institution roles are active. **This setting is inherited.

This is useful for hybrid classes in which institution wishes to only offer BioSig-ID for their on-line students and skip it for the onsite/campus students. This automatically works for course intercept, and quiz intercept, but Blackboard would be unaware for course items relying on adaptive release conditions. To that end if institution role is active, then students not in the selected role(s) will add a "SKIPPED-{time}" entry in the grade-book versus the "{time}" that BioSig-ID intercepted students create.

Debug Mode

Additional information is stored in the "plugins/bsi-biosig-id/bsi-biosig-id.log" file that is available within the "System Logs" area. For SaaS environments, please use the "Kibana Log Visualizer" method or locate logs under "Manage Content" section.

Known Issues

Known Issues:

  1.  Setting a time/date adaptive conditions on a Blackboard item that is also relying on a BioSig-ID Tool instance to make it visible after the student validates their identity. Students become confused when they validate with BioSig-ID after the time has expired and nothing is shown. The easy solution is to place the item and the BioSig-ID tool instance inside a content folder and apply the date/time restrictions to that folder instead. Quiz intercept on a Blackboard test-assessment item would also solve this problem.

Support

For any updates to this document, or to consult others please review the Blackboard articles on this site.

You may create a support ticket on this page. Be sure to include as much information as possible to properly assist you as fast as possible

Students may request support via your existing BioSig-ID Support Site, or use the “Help” link within the BioSig-ID page inside their course.

It is important that they understand that all their interactions with BioSig-ID happen solely within Blackboard.


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