App Finder is our home for all thing’s partnerships & integrations here at D2L. Whether you are interested in seeing who we partner with, or learning about a new integration, App Finder serves as our key tool to help you discover the 100s of amazing (and verified) integrations available to Brightspace. And with the LTI integrated version, App Finder enables a rich app request workflow which enables admins to help manage app requests for their users. In total, there are two versions:
- Standard website accessed over a URL, limited functionality
- Integrated version of App Finder, available as an LTI tool in Brightspace. Offers full functionality.
App Finder is more about app requests and searches. App Finder was designed to:
- Provide visibility into the many partners we work with, and the vendors we integrate with. Reinforcing confidence in your integration decisions by viewing apps verified and reviewed by D2L’s partners team
- Help administrators market the available apps to their end-users, with options to trust or block specific apps.
- Empower users to surface apps they want to their admins by requesting them
- Give users an app catalogue, accessible from their Brightspace instance
- Facilitate user feedback and reviews on apps they are using
- Let users get creative, creating and listing their own apps for their peers to see
As our partners program continues to evolve, so does the tools we employ to help support them. We are rolling out a series of updates to App Finder in our upcoming December 20.20.12 release that will help put the power in you, our user’s hands, to get the most out of the integrations that are available.
Updates Coming in December
Request Button Configuration
Administrators can configure whether to display the request button to their users, when using the integrated version of App Finder. This permission defines for the entire organization if users like instructors can request apps from their admins.
Availability: Requires Brightspace integrated version of App Finder
Segment Specific Landing Page
When a vendor publishes their apps in App Finder they detail what segments they believe their tool applies too: K12, Higher Education, and Corporate/Enterprise. By using our new segment landing page feature with your integrated version of App Finder, you can ensure your users land in App Finder with a homepage pre-filtered to show apps specific to your segment. To apply this feature:
- Ensure you have done the LTI integration to connect your instance to App Finder. If you haven’t done this yet, check out our [BROKEN LINK]Admin Guide for more info.
- Logged in as an Admin in Brightspace, navigate to the Admin Menu, select External Learning Tools.
- Search for the link with the title App Finder, or one with the URL: https://appfinder.brightspace.com/sso-lti
- Select Add custom parameters, with the default value of 1.
- For the Name enter custom_default_view
- For the Value enter one of the following values, according to which segment landing page you want your users to land on:
- “K12” – Redirect the launch to the K12 landing page
- “HE” - Redirect the launch to the Higher Ed landing page.
- “Corporate” - Redirect the launch to the corporate landing page.
- “my-apps=1” – Redirects users to a default landing page. Default value if no custom parameter is provided.
- Select Save and Close
Availability: This feature requires Brightspace integrated version of App Finder
New App Fields
We have added a few new fields to help our apps tout their awesome details. The new fields include:
- HECVAT – A link or pointer if the partner has completed their HECVAT.
- VPAT – A link to this vendor’s public accessibility VPAT.
- Integration Method – What standard or technology the app uses to integrate.
- Additional Links – A bonus field for vendors to include any extra resources.
- Recent Updates – A section to detail some of the newest updates the app has seen recently.
- Language Availability – We have updated this field with specific language options also available to the Brightspace UI.
Availability: Feature is available to all versions of App Finder
New Badges
We have added some awesome new badges to highlight some key apps to look out for:
- Featured – Featured apps to look out for! Apps can be feature for a variety of reasons but is usually applied when an app is awesome!
- New – Apps that have newly listed will have this badge for 2 weeks.
- Updated – Apps that have recently updated their listing will sport an Updated badge for 2 weeks
- Fusion Sponsors – Reserved exclusively to vendors that sponsor our annual user conference; Fusion
Availability: Feature is available to all versions of App Finder
More Filters
Filters are the key to finding apps quickly. So we have enhanced our filter system to include more options to help you find what you are looking for quickly. Our filters will now included:
- Tiers – The level at which the vendor partners with D2L, according to our partner program.
- Category – What type of tool the integration is.
- Segment – What segment the integration typically applies to.
- Integration Method – What standard or technology does this tool uses to integrate.
- Language Availability – What languages is the tool available in.
- Localization – What geo-regions the tool is localized hosting to.
Availability: Feature is available to all versions of App Finder
Updated Categories
We have updated our list of available tool categories to better sort the different types of commonly seen categories integrations fall under. Our list now includes:
- Accessibility
- Admin Tools
- Anti-Plagiarism
- Attendance
- Assessment
- Collaboration
- Content
- Data/Analytics
- Remote Proctoring
- Other
- SIS
- Learner Engagement
- Multimedia
Availability: Feature is available to all versions of App Finder
Inclusive Language Updates
On our mission for truly inclusive language in our apps and tools, we have renamed the formerly titled “whitelist” and “blacklist” to be more inclusive. Users can now define and add apps to their organization’s “allowlist” or “blocklist”.
Availability: Feature is available to all versions of App Finder
Feeling excited about some of these updates? Well the good news is that for many customers, App Finder comes pre-deployed to your instance of Brightspace. You can find it in your Remote Plugins area of Brightspace. Don't see it there? Be sure to check out our [BROKEN LINK]App Finder Admin Guide to deploy the tool to your instance.
Head over to App Finder today to get started checking out some of the amazing integrations available to you today.
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