EBSCO Curriculum Builder and LTI Transition Guide: CB Deprecation

2022 December 

End of CB Updates / Begin Support-Only

2023 January - 2024 August

Transition to LTI Recommended!

2024 September

Stop Using CB Recommended!

Start Using LTI-Only Recommended!

2024 December

End of CB Subscriptions

Finish Transition to LTI

December 31, 2024 - Last Day for CB

2025 January

CB Offline

LTI Support Only

See Also - Connect page explaining more about the decision to deprecate Curriculum Builder in favor of LTI v1.3:

Determine Which CB Lists Need to be Rebuilt with LTI 

Start by exporting your CB Reading lists (instructions below). Then analyze the report to see which CB Reading Lists are still being used. This way you can focus on rebuilding the lists that truly need it and you'll know which lists will not be recreated through LTI. 

• Please Note: EBSCO's LTI Tools only support discovery of and deeplinks to content within EBSCO profiles. Any non-EBSCO content within existing CB reading lists will need to be added directly to an LMS / VLE course page, independently of LTI. 

Setup LTI Early

Start using LTI as soon as possible so you have plenty of time to learn how it works, and determine a training plan for your faculty. LTI tools vary slightly between different LMS's/VLE's. See LTI v1.3 Setup Instructions box on this page, and see the LTI Faculty Guide tab for detailed instructions to help train your faculty. 

Take a Gradual Approach

Rather than asking your faculty to recreate all their CB reading lists through LTI in a short period of time, EBSCO suggests a gradual approach for a smoother transition. You can use CB and LTI simultaneously, gradually rebuilding 1-2 lists at a time, and eventually have faculty create new reading lists using LTI. 

Contact your Sales Representative

Reach out to your Sales Representative to arrange LTI training sessions with our Customer Training team and to discuss timing for your CB subscriptions and LTI transition plan. 

After the LTI v1.3 tool is installed for your LMS / VLE, faculty can use it to search for the items in their Curriculum Builder reading lists, and embed full text links into each course page. The steps below may be helpful for training your faculty. See also the LTI Faculty Guide tab, for end-user instructions on how to use LTI. Reach out to your Sales Representative to set up a training session with one of our Customer Trainers to address any questions you might have. 

Step 1 - Export your Curriculum Builder Reading Lists

1. Login to Curriculum Builder Administrator page
2. Towards the top, click Download Export File 
3. Read the columns as follows:
   • authors_fullname: the instructor's name (this may be anonymized, depending on your CB admin settings)
   • readings_an: the Accession Number (AN) of the full text item
   • readings_db: the Database Code (DB) that the full text item came from
   • readings_title: the title of the full text item
   • lists_linklabel: the name of the CB Reading List - use this to parse out all the full text items for each reading list
   • lists_course: the course name 
   • lists_last_access: the most recent time the CB Reading List was used - use this to determine which lists do/don't need to be rebuilt via LTI

Step 2 - Rebuild your CB Reading Lists through LTI v1.3

Please note that EBSCO LTI tools work slightly differently, depending on the LMS / VLE -  follow the instructions on the LTI Faculty Guide tab.

1. Login to your LMS/VLE and navigate to the course page that you want to add a full text link to
2. Open the LTI tool (often called an External Tool) to get the EBSCO search box and follow the instructions on the LTI Faculty Guide tab.
3. Your CB Export File includes the Accession Number (AN) of items in lists.  A search for the AN of an item from your CB Reading List is the fastest way to find a match. If the Accession Number is 123123, then an example search would be AN 123123.  Alternatively, you can do a Title or Keyword search using the full title of the article or eBook.
   • Please note: LTI only searches EDS and EHOST profiles, so CB links to content not within the profile that your LTI tool searches will not be discoverable through LTI. For example, CB supports links to open websites, but since those are not contained within an EBSCO profile, you'll need to handle those without LTI. 
4. When you find the item record that matches, click the Add item button.
5. Continue following the steps according to your LMS, to finish publishing that assignment to your course page.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 for each reading list item you want to add to your course page.
7. Delete the CB links that you replaced with LTI links. 

Step 3 - Remove Curriculum Builder integration from your LMS / VLE

1. When you are ready to stop using Curriculum Builder (no later than 2024 December), uninstall it from your LMS / VLE. How to do so will vary depending on which LMS / VLE you use. Submit a Support Case through your EBSCO Connect account or reach out to your LMS /VLE vendor. 

LTI v1.3 setups are a handshake between EBSCOadmin and your LMS / VLE. These instructions require each customer's administrator logins for both EBSCOadmin and the 3rd party LMS / VLE. This may be more than one person at your institution. 

See the LTI Faculty Guide tab for instructions that you can give your faculty.