Step 3 — Add the External Tool to a course LMS
The final step is done inside Moodle by an instructor. You’ll switch from the admin area into one of your courses, add DrillBit as an External tool activity, use Moodle’s deep-linking dialog to create the matching DrillBit assignment, and open the activity once so DrillBit creates its own assignment record. After that, students can submit through the activity exactly like any other Moodle External tool.
Before you start: complete Step 1 and Step 2. The Moodle tool registration and the DrillBit-side integration must both be in place before the preconfigured tool can be added to a course.
1. Open a course as an instructor
- Sign in to Moodle as an Instructor (or any user enrolled in the course as a teacher / editing teacher).
- Open My courses and click into the course you want to add DrillBit to.
2. Turn on Edit mode
- At the top-right of the course page, toggle Edit mode on.
- The Add an activity or resource button appears under each section / topic of the course.
3. Add an External tool activity
- In the section / topic you want DrillBit to live in, click Add an activity or resource.
- In the activity picker, choose External tool.
- Moodle opens the Adding a new External tool to Topic X page.
4. Pick the preconfigured DrillBit tool
- In the Activity name field, give the activity a name — this is what students see in the course (e.g. Essay submission — DrillBit check).
- Open the Show more… link if the Preconfigured tool drop-down isn’t already visible.
- From the Preconfigured tool drop-down, choose the DrillBit tool registered in Step 1 (instead of leaving it on Automatic, based on tool URL).
- Click Select content.
5. Fill in the Create Assignment dialog
A deep-linking pop-up titled Create Assignment opens. Fill in:
| Assignment Title | The title students see inside DrillBit. |
|---|---|
| Assignment Desc | A short description of the assignment. |
| Start Date | When submissions open. |
| End Date | When submissions close. |
| Due Date | The deadline shown to students. |
- Click Submit.
- The pop-up closes and you’re back on the External tool page with the deep link filled in.
6. Save and open the activity
- Click Save and display at the bottom of the page.
- Moodle opens the activity for you (the instructor) and launches DrillBit in a new window.
The instructor must open the activity at least once before students do. The first instructor launch is what triggers DrillBit to create the matching assignment record on its side — if a student opens the activity first, their submission has no DrillBit assignment to land in.
What students see
From the student’s side, the activity behaves like any other Moodle External tool:
- The course page shows the activity with an External tool badge and the name you chose in step 4.
- Clicking it opens DrillBit in a new window.
- The student uploads their file inside DrillBit; the similarity result and a link to the full report appear in the same activity view next time they open it.
Integration complete. Instructors can now add DrillBit to any course they teach by choosing the preconfigured tool from the External tool activity picker — no further admin setup is needed.
Troubleshooting
- DrillBit doesn’t appear in the Preconfigured tool drop-down – the tool’s Tool configuration usage isn’t set to Show as preconfigured tool when adding an external tool. Edit it from Step 1 and save again.
- Select content button does nothing – Supports Deep Linking (Content-Item Message) isn’t enabled on the tool registration. Re-open the registration in Manage Tools and tick it.
- Launch returns a registration / token error – the DrillBit-side configuration in Step 2 doesn’t match Moodle’s Tool configuration details. Re-copy the Platform / Client / endpoint values and resubmit.
- Students see “Assignment not found” – an instructor hasn’t opened the activity yet. Have the instructor click into the activity once, then students can submit normally.