Adding Activities (Deep Linking)
Deep Linking is how an instructor chooses and configures a Blocks activity from inside the LMS. The result is a tool instance — a single configured activity that the LMS links to and that learners launch.
When Deep Linking happens
Deep Linking runs when you add or configure an external tool in a course and the LMS opens Blocks’ content selection screen. The exact trigger depends on the LMS:
Open edX — the content-selection action on the LTI Consumer component.
Moodle — the Select content button when adding an External tool activity.
Canvas / Blackboard / D2L — the tool/content selection step when adding an LTI link.
The selection flow
From the LMS, launch the content-selection (Deep Linking) action for Blocks.
Blocks presents the available tool types — for example AI Tutor, AI Expert Chat, Multiple Choice, and Free Text. See Tools Overview.
Choose a tool type and set its initial bootstrap settings and content.
Confirm. Blocks creates a tool instance and returns a deep-link response to the LMS, which stores a link back to it.
What gets created
Each confirmed selection persists a tool instance that holds the activity’s configuration and content. The LMS link (its resource link) is bound to that instance, so every future launch of that LMS activity resolves to the same instance.
For tools that support localization, Blocks stores two versions of the learner-facing content:
a draft version that authors edit, and
a live version that learners actually see.
Publishing copies the draft into the live version. See Editing Activities In Place.
After Deep Linking
Once the activity exists, you do not need to repeat Deep Linking to change it. Instructors edit an activity in place from a normal launch — see Editing Activities In Place.