How to Embed a Simulation in Schoology and Brightspace

Updated 2026-10-02

If your school runs Schoology or Brightspace (D2L), you can embed a simulation in Schoology and Brightspace course pages so students experiment right next to your instructions, with no extra login. Both platforms accept an embed code in a page, and the steps are short. This guide shows them with Simulic, then spends most of its time on what makes the page work in a real lesson: when to embed and when to post a link, how tall the frame should be, how to attach questions, and what students actually see. It ends with a complete lesson page on diluting acids, with real values and questions you can copy.

What you need

A free Simulic teacher account. Students never need one.
Edit rights on a course in Schoology or Brightspace.
An editor that keeps iframes when you save. Most course editors do; if yours removes them, your administrator has to allow them.
A simulation. This guide uses Diluting Acids and Bases.

Embed or link?

Both platforms happily take a plain link too, so decide per activity.

Situation	Use	Why
A lab page with instructions and a task	Embed code	Students keep your instructions in view while they experiment
A quick "try this before class" post	Play link	One line, opens full screen
Students mostly on phones	Play link	A plain play link opens full screen on any device; a frame inside an LMS page is cramped
Questions attached to the link	Embed code	Questions appear inside the frame, under the simulation

When in doubt, embed on the lesson page and add the play link underneath as "Open full screen". Both point to the same share link, so plays and answers end up in one place.

Step 1: Create one link per class

Open the simulation page and click Share.
On the Simulation tab, set the starting values students should begin with. For the dilution lab, choose HCl at 0.1 M with 10-fold steps. These values are pinned to the new link.
Go to the Share Links tab. Under New link, name the link after the class and course, for example "Chem 11 · Period 2 · Dilution", choose the Language and click Create link.
In the link card, open Embed code and click Copy embed code.

One link per class keeps each class's answers apart. Duplicate on the link card copies a link with the same settings and question set, which is the quickest way to make links for four sections.

Step 2a: Embed in Schoology

In your course, add a Page.
In the page editor, choose Insert Content → Embed.
Paste the embed code from Simulic and save.
Open the page in student view and check that the simulation loads.

The embed code ends with a small script that makes the frame grow when questions appear. If Schoology removes the script when you save, the frame stays at 640 px. That's enough for a simulation alone. With questions attached, edit the code before you paste it and raise height="640" to about 900, or 1000–1100 for five questions with predictions.

Step 2b: Embed in Brightspace (D2L)

In your course content, create a file or HTML page.
In the editor, choose Insert Stuff → Enter Embed Code.
Paste the embed code from Simulic and save.
Preview the page as a student.

Brightspace resizes the frame on its own. The Simulic frame sends its height in a message that Brightspace understands, so when questions appear the frame grows even if the script was removed. You don't need to touch the height.

At the time of writing, these are the menu names in both platforms. Menus can change between versions, so if a label looks different on your screen, look for the closest match. The in-app embed help page keeps the short version for each platform.

Build the lesson page around the simulation

An embedded simulation on its own is just a toy. The page around it makes it a lesson. A layout that works in both platforms:

Goal, one line. "Find out how dilution changes the pH of strong and weak acids."
Task, numbered. Three or four short steps students follow in the simulation.
The simulation. Embedded full width.
Questions. Attached to the link, so they sit inside the frame under the simulation.
Full-screen link. The play link as plain text for phone users.

What students experience: they open the page, the simulation is already running, and if the link has prediction questions, the simulation stays locked until they commit a prediction. They type a nickname, answer under the simulation, see your explanation after answering, and can retry if you allowed it. Nobody signs in to Simulic.

Example: a diluting acids lesson page

Here is the simulation as it sits on the page. Press Dilute Once to watch 10 mL being kept and topped up to 100 mL with distilled water, and follow the pH meter, the table and the graph.

Diluting Acids and Bases – How Does the pH Change?

Values students will find:

HCl, 0.1 M: pH 1.00. Each 10-fold dilution adds exactly 1: pH 2.00, 3.00, 4.00, up to 6.00 after five steps (100,000×). After six steps the pH is 6.79, not 7.00, and it never goes above 7, because water's own ions take over.
CH₃COOH, 0.1 M: pH 2.88, with a degree of dissociation α of 1.31%. One 10-fold dilution gives pH 3.39, a rise of only 0.51, while α climbs to 4.10%.
NaOH, 0.1 M: pH 13.00, falling by 1 per step toward 7.

Task text for the page: "Dilute HCl five times and record the pH after each step. Reset, switch to CH₃COOH and repeat. Compare the two columns."

Questions for the link (build them on the Questions tab of the Share page and pick the set for each class's link):

Prediction: "You dilute 0.1 M HCl ten times. What will the pH be?" Expected answer: 2.
Number: "How many 10-fold steps does 0.1 M HCl need to reach pH 4?" Answer 3, tolerance 0.
Number: "What is the pH of 0.1 M CH₃COOH after one 10-fold dilution?" Answer 3.39, tolerance ± 0.05.
Multiple choice: "0.1 M HCl is diluted a million times. Its pH is: A) exactly 7, B) just below 7, C) just above 7, D) 8." Correct: B. The simulation shows 6.79.
Short text: "Why does the weak acid's pH rise by only about 0.5 per step?" Sample answer: dilution makes a larger fraction of the acid dissociate, so [H⁺] falls by less than 10 times.

For wording, tolerances and more examples, see writing good questions for virtual labs. A full lesson on this topic is in the pH scale lesson plan.

Where the results go

Simulic does not send scores to the Schoology or Brightspace gradebook. Answers stay in Simulic:

The link card on the Share page shows the results table for that class, and you can view all classes that share one question set together.
Download CSV gives you a spreadsheet to copy marks from.
The free plan collects 100 student answers a month; Pro has no limit. Answers are deleted after 12 months.

Ask students for a nickname or first name only, never a full name or email. If you need the marks inside your gradebook automatically, use your platform's own quiz tool with the simulation as the stimulus; how to add simulations to quiz questions shows that approach. The step-by-step for collecting answers is in collect student answers without student accounts.

Troubleshooting

The page saves but the simulation is missing

The editor removed the iframe. Ask your administrator to allow iframes from simulic.com, and post the play link in the meantime.

The simulation is cut off at the bottom in Schoology

Schoology kept the frame at 640 px. Edit the embed code and raise the height.

The frame says the link is not available or has expired

"This Simulic link is no longer available" means the link is turned off: click Turn on link on the Share page. "This Simulic link has expired" means a last day was set in the Pro Options; change or clear it.

It works for me but not for students

Check whether students open the page on school devices with a web filter. If the play link fails there too, ask IT to allow simulic.com.

For other platforms, see the guide to embedding a simulation in your LMS. For the bigger picture, read how to use interactive simulations in the classroom.

FAQ

Do students need an account to use the embedded simulation?

No. They open your course page and the simulation runs. If the link has questions, they type a nickname.

Can I use one embed code for all my sections?

You can, but one link per section is better: each link keeps its own answers, and several links can share one question set.

Why does the frame grow by itself in Brightspace but not in Schoology?

Brightspace listens for the frame's height messages and resizes it. In Schoology the frame grows only if the script in the embed code survives saving.

Does the embed work when browsers block third-party cookies?

Yes. The embed sets no cookies and needs no login inside the frame.