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Sync your Top Hat course to your Minerva module - Staff Guide

Top Hat integrates with Minerva modules to enable synchronisation of module enrolment and marks. To facilitate this set up, users must have a staff account in Top Hat and have created a course in Top Hat for the module they wish to sync to.

Staff must have instructor access to the module in Minerva to be able to sync it with a Top Hat course.

It is recommended that you use the Minerva module naming structure for your course in Top Hat as follows:

- Year (Semester 01 02 03) | Subject Code/Module Code | Module Name
E.g. 18/19 (02) CHEM1240 Fundamental Inorganic Chemistry


Staff must work through the following two steps:

1. Sync your students from Minerva to Top Hat

Authenticate your Top Hat Course and with Minerva

Open the appropriate Top Hat course and click on the Course Settings button, in the centre of the navigation bar at the top of the screen.

Screenshot of top hat platform

In the course settings window, choose LEGACY LMS SYNC and then click on the blue Enable LMS sync button.

Screenshot of Top Hat platform

In the window that appears, click the blue Authorize Top Hat with your LMS button to give Top Hat permission to authenticate with your Learning Management System (LMS), i.e. Minerva.

Screenshot of Top Hat platform

Synchronize your module with your course

Once your Top Hat account has been successfully authenticated with your Minerva account you will be provided with a list of the Minerva courses that you are enrolled on as an instructor. You may automatically be authenticated if you are already logged in to office 365 or you may be directed to the University of Leeds single sign-on page. If so enter your username@leeds.ac.uk and associated password.

If you do not see the intended course in the list, ensure that you are enrolled in the Minerva course as an Instructor.

Select the course and then click the blue Connect button.

Screenshot of Top Hat platform

If you are teaching multiple courses using Top Hat you will want to follow the above steps to authenticate each of your Top Hat courses with its corresponding Minerva module.

Invite students to create a Top Hat account

Students will sign up to Top Hat using their University of Leeds username@leeds.ac.uk credentials. They can access Top Hat using any supported web browser on any web-enabled device or by downloading the Top Hat app.

Once your Minerva class roster has been imported into your Top Hat course you should be given the option to Go to Student Manager.

The students have finished importing screenshot

Choose Go to Student Manager.

You will see a list of all of the students who have been added from Minerva. Students with an existing Top Hat account will be automatically enrolled in your Top Hat course and can be identified by Full Access in the Course Access column.

Screenshot of Top Hat platform

If a student does not yet have a Top Hat account, you need to invite them to create an account so they can join your Top Hat course. To do so, simply click where it says All Students and then select Pending Students to show only the students who have not yet enrolled in your Top Hat course.

Click in the box to the left of the Status header to place a checkmark in it to select all the students on your pending list, and click on Invite Selected.

screenshot of top hat platform

An automated standard email invitation for students will be generated. Click on Send.

Screenshot of Top Hat platform.

As students enroll, their classification under Course Access will change to Full Access.

These actions can be repeated to resend the email invitation to the appropriate students so long as they have not received an email invitation for this course within the past 24 hours, and to a maximum of 10 invitations total.

Changes to your module enrolment (class lists)

If your class lists change once registration/module enrolment is complete, simply re-sync your Top Hat course by clicking on the Course Settings button. Choose LEGACY LMS SYNC and then click on the blue Run LMS sync button.

Screenshot of Top Hat Platform

This will pull new student email addresses into your pending student's list (or enrolled list if they already have Top Hat accounts), and you simply need to follow the steps above to invite all of the students on your pending list to your Top Hat course. This process can be repeated for as many student enrolment changes as necessary. You may also choose to Sync roster if you do not wish to import any Top Hat grades into Minerva.


Top Hat will be accessed from your Minerva Module by users via the link that you are about to create.

Go to the Minerva module you have linked your Top Hat course to. Then locate where in your module you would like to place the Top Hat link.

Click the plus button then select Content Market. Select the plus button on the bottom right hand side of the box named Top Hat.

Gif of Top Hat platform

You will then be taken back to your module and the Top Hat link will have been created. Click on the Top Hat link and this will be the final step of connecting your course and module. Once you click on the link you will be taken to your Top Hat course and you will see a message stating Account Successfully linked.

Screenshot of TOp Hat platform
When you are ready you can now make the link visible to students. When the link is visible to students, they will be able to click on it and be taken to your Top Hat course. They will not see any items within Top Hat until they have been assigned to them though Top Hat.

For more information on how to create content in Top Hat. View the DE Systems Staff Help Guides.


Further Help and Support

You can access help and support from within Top Hat once you are logged in:

  • Live chat by clicking on the speech bubble icon next to your name, this is available between 2pm to 8pm GMT on weekdays.
  • Raise a support ticket by clicking on the question mark icon.

Support is also available via the Leeds IT website. Please remember to log in as this will give you additional support options.