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LTI

What is LTI, how can you use it on the platform, and how to upload an LTI activity to the platform or on an external LMS

Sila avatar
Written by Sila
Updated today

LTI (Learning Tool Interoperability) provides a standardised way to integrate externally hosted learning content on your platform. LTI provides two-way communication:

Option 1: TinQwise learning platform hosts content provided by an external system

Option 2: An external LMS uses LTI to host TinQwise content (called Remote LTI)

Please take a look at the FAQ article for burning LTI questions.


Option 1: TinQwise learning platform hosts content provided by an external system

Any LTI tool can be added in the platform by the LTI 1.1 or 1.3 standard.
The 1.1 standard works with simply entering:

  • the LTI launch URL

  • the client secret

  • the client key

The 1.3 standard works with entering:

  • the LTI launch URL

  • the redirection URL

  • the initiate login URL

  • the keyset or public key

You can effortlessly link any external tool to your platform if you have these three information entries.


How does a LTI activity act?

When learners click on the activity that is linked to an external provider, the platform uses the LTI settings to launch the URL of the externally hosted tool.

This method allows a secure data transfer. The data can include:

  • user info, such as firstname, lastname and email

  • course completion, and

  • grades


How to link an external LTI activity to the platform? πŸ”¨

The external content provider that you want to host on the platform has to share the information to set-up an LTI. The platform supports LTI 1.1 and LTI 1.3 versions and depending on the version the steps are different.

LTI 1.1 steps

If you want to upload the LTI's in bulk, please look at these steps

Step 1. Navigate to TinQwise Control > Content > Activities and click on the top right button Add external content

Step 2. click on Connect LTI solution and select LTI 1.1

Step 3. Fill out the fields:

  • a content ID to make the activity searchable

  • add the LTI launch URL of that specific activity

  • add the client key

  • add the client secret

  • select how the result will be treated: a final score or progress

  • a minimum passing score when you've selected 'a final score'

Client key and secret are information shared from the external content provider per activity or per provider. The launch URL is different per activity, but usually also per language and you can add the different languages in the translations options at the LTI launch URL field.
The treatment of the result and the minimum passing score can be chosen, but usually the provider gives a default one. If the LTI activity includes learning content (instead of an exam), go to the LTI settings on the activities detail page. Edit the data field as Progress, allowing the platform to differentiate learning content from score-based measurements such as exams or quizzes.
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Step 4. Save your changes by clicking Create LTI activity.

Step 5. Find the LTI activity in the list of activities to view the activity details. Customise the activity tile by editing the activity title and image.

Optional: You can change the set-up at the Settings tab of the LTI activity.

LTI 1.3 steps

Step 1. Navigate to TinQwise Control > Content > Integrations > LTI 1.3 tools and click on the top right button Create LTI 1.3 Tool

Step 2. Fill out the fields with the information provided by the external content provider

  • Tool name: the name of the provider

  • Login URL: the Initiate Login URL

  • Redirection URL: the general redirect url of the tool

  • Connect with: choose between a keyset URL or public key, depending on the information you received.

Step 3. After saving the LTI 1.3 tool you will receive information back and you can quickly copy and paste these fields by clicking on the icon after LTI Connection.
These are the fields that need to be send back to the external content provider:

  • Client ID

  • Deployment ID

  • Platform keyset URL

  • Issuer

  • Authentication request URL

  • Access token URL

Step 4. Navigate to TinQwise Control > Content > Activities and click on the top right button Add external content

Step 5. click on Connect LTI solution and select LTI 1.3

Step 6. Fill out the fields

  • a content ID to make the activity searchable

  • at tool name you can select a tool created in steps 1 - 3.

  • add the LTI launch URL of that specific activity

  • add custom parameter(s) when required by tool

  • select if you want to include scores or not and what the minimum passing score is.

The external content provider provides either 1. a LTI launch url and the URL is different for each activity 2. the custom parameters you have to add and the LTI launch URL can be left empty as the platform takes automatically the Redirection URL set at the Tool set-up. You can add multiple parameters depending on the requirements of the external content provider. The format always contains an =, like course=xxx or study=yyy, without any additional whitespace.
Including the score means when you have an exam or quiz with a score, it will also send the specific score back to the platform. Not including a score means you will only get completed or not results back in the platform.


Good to know πŸ‘€

  • We advice to use the LTI 1.3 version if the external content provider supports both 1.1 and 1.3 versions.

  • Once you create an LTI connection, the new LTI activity will be integrated in our platform like any other activities. For example, you can edit activities details, and create automations for your LTI activities.

  • An example for external LTI providers that are currently linked to a TinQwise platform is GoodHabitz.


Option 2: An external LMS uses LTI to host TinQwise content

You can also host TinQwise learning platform content in an external LMS, allowing content creators to craft unique learning experiences within the TinQwise learning Platform and share these experiences on other platforms using LTI.

With this connection, learners can access one specific content part or an entire platform, depending on your set-up.

From learners' perspective:
A user logs into an LMS and selects a resource link to play a course. The user is then launched into the home page of the TinQwise learning platform in an iframe or a new browser.


How to link your Tinqwise learning platform to an external LMS? πŸ”¨

Step 1. To link your Tinqwise learning platform to an external LMS, the LTI feature should be enabled in your platform. Please first contact TinQwise for further information and assistance.

Step 2. Go to Content > Integrations > Remote LTI

Step 3. Click on Create LTI

Step 4. Give the LTI a name and select your target group (see the remarks in the next section) Save the settings.

This will automatically create you the LTI elements:

  • Key

  • Secret

  • Launch URL

Step 5. View or change the LTI details via Actions > Edit details. Here you can copy the key, secret and launch url for that specific LTI.

Step 6. Connect LTI details to the external LMS to access the content.


Good to know πŸ‘€

  • Before you set up the LTI connection, you should make sure that the platform is all set and ready. Each LTI connection is created for a specific target group. This will allow learners to have access to the discovery stream that is designed for their group only. Therefore, setting up the platform (the group structure, automations, and content) is essential before hosting TinQwise LTI in an external LMS.

  • Since the learners have access to the entire TinQwise learning platform, they can also interact with all the unique features.

  • The platform shares the learner progress data regularly with the external LMS. This allows the admins of the external LMS to receive fast and accurate data. However, how this data is used heavily depends on the external LMS hosting the platform content.

  • You can only host TinQwise content in an external LMS using version LTI 1.1.

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