LTI-Based Publishing
Overview
EchoSystem LTI (Learning Tool Interoperability) allows you to integrate the EchoSystem with a learning management system (LMS) such as Canvas, Moodle, or Blackboard. Basic LTI communication consists of a content provider (EchoSystem) and a content consumer (the LMS).
The list below shows LMSs supported by LTI-Based publishing. These integrations require EchoSystem 5.2 with Service Pack 2 or higher:
Blackboard, version 9.1 Service Pack 9 or higher
Moodle, version 2.7 or higher
Canvas
Desire2Learn (D2L), version 9.4 or higher
Sakai, version 2.9.1 or higher
As of the 5.5 release of EchoSystem, we will only be supporting LTI-based publishing. We highly recommend that you change your current ESS configuration to use LTI instead. LTI offers these advantages:
Canvas LTI Profile Requires Additional Fields
If you are using Canvas as your LMS, see Canvas LTI for instructions. Configuring the Canvas LTI profile requires additional steps not provided below.
High-Level Procedure
In order to pass information to the LMS, the EchoSystem Server (ESS) and the LMS must be configured to communicate securely with each other. Configuring LTI integration with an LMS consists of the following phases:
Identify or create courses in the LMS.
Add the Course IDs from the LMS into the section configuration on the ESS (External Course IDs).
Once configured, users can log into the LMS and seamlessly access each of their sections.
Add LTI Profile to the ESS
Configure HTTP/HTTPS System Settings First
Be sure you have configured your System Settings before adding the LTI profile to the ESS. In particular, the Application Network Settings must remain static. If you change the HTTP/HTTPS configuration in the Application Network Settings after creating the LTI profile, you will have to delete and re-create the External Tool on the LMS. This is because changing the HTTP/HTTPS settings also changes the ESS launch URL for the LTI tool.
Follow these steps to add the LTI profile to the ESS. Once the LTI profile exists, you will use the fields generated to Add the ESS to the LMS as an External Tool.
On the ESS, navigate to Configuration > LTI
Click Add to open the Add LTI form, shown in the below figure.
From the LMS Consumer drop-down list, shown below, select the LMS you are using.
Notice that when you select an LMS other than Canvas, the Add Profile page changes, removing several of the fields, as shown in the figure below. See Canvas LTI for instructions on configuring a Canvas LTI profile.
The following table lists the Add LTI Profile fields and describes the information to be entered in each:
Complete the fields using the information provided in the above table. The following figure shows a completed Add Profile page.
Click Save. The completed LTI profile appears, shown in the below figure, including the Consumer Key, Shared Secret, and Launch URL fields, which you will use to configure the LTI Tool on the LMS.
From the completed LTI profile, copy the following items into Notepad or other text editor, for later pasting into the proper fields when creating the ESS as an External Tool in the LMS.
Consumer Key
Shared Secret
Launch URL
When you have copied the appropriate information, click Done. The LTI screen appears, showing the new LTI profile along with any others already created.
When necessary, you can access LTI profile information by clicking the Profile Name in the LTI screen shown above.
Seamless Only vs Authentication Required
If Seamless Only is used on a section, then students must be authorized via an LTI or Seamless link for the specific section in the LMS in order to view content for that section.
If Authentication Required is used on a section, then any authenticated student can access the content for that section.