What are LTI tools?

What are LTI tools?

External LTI tools enable students and staff to interact with learning resources and activities on other web sites and learning platforms. For example, an external LTI tool could provide access to a new activity type or learning materials from an external company.

Although the external LTI activity is accessed using a URL, LTI activities differ from URL resources in a few ways:
  1. External LTI tools are context aware i.e. they have access to information about the user who launched the tool, such as institution, course and name
  2. External LTI tools support reading, updating, and deleting grades associated with the activity instance
  3. External LTI tool configurations create a trust relationship between your site and the tool provider, allowing secure communication between them
You can read more about learning tools interoperability (LTI) here.

Depending what VLE/LMS you are using, you will use one of the following activity types to add the LTI URLs for your Learning Science resources.

VLE/LMSActivity Type
Blackboard[Tool Provider] Weblinks
Blackboard ULTRATeaching Tools with LTI connection
Brightspace (D2L)External Learning Tools (LTI Links)
CanvasExternal Tool Items
MoodleExternal Tool Activities

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Want to add Learning Science LTI activities to your course? Check out our Getting Started Guide.


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