Overview

LTI stands for Learning Tool Interoperability and it's an initiative managed by the http://www.imsglobal.org/ to seamlessly integrate learning applications used by instructors into their courses. It includes a standard protocol for establishing a trusted relationship between the tool provider and a Learning Management System so that learners and instructors can have a seamless, integrated experience of using the tool within the context of their course.

Tool providers are third party entities which supply libraries of learning tools. Some examples of tool providers are http://www.lynda.com/, http://www.ck12.org/, etc.

Tools are external resources that are intended to be used like any other resource within our site. These tools can be courses, videos, audio, maps, assessments, badges, and more. 

In our site, learning tools can be added in several places: in the business, personal or network library, in the resources area of a course or group, and/or in a module. In the next sections, we will show you an example of how to add a tool provider and how to add a learning tool in the module of a course. 

To start using LTI tools first, go to Admin/App center and install LTI.

Adding tool providers

Our Resources catalog contains the details of 250+ third-party LTI tool providers that you can use when adding tools to your site. If the tool that you want to use isn't on the list, then you must first add the tool provider. Tool providers can only be added through our main Resources area. Click Resources from the left bar, then click Add.

Select Tool provider from the available options.

Enter the name of the tool provider, the description of the tool provider, the launch URL, and in which library you want to put the tool provider. 

After that click Save and you will be taken to the overview page of the tool provider. To edit the tool provider, click Edit. To delete the tool provider, click Delete.

Adding tools to a course

To add a learning tool to a course,  visit its Resources tab, and click Add from the top right. Please note that you can also add tools to content pages via their Resources area.

Select "Tool" from the pop-up.

Our Resources catalog contains the details of 250+ third-party LTI tool providers and the pop-up displays these providers graphically. Here you can select the provider then click Submit. Please note that the providers you added manually will be also listed in the pop-up.

After clicking Submit, you will see that some of the fields such as name, description, and URL will be automatically filled in with the details of the tool provider. Here you can also select the library in which you want to put the tool.

Fields such as Key and Secret are optional, depending on the tool provider that you use.

After you've entered all the details, click Save. You will see the tool listed with the other resources.

If you click on the link you will be taken to the exact location of the tool on the resources page.

To see the details of the tool, click on Details.

Here you will see the tool's description and you can also edit it or delete it. 

To embed the tool into the page clicking the "Show content" button.

You can hide the content by clicking the "Hide content" button.

To launch the tool in a new window, click the link from the resources page. 

A new window will open which will take you to the tool provider's page and your chosen tool. 

Adding LTI resource links

LTI 1.3 supports tool resource links, which refers to a link to a resource delivered by the tool provider. LTI intends platforms to present resource links to their users in a manner similar to any other resource within the structure of a context. Resource links are handled as redirect URLs to a resource on the provider’s side.

To access a tool’s resource links, click Admin and then LTI.

On the tool screen, click the LTI resource links tab.

The LTI resource links tab displays the LTI resource links associated with the tool. Resource links can be added two ways:

To add a new resource link, click + Add LTI resource link.

In the pop-up, enter the Redirect URL and the Params (this information can be found in the tool provider). Click Save.

The new resource link is listed. The Redirect URI and Config params are listed for each link. 

To edit one of the resource links, click Edit for that link.

To remove one of the resource links, select the checkbox next to the link and click Remove.

Resource links in courses

A resource link can be added to a course as an LTI assignment and/or a resource in the Resource section by adding a new tool or adding an existing tool from the library following the normal steps (visit Instructors/Tools for more information). 

To view/edit the resource link, navigate to the tool in the course. Under the Resource heading, all of the resource links are listed.

To change anything about the resource link, select one of the options below.

To edit the redirect URL, click Edit redirect URL.

The pop-up opens to allow the user to select a resource link to be launched. If the tool doesn’t have any resource links, only the tool’s config URL will appear in the list.

Exporting tools

MATRIX allows you to embed your MATRIX courses into other LMS platforms as external tools that can be launched via the LTI 1.1 specifications. 

If you want to share your courses, first you need to activate the LTI provider tool feature. Go to Admin from the left bar, then select LTI. In the "Settings" area, click the "Enable access to courses via LTI" checkbox. Please note that you can auto-enroll users as learners at the launch sequence by enabling the "Automatically enroll users as students into course at LTI launch" options.

Once enabled, go to the course you want to share and visit its Admin area.  In the "More" tab,  you'll find all LTI course credentials necessary for the export under the LTI provider section.

Things to note: