Course Materials: External Tools

About External or LTI Tools

LTI stands for Learning Tools Interoperability and is a sign-on standard developed by IMS Global allowing web-based resources to be accessed and viewed from within a learning platform. LTI integration provides a secure way to utilize a wide range of publisher content from a single place, such as Schoology.

The resources, most often referred to as “tools,” can range from a single piece of content to an interactive website including search tools, assessments, and more.

Download the How-To Guide for Schoology's LTI Integration.

Before you get started

If you are an instructor at an Enterprise school and your system administrator has already configured LTI tools at the system level, skip down to the section titled Adding LTI Tools to Your Course.

To integrate LTI content into Schoology, you must first gather the below information from the tool provider.

Below is a list of questions that tool providers will need to answer to ensure an effective integration:

1. Is the content compliant with LTI versions 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3?
   

   • • Schoology supports all the listed versions.

2. Do I need a Consumer Key and/or Shared Secret? If yes, what are they?
3. Is the content delivered via the tool provider’s website or via a separate URL/XML code?
   • • If via the website, what is the URL or Domain?
     • If via URL/XML, what is the code?
4. What personal information is required when launching an external tool? For example:
   
   • • The user’s name
     • Email/username
     • Both the user’s name and their email/username
     • No information is required

5. Are there any custom parameters that need to be defined? If so, what are they?
   
   

   

   All the information you need to set up external tools in Schoology should be provided by the tool provider. If you have questions, your first step should be to contact the tool provider.

Setting up LTI External Tool Providers in Schoology

LTI integrations are called External Tools. To set up external tools in Schoology, you must first add the tool provider. System administrators can install the tool provider at the course or the district level. However, if you have a Schoology Basic account or if your system administrator does not plan to configure the external tool at the system level, the course admin will need to install the LTI Integration at the course level.

If your system administrator has not configured the external tool at the system level, follow these steps:

1. Click Courses and select your course.
2. Click Course Options.
3. Select External Tool Providers.
4. Click Add External Tool Provider.
5. Fill out the necessary information in the External Tool Provider form:
   • Tool Name — this is the name displayed to educators when adding external tools to their courses.
   • Consumer Key — if the content publisher requires one, they will provide this.
   • Shared Secret — if the content publisher requires one, they will provide this.
   • Privacy — choose what information is sent to the publisher upon launch of the tool.
   • Configuration Type — choose how the tool provider is configured in Schoology.
     • Always choose Manual UNLESS the provider uses XML to deliver content.
     • If using XML, input the configuration URL/XML code to complete the setup.
       • Match By — designates which information will automatically populate when an educator is adding an external tool to a course.
       • Domain — if the URL used to add the external tool to a course contains the designated domain, then all the tool settings will automatically populate.
       • URL — enables educators to select a tool provider and automatically generate the proper URL.
       • Domain/URL — enter the domain or URL of the publisher, depending on which you choose in the Match By section.
       • Custom Parameters — these may be required by the content publisher.
         • Each parameter must be on its own line and formatted as name=value.
6. Click Submit to save the configuration.

Adding LTI tools to your course

After the previous steps are complete, or if your system administrator has already configured the external tool at the system level, return to your Resources or Materials pages. Then, to add the tool to your course:

From Resources, you can update many External tool providers to materials in one page.

1. Select the LTI materials you want to add to the course. You can bulk-select materials.

2. Select the course to which you want to add the materials, and then select Advance options to display the external tool provider selector.

3. Optionally, you can enable grading to have the material reflected in the gradebook. 

4. Click Import.

From Resources, you can also update a single material’s External tool provider.

1. Select the material, and then click Add to Course.

2. Optionally, you can enable grading to have the material reflected in the gradebook.

3. Select the course to which you want to add the LTI material.

4. Update the Tool Provider selector, and then click Add.

Alternatively, you can update the External tool provider from Materials. 

1. Click Add Materials.

2. Select Add File/Link/External Tool.

3. Select External Tool.

4. Enter the required information in the External Tool form.

5. Optionally, click Enable Grading to add a due date and other grading information.

Grading External Tools

Enabling grading on external tool items adds the material to your gradebook so that you can assign a grade for each student who completes the activity or assignment launched via the external tool.

However, LTI and External Tool materials that have grading enabled do not trigger submission notifications, grading reminders, or overdue notifications because Schoology does not automatically detect submissions from external tools.