The fundamental idea behind the Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) standard is to achieve better technology integration in education. By providing a specific way for edtech vendors to build their applications, they can seamlessly integrate with Learning Management Systems (LMSs) such as Canvas, D2L, Blackboard, Moodle, and Sakai as well as other learning platforms.
Technology Integration in Education
Within the LTI community, edtech vendor applications, such as those of publishers, are referred to as “tools,” as this software is often in the position of being a third party tool that is not accessed directly. Accordingly, within the LTI community, LMSs are referred to as “platforms” as the LMS is the location where instructors and learners are accustomed to accessing their course content and hence also their third party tools.
The LTI standard consists of several different specifications all of which were written by the community within 1EdTech, which publishes a wide variety of edtech standards including OneRoster, LIS, CASE, QTI, and Common Cartridge. When LTI 1.3, the newest version of LTI, was published, 1EdTech bundled together 4 specification documents with different integration functionalities as a group called LTI Advantage. These four specifications were LTI Core (SSO), Deep Linking, the Assignments & Grades Service (AGS), and the Names & Roles Provisioning Service (NRPS).
One of the latest updates from 1EdTech within the past year has been its newest official collection of LTI specifications known as LTI Advantage Data. LTI Advantage Data includes all of the same four original LTI Advantage Services with the addition of the LTI Caliper Analytics Connector Service.
What is LTI 1.3 Core?
The LTI Core specification builds off of 1EdTech’s Security Framework specification to explain how an instructor or learner can accomplish single-sign on (SSO) from a learning platform to an LTI tool. This means that once the user has logged into their LMS with their username and password, if they click on a link to a tool, they do not need to re-enter a new username and password to access the tool. Instead, they will automatically be logged into the tool, which may load framed inside the LMS or in a new tab.
As shown below, to the end user this is just like clicking on any other link in the LMS, but they’re immediately brought to the enriched content provided by the Biology Puzzle tool. In this example, the LTI tool is accessed from within a module in Canvas. However, there are many spots within each LMS where the LTI link can be placed, such as either of the left hand navigation bars that are shown below, among dozens of others.
