Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) is a specification that defines how learning tools can integrate with learning platforms. FutureLearn allows LTI to be enabled for exercise step content. We support version 1.1 of LTI. LTI needs to be enabled by FutureLearn for each exercise step that uses it.
We require LTI exercises to meet the same technical standards as other exercise steps. We may do additional testing to make sure that requests are correctly authenticated.
Use cases
You might want to use an LTI enabled exercise rather than a standard exercise so that you can:
- Build exercises that change based on what learners do. The unique learner identifier that we pass to LTI exercises allows progress to be tracked across exercises. For example, a course might have two exercises and the second could change depending on what the learner did in the first.
- Be able to report on learners' progress on a run and LTI exercises. The unique learner identifier that we pass to LTI exercises (the partner export ID), is the same identifier we use to represent individual learners in the pseudo-anonymised datasets that can be downloaded from the course stats dashboard in Course Creator. This means if you record what learners do in LTI exercises, you can later match this up with data in these data exports. This will let you find out and report on, for example, if a learner has been able to complete an exercise and completed a certain step on FutureLearn. (This is not possible for exercises where the ‘Share personal identifiers’ option is enabled where the external learner ID is used instead.)
- Show learners their scores from LTI exercises they have completed. You can enable scores being displayed on LTI exercise steps via Course Creator. If this is enabled, a percentage score will display to learners on the exercise step once available.
- Re-use existing LTI enabled tools in a course. You may already have LTI tools built for other platforms, or want to use a tool built by a 3rd party that supports LTI. Such tools may have to be adapted to meet our exercise requirements.
Limitations
We don’t currently support:
- Sharing personal information about learners such as their name, email, avatar or location. We avoid passing Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to LTI tools so that the provided identifier for the learner can't be linked to an individual. We recommend sending an anonymous identifier used in the partner data exports as the 'user_id'.
- Sharing information about a learners progress on a course, such as steps completed or comments made.
- Differentiating between summative and formative LTI exercise scores, or using LTI exercise scores to calculate final results on the FutureLearn platform.
- Downloading scores for LTI exercises.
How it works
To set up LTI, a key and secret needs to be shared between FutureLearn and the tool.
When LTI is enabled for an exercise we will generate a key and secret which is available from the exercise step in Course Creator. You can then configure your learning tool with this key and secret. If your learning tool generates a key and secret you can update the exercise step to use it instead.
Below is a table of the information we provide to tools:
| Name | Explanation |
|---|---|
| launch_presentation_return_url |
The URL that can be used to send learners back to the course or report errors to. e.g. ”https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/moons/1 |
| user_id | Uniquely identifies the learner. This is usually the identifier used in the partner data exports (e.g. “f1ee7e62-0f6f-4e36-a884-1fe0e6d20725”), except for exercises where the ‘Share personal identifiers’ option is enabled where the external learner ID is used instead. |
| role | The role of the user accessing the tool, e.g. "Learner". Multiple roles will be separated by a comma. See Roles section for details |
| resource_link_id | Uniquely identifies the step e.g. "5912" |
| resource_link_title | The title of the exercise step e.g. "Moons game" |
| context_id | Uniquely identifies the course run e.g. "moons-4" |
| context_title | The title of the course run e.g. "Moons" |
| lis_result_sourcedid |
Included if exercise can receive a score and the role is “Learner”. Unique identifier for the DB record that stores the score e.g. “f8a2bc16-36a8-4c53-b4bb-2f074bd966f0” |
| lis_outcome_service_url |
Included if exercise can receive a score and the role is “Learner”. The URL used by the LTI tool to send a score back to FutureLearn e.g. “https://www.futurelearn.com/lti_outcomes_service_callbacks/outcome” |
| outcomes_tool_placement_url |
Included if exercise can receive a score and the role is “Learner”. The URL used by the LTI tool to tell FutureLearn that a submission has been submitted (if a tool allows learners to upload an assignment, for example) e.g. “https://www.futurelearn.com/lti_outcomes_service_callbacks/outcomes_tool_placement” |
Roles
We currently support the ‘Learner’ and ‘Instructor’ roles. Anyone accessing the exercise from the course will be given the learner role.
Some tools must be accessed by an Instructor to be configured. From the edit exercise page in Course Creator there is a link to view the exercise as an instructor. Anyone that has permission to edit the course can access the exercise as an instructor, this will include the team building the course and the Content team at FutureLearn.
We may introduce more roles later. If a user has multiple roles, they will be separated by commas as defined in the LTI specification.
Product demo
Download this FutureLearn exercise using LTI programming tool demo video
How to set it up
- Contact the Content Team if you wish to integrate a tool or tools via LTI, you'll need to let them know:
- which tool(s) you wish to integrate and whether each tool is already LTI enabled
- how many exercise steps you wish to create within your course, and which tool the exercise step will launch into
- if learners will need to register with the tool the first time they use it (or if they'll already have an account set up for them with the tool)
- if the tool can use an anonymous identifier to link the learner's record in FutureLearn with their record in the tool (we avoid passing Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to LTI tools)
- whether you wish to show learners their scores from LTI exercises they have completed - if so, on which exercise steps you wish to do so
- If the tool is not currently LTI enabled, your tech team will have to set the tool up to support LTI.
- Once this has been done, talk to us about testing the LTI integration with the tool(s) you wish to integrate.
- If the tool generates a key and secret, you will need to send a test key and secret to FutureLearn so that the product team can use this to test the integration.
- Make sure you arrange for the integration to be tested at least 4 weeks before your course is due to open for learning, so that any issues can be identified and resolved in time.
- Once we have enabled LTI for you and you have set up the exercise step then you can proceed with submitting your Exercise Step / External Tool Submission form for our additional checks.
Useful links
Terminology on this page that you aren’t familiar with? Check out our glossary.
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