Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) is an education technology specification developed by the IMS Global Learning Consortium. It specifies a method for a learning system to invoke and to communicate with external systems. In the current version of the specification, v1.3, this is done using OAuth2,

OpenID Connect OpenID is an open standard and decentralized authentication protocol promoted by the non-profit OpenID Foundation. It allows users to be authenticated by co-operating sites (known as relying parties, or RP) using a third-party identity provider ...

, and

JSON Web Token JSON Web Token (JWT, pronounced , same as the word "jot") is a proposed Internet standard for creating data with optional signature and/or optional encryption whose payload holds JSON that asserts some number of claims. The tokens are signe ...

s. For example, a

Learning Management System A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, automation, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, materials or learning and development programs. The learni ...

(LMS) may use LTI to host course content and tools provided by external, third-party systems on a

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site, without requiring a learner to log in separately on the external systems, with information about the learner and the learning context shared by the LMS with the external systems.

History

* Learning Tools Interoperability, then called BasicLTI, originated in 2008 as a

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project developed by Jordi Piguillem under the mentorship of Charles Severance and Marc Alier. *In June 2010 LTI v1.0 was finalized. *In August 2012, LTI v1.1 added the ability for the external tool to pass grades back to the invoking system. *In January 2014, LTI v2.0 was released, providing

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-based two-way communication between the external tool and the invoking platform. At the same time, a subset of v2.0 was released as v1.2, as a stepping stone between v1.1 and v2.0. *Due to complexity, adoption of LTI v1.2 and v2.0 was slow, and IMS GLC subsequently declared them to be "legacy" specifications, not in the recommended upgrade path from LTI v1.1, citing security concerns. * In May 2019, the IMS Security Framework and LTI v1.3 were published, based on OAuth2,

, and JWT. LTI v1.0, v1.1, v1.2 and v2.0 were all deprecated.

Adoption

LTI has been adopted by many large educational content providers, including

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and

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. Popular Learning Management Systems, such as D2L Brightspace,

Instructure Instructure, Inc. is an educational technology company based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It is the developer and publisher of Canvas, a web-based learning management system (LMS), and MasteryConnect, an assessment management system. ...

Canvas,

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BenchPrep BenchPrep is an American company that provides cloud-based study guides for standardized tests, professional certifications, and K-12 classroom learning. It has partnered with educational publishers such as McGraw Hill, John Wiley & Sons, and t ...

LAMS LAMS, the Learning Activity Management System, is a free and open-source learning design system for designing, managing and delivering online collaborative learning activities. It provides teachers with a visual authoring environment for creatin ...

OpenLearning OpenLearning Limited (OLL) is an ASX-listed educational technology company based in Australia that offers a social online learning platform that can deliver massive open online courses (MOOCs), short courses and online degrees. OpenLearning h ...

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Moodle Moodle is a free and open-source learning management system written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. Moodle is used for blended learning, distance education, flipped classroom and other online learning projects in sch ...

, iTeach and Open edX also support LTI.

References

{{Reflist

External links

* Dr. Chuck's Blog: Teaching, Learning, Technology, Standards, Interoperability, etc.
"Connecting IMS Learning Tools Interoperability and SAML"

eLearning Industry, "Why Learning Tool Interoperability Should Be Part Of Your eLearning Application"
* Blackboard Help
"Learning Tools Interoperability"
* Moodle documentation
"LTI and Moodle"
Software architecture Web 2.0 neologisms