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Enabling LTIs in Your Course

Overview

LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) components allow you to seamlessly embed secure, external educational resources directly into your course flow. LTI implementations can be configured to support three primary use cases:

  • Static Reference Material: Displays remote content (such as interactive e-textbooks or code repositories) that does not require input or grade logging.
  • External Scored Assessment: Launches comprehensive remote activities or labs where student responses are processed and graded on an external vendor's server.
  • Remote Gradebook Syncing: Serves as a secure conduit to pass evaluation percentages back from a third-party application directly into your course Gradebook rows.

Tip: Ensure you are logged into Open edX Studio before proceeding. 

Note:  This article covers the traditional LTI 1.1 per-course setup using LTI Passports. Starting with the Teak and Ulmo releases, Open edX also supports a centralized Reusable LTI Store for LTI 1.3 tools, which allows site operators to configure tool credentials once and reuse them across all courses. For details on the LTI 1.3 approach, see Understanding LTI Consumer 1.1 and 1.3.

 

Step 1: Enable the LTI Consumer Module

To make LTI tools available inside your unit development canvas, you must register the plugin feature flag.

Procedures:

  1. Open your course run in Studio.
  2. From the Settings menu in the top navigation bar, select Advanced Settings.
  3. Scroll or use your browser search to locate the Advanced Module List field.
  4. Inside the square brackets [ ], add the key string exactly as: "lti_consumer"
    • Note: If other advanced features are present, separate each string using a comma (e.g., ["library_content", "lti_consumer"]). Always use straight double quotation marks.
  5. Click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

Step 2: Configure the LTI Passport

An LTI Passport establishes a secure handshake between your platform instance and the external vendor's host server.

Procedures:

  1. While still inside Advanced Settings, scroll down to locate the LTI Passports policy field.
  2. Formulate your credential string using this strict syntax format within the list brackets: ["your_lti_id:client_key:client_secret"]
    • your_lti_id: A shorthand shorthand reference label that you invent to group this passport (e.g., chemistry_lab or textbook_provider).
    • client_key & client_secret: Alphanumeric credentials generated directly from your external tool vendor's administration portal.
    • Example Entry: ["chemistry_lab:api-key-99382:secure-secret-string-2026"]
  3. If you run multiple distinct LTI integrations in the same course run, separate each unique passport entry with a comma: ["chemistry_lab:key:secret", "textbook_provider:key:secret"]
  4. Click Save Changes.

Step 3: Embed the Component into a Unit

With your authorization pass saved on the database, you can place the tool window onto any target course page.

Procedures:

  1. Return to your Course Outline under the Content menu.
  2. Enter the specific Unit page where you want the external tool to live.
  3. Scroll to the Add New Component selection bar at the bottom of the page workspace.
  4. Click the Advanced tile.
  5. Select LTI Consumer from the options grid. The block container will immediately load onto your unit layout.

Step 4: Configure Individual LTI Component Settings

The final step tells this specific block instance which remote link to launch and which passport credentials to call.

Procedures:

  1. Find your newly added LTI Consumer component block on the unit canvas and click Edit (or click its gear icon).
  2. Configure the following parameter fields in the modal editor window:
    • Display Name: Enter a customer-facing title (e.g., Virtual Lab: Molecular Bonding Sandbox).
    • LTI ID: Enter the exact shorthand reference label you invented during Step 2 (e.g., chemistry_lab). This tells the system which key and secret string to pull for the secure launch handshake.
    • LTI URL: Paste the absolute destination launch URL provided by your LTI tool vendor dashboard.
    • Custom Parameters (Optional): Input any explicit key-value strings required by your vendor to dictate landing page states or track specific instructor IDs.
      • Example formatting: ["assignment_id=45", "theme=dark"]
  3. Click Save.
  4. Click the Publish button in your right-hand unit status sidebar to push the integrated module live to the LMS.