Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) Lessons

Use Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) lesson content created within external content software and embed it into your Skilljar courses. In this article, we’ll explain how LTI works with your Skilljar training site, how to add the integration to your site, and how to add LTI lessons to your courses.

Using LTI with Skilljar

Skilljar supports LTI 1.1 with Basic Outcomes and allows you to embed LTI content within the Skilljar lesson window or launch it from a link within the window. LTI’s Basic Outcomes enables the LTI Provider to send information such as a completion status message and score to Skilljar, which will then be converted and appear in the lesson settings as a lesson score. Lesson completion can be automatic upon the student launching the content, or dependent on the LTI Basic Outcomes response, where it will inform Skilljar of the completion. 

• Note: Skilljar Basic Outcomes uses the api.skilljar.com domain as a part of the LTI1.1 support. This hostname may need to be whitelisted in some content providers for their Basic Outcomes response or LTI launch functionality.
  
• Note: If a content provider does not support Basic Outcomes to complete the Lesson in Skilljar, this Launch protocol can still be used to securely launch a provider's content. If you do not want these lessons to autocomplete on launch, Skilljar includes relevant data in the LTI launch message (lis_result_resourcedid) so that you can complete the learner's lesson progress via an API call. 

How to add an LTI integration to Skilljar 

To add an LTI integration to your Skilljar training platform, follow these steps:

Note: Fields marked with an * are required.

1. On your Skilljar dashboard, go to the LTI 1.1 integrations page - type https://dashboard.skilljar.com/integrations/lti-1p1 into your browser.
2. Select Add Integration
   
   
   
   
3. Enter the name of your LTI integration - This is the name you’ll use to identify your LTI lesson when you add it to a course.
   
   
   
   
4. Select the lesson launch method of your choice:
   
   
   
   
   • Embed content in IFrame - This will launch the lesson within the Skilljar lesson window. 
   • Launch content in full browser window - This will launch the content within the browser window. When the student completes the LTI content, the student will be returned to the Skilljar lesson. 
     • • Note: Some LTI providers may not support embedding. Please check with your provider for clarity. 
5. Select Send Learner Information to LTI provider if you want to send the student’s information to the LTI provider you used to create the LTI content. 
6. Enter the Consumer Key - Provided to you by your LTI provider.
7. Enter the Consumer Secret key -  - Provided to you by your LTI provider.
8. When you’re finished, select Save.

After you have added the LTI integration, it will be listed on the LTI integration page in your dashboard. You can edit the above information by clicking on a specific integration Name.

Adding an LTI lesson to a course

After you have enabled an LTI integration in your Skilljar organization, it will appear as a new lesson type, which you can add to any of your courses. To do this:

1. Create a course or edit an existing one.
2. When choosing a lesson type under New Lesson, select your LTI 1.1 lesson.
   
   
   
   
3. Add/edit the lesson information, such as the lesson name and content description.
   
   
   
   

• Display name: This is the name of the LTI lesson
• Integration: Choose which of your authenticated LTI integrations you want to use from the drop-down. 
• Button name: This is the button students will select to launch the content, for example, to launch the new window. 
• Content: Add the instructions that students will read before launching the lesson. You can use customized formatting via the format tools and HTML.
• LTI Launch Link URL: This is the Launch URL for the specific LTI content. This is from your LTI Content Provider Configuration. 
• Optional: Select Complete Lesson Based On LTI Basic Outcome Response to make the lesson completion dependent on a response from the LTI provider.
  
  
  
  

• Leaving this unchecked will mark the lesson as complete when the student launches the content.
• If the above is selected, you can choose to use the score from the LTI lesson and save it to the student’s lesson progress by selecting Use Basic Outcome Response as Lesson Score. 

• Note: If the above is selected, any new score from the student will override the existing score for the lesson, even if the new score is lower. 
• When you’re finished, select Save Lesson.

LTI providers that do not support Basic Outcomes response

If your LTI provider doesn’t support Basic Outcomes response, you can use the steps above to set the LTI lesson to not automatically complete within Skilljar when students launch it. 

You can complete the lesson externally using the Student Lesson Progress ID alongside our public APIs, which you can read more about at Marking Lessons as Complete from External Services. 

Skilljar includes the following custom data which is relevant to calling Skilljar APIs from external services along with the standard LTI launch spec data.

Learning Content Provider Specific Information

Note regarding LinkedIn Learning: LinkedIn Learning users must whitelist the api.skilljar.com domain via your LinkedInLearning LMS settings (see image below). Learn more at LinkedIn Learning's help page.