Add LTI Tool Providers to a Canvas Course

LTI protocol allows an LMS like Canvas to provide instructors with access to applications that they can embed into their courses. Many educational tools are now LTI compatible and an instructor can add those tools in their courses, enhancing the capabilities of the LMS, and thus improve the learning experience of a student.

A list of LTI-compliant tools can be found at eduappcenter.com. Most of these tools either require a contract with your institution or you will have to contact them to request a demo and after that, they will tell you how you can purchase it. For example:

• Dropout Detective identifies students that are most at risk of dropping out of or failing courses. Dropout Detective requires a contract with your institution.
• Modern World History offers a thorough look at world history from the mid-15th century to the present. It has thousands of subject entries, biographies, images, videos and slideshows, maps, and graphs, primary sources, and timelines combined to provide a detailed and comparative view of the people, places, events, and ideas that have defined modern world history. You have to email or call them for ordering and pricing.

We show how these third-party tools can help you enhance your courses with an example of ChemVantage, one of the tools from the eduappcenter.com. ChemVantage provides free Chemistry quizzes, homework assignments and practice exams that keep students engaged by allowing multiple submissions until students succeed. We are using ChemVantage as an example in this tutorial because it is free to use.

Step 1: To add ChemVantage in your course, you need to go to chemvantage.org/lti/registration. Once you are on their website, you will have to enter your email and a unique consumer key for LTI 1.x. You can enter any key that will uniquely identify your LMS.

Step 2: You will receive your credentials (launch URL, consumer key, and a shared secret) in your email.

Step 3: Navigate to your course in Canvas and click the "Settings" link in the left sidebar.

Step 4: Go to "Apps" and click on "View App Configurations". Note that your institution's version of Canvas might display differently.

Step 5: Click on the "+App" button.

Step 6: Paste your launch URL, consumer key, and a shared secret that you received in your email. The final configuration for ChemVantage should look like the image below. Press "Submit" to add ChemVantage as a Tool Provider to Canvas.

Step 7: Navigate to the "Assignments" page in your Canvas course and create a new assignment by clicking on "+Assignment" button.

Step 8: Enter the name and description of your assignment.

Step 9: Find the input field labeled "Submission Type". In the dropdown box select "External Tool", then click the button labeled "Find" to view the list of available tools.

Step 10: A list of the external tools configured for your course will be displayed. Find the tool named "ChemVantage" and click on it and press "Select".

Step 11: The URL textbox on the assignment creation page will then be automatically filled in with the launch URL. After that, specify the number of points the assignment will be worth, choose the assignment group, specify a due date, and then click "Save and Publish".

Step 12: After clicking "Save and Publish", you will be taken to a new page. Select the type and the topic you want for this assignment. Pre-configured multiple choice questions will be shown to the students for each topic.

Step 13: Students will be able to complete the assignment by clicking on the ChemVantage assignment from the list of assignments. One example of the ChemVantage assignment is shown here:

ChemVantage is one of the many tools available to enhance your course experience. You can make use of various such tools without imposing the overhead of additional signups for your students. And the grades from these tools feed directly to your Canvas gradebook.