If you've purchased a School license, you can connect ThingLink to your LMS using an LTI 1.1 integration. This will allow your teachers and students to login into ThingLink or create an account by clicking on the ThingLink app button in your LMS.
- Connecting ThingLink to your LMS
- Setting up the LTI app in Canvas
- Setting up the LTI app in Moodle
- Setting up the LTI app in Blackboard
- How it works
- Troubleshooting
Note that you do not need the LTI integration to embed ThingLink content.
Connecting ThingLink to your LMS
You have to be an admin of your School account in order to set up the app.
Go to the Organization page, open the Integrations tab and scroll down to LTI 1.1:
Next, you'll need to add the app to your LMS. See the step-by-step instructions for Canvas and Moodle below or find the LTI guides for other systems here:
Setting up the LTI app in Canvas
1. Log into Canvas with an admin account. Go to 'Admin' - 'Settings' - 'Apps' and use the '+App' button to enable ThingLink for all courses:
2. Once you've added the app, it will appear in all courses in the course navigation menu on the left.
Alternatively, you can add the app to select courses via the course settings. Use the same configuration type, consumer key and shared secret.
Setting up the LTI app in Moodle
Note that you must be an admin in order to add the app for the first time.
- Go to Site Administration, select the 'Plugins' tab and select 'Manage tools' under 'External tools'.
- Click 'Configure a tool manually':
Fill out the form using instructions above, then expand the 'Privacy' section and select the following options:
ThingLink needs launcher's name and email address to set up the accounts. - Click 'Save changes' and the app should appear in your external tools list.
Once the app has been added, teachers will be able to add it to their courses as an external tool.
Setting up the LTI app in Blackboard
Log into Blackboard with an admin account. Go to System Admin - Integrations - LTI Tool Providers, click 'Register LTI 1.1 Tool Provider' and fill out the form.
- Provider domain: www.thinglink.com
- Provider domain status: Approved
- Secondary Hostnames: leave blank
- Default configuration: Set globally
- Tool Provider Key: copy and paste OAuth Consumer Key from ThingLink
- Tool Provider Secret: copy and paste OAuth Secret from ThingLink
- Tool Provider Custom Parameters: leave blank
- Send user data: Send user data over any connection
- User Fields to Send: Role in Course, Name, Email Address. This information will be used to set up user accounts on ThingLink.
- Allow Membership Service Access: No
- Show User Acknowledgment Message: up to you. The recommended setting is No.
Click 'Submit' and you'll be taken to the LTI Tool Providers. Hover over the www.thinglink.com domain, click the expand button and select Manage placements. Click 'Create placement' and fill out the form:
- Label: enter anything, e.g. Go to ThingLink or ThingLink login.
- Description: enter anything, e.g. Click here to log in to ThingLink.
- Handle: any unique value, e.g. thinglink11.
- Availability: Yes
- Type: Course tool. Check the 'Allow student access' box if you'd like students to be able to use the integration.
- Check the 'Launch in new window' box.
- Tool provider URL: https://www.thinglink.com/auth/lti/
- Tool Provider Key and Tool Provider Secret should be populated automatically.
- Tool Provider Custom Parameters: leave blank.
Once you've set up the tool, instructors should be able to enable it for their courses. Once enabled, it should appear on the 'Tools' page:
If it does not appear or you get an error when trying to use it, please make sure that you've approved the tool:
- Go to System Admin > Integrations: LTI Tool Providers and check if the 'www.thinglink.com provider domain's status is "Approved".
- Go to System Admin > Tools and Utilities: Tools and make sure that you've enabled 'LTI', 'LTI link' tools. Find the ThingLink placement you've created and make sure that it is available, too.
- Ask the instructor(s) to check if they've enabled LTI, LTI link and the ThingLink placement for their course. This can be done by opening the course and going to Course Management > Control panel > Customization > Tool availability.
How it works
When a user clicks on the Thinglink App in the LMS, a new browser tab will open and the student or teacher will be automatically logged in. If there is no existing ThingLink account for that individual, a new user will automatically be created and added to the organization.
Teacher and student accounts are defined automatically. The following LTI roles automatically create a Thinglink Teacher account:
"Administrator", "urn:lti:sysrole:ims/lis/Administrator",
"Instructor", "urn:lti:instrole:ims/lis/Instructor",
"Staff", "rn:lti:instrole:ims/lis/Staff",
"Mentor", "urn:lti:instrole:ims/lis/Mentor",
"TeachingAssistant", "urn:lti:role:ims/lis/TeachingAssistant
If the user does not have one of these roles, they get a student account.
We'll also use their username and profile picture for their ThingLink profile.
Troubleshooting
The integration will return an error message if a user already has an account that does not belong to your school. If you encounter this issue, either ask the user to sign into their account from the ThingLink login page and join your school with an invite code or contact our tech support.
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