Content
- 1. D2L BrightSpace LTI 1.3 Integration - Overview
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2. External Tool Registration and Configuration
- 2.1 Administrator - Configuring LTI Integration With D2L BrightSpace
- 2.2 Administrator - Configuration of Inspera Assessment
- 2.3 Administrator - Tool Deployment
- 2.4 Teacher/Instructor - Adding an Activity/Test
- 2.5 Teacher/Instructor - Author Assessment
- 2.6 Candidate – How to take an Inspera Assessment from D2L BrightSpace
- 3. Frequently Asked Questions
1. D2L BrightSpace LTI 1.3 Integration - Overview
Learning Tools Interoperability® (LTI®) allows Brightspace to connect with external learning tools such as Inspera easily and securely. The connection supports Brightspace by passing information in a standards-based way to Inspera. These include the role of that user (instructor or test taker) and the course from which they launched the tool. It can also create user accounts in the tool upon launch, acting as both a registration and single sign-on in one easy workflow. Additionally, LTI Advantage supports grade returns from Inspera to the Brightspace grade book. The LTI Advantage standard is large and covers many areas. D2L doesn't yet comply with all the standard aspects.
There are three steps in configuring D2L BrightSpace:
- Registering the Inspera tool
- Creating a tool deployment
- Creating LTI links
2. External Tool Registration and Configuration
The security model for LTI 1.3 and LTI Advantage services is based on OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect. This differs from previous versions of the LTI standard, which used OAuth 1.0. Practically, this means the Tool and Platform must register with one another ahead of time before activities and courses can be accessed from the platform. Registration happens only once manually, when setting up a link between the tool and a platform, and is essentially a security contract between those two respective systems.
2.1 Administrator - Configuring LTI Integration With D2L BrightSpace
📢 Important Information When Copying and Pasting URLs
When copying and pasting URLs, ensure there are no whitespaces before or after; extra whitespaces can cause broken links, access errors, and break the LTI setup
To configure the integration between Inspera and D2L Brightspace, use the following steps:
a. Click on the Admin Tools menu in BrightSpace, and click Manage Extensibility.
NOTE:
There are three (3) URLs that the user will need for the first time from Inspera to set up the LTI connection in your D2L BrightSpace instance. These are as follows:
- key-url: a key-url typically refers to a set of public keys used for authentication and security purposes.
- login-init: When a user initiates a login process from LMS to an external tool using LTI 1.3, the "login-init" URL is the endpoint where this process begins.
- redirect-url(s): The redirect URLs specify the URLs where LMS should redirect the user after completing the OAuth 2.0 authorization flow.
key-url | https://{domain}/ICSXapi/metadata/PublicCertificates |
login-init | https://{domain}/ltiprovider/init |
redirect-url(s) | https://{domain}/ltiprovider/launch |
URL Template
Using the URL templates provided above, substitute {domain} for the Inspera instance the user will be integrating with.
For example, if the Inspera tenancy is demo.inspera.com, then the URLs would be:
key-url | https://demo.inspera.com/ICSXapi/metadata/PublicCertificates |
login-init | https://demo.inspera.com/ltiprovider/init |
redirect-url(s) | https://demo.inspera.com/ltiprovider/launch |
b. Click on the LTI Advantage tab, then on the Register Tool. You can choose one of the following options:
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- Dynamic Registration: When you enter your URL, the tool will register your data automatically.
- Standard Registration: Enter your registration information manually
LTI Advantage tab
Register tool
Dynamic registration
c. Choose the Standard registration option for the manual entry of registration details between
Brightspace and the tool. First, enter the tool details, after the tool has been Registered, the
Brightspace Registration Details will be available to provide to the tool.
d. For Standard Registration complete the following fields:
- Name: The name of the external tool.
- Description: Brief description of the tool.
- Domain: https://{domain} (Note: Domains can only be used in one enabled registration at a time. If the user attempts to register a tool with a domain that is already in use, the user will be prompted to disable the existing registration.)
- Redirect URLs: https://{domain}/ltiprovider/launch
- OpenID Connect Login URL: https://{domain}/ltiprovider/init
- Target Link URI: https://{domain}/ltiprovider/launch
- Keyset URL: https://{domain}/ICSXapi/metadata/PublicCertificates
- Extensions: Choose -
- Assignment and Grade Services: When a user selects this option, it typically means they want to link assignment-related activities and transfer grade information between the external tool and the LMS.
- Deep Linking: Deep linking is currently not relevant for Inspera integration. Performing a deep-link launch will not result in any errors. The response back to the LMS is 'valid,' but it lacks usable values since Inspera doesn't have features that align with a deep-link request flow.
- Names & Roles: Enabling Names and Roles through LTI allows the LMS to synchronize user data, including names and roles, with the external tool.
- Roles: Selecting roles is unnecessary since Inspera does not use institution-roles. Instead, we exclusively utilize context-roles to assign privileges for specific Inspera tests.
- Context roles refer to the roles assigned to users within a specific learning context, such as a course or an organization. These roles define the permissions and access levels that users have. D2L provides a set of predefined roles, each with its own set of permissions, and administrators can assign these roles to users based on their responsibilities and the level of access required.
Context roles - Instructors (have the highest level of access within a course), Teaching Assistant, Student, Guest, Administrator, Course Builder, and Librarian
- Custom Parameters: Registration of the tool is not required in this step, as it can be accomplished during the tool deployment or linking process. Although the user has the option to perform it at this stage, please note that even if the user chooses not to include any custom parameters during the deployment or linking process, they will still be accessible in those stages. Please refer to the custom parameters.
- Click Register.
- After completing the registration process, the Tool Configuration Details will be displayed. These values must be shared with Inspera to complete the configuration. Click on the Done button.
- The registered tool will appear in the list.
2.2 Administrator - Configuration of Inspera Assessment
Inspera will need the following information (i.e. Tool Configuration Details) back from D2L Brightspace. You will need to contact Inspera Support to have them make these updates for your specific Inspera tenancy.
The specific D2L Brightspace values are to be configured in Inspera to complete external tool configuration on both D2L Brightspace & Inspera.
Issuer/Platform ID | https://<d2l domain>/ |
Client ID | Unique for the tool which is created and can be found as part of the initial tool registration is done in D2L Brightspace |
Deployment ID | Unique ID |
Brightspace keyset URL | https://<d2l domain>/d2l/.well-known/jwks |
Brightspace OAuth2 Access Token URL | https://<d2l domain>/core/connect/token |
OpenID Connect Authentication Endpoint | https://<d2l domain>/d2l/lti/authenticate |
2.3 Administrator - Tool Deployment
Deployments allow sharing registered tools such as Inspera in Brightspace.
To deploy a tool, follow the following steps:
a. From the Admin Tools menu, click External Learning Tools.
b. In the LTI Advantage tab, click New Deployment.
c. Select the tool the user registered in the above flow from the Tool drop-down list.
d. Enter a Name and Description for the deployment.
e. Select an Extension (Choose Assignment and Grade Services, and Names & Roles. Leave Deep Linking blank)
f. Select Deployment Security Settings (Choose ALL except Anonymous. Leave it blank) to enable
LMS to share the selected details while launching the activity.
g. Substitution Parameters : sourcedld aligned to $Person.sourcedld , find other
D2L-supported substitution parameters here. These fields will be included in the custom
parameters list in the LTI launch request.
h. Custom Parameters: Add the required custom parameters
i. Select Add Org Units to make a tool available as an external learning tool to authorize new
activity.
j. On clicking, a pop-up window will appear wherein the user has to select the existing org courses.
Note: Admin can view existing courses by navigating to the ‘Course Management’. If there is no course available, they can refer below link to create a new course in D2L https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/5071-design-your-course
k. After selecting the organizations, click on Add (i.e. shown in the above image). After adding, a list of org units will be displayed below.
l. Click Create Deployment.
m. After completing the deployment process, the below pop-up screen will appear. Click on the
Done button.
n. The registered tool will appear in the list.
Note: After a deployment is created for that Tool, it can no longer be changed.
2.4 Teacher/Instructor - Adding an Activity/Test
Once the configuration is completed on D2L BrightSpace and Inspera, the teacher will create an activity. A teacher can add the tool link to Inspera Assessment by adding an external tool to a module and topic in BrightSpace.
To add the Inspera test/activity link follow the below steps:
a. Login to D2L BrightSpace with the Teacher/Instructor role
b. Select the course the user wishes to add the link to (for ref. In the below image inspera Course 1) Admin can refer below link to create a new course in D2L -
https://community.d2l.com/brightspace/kb/articles/5071-design-your-course
c. Select the Content icon (for ref. In the below image ‘Inspera Demo LTI 1.3 Launch Tool’)
d. Click the Existing Activities button, and choose External Learning Tools
The user can add activities through two distinct flows:
- By creating a new LTI (activity) link in Flow 1
- By selecting an existing LTI (activity) link in Flow 2
2.4.1 Flow 1: Add a new activity by creating a new LTI (activity) link.
e. Instead of selecting an existing activity, click the “Create New LTI link” to add a new activity.
f. Enter the following details:
i. Title: The desired title for your Inspera Test/Activity link.
ii. LTI URL: The launch point URL (i.e. The URL that the user provided in tool registration
as the redirect URL: https://{domain}/ltiprovider/launch ) the user navigates to when they
click the Inspera Test( LTI) link.
iii. Tool: Since the Tool is registered as LTI Advantage, on entering the LTI URL, the LTI
Advantage option is available in the Tool dropdown.
Note: In case of an unsuccessful registration (i.e. If the user entered a different URL than the redirect URL they had provided while registering), the user will see only the Legacy LTI Tool in the tool dropdown.
g. After entering the details click on the “Create and Insert” button.
h. The tool link will appear on the unit page.
2.4.2 Flow 2: Adding a copy of an existing activity by selecting any existing LTI (activity) link.
i. Select the previously created LTI (activity) link associated with a different activity
j. The Inspera test link will appear on the unit page.
Note: The instructor should disable the visibility toggle in the edit properties of the specific activity link to prevent it from being displayed to students before the test is activated in Inspera.
2.5 Teacher/Instructor - Author Assessment
- Login to D2L BrightSpace as an Instructor.
- The link to Inspera can now be opened by clicking on the activity name.
Inspera Assessment will initially open in the current tab by default. Users have the option to modify this setting to choose to open it in a new tab by editing the activity. Users can explore the available choices by clicking on the icon featuring a down-arrow. After, they should select the Edit Properties in Place option, as shown in the reference included. Following this action, users must check the Open as External Resource checkbox.
The user is taken to the test setup page within the Inspera Assessment.
If the user needs help creating tests in Inspera Assessment, please visit our help tutorials at https://support.inspera.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022690051-Tutorials
2.6 Candidate – How to take an Inspera Assessment from D2L BrightSpace
Candidates can launch into an Inspera Assessment from D2L BrightSpace and take scheduled tests set up by an instructor.
Log in to D2L BrightSpace as a candidate.
- Click on the Course containing the link to your assessment, then click on the name of the assessment.
- Candidates will be redirected to the Inspera screen to attempt the scheduled test.
3. Frequently Asked Questions
Question 1 | What steps should I take if I encounter authentication issues during the LTI 1.3 setup? |
Answer |
Revalidate LTI Configurations for both D2L BrightSpace and Inspera. In D2L BrightSpace, validate the tool configuration by editing the tool from the “Manage Extensibility” section. Recheck the accuracy of the following fields:
Ensure that these details are correctly configured to ensure seamless integration and functionality |
On Inspera the service desk will need to ensure the below details are configured properly |
Question 2 | Why does Candidate auto provisioning not work for LTI 1.3? |
Answer |
The following could be some probable reasons
“Use this service to retrieve member's information per privacy settings”. To verify this setting using the Admin credentials, follow the steps below
|
Question 3 | Why is a Candidate not able to launch an activity? |
Answer |
The following could be the probable reason: If a candidate launches an activity that is not configured in Inspera, this will get a 404 error. To avoid the same, the instructor needs to configure an activity on Inspera Or the instructor can disable the visible toggle from the edit properties of that particular link so it won't be displayed at the student's end. |