Overview
VIDIZMO allows you to integrate your Portal with a learning management system (LMS) utilizing the LTI 1.3 protocol. The LTI integration enables you to incorporate the content on your VIDIZMO Portal into your LMS, which can enhance the learning experience on your LMS.
Additionally, it provides access to additional functionalities available on your VIDIZMO Portal that may not be present in a standard LMS. This helps bridge any gaps in needs or requirements, providing a comprehensive solution that leverages the advantages of both the VIDIZMO web application and your LMS
To integrate your Portal with the LMS, VIDIZMO provides LTI Apps for configuration. These apps adhere to the LTI 1.3 protocol, ensuring high security and integration standards. Once the configuration is done, you can efficiently utilize images, audio, video, quizzes, and documents on your Portal that are represented in the LMS via Widgets.
The apps also allow you to create mapping rules between IMS roles and Client Access License (CAL) in VIDIZMO, ensuring that only verified and authenticated users can access your content within the LMS.
Concepts
LTI 1.3 uses the IMS Security Framework based on the industry-standard protocol IETF OAuth 2.0 for authentication services. It also utilizes JSON Web Tokens (JWT) for secure message signing and the Open ID Connect workflow paradigm. The LTI Apps use these frameworks and serve as a link between your VIDIZMO Portal and your LMS environment.
LTI App and LMS Tool Connectivity
When setting up the VIDIZMO LTI integration, you must create an LTI App on your Portal and link it to an LTI Tool on your LMS. VIDIZMO offers a general LTI App and LMS-specific LTI Apps for this integration. For instance, VIDIZMO provides a Moodle LTI App that you can use to link with an LTI External Tool on your Moodle LMS to utilize your Portal content in your Moodle courses.
An LTI App in your Portal linked with an LTI Tool on an LMS has a one-to-one relationship. If either the Tool or the App is deleted, the integration will stop working, which means you won't be able to select or playback your Portal content on the LMS. The reason for this is that both the apps and the Tool use a unique authentication token that is specific to them and used as an identifier for their communication. This token cannot be used with any other LTI Tool or App.
To restore the integration, you must set up a new LTI App and link it with a new LTI Tool. Read more here: Configuring an LTI App for VIDIZMO and LMS Integration.
LTI Integration Use Cases
Here are some use cases to help you understand how you can configure the LTI apps and tools to aid you in different scenarios.
a. One VIDIZMO Portal – Multiple LMS Environments
You can incorporate content available on a single VIDIZMO Portal on multiple LMS by creating multiple LTI Apps (either LMS-specific or general ones). Each of the LTI Apps will be configured for use on a single LMS, respectively, and this way, multiple LMS environments can utilize the content on your VIDIZMO Portal simultaneously. You also only need to configure a single Widget app for this, but you also need to add the domain URLs of the different LMSs in the Whitelisted domains field of the Widget application.
b. Multiple VIDIZMO Portals – One or Multiple LMS Environments
Another use case involves utilizing content from multiple VIDIZMO Portals in one or more LMS. This requires that each of the VIDIZMO Portals have the LTI Apps configured with the LTI tools of the linked LMS. This use case shows that you can have multiple sources for educational content in your LMS, allowing you to select the ideal content whenever you want in your LMS environment(s) despite it being present on different VIDIZMO Portals.
The process applies to the Widget app created for the LTI Apps on the Portal. You can create multiple LTI Apps, each associated with different LMS domains, and use the same Widget app ID for all of them. However, be sure to enter the domains of all these LMS in the Widget app's "whitelisted domain field" if you want to allow the Widget to be displayed on all the LMS for content selection.
Assignment of VIDIZMO CAL(s) to IMS Roles
For role provisioning, LTI provides IMS roles that define a type of user and their permissions. This helps provision roles in the LTI integration by specifying how the LMS user with a specific role or permission will be mapped into another environment, such as an LCMS (Learning Content Management System) like your VIDIZMO Portal.
Every LMS has its roles and permissions, but they can be mapped using standard IMS roles as long as they are compatible with the LTI protocol for integration. VIDZMO's LTI Apps enable these IMS roles to provision LMS users and assign them the right CAL (Client Access License when they register with your VIDIZMO Portal.
This can be achieved through role mapping, which can be done from the LTI App available on your Portal. The LTI Apps allow you to create rules to determine how the IMS roles will be mapped and what CAL will be assigned to the registered users. There is also an option to set a default CAL that will be assigned if no mapping rules are created.
IMS Roles Categories
IMS Roles are divided into three broad categories that can give you an idea of what type of permissions or the type of user can be defined. You can find a list of them here: IMS Roles.
a. Membership
Roles in the membership category define the individuals or people who utilize the system’s services and resources. These roles usually refer to students, instructors, faculty, or other staff members.
b. Institution
Roles in the institution category refer to users in the organization or entity that owns and operates the system. The institution sets the policies, rules, and guidelines for how the system operates, including membership eligibility and access to resources.
c. System
The system roles define users who manage administrative and management tasks between the members and the institution roles. An example of this role is Site Administrator or IT staff. The system roles also ensure that all processes are streamlined, data is securely stored, and services are efficiently delivered.
Mapping Guide for Moodle Standard Roles
Here is the mapping of standard roles in Moodle to IMS roles. You can use this information to create mapping rules by selecting the appropriate IMS roles in the LTI App to map a Moodle standard role and assign a VIDIZMO CAL.
Moodle Standard Roles | IMS Roles for Mapping |
Site Administrator | Administrator (System) Administrator (Institution) Instructor (Membership) |
Manager | Instructor (Membership) |
Course Creator | Instructor (Membership) |
Teacher | Instructor (Membership) |
Non-editing Teacher | Instructor (Membership) |
Student | Learner (Membership) |
For instance, if you want to assign a “Non-editing teacher” a Contributor CAL when they are registered in your Portal, you need to select “Instructor (Membership)” as the IMS role.
Role Mapping Concepts
The role mapping functionality grants LMS users access to your Portal content without having them manually register or do anything for your Portal. LMS users are register into your Portal as Federated users and assigned a CAL whenever they interact with the shared content through a Widget (either during selection or playback). The assigned CAL determines what permissions are granted to the user.
If you have multiple LTI Apps configured linked to the LTI tools of different LMS, then you need to create role mapping rules for each app individually. Each app will map the roles of the users of its respective LMS according to the rules defined in it.
Also, if a user is registered on two different LMSs linked via the LTI App in the same Portal, that user can only access the VIDIZMO content via the initially registered LMS. Suppose the user is registered in multiple LMS environments with the same email. In that case, the user will be assigned a different CAL (according to the mapping rules on the application) every time they access the content on a different LMS.
VIDIZMO Widgets for Content Interactivity
The VIDIZMO LTI Integration lets you incorporate images, documents, videos, and quizzes from your Portal into your LMS. This is achieved using widgets to display your content externally, which are also utilized in LTI Integration. For instance, users with content selection permissions use a Media Library Widget when they are selecting the Portal content to add in the LMS. Similarly, users with only viewing permissions (such as Students) are presented with a Video Player Widget for video playback whenever they open a video incorporated into an LMS from a VIDIZMO Portal.
VIDIZMO also dynamically provides the appropriate Widgets based on the content requests from the LMS. For instance, if a student wishes to listen to an audio file attached to a course after the LMS request, VIDIZMO will serve the Audio Player Widget for audio playback. This same process applies to other VIDIZMO content types embedded in the courses. VIDIZMO serves Widgets for the following:
- Audio and Video playback
- Surveys or Quizzes display
- Image display
- Document display
- Content Selection
It is also worth mentioning that you would need to be assigned the right CAL in VIDIZMO to add the content to your LMS. This is also determined by the roles or permissions granted to the users on the LMS and the mapping you’ve done in your LTI application.
If you want to learn more about the VIDIZMO widgets that serve your content in the LMS, you can check out the JavaScript Reference API Guide.
Note: If you encounter an error that says “Client Secret Expired” during either content selection or playback when you add content as activities or during playback when you open an activity.
Restrictions
VIDIZMO’s LTI Integration with your Learning Management System (LMS) ensures that only authorized users can access and view content. Users assigned a specific CAL can only access, view, add, or playback content if they have the required permissions. If private content is available on your Portal, it will not be visible in the content selection Widget to users who do not have permission to view it.
For example, Moodle Students ideally only want to be given permission (or CAL) to view content and not do anything else. After we create the required rules during the LTI Integration, when these students access Portal content on a Moodle course, they are registered as federated users and then assigned a CAL.
The VIDIZMO application gives them a Limited Share license to view the selected Portal content. Limited Sharing allows the content to only be viewed by authorized users. To understand this better, visit: Limited Sharing with Viewing & Editing Rights
LMS Grading
In VIDIZMO, you can define a passing criteria for quizzes that determines your results. This information is logged or saved as timed data and relayed to the LMS for grading purposes. As of now, only quizzes offer this functionality as they are the only content type that contains grading information.
LMS Grade Scaling
In VIDIZMO, you can set the passing criteria from 1 to 100. However, in an LMS, this amount can vary and not necessarily be mapped in a one-to-one way. For this, the LTI Apps offer you an option to turn grade scaling on according to the amount you want to specify that matches the amount used in the LMS. To ensure your grading is done accurately, you must set the amount on the App and the LMS grading to be the same value.
If the maximum grade you’ve set in your LMS activities is 100, then you can turn grade scaling off as it matches the maximum value that quizzes in VIDIZMO grade by. The data and marks obtained by the students are sent to the LMS via LTI integration, which grades the enrolled students according to their completed activity.
To see a demonstration of LTI Integration in Moodle, see: How to Enhance Moodle Courses with VIDIZMO LTI Integration.
For a guide on utilizing content using a general LTI App, see: How to Utilize VIDIZMO Content in an LMS via LTI Integration