Moodle

What is LTI?

LTI is an abbreviation for Learning Tools Interoperability, which is a standard protocol developed by 1EdTech. It allows services like VoiceThread to integrate with your Moodle environment as single-sign-on tools.

The resulting experience for instructors and students is simple:

1. Sign in to your Moodle account.
2. Navigate to your course.
3. Click on the VoiceThread LTI link.
4. Use VoiceThread.

Clicking on a VoiceThread LTI link will authenticate the user, establish an account for him if he didn’t have one already, and enroll him in his course within VoiceThread. No additional work is required from the instructor or student.

• Instructor Documentation
• Student Documentation

LTI Tool Configuration

Before instructors can use VoiceThread, it must be configured globally for your Moodle instance by an administrator. VoiceThread uses LTI 1.3 with Deep Linking. The steps to follow for your Moodle administrator are below.

1. Go to the Site Administration area.
2. Click on the “Plugins” tab.
3. Click on “Manage tools” underneath “External tool” in the list.
4. Click the link reading “configure a tool manually” beneath the text field.
5. Enter a Tool name.  Example: “VoiceThread”
6. Enter the following Tool URL: https://voicethread.com/lti/
7. For LTI version, select “LTI 1.3”.
8. Enter your public key: Provided by VoiceThread
9. For Initiate login URL, enter: https://voicethread.com/auth/oidc/
10. For Redirection URI(s), enter: https://voicethread.com/lti/
11. Under Tool Configuration Usage, select “Show as preconfigured tool when adding an external tool”
12. Click the small “Show more” link at the bottom of the current section.
13. Check the box reading “Content-Item Message”.
14. Enter a secure icon URL: https://voicethread.com/resources/bullet.png
15. Expand the “Services” section.
16. Set IMS LTI Assignment and Grader Services to “Use this service for grade sync and column management.”
17. Set IMS Names and Role Provisioning to “User this services to retrieve members’ information as per privacy settings.”
18. Set Tool Settings to “Use this service.”
19. Expand the Privacy section.
20. Set the first two options to “Always,” and leave the last as “Delegate to teacher.”
21. Save Changes. This will take you back to the list of LTI integrations you have in place.
22. Find the VoiceThread configuration you just set up, and click on the menu icon across the top of the tile.
23. Copy all of the Tool Configuration Details in that dialog box and send them to your VoiceThread integration contact.

Once we have your information from step 23, we will complete the integration and let you know when it is ready to use.

If you are using anything earlier than version 3.7 of Moodle, you will need to use LTI 1.1 instead. Please just note that LTI 1.1 is deprecated and will not receive any future fixes or security patches. It also does not support automatic course copying or full roster syncing.

1. Navigate to your System Administration panel -> Plugins -> Activity Modules -> External Tools -or- LTI (depending on your version of Moodle).
2. Click “Add external tool configuration”.
3. Name the configuration (for example: “VoiceThread”).
4. Enter your Tool Base URL: https://yourdomain.voicethread.com/ltione/
5. Enter your Consumer Key and Shared Secret (provided by VoiceThread).
6. Check the box for “Show tool type when creating tool instances”.
7. Under Privacy, select “Always” for the first two options, and set the grading option to “Delegate to Teacher”.
8. Check the box that says “Force SSL” under Privacy.
9. Save changes.

Troubleshooting Tips

Error message: “Could not find Org for this launch.”

Verify that the Consumer Key is entered correctly.

If the instructor has set his browser to remember passwords, especially in Google Chrome, the browser may have incorrectly inserted that saved password into the Consumer Key field for the individual link.  The instructor will need to edit the affected link, expand the advanced options, and remove all content from the Consumer Key field.

Error message: “The authentication failed; the signature on your request did not match the expected value” or “Unsupported Signature Method”

Make sure the Shared Secret is entered correctly.

If the instructor has set his browser to remember passwords, especially in Google Chrome, the browser may have incorrectly inserted that saved password into the Shared Secret field for the individual link.  The instructor will need to edit the affected link, expand the advanced options, and remove all content from the Shared Secret field.

If the Shared Secret is accurate in both locations, please make sure the clock on your Moodle server is accurate.

Error message: “Oh, buttons! We are unable to find [path]”

Make sure the URL is entered correctly for your Placement.

Instructors can’t see student submission for grading

The student likely did not click the “Submit Assignment” button after completing his work.  The student can simply go back into the assignment and click “Submit Assignment” at a later time.  He will not need to re-do his work.

Instructor cannot change the value of an assignment

At this time, Moodle does not allow an instructor to change the value of an LTI assignment.  The best way to achieve this is to weight the assignment within the course.

You’re not automatically signed in to VoiceThread when you click on a VT link

Make sure your web browser accepts third-party cookies.

When you click on a VT link, you see a page titled “VoiceThread Account Verification”.

This means you already had a VoiceThread account under your email address, and the system is now trying to connect that existing account with your Moodle profile.  You’ll only need to complete this step once.  To proceed through this page:

• Click on the link that says “Set it here” to set a verification password for your account.
• Proceed through the steps to set a password.  This will involve receiving an email from VoiceThread.
• Use that password you just set on the verification page.