The secure link between the training you’ve created and the platform on which you’ll be rolling out your content with LTI.

Regarding e-Learning standards for communication there are several acronyms that in my experience are well known and some that are less known. Let’s take the time to discuss an e-Learning standard that I feel is less known but should be THE standard: LTI or Learning Tools Interoperability.

TIP: If you are looking for technical information, I recommend the IMS GLOBAL website.

What is LTI?

LTI stands for Learning Tools Interoperability and is an education technology specification developed by the IMS Global Learning Consortium. It defines a method for e-Learning software products to invoke and communicate with external systems. It outlines how software engineers need to write the code of their software so that content created on one learning platform runs well with external Learning Management Systems (LMS) and vice versa. Especially with the rise of cloud-based systems for course creation, LTI allows a participant to navigate between various learning tools (courses, interactive exercises, MOOCS) without having to log into each tool.

LTI carries information about the user, the platform from which they came, the role of the user, and where they are going. So, if you create a piece of learning content on one platform and want to run it on 10 different LMS systems, it communicates the same information for all these platforms. For example, the result on a test is sent or the name of a participant is sent.

Example: Imagine you are an expert in the field of making custom zippers. You are using your own cloud-based authoring environment to create course content and interactive exercises. You have clothing manufacturers from all over the world interested in giving their participants access to your course content through their LMS. With LTI, you don’t need to send over your course content. You can simply give a group of participants from other systems access to come and discover the content on your own system. You receive user details and can send back the outcome of your course for that participant back to the original LMS.

Placing Learning Tools Interoperability in context

In the somewhat niche sector of educational technologies, there are 2 main approaches regarding e-Learning standards. On the one hand, there’s the LTI approach that is focused on connecting learning systems and, on the other hand, there’s the SCORM (and successors) approach that focuses on launching training content and ordinarily tracks interactions all within the contained environment of the LMS.

What’s neat about the LTI experience, is that LTI preserves the user experience of the LTI tool provider. This provides great opportunities for content creators, who can craft unique learning experiences with their own tools and easily share these learning experiences to other platforms using LTI.

• Standards for the approach focusing on launching training content inside the LMS
• Standards for the approach of connecting learning systems
• AICC
• LTI 1.1
• SCORM 1.2 / 2004
• LTI 1.3
• xAPI
• CMI5

For more about SCORM or the other e-Learning standards, feel free to read our blog “All about SCORM”.

Want to find out more about LTI?
Download the white paper, read the whole story and learn:
- Practical components of this standard
- What happens when I launch a LTI course?
- Real- world implications of using this standard
- How to test LTI yourself?
- What does the future look like?

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About FLOWSPARKS and LTI

Is FLOWSPARKS LTI compliant?

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Yes, FLOWSPARKS supports all kinds of standard integrations like SCORM and LTI. Our success coaches and technical team will help you establish an integration with LTI.

Can I connect a course with LTI to FLOWSPARKS?

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Yes you can! One of the biggest advantages of LTI is that you don’t need to export and import a course as a package. The user will always visit the content on the side of the LTI provider.

Is LTI the preferred standard in FLOWSPARKS?

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Yes! We prefer to work with the LTI standard mainly due to safety reasons. However, we also comply with other standards like SCORM.

Do I need LTI if I use FLOWSPARKS?

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If you create content in the FLOWSPARKS authoring tool and you make use of the FLOWSPARKS LMS, you don’t have to set up an integration with LTI.

Whenever you make use of the FLOWSPARKS authoring tool and the LMS of another supplier, an integration needs to be set up. This can be done with LTI or with other standards.
You can also check out our blog on everything around SCORM.

Want to know more about LTI?

Download the white paper