Science Interactive Instructor Help Guides

Adding an External Tool to a Moodle Course(LTI 1.1)

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To add an external tool, editing must be turned on in Moodle. If you do not have editing permissions, contact your LMS administrator for assistance. If you need help locating the LTI credentials, follow the steps in How to find the LTI Credentials for your course article. 

2. Once editing is turned on, select “+ Add an activity or resource.” Select “External tool” from the list of activities, then select the “Add” button.

3. Moodle will redirect to the external tool settings page. At the bottom of the “General” section, select “Show more...”

The section will expand to show all sections that need to be filled out.

4. If your institution admin has not configured the tool in your Moodle.

4.1. For the first activity, add the title “Science Interactive Course Hook."

4.2. Add the SI Cloud URL in the "Tool URL" field.

Note: the Tool provider URL can be added to either the "Tool URL" or "Secure tool URL" (below).

4.3. Fill in the "Consumer key" and "Shared secret" can be filled in with the LTI information from the SI Cloud.

If you need help locating the LTI credentials in SI Cloud, follow the steps in How to find the LTI Credentials for your course

4.4. Set the "Launch Container" to "New window." Fill in the Custom parameters field with the Master Course hook found in SI Cloud.

Note: we always recommend the master course hook, but the regular course hooks work as well. If you are unsure, see Course Hook vs. Master Hook: Which is Best?

4.5. Select all the checkboxes in the privacy section.

4.6. Under "Common module settings," change the setting from “Show on course page” to “Hide from students."

We do this because the Course Hook needs to be present in the course, but it does not need to be shown to students. Students will access the SI course through the lesson hooks.

4.7. Scroll to the bottom of the settings page and select the “Save and display” button.

5. If your institution admin has Configured the tool in your Moodle.

5.1. Select the "Preconfigured tool" drop-down to Find the SI Tool.

Note: the tool's name may vary depending on what your institution's Moodle admin chose, if you are unsure contact your institution's Moodle admin.

5.2. Select "New window" from the "Launch container" drop-down.

5.3. Fill in the Custom parameters with the corresponding master course hook from SI Cloud.

5.4. In the "Common module settings" section, change the setting from “Show on course page” to “Hide from students."

We do this because the Course Hook needs to be present in the course, but it does not need to be shown to students. Students will access the SI course through the lesson hooks.

5.5. Scroll to the bottom of the settings page and select the “Save and display” button.

Selecting the link takes you to the Course Setup form in Cloud.

6. Complete the Course Setup form in Cloud

For instructions on completing this form, see "Complete the Course Setup page."

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7. Build the Lesson links.

Note: You can alternatively follow the instructions from Step 4 or Step 5.

7.3. Rename the tool to match the lesson (i.e. Getting Started). Fill in the Custom parameters with the corresponding lesson hook.

7.4. Check the grade settings to ensure they meet the needs of the course. Check that the Availability section under "Common module settings" is set to “Show on course page." Select the “Save and display” button.

Once you have added all of the lesson hooks to your course, selecting a lesson link in your LMS will take you to your course dashboard, not to the individual lesson like it does for students. Don't worry, though, this means that everything was set up correctly!

If you run into any of these common error codes, see instructions here:

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