WeBWorK Problems

Initiating LTI between Webwork and Canvas

Initiating LTI between Webwork and Canvas

by tim Payer -
Number of replies: 3
Greetings,

I would like very much to use the LTI feature for grade pass-back from Webwork to our school's LMS, Canvas.

It seems that with hosted sites that this must be run through those with administrative privileges. Is this correct?

I am assuming that "Webwork" will be the name used for the externally added app.
But I would still need a "Consumer Key" and a "Shared secret".

Is this enough to get started with establishing an LTI between webwork and Canvas?

Thanks, Tim
In reply to tim Payer

Re: Initiating LTI between Webwork and Canvas

by Jason Aubrey -
Hi Tim,

You don't have to be an admin or have admin help (on the webwork side) to set up LTI. It should work to copy the (properly modified) contents of the authen_LTI.conf file into your course.conf file.

https://github.com/openwebwork/webwork2/blob/master/conf/authen_LTI.conf.dist

For the specifics of "properly modified" read up here:

http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/LTI-Advanced_Grading

and here

http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/LTI-Advanced_Authentication

You may need help with this from a Canvas admin at your institution since you have to tell canvas (or at least your canvas course) to allow webwork as an LTI provider and webwork and canvas have to agree on the consumer key and shared secret.

Hope this helps.
Jason

In reply to Jason Aubrey

Re: Initiating LTI between Webwork and Canvas

by Arnold Pizer -
I have not tested this but I do not think instructors with "prof" privilege can edit course.conf. See http://webwork.maa.org/wiki/Release_notes_for_WeBWorK_2.11

2. Editing Course.conf: The ability to edit course.conf from the web has long been a security and stability issue. (One missing semicolon can lock a professor out of their course and require command line access by a super user to recover.) Because of this users with "professor" privilege will not be able to edit either course.conf or simple.conf from the File Manager. Instead only users with "admin" privilege will be able to edit those files. This is likely to feel restrictive to users who are used to making lots of modifications via course.conf. There are really three main ways to deal with this:

  • Common configuration changes can easily be added to the Course Configuration page. If you have a configuration page that you make a lot submit it as a github issue.
  • Administrators in the admin course are always given admin privileges if they are added to a course. Any admin user can grant any other user admin privileges using the Classlist Editor. You can use this to give trusted professors permission to edit course.conf. Courses that don't have any "admin" privileged users can have one added using wwsh.
  • You can disable this feature by editing the $uneditableCourseFiles variable. Do this at your own risk.
In reply to Arnold Pizer

Re: Initiating LTI between Webwork and Canvas

by Jason Aubrey -
Ah, right, I forgot about that change. So, Tim, I guess you'll need a little help from an admin. If you want to experiment with this in your MAA hosted course email me and we can get you set up.

Jason