WeBWorK Problems

Duplicate class roster due to LTI automatic enrollment?

Duplicate class roster due to LTI automatic enrollment?

by tim Payer -
Number of replies: 4
I have noticed that the LTI connection is automatically loading student roster class list student by student and ignoring the list file that had made for my students.

The list file method was what I had used previously before we had used the LTI connection. The list file included the students name and used the email pre-fix as a logon name. It seems that the automatic LTI enrollment does NOT include the students name and uses the entire email address as the logon name.

Could I update my list file to include the entire student email address as a logon name and thereby have an updated roster with student's names in place?
Could this be done without any fear of losing students work?

Should we not be using pre-loaded list files for rosters if we intend on using an LTI connection?

Any advice would be appreciated....

Tim
In reply to tim Payer

Re: Duplicate class roster due to LTI automatic enrollment?

by Danny Glin -
If you want WeBWorK to set the username to just the email prefix, then you need to set the following in your LTI configuration:
$strip_address_from_email = 1;

The LTI connection checks to see if a user with the given username exists. If so, then it logs the student in to that account. If not, then it creates the account. Thus you can prevent these duplicate accounts by having the same username in both places, either using the setting above to have them both be just the email prefix, or adjusting your list file to use full email addresses.

We have our class lists automatically imported from another system, and it works fine with the LTI connection. If WeBWorK finds the existing account, then it uses that, otherwise it creates a new one. It will never blow away an existing account.

One thing to watch out for would be messing with things in a class that has already started. If you change the $strip_address_from_email setting after they have started, then suddenly they will be logging in to the 'jdoe' account, and will not have access to their progress in the 'jdoe@yourschool.edu' account.

In reply to Danny Glin

Re: Duplicate class roster due to LTI automatic enrollment?

by tim Payer -
Thanks you Danny,

That clears up a lot.

I am assuming that I delete the duplicate students that were not created by LTI generation.

Is this true?

Thanks, tim
In reply to tim Payer

Re: Duplicate class roster due to LTI automatic enrollment?

by Michael Gage -
Make sure that the students have not done homework under the account names you are deleting. If they have you should recognize their work some how. There is no automatic way to transfer their work from one account to another.

The the LTI accounts are set up so that they can only be accessed through your LMS and the grades from those accounts will be transferred back to the LMS. This is not true of the other accounts which were entered manually. The LTI accounts are also set up with an unknown password -- so they cannot be accessed directly but only through an LTI connection.

In general you want to enter instructors and TA's manually so that they can reach WeBWorK directly to create new assignments or to fix problems. If their names are the same as the names used by the LMS their manually created webwork accounts will not be overwritten.

Students should only have access to WeBWorK via the LMS. This allows the LMS to monitor and control the student homework assignments.
In reply to Michael Gage

Re: Duplicate class roster due to LTI automatic enrollment?

by tim Payer -
Thank you Michael,

This helps with my understanding of the LTI and avoiding duplicate rosters in the future.

Tim