How to add CN Post to Moodle as an LTI tool

Overview

Adding a basic LTI v1.0 tool has two steps:

Step1: Adding CN Post as a site-wide LTI tool (Should be done by Moodle admin)

Step2 Option 1: Adding CN Post as an Activity in a given course (Can be done by both instructor and Moodle admin)

Option 2: Adding CN Post as a Default Tool in courses (Can only be done by Moodle admin)

Step 1. Adding CN Post as a site-wide LTI tool (done by Moodle admin)

From the “Administration” block, which by default should be on the left of your dashboard, click the following options in order:

Site Administration->Plugins->Activity Modules->LTI->Manage external tool types

Once the “Manage external tool types” page opens, click on “Add external tool configuration”

Admin can use the following information to fill out the form:

Tool name: CN Post --hint: you may name the tool something else, such as "CourseNetworking (CN)", "CN (Social Discussion)", "CN ePortfolio", to better describe the purpose of the tool at your institution
Tool base URL: https://www.thecn.com/program/lti/course
Consumer key: generated_consumer_key (we will share this information with you separately, please do not share this confidential credential)
Shared secret: generated_shared_secret (we will share this information with you separately, please do not share this confidential credential)
Custom parameters:
- course_start_date=$CourseSection.timeFrame.begin
Check the box next to “Show tool type when creating tool instances”
Default launch container: "Embed" or “Embed, without blocks”. -- You will test the user interface after installing the LTI tool. If the way CN Post opens up from your Moodle is not ideal (e.g. the iframe is too small or too short), you should try other launch options, such as New window.
Under the Privacy section:
- Share launchers name with tool: Always
- Share launchers email with tool: Always
- Accept grades from the tool: Delegate to teacher

After this step, we have a sample tool created. The result should look like this:

Step 2.

Option 1: Adding CN Post as an Activity in a given course (Can be done by both course instructor and Moodle admin)

After adding CN Post as an external tool to your institution Moodle, each instructor is able to go to their course and make CN Post an activity (or Moodle admin can do this for instructors, based on institution policy)

To add CN Post to courses, an instructor or admin can go to the course and click on “Turn Editing On” and then click on “Add an activity”. From the dropdown, choose the “External tool” and click the Add button.

For the final step fill out the form below and click on save.

Option 2: Adding CN Post as a Default Tool in all/selected courses (Can only be done by Moodle admin)

Start by moving the “ltiprocessor” folder from the zip file into <your moodle folder>/local location. The zip is attached to the bottom of this article. Please download it to use. Then, log in to Moodle with the System admin. The system will automatically prompt you to install a new local plugin. To do this first: 1) Go to Site Administration 2) Select LTi Processor 3) Click on Create LTi Activity.

To begin filling out the Create LTi Activity form, select which course(s) you would like to add CN Post to as a default activity – use keyboard shortcut “Ctrl + a” or drag your cursor down the list to select all courses.

Then choose “CN Post” as the External Tool Type. Next, enter the Activity Name. When done, click on the submit button. The system will automatically create LTi activities with settings from CN Post for the courses you selected.