spvickers
commented
2 years ago Thanks for the details of your use case. I am working on an update to this plugin to add support for single-site instances of WordPress. I expect the first release of this to be available within the next 2 weeks.
My current expectation with this update is that it would allow users to launch into WordPress with their user account created on-the-fly (as is currently the case) and for them to be redirected to the WordPress site homepage, or some other endpoint based on which LMS they have come from (or possibly based on the value of a custom parameter passed in the launch). The option to synchronise users with the LMS would also be retained (adapted for the fact that the WordPress instance may contain users from more than one LMS).
Some more details of your needs would be helpful:
- What types of role mapping do you anticipate? At present I would expect instructors to be given editor role, students author role and others subscriber role.
- Am I correct in believing that your reference to groups relates to functionality provided by the Uncanny plugin, rather than standard WordPress functionality? But the LearnDash LMS is able to use these groups for managing access to courses? If so, I suspect that sharing group information from the LMS would require a more specific extension, which is currently beyond my planned scope (I am more focussed on supporting core WordPress functionality). Do you think an alternative solution would be to create multiple launch links in the LMS course with each one being released to a different group of users and each being directed to a different course in LearnDash?
- Does the LearnDash LMS plugin support the ability to restrict course access to specific users, or groups of users; i.e. it is possible to deny a user access to a specific course?
Thanks,
pacesetter-cm
Hi again,
You asked that I write a separate issue to explain our potential use case for the wordpress-lti plugin.
I work with a company called Pace Learning Systems. We publish learning systems, both books and software, for correctional institutions (state, federal, and private) and publicly funded basic education programs. The vast majority of our customers are state prisons in various US states.
One of our partners, who provides secure labs or secure access to programming in our customer states, uses LTI (v1) as a method of "single sign-in" from their proprietary virtual learning environment. Essentially, they offer a "secure window" where inmates can access publisher content from various publishers with the same user account. They partner with publishers/content providers to create versions of their public-facing websites where their VLE can connect inmates to programming through LTI.
This way, inmate learners never need to even know their username/ID, and obviously, don't need to access email to manage their work in the program...inmates are not generally allowed access to email or any other 'free world' content; so generally, content providers who work with this provider create versions or sections of their application that are separate for inmates to access. These don't have all the account management features, external links, etc. Inmates using this system just open content provider's sites from within a window in the VLE, and ideally, they are automatically sent to where they should be based on their user/group.
Additionally, this allows teaching staff to access the same site/application as a learning manager, using the normal public-facing login and the fully featured application. In many cases, while inmates do not have 'free world' internet access in the learning lab, their instructors do and so they do not use the same VLE window that inmates use to access content .
I thought this plugin may work for our needs, as a content provider or Tool Provider to be able to provide an "LTI Tool" in our WordPress application. But you suggested an upcoming version/update may better suit what we need.
For reference, we are using an 'LMS plugin' called Learndash, which we use to create the course content and assessments. Learndash creates custom post types for Classes (user groups), Courses, Topics, Lessons, Quizzes, and Questions. Learndash Classes post type also matches a group/class with their respective Courses (content containers)...in other words, different classes access the same courses and course content is not "rebuilt/restructured" for each group... Group A uses the same "Reading Course" as Group B, but the reporting/group management for the two groups in that course is separate.
It is my understanding that Learndash is a very popular tool, but it doesn't currently address LTI.
Additionally, we use two plugins from Uncanny Owl to help with group-level reporting and user management, post-login automation, and activity tracking (tracking login time by content). These plugins (Uncanny Groups and Uncanny Toolkit) provide additional front-end tools/functionality for instructor users, such as adding users to their group, managing user progress, etc. The Groups plugin utilizes the same custom post type created by Learndash for Classes. Uncanny Groups uses Classes post type and associates a custom user role, the Group Leader/instructor user role, with their respective students (Subscriber user role).
(I think) we would need a single site version, where instead of creating new resources for each user, it logs them into existing resources to match them with existing groups/courses. It would work very much like the plugin does now, deciding automatically based on the "Platform" they are coming from. For our case, we could create a separate, contained site/application for each institutional customer, so it would not need to manage multiple platforms. However, I think that would be very useful too; I am not sure if this is possible, but I am imagining a way to create rules or run a custom block of code after LTI login, depending on the "Platform" the request is coming from. It may also need to be able to match data that comes from the Platform (like user groups, user role, user ID) and create users in the correct Wordpress roles, or any custom user role, with the appropriate data to be able to route the student to the right group/course automatically.
If you are working toward a plugin version/update that work with single site WordPress, we would be very interested!
You mentioned you have an update in progress. Do you have an idea of your timeline for it? Also, do you think this use case can be supported?
I do not have a development background, but I'm learning quickly and would be willing to help you as I am able.
Let me know what other info I can provide that might help...
And thanks again.