In Brightspace, you can map varying roles and Org Units to a universally accepted set of defined names based on the IMS LTI 1.3 specification. This context mapping means that roles and Org Units impact the way a tool handles an LTI launch. Brightspace enables you to create as many custom roles and types of Org Units as required; as a result, a tool could receive an unlimited number of different types of contexts.
Context Types in LTI
As a part of the LTI specification, IMS has defined a specific set of common context types that tools can expect to receive the LTI message. The supported context types are:
- CourseTemplate
- CourseOffering
Note: Currently, Brightspace does not send CourseSection or Group as context, as all links and course activity are completed at the CourseOffering level.
Org Units Mapping
Org Units Tools
In Brightspace, Org Units are managed with the following tools:
- Org Unit Type Editor: enables administrators to create or edit custom Org Unit types, named however they wish.
- Org Unit Editor: manages the actual Org Units. You can create, edit, delete, and manage the information of all the Org Units in their instance. The column on the left is a hierarchical tree view of the current organization structure, with the details of the currently selected Org Unit on the right. From here, you can quickly launch into a given Org Unit.
Map Org Unit types to the standardized IMS
Brightspace Org Units are mapped with four IMS-supported type standards. An Org Unit type can be mapped to send one or many of the IMS contexts at launch.
Note: D2L recommends that you map BrightspaceOrg Unit types to standardized IMS roles early in an instance's life or in the event that new custom Org Unit types are created.
To map the different Brightspace Org Unit types to the standardized IMS roles
- From the Admin Tools menu, click IMS Configuration.
- Navigate to the Org Unit Types tab.
- Make the necessary changes and click Save.
Figure: An example of mapping Org Unit types to the standardized IMS.
Org unit code sample
Depending on how a given Org Unit type has been mapped, the receiving tool would receive one or many of the mapped IMS contexts in the launch. Here is what a 1.3 LTI launch looks like for passing context, in this case, mapped to the context CourseOffering:
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/context": {
"id": "c1d887f0-a1a3-4bca-ae25-c375edcc131a",
"label": "ECON 1010",
"title": "Economics as a Social Science",
"type": ["http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/course#CourseOffering"]
},
Whether it be role or context management, the definition of these is not a daily task. Once set up, they are rarely updated. If, when using an LTI tool, you see errors pertaining to an unrecognized role or context, misconfigured IMS mappings is likely the cause. Ensure that your mappings are set up properly to avoid errors when adopting new LTI tools.
Roles Mapping
Roles in Brightspace represent a user's permissions set for a given org unit. A user can hold only one role for each Org Unit but can have different roles across different Org Units (for example, a user could be a student in some courses but an instructor in others).
While Brightspace provides some pre-made roles, users often create entirely custom roles based on specific needs or tool access.
You can create an unlimited number of roles but should be aware that an integration must be prepared to receive all these roles and recognize them in a standard way.
Roles and their inline permissions are centrally managed through the Roles and Permissions tool.
Roles in LTI
IMS defines user and role objects as follows:
- User: An object representing a person with a current session within the platform and provided to the tool.
- Role: The role represents the level of privilege a user has been given within the context hosted by the platform.
A role belongs to a user and exists as separate types of roles:
- Institution role: The role that the user holds at the org level. For supported institution roles, see LIS vocabulary for institution roles.
- Context Role: The user’s role at the current context level (where the activity is being launched). For supported context roles, see LIS vocabulary for content roles.
Map the LTI standardized roles
The IMS Configuration tool enables you to map the many roles they have in Brightspace to the standard roles defined by IMS.
Note: D2L recommends that you map each Brightspace role to at least one institution and context role.
To map an IMS role to a Brightspace role
- From the Admin Tools menu, click IMS Configuration.
- Navigate to Org Unit Types tab.
- Click +Edit Role Mapping.
- Select the roles you wish to map.
- Click Save.
Figure: An example of mapping the LTI standardized roles.
Role code sample
Depending on how a given role has been mapped, the tool receives one or many of the mapped IMS roles in the launch. Here is what a 1.3 LTI launch looks like for passing roles, mapped to Student, Learner and Mentor:
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/roles": [ "http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/institution/person#Student", "http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/membership#Learner", "http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/membership#Mentor"],
The role parameter has two different role mappings embedded within the IMS specification for managing roles. Tools must be able to identify both an institutional role and a context role for a given user launch.