Integrating Curriculum Between LMS Platforms: A Guide for Publishers

Learning management systems (LMS) like Canvas, Blackboard, and Schoology dominate the education technology landscape. As a curriculum publisher, you likely use an LMS to organize and deliver your content. However, most major LMS platforms are designed for schools, not publishers. This poses a challenge when selling your courses to institutions that use a different LMS than you.

Manually exporting course files from your LMS to a client’s system is tedious and error-prone. Even if you can script an API integration, the client’s LMS may not allow content to be pulled in programmatically. A better solution is using the LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) standard to connect your LMS with your client’s system.

LTI Basics

LTI provides a universal mechanism for securely integrating third-party educational tools with LMS platforms. For example, you could build an interactive science simulation and embed it seamlessly within Canvas courses using LTI.

LTI 1.3 is the newest version of the standard. It includes a Deep Linking feature that enables entire courses to be accessed from within an LMS without requiring separate logins. LTI 1.3 support is crucial for publishers seeking tight LMS integrations.

The Problem: LMS Platforms are LTI Consumers, Not Providers

Here lies the challenge: major LMS brands support LTI as content consumers, but not as content providers. For example, Canvas can import LTI content, but won’t allow exporting courses out via LTI.

The top LMS platforms and their LTI support:

  • Canvas – LTI consumer only
  • Blackboard – LTI consumer only
  • Schoology – LTI consumer only
  • Moodle – LTI consumer and provider
  • Brightspace – LTI consumer only

This asymmetry poses a roadblock as a publisher. If you author courses in Canvas but a client uses Schoology, you’re stuck. Even if both platforms support LTI 1.3, the content can only flow one way.

Possible Workarounds

Faced with this dilemma, publishers have a few options:

  1. Don’t use LTI. Export course files manually (inefficient and problematic).
  2. Only sell to clients using your LMS. Greatly limits your market.
  3. Maintain accounts in multiple LMS. Very cumbersome to manage.
  4. Use an LTI integration platform. The recommended approach.

LMS Integration Platform

An LTI integration tool acts as an intermediary between your authoring LMS and client LMS platforms. It works like this:

  1. Import your courses into the integration tool (from files or LMS API).
  2. Connect your tool to the client’s LMS via LTI 1.3 Deep Linking.
  3. Update courses in your tool and changes sync automatically.
  4. Grades pass back to your system via LTI Grade Passback.

This solution provides seamless, real-time course integration without manual exporting or multiple LMS logins. It enables you to author courses once and publish them anywhere.

Some benefits of an LMS integration platform:

  • Support all major LMS systems as both LTI consumer and provider.
  • Automate course synchronization so content is always up to date.
  • Easily embed interactive simulations, assessments, and other tools using LTI.
  • Pass grades and student data between systems.
  • Scale integrations across all your customer accounts.
  • No need to maintain your own instances of multiple LMS platforms.
  • Make it easy for customers to integrate your content.

Choosing the Right LMS Integration Partner

When evaluating LMS integration tools, look for:

  • Robust support for LTI 1.3 Deep Linking and Grade Passback.
  • APIs and content import options to easily get your courses in.
  • Scalable platform to handle multiple customer integrations.
  • Configurable grade passback and single sign-on options.
  • Usage analytics and reporting.
  • Responsive support team.

By leveraging an LMS integration partner, curriculum publishers can overcome interoperability challenges and deliver content seamlessly into any major LMS. This removes a major objection standing between you and your next big LMS client.