Canvas 3rd Party Tools add functionality to a Canvas course. For example, an instructor may want to include a study aid (flashcards, mini-quizzes, etc.) to help students better understand the concepts being taught. Other examples of Canvas 3rd Party Tools that you may be familiar with are: Top Hat, Respondus, Turnitin, and VoiceThread.

For a list of Canvas 3rd Party Tools that are currently available in Canvas, and have already been installed by the Learning Systems team, please see the table at the bottom of this page. 

If instructors would like a tool integrated with their own individual course(s) only, they should obtain their own tool credentials (i.e. secret and key) and can then add the tool to their own individual course following the instructions provided by the vendor supporting the tool. Please note that this only applies to particular tools on LTI version 1.1. 

If instructors are using a tool on LTI version 1.3, this will require installation by a member of the Learning Systems team and must be reviewed through the Canvas 3rd Party Tools review process.

If you need a tool that will be added to all courses in a department or all courses university-wide, you must follow the Canvas 3rd Party Tools Requests procedure. For more information about the LTI standard and its associated versions, please see “What does “LTI” mean?”.

Additional Resources

Using the Canvas EduApp Center (Canvas Community)

Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) is the standard process that allows us to integrate 3rd party tools within Canvas.

According to the 1EdTech Consortium (formerly IMS Global), “Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) is a standard developed by 1EdTech Consortium, which allows courseware and learning tools from different vendors to be launched within a learning platform, often a Learning Management System (LMS). The LTI integration allows the student to move seamlessly from one tool to the other, with minimal effort from instructors or students. The current version of LTI is 1.3, and previous versions are now deprecated.”

As of June 30, 2022 LTI versions 1.1 and 1.2 have been deprecated, requiring that we transition tools on v1.1 and 1.2 to the newest standard. LTI v1.3 is the only currently supported version of the LTI standard. LTI 1.3 requires that tools are installed by a root-level Canvas administrator, which is a departure from previous standards.

Additional Resources

• LTI Fundamentals FAQ (1EdTech)
• Trusted Apps Directory (1EdTech)

The Learning Systems (LS) team’s primary responsibility in facilitating Canvas 3rd Party Tool Requests is serving in the role of system integrator for VCU’s Canvas instance. To complement the LS team’s role in facilitating these requests, additional resources are required on the part of requesters and university partners to successfully review tools prior to installation, including:

• VCU’s IT Governance process: accessibility and security reviews
• VCU Online: review of instructional tools’ adherence to pedagogical best practice
• VCU community members and Canvas sub-account administrators: functional testing

Please Note: VCU's IT Governance Process is currently undergoing revisions. This will impact the turnaround time of requests. New tool requests are on hold until further notice. Please check this page periodically for updates. 

Please review the current list of tools already available at VCU (at the bottom of this page), before submitting a request. If the tool is already available at VCU, but a newer version is needed, please follow the request procedures below.

To request the installation of a new tool, please see the Request a Canvas 3rd Party Tool page.

Please Note: VCU's IT Governance Process is currently undergoing revisions. This will impact the turnaround time of requests. New tool requests are on hold until further notice. Please check this page periodically for updates. 

The process is open twice per year, and requests will begin processing on July 1 and December 1 each year. 

• Requests submitted by July 1 will complete review by mid-November, to be piloted for a limited period in the Spring semester prior to installation.
• Requests submitted by December 1 will complete review by mid-April, to be piloted for a limited period in the Summer semester prior to installation.

The Learning Systems team typically aims for semester "changeover" periods to make any changes to LTI installation, to prevent disruption as much as possible to any current and new users of the tool.

For any tools that are being adopted on a pilot basis, contractual requirements with the respective vendor dictate the removal of tools from production.