When using Grasple within your organisation, you can choose which integrations to use. The two most often used integrations are the LTI integration and the Single-Sign-On (SURFConext in the Netherlands) integration. Find more information about the different integrations here.
You can also use multiple integrations at the same time, for example using the LTI integration to embed your practice materials within your Learning Management System (LMS) and using the standalone Grasple version with SSO for your summative testing.
When you combine these two integrations, users will have to connect their accounts created by both integrations. This normally requires a manual step from the students (e.g. opening their email to find a link/code as validation step).
However, this can also be done automatically by configuring how the two integrations should work together and perform the validation automatically based on the information received by us from your LMS and SSO server.
Read below how to configure this automatic coupling with our help, such that your students can use both integrations without any manual step in between.
NOTE: we currently support automatic coupling between Brightspace or Canvas and SURFConext out of the box. For other LMS's it requires more work, but please reach out to us if you want to use this automatic coupling for your LMS.
Security and validation
To ensure we couple the correct accounts, we need to be sure that we can trust the data coming from the LMS and SURFConext. Before enabling the automatic coupling, we need confirmation that the information being transferred in both integrations is trustworthy and will not change over time. If this is not the case, we cannot ensure that the coupling is secure enough since the wrong accounts could be connected.
Therefore, please be sure that the information provided to Grasple is correct and the information in both the LTI and SURFConext integration can be used for this purpose. When in doubt, please reach out to your account manager.
Configuring coupling between Brightspace/Canvas and SURFConext
When automatically coupling the two accounts, we will match the following two values within each integration
SURFConext: the uid attribute. This should be an identifier that is guaranteed as being unique within the organisation over the course of time.
Brightspace: the "[http://www.brightspace.com][username]" claim is used.
Canvas: the "[https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/lis][person_sourcedid]" claim is used.
Both of these values are saved in our system and matched when a user logs in for the first time with one of the two integrations.
When a match is found (e.g. when logging in with SURFConext and we find an LTI account with a matching value within your Grasple organisation), the user does not have to manually validate they "own" both accounts and the two accounts are connected automatically.
Prefixes and postfixes
Sometimes the values in SURFConext and/or LMS have pre- and postfixes. These can be configured as well.
For example, the SURFConext uid attribute for a user can be "s123456" and the Brightspace username claim can be "123456@university.com". In this case the LTI prefix is "s" and the SURFConext postfix is "@university.com".
Matching formula
When the configuration is complete and enabled, the following logic will be used to match accounts from LTI and SURFConext:
LTI_PREFIX + LTI_username + LTI_postfix== SO_PREFIX + SSO_uid + SSP_POSTFIX
If these are equal, the accounts will be coupled automatically.
Setting up the coupling
You need our help when configuring these coupling. Therefore, please reach out to your account manager or support with the following information.
an example value of the SURFConext uid attribute
an example value of the Brightspace/Canvas username value
the proposed pre and postfixes (if possible, otherwise we will help with these).
Configuring coupling between another LMS and SURFConext
Currently the configuration for this coupling works out of the box for Brightspace or Canvas and SURFConext. If you want to configure a similar coupling between another LMS (e.g. Canvas, Moodle, etc.) and SURFConext please reach out to us. Together we can determine which values can be used within the LTI integration for coupling the LTI and SSO accounts.
Questions
If you have any questions, please reach out to us. We are here to help you use these integrations.