How do I grade an External Tool (LTI) item?

External Tool (LTI) items may be set up in different ways within a site, and the item setup will determine how it is accessed and graded. The type of tool (i.e. LTI 1.1 or LTI 1.3 / Advantage) may also determine how scoring is handled in the LMS

While many LTI items are graded automatically by the tool, in some cases you may need to manually score the LTI submissions.

Please keep the following information in mind when setting up and grading External Tool (LTI) items.

LTI Assignments in the Assignments Tool

To create an LTI assignment, select External Tool (LTI) as the assignment type when you add a new assignment in the Assignments tool.

It is recommended that you allow unlimited submissions for LTI assignments, so that students can launch the tool multiple times, particularly if you anticipate that you will be providing feedback within the tool. Otherwise, students would not be able to access their LTI submissions to review instructor feedback.

If you would like the LTI score to be included in the Gradebook, select to Grade this assignment, enter the Max Points possible, and Create new Gradebook Item.

Creating or associating the LTI assignment with the Gradebook will create a gradebook column for the LTI item at the time of setup.

Please note: LTI Assignment grades must be released in the Assignments tool before the score will appear in the Gradebook. This is true regardless of whether the LTI item is graded automatically by the tool, or manually by the instructor. Students will not see the grade until it is released.

You may release grades for multiple students at once, or release them individually by student.

Sakai Grader

If you are using the Sakai Grader interface, the check box for Use Sakai Grader to grade submissions will be selected.

Clicking on the name of the student displays the grading page within the LTI tool with the student submission selected. The grading interface will vary by tool. (See sample tool below.)

Entering a grade within the LTI tool and clicking Update passes the score to the Sakai Grader and to the Submissions page in the Assignments tool.

Important! Grades have to be added in the LTI grading page. Grading with the Sakai Grader will not work. This is a one-way operation with grades and comments passed from the LTI grading page to the Sakai Grader.

Legacy (or Classic) Grader

If you are using the legacy grading interface in Sakai, the check box for Use Sakai Grader to grade submissions will NOT be selected.

Select the Open tool in a new window button to open the LTI tool and navigate to the grading interface within the tool.

Note: You will need to navigate to the student's submission, as the selected student's submission will not be displayed automatically.

LTI items as Links in Lessons, Site-Level Navigation, or Rich Text Editor.

If you have added your LTI item on a Lessons page (via Add Content > Add Learning App or Add External Tool), as a link in the site-level navigation (i.e. Tool Menu), or as a link within the rich text editor, there is no option to grade using the Sakai Grader. All manually entered grades must be entered using the LTI tool grading interface.

All LTI tool grades (both manually scored, and auto-graded) will appear in the Gradebook when the score is saved in the tool. They do not need to be released.

When you add an LTI item as a link, it does not create the gradebook item immediately. The first time a student accesses the LTI link and submits the activity, the gradebook item is created and the grade is passed to the Gradebook.

Tip: If you would like to preview the gradebook column before students have accessed the link, you may use the "View Site As" option to preview the site as a student and submit the LTI item as the preview student. This will create the column in the gradebook.