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Microsoft Teams for Education: How to integrate with a third party content provider service

Anonymous
2020-08-12T20:28:19+00:00

Users would like to directly access third party subscription content directly from a Microsoft Teams for Education classroom. This is a standard integration request for most online learning platforms and there are multiple connection options. What connection option does Microsoft Teams for Education recommend?

Most online integrations use one of the following methods to allow a user to Single Sign On (SSO) from an online learning platform into an online content provider service:

  • SAML 2.0
  • OAuth2
  • Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI)

In addition, my content service requires schools to provide a roster in advance (usually through an offline method) so it can provision user accounts for instructors and learners as well as organize them into virtual classrooms that provide instructors with reports and learner oversight. Consequently, the SSO method must also provide a custom attribute that contains the SSO user's roster identifier. This allows the content provider to record user activity against the proper user account.

So far I have gleaned that Microsoft Teams for Education administrators can enable App inclusion and install from AppSource an app that is built to integrate with Microsoft Teams for Education. Is this then the recommended approach for an online integration with a web app? As a content service provider, I would need to register with AppSource as a publisher, develop an app for my service, then list my app in a store. I am wary of any requirements that I must sell my app through a store, as my customers have already purchased my product and merely want an SSO connection to my existing online service.

In the end, I would rather create an SSO connector rather than a formal app that will be sold through a Microsoft store. If I must create this connector as an AppSource app, will I be able to release it as a free plugin for Microsoft Teams for Education? I would appreciate it if you could point me in the right direction.

Thanks in advance,

Dan

Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Teams for education | Teams and channels | Other

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-09-15T16:16:16+00:00

    Based on MY experience, Microsoft has disabled the LTI integration between OneNote Class Notebooks and LMSs.  Why???

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-09-16T06:56:47+00:00

    Thank you for the example of a plugin that uses Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) to communicate with Microsoft Teams for Education. The OneNote Class Notebook product seems to be designed to integrate with any Learning Management System (LMS) that uses LTI to handle launch requests and return graded values. This is indeed the model I wish to follow, as I already use LTI to work with other LMS vendors such as Canvas, ItsLearning, and Schoology.

    Each of these vendors provides documentation and resources to help content providers populate their LMS products with learning content. For example, Canvas and ItsLearning can import Common Cartridge files and make their content available to teachers to assign to classrooms. Schoology uses the LTI Content Item Selection Request workflow to populate courses with LTI links that use Basic LTI Launch Requests to fetch and display learning content. These protocols to integrate an LMS with a content provider are standardized and well documented. The fact that OneNote Class Notebook uses these same standardized workflows to integrate with Microsoft Teams for Education tells me that integrating my content service should be not only possible, but trivial.

    However, I have not yet found any articles that show a teacher how to import content into Microsoft Teams for Education. I would expect to see step-by-step guides on how to configure LTI credentials for a third-party content provider. There should be discussions on how to return assignment scores and post grades back to Microsoft Teams for Education. Perhaps I am simply looking in the wrong places. Or perhaps Microsoft Teams for Education is not yet ready to integrate with third-party education content providers. They will probably have a difficult time competing against full-featured LMS vendors until they are ready to do so.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-08-13T06:47:09+00:00

    Hi hanmari,

    Based on my experience, OneNote Class Notebook has LMS integration with Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) and assignment/grade distribution via the Class Notebook Add-in in partnership with the following partners: https://www.onenote.com/edupartners

    Turn on Grade Sync for an assignment you create in Microsoft Teams and sync the assignment’s details and grades directly to Student Information Systems such as PowerSchool and Infinite Campus. Here is the reference for you: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/connect-class-notebook-to-your-lms-or-sis-6ce2ac30-985a-4c42-a004-4e9ac0a22294

    Otherwise, I understand you want to  create an SSO connector/custom app that can embed into Teams for integrating with a third party content provider service, for this concern, since we know very little about third-party integration, I recommend you redirect this question to Microsoft GitHub community, there will be engineers who specialize in code/ programming to help you, and there are also more forum members to provide you with their experience. 

    We truly appreciate your understanding!

    Thanks,

    Linda

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