Managing the Course

More Course Options

Make sure the toolbar is visible by clicking icon at the top left.

  • Press the Course button

  • In the new toolbar, press Options

This page shows the settings for a course. Each setting is grouped by and presented in it’s own card. These are:

Published

Enable this checkbox if you wish to publish the course (i.e. allow students to log in and answer questions).

Course name

A short name suitable for links without spaces or special charcters.

Course long name

A descriptive name to be used in and appear in Web pages.

Url

The full url of the course.

Motd

A short message for web pages; typically blank.

Difficulties

Choices of badges to decorate exercises:

  • +:Recommended,*:Easy .. for instance makes a badge ‘+’ correspond to the label recommended etc.

  • This can be anything you want; choices appear later in exercise options

Deadline time

Time of day when exercises are due.

Use lti

unchecked

Note

The Use lti setting is meant for advanced users. Novice users should leave it unchecked.

Registration by password

Allow password for registration.

Registration domains

Domains from which to allow registration. Wildcard ‘*’ OK.

Note

This is currently only a checkbox.

Use email

Enable email.

  • Put in your own email in email reply to

  • Ignore the following settings for opentaproject.com sites

    • Email host user - The SMTP server’s host name

    • Email username - The SMTP username

    • Email host password - The user’s email password; stored unencrypted

Use autotranslation

Novice users should leave this unchecked.

Languages

The Default is en; language codes separated by comma, for instance sv,en,de. Not particularly useful without auto translation.

Owners

Check your username and super as owners. In addition, select any other users who should be able to view unpublished questions.

Allow anonymous student

Enable this setting` to allow anonymous logins.

Note

Enable this setting only if you do not plan to use LTI (i.e. Canvas) or Moodle

Press the Save button after you have changed the setting you are interesed in chaning.

To see what the course looks like for a student, press Student view button.

Enable LTI i.e. Canvas or Moodle

This section is relevant only to those who will be using OpenTA from an LTI CMS such as Canvas or Moodle.

More information about LTI can be found here: Learning Tools Interoperability(LTI).

Note

Important: do not allow students to first authenticate outside of Canvas if that’s how they will be expected to login later. A student’s identity must be first verified by LTI. You cannot migrate a student into Canvas if the identity is not first established that way.

This assumes that you are able to install an LTI app in Canvas or Moodle.

  • In the Canvas interface, choose

  • Choose Settings -> Apps

  • Choose View App Configurations -> +App -> Configuration Type ->

  • Choose Configuration Type -> ByURL

  • In another tab or window, in OpenTA choose Course Options

  • Check Use LTI and Save and go back to Options

  • Copy the (OpenTA) entire config URL , including the https:// into (LTI) Config URL

  • Copy the entire (OpenTA) Lti key into the LTI Consumer Key

  • Copy the entire (OpenTA) Lti secret into the LTI Shared Secret

  • Choose (Canvas) Submit

  • If all went well, the App has been added to Canvas.

  • To allow students to easily break OpenTA out from the Canvas frame:

  • Add the Canvas app Redirect Tool and point it to the hostname running OpenTA

  • Instructions only for those whose superuser identity coincides with your Canvas identity

    • Create a new superuser identity for yourself so it will be different from the identity you have in Canvas.

    • Note that you can assign yourself a password in the admin interface (click the gear icon in the header)

    • Make sure you can login as the new superuser

    • Then delete the original user so that identity can be recreated with an LTI login

  • Try to login through the LTI CMS.

    Note

    • Canvas opens OpenTA in a frame, not only taking valuable desktop space with sidebars and headers, but also causing security issues through third-party cookies. Some admin features may not work in the Canvas frames, so it is best to administer the course as superuser via direct login and not through Canvas.

    • If you already have a user identity that coincides with that from Canvas, change username and email of the old superuser to allow a new identity to be created from Canvas. If you want the Canvas identity to be superuser, change the user in the admin interface. It can be useful to retain a student identity when used through Canvas.

    • To guard against misconfigurations by LTI admins, an LTI authenticated user will never automatically have access other than Student in OpenTA even if they are examiner or CourseDeveloper. The superuser must provide suitable non-student access to LTI authenticated users manually.

  • Suggestion on dealing with course assistants and other admins

    • The best way to proceed is that the course createor obtains a new superuser identity, including password and then, after it is verified working, deletes the original identity. Then course creator logs in through Canvas. The superuser login is then used to provide whatever privileges is desired to the new identity. Same procedure with course assistants; first the course assistant logs in through Canvas, then superuser promote privileges.

    • This could of course have been done automatically if OpenTA respected a Canvas identity such as Examiner or CourseDeveloper. However, we have chosen not to rely on that, since a misconfiguration of roles from University Canvas services could mistakenly compromise the OpenTA site.