Documentation / Platform glossary / Learning Tools Interoperability
Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) is the 1EdTech standard that lets a learning platform launch an external tool so the learner arrives already identified and in context — course, role, and assignment carried across without a second login or a manual roster upload.
LTI solves a narrow but pervasive problem. A learner sits in a learning management system; the activity they need lives somewhere else. Without a standard, every pairing of platform and tool becomes bespoke integration work, and the learner is asked to log in twice and explain who they are.
An LTI launch carries three things: identity, so the tool knows which learner arrived; context, meaning the course or section they came from; and role, whether they are a learner, instructor, or administrator. The tool can then render the right thing for the right person without maintaining its own roster.
The version distinction matters. LTI 1.3 replaced the shared-secret signing of earlier versions with OpenID Connect for authentication and signed tokens for message integrity — the same identity primitives used elsewhere in enterprise integration rather than a bespoke scheme. Legacy LTI 1.1 remains deployed, but its security model is the reason 1.3 exists.
Launch integration is where education technology programs quietly lose learners. Every additional login is measurable drop-off, and rosters maintained by hand drift within weeks of the term starting.
LTI also changes procurement. When a platform and a tool both conform, integration becomes configuration rather than a project, which is what makes a catalog of providers practical instead of a series of one-off builds.
QueryTek documents LTI as interoperability literacy for teams evaluating education and workforce learning integration. It is the vocabulary buyers need to ask precise questions about launch, roster, and grade exchange. Product-specific integration behaviour is described in product documentation; QueryTek EBM, which addresses education benefits orchestration, is in active development and not generally available.
