Exporting a Class Cartridge

Lab links reach an LMS course through a Common Cartridge: a file exported from a NETLAB+ class and imported into the LMS course. The cartridge contains one LTI link for each lab exercise in the class’s content, each already carrying the community, class and exercise it launches. Importing it is what places the labs in the course; NETLAB+ itself declares no placements to the LMS.

The cartridge is the same for LTI 1.1 and LTI 1.3. The LMS matches each link to whichever NETLAB+ tool is installed in it, so a class exported for a 1.1 integration does not have to be exported again when the LMS moves to 1.3.

Exporting the Cartridge

Instructors export the cartridge from the class’s page. An administrator can do the same from the class manager.

Login to NETLAB+ as an instructor who leads the class, or as the administrator.

Open the class. As an instructor, click > Manage

Manage Classes and click the class’s row; as the administrator, click > Classes, choose the community, and click the class’s row.

Click Export LTI Cartridge.

Export Class Common Cartridge dialog

The dialog describes the file and, when the community’s LTI Keys Visible to Instructors setting is enabled or the person exporting is the administrator, shows the values needed to configure the NETLAB+ tool in the LMS: the LTI 1.1 Consumer Key and Shared Secret, and, when the community is pointed at an LTI 1.3 platform, the LTI 1.3 registration values (the OpenID Connect initiation URL, the redirect and target link URI, and the public JWKS URL). When the setting is disabled, the dialog asks the instructor to request these values from the NETLAB+ administrator.

Click Export. The browser downloads the class’s Common Cartridge as an .imscc file named after the class. Besides one link per lab exercise, arranged under the class’s content items, the cartridge carries one item named “NETLAB+ VE Tool Configuration” followed by the class name. That item exists so the LMS has a place to set up the NETLAB+ tool for the course; it need not be published to learners as a module item.

Note

An instructor must be a lead instructor of the class to export its cartridge.

Note

When LTI Integration is not enabled on the class’s community, the Export LTI Cartridge button is greyed out, and clicking it explains that LTI has been disabled for the community instead of exporting.

Importing the Cartridge into the LMS

In the LMS course, import the .imscc file using the LMS’s course import or content import feature. Refer to the LMS documentation for importing Common Cartridge files.

Confirm that the NETLAB+ external tool is configured in the LMS at a level that covers the course: for LTI 1.1 with the community’s Consumer Key and Shared Secret (LTI 1.1 Keys); for LTI 1.3 as the registered tool, installed and available (Registering an LTI 1.3 Platform).

Each imported item is an LTI link. When a learner follows one, the LMS launches NETLAB+, which signs the learner in, adds them to the class if they are not yet on its roster, and opens the exercise.

Tip

To have NETLAB+ return a grade for a lab, place the link as a graded assignment in the LMS rather than as a plain module item. See Grade Passback.

Note

If the class’s content changes, for example when exercises are added, export the cartridge again and import the new file. Existing links keep working.