For your school's IT

What your administrator does

1. In Canvas, open Admin, choose your account, then Developer Keys.Prepara connects through an LTI 1.3 developer key, and only an admin can make one.
2. Press "+ Developer Key", then "+ LTI Key".This makes the key Canvas uses to open Prepara from your courses.
3. Type "Prepara" in Key Name and your own email address in Owner Email. Notes can stay empty, or name the professor who asked for Prepara.These three fields are for your team: the key's name in your list of developer keys, and the person to ask about it. Prepara reads none of them.
4. Paste this into Redirect URIs: https://preparacourse.com/api/lti/launchCanvas sends students only to an address listed here.
5. Under Configure, set Method to "Enter URL" and paste this into JSON URL: https://preparacourse.com/api/lti/canvas-config.jsonCanvas reads every address, service, field and placement below from this URL, so nobody types them by hand.
6. Check that these four LTI Advantage Services are on (Canvas turns them on from the URL):Each one is a thing Prepara does in your gradebook or roster, named on its line below. Each line gives the label Canvas shows, then the scope it stands for.
   • "Can create and view assignment data in the gradebook associated with the tool" (https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti-ags/scope/lineitem): Prepara makes its own gradebook columns.
   • "Can create and update submission results for assignments associated with the tool" (https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti-ags/scope/score): Prepara posts each student's score, with the time the work was done.
   • "Can view submission data for assignments associated with the tool" (https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti-ags/scope/result.readonly): Prepara reads back each score in its own columns, to confirm it arrived and to see a grade typed by hand in Canvas.
   • "Can retrieve user data associated with the context the tool is installed in" (https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti-nrps/scope/contextmembership.readonly): Prepara reads the course roster, so nobody types one.
7. Check that Privacy Level reads "Public".Canvas then sends the student's name and email with each launch, and Prepara uses them to find the right account.
8. Check that the Custom Fields box holds these seven lines (Canvas adds them from the URL):Canvas fills each line in on every launch; each line's reason is beside it below.
   • canvas_course_id=$Canvas.course.id: tells Prepara which Canvas course the student opened it from.
   • canvas_course_sis_id=$Canvas.course.sisSourceId: matches the course to the registrar's record.
   • canvas_section_ids=$Canvas.course.sectionIds: puts each student in their own section.
   • canvas_section_sis_ids=$Canvas.course.sectionSisSourceIds: matches each section to the registrar's record.
   • canvas_section_names=$com.instructure.User.sectionNames: shows professors the section names they know.
   • canvas_course_group_ids=$com.instructure.Course.groupIds: lets Prepara's course tools read the course's groups on their own.
   • assignment_due_at=$Canvas.assignment.dueAt.iso8601: gives Prepara the student's own due date, extensions included, when they open Prepara from an assignment.
9. Check these four placements (Canvas sets them from the URL):A placement is a place in Canvas where Prepara appears. Each line names the place and what a professor or student does there.
   • Course Navigation, on in every course by default: the Prepara button in the course menu, which opens Prepara for students and professors.
   • Assignment Selection: a professor makes a Canvas assignment that opens one Prepara chapter, and that chapter's grade comes back to the assignment.
   • Link Selection: a professor adds a Prepara chapter to a module with the module's "+" button.
   • Modules (the menu at the top of the Modules page): a professor adds several Prepara chapters at once, into a new module.
10. Press Save, then switch the key's State to ON.Canvas opens Prepara only from a key that is on.
11. Copy the number in the Details column. It is the Client ID.The next step installs the app by this number.
12. Open Admin, your account, Settings, Apps, View App Configurations, then "+ App". Choose Configuration Type "By Client ID", paste the Client ID, press Submit, then Install.Installed at the account level, every course, this term and later terms, can use Prepara with no new request.
13. If Prepara was installed before today: open the existing Prepara developer key (the pencil), compare it with the current configuration URL, copy any missing custom fields, services and placements, then press Save. Keep the existing Client ID and deployment.Saving a manually entered key does not import new settings. Comparing and copying the missing entries updates the existing installation.

The values

What your administrator does

14. Back in Admin, Developer Keys, press "+ Developer Key", then "+ API Key".This is a second, separate key. The LTI key cannot use Canvas's API, and this one can, for a course whose professor signs in to Canvas and approves it.
15. Type "Prepara API" in Key Name and your own email address in Owner Email (Notes can stay empty), then paste these two lines into Redirect URIs:After a professor approves, Canvas sends them back only to an address listed here. The first line is for Prepara's course tools, the second for Prepara's Course Workspace.
    • https://preparacourse.com/api/canvas/oauth/callback
    • https://preparacourse.com/workspace/oauth/canvas/callback
16. Leave Redirect URI (Legacy), Vendor Code (LTI 2) and Icon URL empty. If the form shows Test Cluster Only, leave it off; if it shows Client Credentials Audience, leave it on Canvas.Canvas shows these fields on every API key, and Prepara uses none of them: its only return addresses are the two above, it is an LTI 1.3 tool, and the key is used with Canvas itself.
17. Turn on Enforce Scopes, then check each of these 207 scopes:With scopes enforced, Canvas lets Prepara make only these calls, so your team decides exactly what Prepara may do. Each group says what Prepara does with it.
    • Who signed in (1): Prepara reads which Canvas person approved the connection.
    • The course, its sections and its people (5): Prepara reads the professor's courses, a course's sections and its enrolled people, so each student opens Prepara in their own section and nobody types a roster.
    • Student groups (9): Prepara reads a course's group sets and their members. When the professor asks, it writes a new group set with its groups and members (for example Peer Evaluations teams), and it deletes only a set Prepara wrote, after reading the course's discussions to check that none of them uses it.
    • Assignments, due dates and grades (12): Prepara reads the course's assignment groups and assignments, writes one new assignment group for its own gradebook columns, and writes each of its own columns into that group. It reads each student's own due date and extensions, which work came in late and the course's late policy, and reads back the scores it sent.
    • Course activity (3): Prepara reads a course's page views, participation and assignment results and shows them to the professor beside Prepara's own reading analytics.
    • Course Workspace: what it reads (67): Prepara's Course Workspace reads the professor's course in full: its record and settings, people, sections, assignments, quizzes, discussions, pages, modules, files, rubrics, outcomes, calendar, Inbox and course copies, and the professor's own profile.
    • Course Workspace: what it writes, each change approved by the professor (110): Prepara's Course Workspace writes a change only after the professor approves it on a preview of that change. It creates, changes or deletes: the course record (its name, dates, syllabus and status, and concluding or deleting a course); a new course in the professor's account; course settings and the course menu; sections and who is in them; enrollments; student groups; assignment groups; assignments, their dates, due-date overrides, extensions and peer reviews; grading periods and grading schemes; quizzes, their questions and their New Quizzes items; discussions, announcements and their replies; pages; modules and module items; files, folders and their usage rights; rubrics and where they are used; outcomes; calendar events; Inbox messages; course copies, imports and exports; blueprint course syncs; course pacing; AI experiences; content shared with another teacher; and the professor's own notification preferences.
18. Turn on Allow Include Parameters.Some of the reads above ask Canvas to add related details, such as each student's section, and Canvas leaves those details out for a key with enforced scopes unless this is on.
19. Press Save, then switch the key's State to ON.Canvas lets a professor approve Prepara only for a key that is on.
20. Send the professor four values: your Canvas web address, the LTI key's Client ID, the Deployment ID (Settings, Apps, the gear beside Prepara, Deployment Id), and the API key's Client ID. Share the API key's secret (press Show Key) with admin@preparacourse.com only through your school's secure file-sharing or password-sharing tool, never in a plain email.Prepara links your school with these values. The secret proves to Canvas that a request comes from Prepara, so it travels only by a secure route.

The values