Does Google Classroom Support LTI 1.3 or LTI Advantage?

What is LTI?

The LTI specification is a common type of integration request that learning institutions ask edtech vendors to perform. LTI is a specification from 1EdTech Consortium (formerly, IMS Global Learning Consortium). Some LMS providers have different ways of implementing LTI, including some that don't support the most recent releases of the specification (LTI 1.3 and LTI Advantage specifications).

Does Google Classroom Support LTI?

Google Classroom does NOT support any version of the LTI specification, including LTI 1.3 and LTI Advantage. This has commonly frustrated digital vendors who have spent time developing LTI solutions for their clients, just to find out that learning institutions that use Google Classroom can't use their tools.

Interestingly, Google also has a product in Google for Education called Google Assignments that allows teachers to turn Google Drive documents into LTI-compatible resources. Ironically, these can't be turned into LTI resources in Google Classroom. This quirk may lead to additional confusion about Google Classroom's support for LTI.

What Other Way Can I Integrate with Google Classroom?

Fortunately, Google Classroom allows for integration through its API. With the Google Classroom API and Google SSO, edtech developers can build their product to act on behalf of authenticated users in Google Classroom. Basically, the API can be used to create new resources in Google Classroom, assign grades to students, and determine which users are part of which classes. The Google Classroom API is quite powerful but also comes with some speedbumps that can slow developers down if they’re not aware of the speedbumps ahead of time.

*Update: 11.29.23

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What is LTI?