How does Crowdmark work with LTI 1.3?

Crowdmark can be integrated with Learning Management Systems via the LTI 1.3 standard. This integration provides features such as roster synchronization, team synchronization, and the ability to export grades from Crowdmark into the LMS grade book.

To use the integration, you can sign in by selecting your institution’s LMS on the Crowdmark sign-in page, or by accessing directly through your LMS. After signing in, you’ll create an LTI link in your course, which will automatically create a course in Crowdmark. Once that’s done, assessment creation takes place in Crowdmark, and information can sync to and from the LMS.

Integration with LTI provides many benefits, including synchronization of information to make assessment administration more efficient. Crowdmark and you LMS use LTI to share the following information:

• Courses
• Student roster (some including student groups)
• Team members, including their associated roles

• Grades to the LMS grade book

Depending on the LMS you are using, you’ll need to create a Crowdmark LTI link within your course in your LMS. The first time this happens, a course will automatically be created on Crowdmark. Subsequently you can access your course from the LMS, or by signing in to Crowdmark directly. Once the course link exists the student and teams rosters can be synced and assessments can be created.

Once you are logged into Crowdmark, you may visit the courses list by clicking the ‘Courses’ link on the left side of the screen. On the courses list, to the right of the courses title, you will see a logo and text similar to “LMS @ My School”. This dropdown menu allows you to switch between the LMS-connected context of Crowdmark and the “standalone” version of Crowdmark.

If you already had a standalone account on Crowdmark before connecting to your LMS, you can switch to the “Crowdmark” context to access your existing courses and assessments. Courses and assessments created in the standalone context cannot be connected to your LMS.

How do students access Crowdmark?

Students can sign in to Crowdmark via the LMS login or the an email and password option. Crowdmark sends emails with links for students to access their assignments and grades. Instructors can post links to assessments in the LMS course content; students can also sign in to Crowdmark to access their open assessments at any time.

Students do not need to create an account, and they do not see a Crowdmark course until the first assessment has been sent. That means you can create a course and assessments without students seeing their enrolments. When the first email goes out, students who have not signed into Crowdmark before will be asked to claim the account attached to their email.

Course are created on demand in Crowdmark via an LTI link that is placed in a course in your LMS.

Once the link has been added you your course, clicking the link will create a corresponding course in Crowdmark, as well as a Crowdmark account (if you do not already have one). Instructions for adding LTI links to LMS courses differs by LMS type and by institution, please see the documentation for your specific school for further information. If you can’t find this information, please email support@crowdmark.com.

Keeping the roster up to date is an important step as it ensures that grades will synchronize properly with your LMS’s grade book later on. When you sync your LMS student roster, the columns Crowdmark is able to import are:

• Name (or First name Last name)
• Email address
• Student ID
• Section

For certain LMS systems, the Sections column is unavailable from the LMS directly. If you require section information, you can import it via CSV using the instructions here. Importing a CSV will not affect further sync with your LMS as long as the student email addresses remain unchanged.

If you have imported custom section information using a CSV, make sure to click Ignore on the Sections column when updating the roster from your LMS.

1. Click into the Course students tab in the sidebar.
2. Click the Sync with LMS button in the upper right corner. A modal window will appear.
3. If the sync was successful you will see the number of students that were found and be asked to map the LMS data to Crowdmark’s data structure. Crowdmark has mapping parameters, and you should check to make sure they match the information you need. Any columns that do not include student Emails, Names, Student ID Numbers or Sections should be ignored.
4. Once everything is mapped correctly, click the Continue button. You will see a list of students that will be enrolled for confirmation.
5. Click the Update students button to confirm and enroll the students to your course.
6. If you have previously customized Sections using a CSV, you can add sections for new students manually by clicking into the individual student, or you can repeat the CSV process. Keep in mind uploading a CSV will update the entire student roster, so a complete CSV is needed every time a change is made.

You can update your student list anytime to ensure that it’s consistent with the roster in your LMS. Crowdmark recommends syncing your course roster before every assessment, to make sure the correct students are enrolled.

1. Click into the Course students tab in the sidebar.
2. Click the Sync with LMS button in the upper right corner. A modal window will appear.
3. If the sync was successful you will see the number of students that were found and a list of students that will be updated and/or disenrolled for confirmation.
4. Click the Update students button to confirm and update the students to your course.

Team members include co-instructors, TAs, graders, anyone who will help with printing, scanning or grading assessments in your course. Permissions differ based on role, and a full comparison of permissions can be found here: What is the difference between team member roles?

1. In your course, click the Course team tab.
2. Click the Sync with LMS button in the upper right corner. A modal window will appear.
3. You will see a list of the synced team members. Under the Role column, select the role each team member should have. To remove a team member, click the x. For more information, see here.
4. Click the Add team members button. Your team members will be added to the course and will each receive an invitation email. Roles can be updated at any time by any user with Instructor permission.

From the Course team tab, a team member can be removed by clicking the x beside their name. This will remove their access to the course and its assessments. All of their past grading and data on Crowdmark will be preserved.

If you need to invite a printer or uploader who does not have access to your LMS (an off-campus print shop, for example), you can invite them by email.

1. In your course, click the Course team tab.
2. Click the Add by email button in the upper right corner. A modal window will appear.
3. Type or paste the printer/uploader’s email addresses in the field. Click the Continue button.
4. Under the Role column, select the Printer-Uploader role.
5. Click the Add team member button. The printer/uploader will be added to the course and will receive an invitation email.

Scores must be exported from Crowdmark to appear in your LMS’s grade book. If you make changes to the grades later on, they will need to be synced again to keep the grade book up to date.

1. From your assessment dashboard, click into the Results tab. See the section titled Send and export grades.

2. Click the Export grades to LMS button to begin the sync. If there are any issues with the export, you will see a modal window with a summary before you the grades are synced. Crowdmark will not be able to export grades for students who:

   • Were imported from the LMS into Crowdmark but have since been removed from the LMS course.
   • Were added manually in Crowdmark and are not part of the LMS roster.
   • Exist in the LMS but were never added to Crowdmark.
   • Have received scores outside of the LMS accepted parameters.

   To continue, click the Export grades button. Crowdmark creates a new column in the grade book for each synced assessment.