Configuring Canvas Groups with LTI Pro

Canvas allows instructors to create and maintain different groups under an individual course. In order to set up LTI Pro with the group feature, the following configuration will need to be performed. 

This article covers:

• Requirements and Limitations for configuring Canvas Groups with LTI Pro
• How to Configure Canvas Groups with LTI Pro
• How to add the Group Scope to Canvas
• Using the Group integration

Prerequisites for Configuring Canvas Groups with LTI Pro

• Education, Business, or Enterprise Plan
• Zoom Account user with Admin role permissions
• Administrator access in Canvas
• LTI 1.3 integration or LTI 1.1 integration with Canvas
• Calendar and/or Conversation integration with Canvas for LTI 1.3 integration or for LTI 1.1 integration

Requirements and Limitations for configuring Canvas Groups with LTI Pro

• The Group feature is dependent on the Calendar and Conversation features, so either one or both feature(s) must be enabled for the Group feature to be available. Due to this dependency:
  • Students are not able to schedule group meetings
  • Students cannot view group meetings through LTI, they will have access to the meeting only through the created calendar event and/or conversation message.
    • If a student is added to the group after the conversation is sent out, they will not receive a notification of the meeting. However, should the meeting be updated, the student would receive the update notification with meeting join information.
  • Students cannot view group recordings through LTI, they will have access to the recording only through the conversation message when the Cloud Recording Setting is set to Publish All.
    • If the group of the meeting is changed after this conversation is sent out, the new group will not receive notification of the recording.
    • If a student is added to the group after this conversation is sent out, they will not receive notification of the recording.
• Personal Meeting ID meetings are not supported.
  Note: The group selection dropdown menu will be hidden when PMI is enabled. If a meeting with PMI is scheduled, it will be added to the whole course.
• Meetings assigned to multiple courses are not supported.
• Searching recordings by group is not supported.
• A maximum of 1 group can be assigned to a meeting.
• A maximum of 1 group can be assigned to a recording.
• Meetings cannot be scheduled with groups and sections together, meetings must be either a meeting for a group or a meeting for section(s).
• It is recommended that group names are 30 characters or less.

How to Configure Canvas Groups with LTI Pro

The following permissions are necessary when configuring LTI Pro for Canvas:

• The course role needs the permission Manage Groups selected in order to add/delete/manage groups in Canvas.
• The course role needs the permission Groups - view all student groups selected in order to view the group home pages of all student groups.
• The course role needs the permission Users - view list selected in order to view group information.

1. In a new browser tab, navigate to the LTI Pro app.
2. Click Manage, then click Configure.
3. Next to the desired LTI credentials, click Edit.
4. Click the 3rd Party Credentials tab.
5. In the left navigation, click LTI Canvas.
6. Enable  Allow LMS Course Groups In Zoom Meetings.
   Note: You will not be able to enable the Canvas Group Feature until Calendar and/or Conversation are enabled.
7. Under Enforce Scopes, ensure that the following scopes have been added:
   • URL:GET|api/v1/groups/:group_id/users
   • URL:GET|api/v1/courses/:course_id/groups
8. Click Save.

How to add the Group Scope to Canvas

In order to configure LTI Pro with the Canvas Group feature, modifications need to be made to the existing API Canvas developer key. The steps below assume that an API key has already been created and configured to LTI Pro when configuring the Calendar and Conversation feature for Canvas.

1. Log into Canvas as an administrator, and navigate to Developer Keys.
2. Find and edit the API key associated with your LTI Pro application.
3. Locate Groups within the list of scopes.
4. Enable Groups and all associated subscopes under Groups.
5. Click Save.

Using the Group integration

Once the group feature has been enabled, a Group column will be added to the tables under the Upcoming Meetings, Previous Meetings, and Cloud Recordings tabs. On the meeting details page, when an instructor schedules a meeting, there will be two group selectors displayed. Each will contain a list of all the groups within the course.

Adding a group to the Add Groups selector gives that group a calendar event and/or a conversation message about that meeting.

Note: that students are not able to see group meetings or information within LTI (see Requirements and Limitations).

Adding a group to the Add Viewers selector gives that group a conversation message about the recording when the course has enabled the Publish All setting.

Note: Due to the recording passcode is not shared in the conversation, the recording passcode will need to be sent to the students separately or Embed passcode in the shareable link for one-click access enabled at the account or group level.

The group integration is compatible with the section integration. When both of these features are enabled at the same time, a Section or Group column will be added to the tables on the Upcoming Meetings, Previous Meetings, and Cloud Recordings tabs. Additionally, on the meeting details page, the drop-down fields will have options to select sections or groups.

Note: Students will see a  Section column instead and if they have the ability to schedule meetings, and the drop-down fields will only contain sections.