Does Moodle Support LTI® 1.3?
The short answer
Yes. Moodle supports LTI® 1.3 and the LTI® Advantage services, and supports dynamic registration, which makes setup a matter of pasting one URL.
Moodle's own documentation covers the External tool activity and publishing Moodle as an LTI tool, alongside the specification from 1EdTech Consortium, Inc.
Moodle is usually the fastest platform to get a first launch working against, which is why it is worth being the one you develop with even if your customers are elsewhere.
How registration works
Two routes, both well supported:
- Dynamic registration. An administrator adds a new tool of type LTI Advantage and pastes a single URL. Everything else is exchanged automatically.
- Manual registration. An administrator creates an External tool and enters the values by hand, then the Moodle installation is registered on your side.
The naming is worth knowing because it differs between screens: Moodle calls the activity type External tool, while the LTI® 1.3 registration flow is presented as LTI Advantage. Both refer to the same standard.
Testing without your own Moodle
Moodle is open source and free to run, and there are public sandboxes available for testing. A commonly used one resets every 24 hours, which is fine for a launch test and unhelpful for anything longer-lived.
Moodle can also act as a platform launching other tools, which makes it a practical way to test both sides of an integration without paying for a commercial LMS.
Where it differs in practice
Moodle installations vary more than hosted platforms do, because institutions run their own and upgrade on their own schedules. An installation several major versions behind may not offer dynamic registration, and plugin configurations differ.
When something works against one Moodle and not another, the version and the installed plugins are the first things to compare.
Setting it up
The Moodle setup guide has the current step-by-step process, including screenshots of where each value goes.
Common questions
Does Moodle support LTI® Advantage?
Yes, including deep linking, grades and roster access. Availability on a specific installation depends on its version and configuration.
What is the difference between External Tool and LTI Advantage in Moodle?
They are the same standard under two labels. External tool is the activity type; LTI Advantage is how the 1.3 registration flow is presented.
Can Moodle launch tools as a platform?
Yes. Moodle can act as an LTI® platform as well as receive launches, which makes it useful for testing both sides.
