Legacy LTI Migration - Updated Roadmap
D2L is a strong champion of the IMS LTI specification and is heavily involved at the strategic and working group level. We know that there are many concerns and questions regarding the upcoming end of support of IMS of legacy LTI versions. We would like to take an opportunity to update our client and partners on our progress and roadmap for LTI 1.1 Migration.
After June 30. 2021, IMS no longer certified legacy versions of LTI and after June 2022 will no longer support legacy LTI implementations (1.1x -1.2 and 2.0). In light of this change, D2L will focus on support and improvement of LTI Advantage adherence, and will start the process of sunsetting legacy LTI versions. Currently, End of Life of legacy LTI tools is more than 6 months out and does not yet have a date. This means that clients can continue to use legacy LTI and legacy LTI tools in Brightspace for now. We want to support the migration of our client’s existing legacy LTI links to LTI Advantage in a flexible way, with empathy for the difficult change management that may be in store for them as they uplift or find alternatives to older tools that are now unsupported by IMS.
Migrations are being addressed using a phased approach with both Bulk and Course level Migration options planned.
Phase One : July 2020
Phase one migration is possible through a Brightspace API, released in July of 2020. Using the API, an individual LTI link can be migrated. For details, please see a description available in our documentation
Phase Two: June 2022
Phase two migration allows for link migration via Course Import – which follows Common Cartridge best practice from IMS. This feature is currently in client testing and was made generally available in the June 2022 release. For details, please see a description available in our documentation.
Setting up an LTI Advantage tool that matches the domain of the legacy 1.1 links, and is properly shared to where the course will be imported, will result in the legacy links being uplifted. All other legacy LTI links (i.e those with no matching LTI Advantage tool domain or available deployment to that org unit) will be untouched and continue to function as a 1.1 LTI link.
Phase Three: September 2022
Phase three migration is the addition of link migration via Course Copy and a new Migration Audit Log to track your progress on migrating legacy links. This is in our September release.
When courses are copied, similar to Import, legacy LTI links that have matching LTI Advantage tools (registration/deployment/sharing rules) will be uplifted to LTI 1.3. All other legacy LTI links with no match will be untouched and continue to function.
The Migration Audit Log will show at the org and course level, the migration jobs that have occurred, the links that were migrated or errored, and details on all link migrations to aid troubleshooting. In this release, it is an Org level permission only.
Also in this release, we will alter the user interface to refer to LTI 1.1 tool and links tabs as ‘Legacy’ and provide information about LTI migration process.
Phase Four: November 2022
Phase four migration will be the addition of a course specific migration trigger that can be used to uplift courses that will not go through a copy or import process, or to re-run courses after fixing issues or new tools are set up in LTI Advantage. This is currently in development and is scheduled for the November 2022 release. A migration audit Data Set will also be released to allow our customers to query data on LTI migration status. In phase four, course level permissions and a separation of 'manage migration' permission from 'view audit log' permissions will be available to allow instructors to run the migration for their courses, or to see their migration audit log. Setting up LTI Advantage tools and deployments remains an admin level task.
After phase four, we will take stock of outliers to any of these processes and consult with clients on how we can better support their unique migration needs for custom tools as necessary. We are meeting with partners that we know have different constraints on the migration to LTI 1.3. We cannot meet with all tool providers, and do recommend our clients contact their tool providers to understand how to migrate to LTI Advantage, and if there will be issues with that migration (changing tool domains, inability to have 1.1 and 1.3 options enabled at the same time).
End of Life
Any End of Life of the Legacy LTI tools will be announced through our typical EOL process and timelines. As it is more than 6 months out, we have no date to communicate at this time. D2L anticipates supporting our customers in their LTI migration journey for the next 2 years.
At D2L, we understand this transition will be impactful for our clients, and we want to emphasize that we are partners in this process with you. We have planned our migration to be iterative, flexible, and supportive of the wide range of legacy implementations that may exist. As our roadmap progresses, we will update this blog article.