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Manual Kialo LTI Setup Documentation

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The Kialo plugin for Moodle is the easiest way for institutions to integrate Kialo Edu in the Moodle platform. For other LTI-compliant platforms, or institutions unable to use the Kialo plugin on Moodle, you can integrate Kialo as an LTI tool via various methods outlined in this article.

Please note:

  • Only the EDU version of Kialo (kialo-edu.com) supports LTI integration into LMS platforms.
  • Only LTI 1.3 is supported (earlier versions such as LTI 1.0 or LTI 1.1 are not supported).
  • Currently, only Moodle is supported by the Kialo LTI. Support for other LMS is scheduled to be released in December 2023.
  • When accessing a discussion via LTI, students are automatically assigned the Writer role, while teachers are assigned the Admin role.

Tip: The guides provided below for Moodle should be similar to other LMS.

Adding Kialo as an External Tool

There are multiple methods to add Kialo as an external tool to Moodle, depending on whether you are an Administrator on Moodle. If you are an Administrator, you can register Kialo as an external tool via dynamic registration (recommended) or register Kialo as an external tool manually. If you are not an Administrator, you can register Kialo as an external course specific tool. 

1a. Admins: Registering Kialo as external tool via dynamic registration (LTI 1.3)

Summary: To configure Kialo via dynamic registration, the endpoint that should be called by the user is https://www.kialo-edu.com/lti/dynreg.

Moodle dynamic registration walkthrough:

  1. In your Moodle instance, navigate to Site administration -> Plugins -> External Tool -> Manage tools. If your instance supports dynamic registration, the Add LTI Advantage button should appear, similar to the image below. (If the Add LTI Advantage button does not appear, see the next section.)
  2. Enter https://www.kialo-edu.com/lti/dynreg as the Tool URL and click Add LTI Advantage. Once the redirection is finished you should be back on the previous page and Kialo Edu appears as a configured tool.
  3. Click the Activate button next to Kialo Edu to activate it as an external tool.
  4. (Recommended) To provide a more seamless experience for course instructors and students, open the tools settings page for Kialo Edu. Configure the “Tool configuration usage” option to “Show in activity chooser and as a preconfigured tool” and “Default launch container” to “New window” as shown in the image below, then Save.
  5. Done!  You can recommend educators view the Creating a New Kialo Activity section on how to add a Kialo activity in their course.

1b. Admins: Registering Kialo as external tool manually

In older versions of Moodle (or other LMS) that don’t support dynamic registration, you can configure the required endpoints manually. 

Moodle manual registration walkthrough:

  1. In your Moodle instance, navigate to Site administration -> Plugins -> External Tool -> Manage tools. 
  2. Click configure a tool manually.
  3. Fill the Tool Settings section using the values below:
    1. Tool name: Pick any name you would like Kialo to appear as in your LMS, such as “Kialo Edu”.
    2. Tool URL: https://www.kialo-edu.com/
    3. Tool description: Pick a descriptive description for teachers to see. 
      1. The description provided by default during dynamic registration is: “Perfect for class discussions and argumentative reasoning, online debates are easy with Kialo Edu!”
    4. LTI version: LTI 1.3
    5. Public key type: Keyset URL
    6. Public keyset: https://www.kialo-edu.com/lti/jwks.json
    7. Initiate login URL: https://www.kialo-edu.com/lti/start
    8. Redirection URL(s): https://www.kialo-edu.com/lti/launch
    9. Tool configuration usage: Show in activity chooser and as a preconfigured tool (optional but recommended)
    10. Default launch container: New window (optional but recommended)
    11. Check “Supports Deep Linking”
    12. Content Selection URL: https://kialo-edu.com/lti/deeplink
  4. In the Privacy section, configure the following: (read more)
    1. Share launcher’s name with tool: Always
    2. Share launcher’s email with tool: Always
  5. Once finished, your form should look similar to the image below. Click the Save changes button when ready.
  6. Done! You can recommend educators view the Creating a New Kialo Activity section on how to add a Kialo activity in their course.

Regarding privacy settings: The launcher’s name and email are required in order to automatically provide an account for students who do not yet have a Kialo account, and set the username of the provisioned account to be the same as the one used by the student in Moodle. Students are not able to participate in discussions without an account and this process is necessary to provide a seamless experience without students having to actively register themselves. After one account is created for a student, the same account will be reused whenever a discussion activity in Moodle is accessed.

2. Teachers: Registering Kialo as External Course Specific Tool

If you would like to use Kialo as a tool in your Moodle course but Kialo has not yet been registered as a tool by your Moodle administrator, you can register Kialo as a course specific tool. 

If this is your first time adding Kialo as a course specific tool on Moodle:

  1. In Moodle, navigate to your course, access Edit Mode and open the Add an activity or resource window displayed below.
  2. Click External tool to open the Adding a new External tool page.
  3. Add an Activity Name, such as “Kialo discussion about Shakespeare”.
  4. Click the + to the right of the “Preconfigured tool” menu. 
  5. Fill out the External tool configuration form using the values below. See the screenshot below to double-check your form.
    1. In the Tool Settings section:
      1. Tool name: Kialo
      2. Tool URL: https://www.kialo-edu.com/
      3. LTI version: LTI 1.3
      4. Public keyset: https://www.kialo-edu.com/lti/jwks.json
      5. Initiate login URL: https://www.kialo-edu.com/lti/start
      6. Redirection URI(s): https://www.kialo-edu.com/lti/launch
      7. Default launch container: New window 
      8. Check “Supports Deep Linking”
    2. In the Privacy section:
      1. Share launcher’s name with tool: Always
      2. Share launcher’s email with tool: Always
  6. Click Save changes.
  7. Click Select Content, then select the discussion to use for the Kialo activity.
  8. Save the activity. Kialo has now been registered as a course specific tool! 

After registering Kialo as a course specific tool, to add a new Kialo activity:

  1. Open your Moodle course and enable Edit mode.
  2. Click Add an activity or resource in the appropriate topic.
  3. Select External tool. 
  4. Add an Activity Name, such as “Kialo discussion about Shakespeare”.
  5. Choose Kialo in the “Preconfigured tool” dropdown.
  6. In the Preconfigured tool menu, select Kialo.
  7. Click Select Content. A new window should open showing you all of your discussions on your Kialo account.
    1. If this button is grayed out, refresh the page, ensure Kialo is still selected as the Preconfigured tool, and click Select Content again.
    2. In case your browser blocks the automatic pop up, follow the instructions on the page to return to the previous window.
  8. Select the name of the discussion you want to embed, then click Select Discussion.
  9. Adjust any further settings if required, then click the appropriate Save button.

Creating a new Kialo activity

After Kialo has been added as an external tool to your Moodle instance, to create a Kialo activity:

  1. Open your Moodle course and enable Edit mode.
  2. Click Add an activity or resource in the appropriate topic.
    1. Next, select Kialo if it appears and add an Activity name. (This requires Kialo to have been configured to “Show in activity chooser and as a preconfigured tool“ by Moodle administrators.) 
    2. Otherwise, select External tool. Add an Activity name, then choose Kialo in the “Preconfigured tool” dropdown. 
  3. Click Select Content. A new window should open showing you all of your discussions on your Kialo account.
    1. Note: In case your browser blocks the automatic pop up, follow the instructions on the page to return to the previous window.
  4. Select the name of the discussion you want to embed, then click Select Discussion. The tab will close automatically, returning you to Moodle. 
  5. Adjust any further settings if required, then click the appropriate Save button.

How accounts are managed

For Teachers

Teachers accessing Kialo via LTI need to be signed in on Kialo Edu (https://kialo-edu.com) in order to use the activity. If they are already signed in to Kialo Edu, they can immediately use the LTI activity. Otherwise, they are prompted to log in (or create an account) the first time they click on “Select content”, or when opening an already configured Kialo activity. 

For Students

Students who access Kialo via an LTI activity are usually automatically provided with a Kialo account with the same email address as provided by the LMS. The exact behavior depends on whether an account with the same email address already existed previously and some other factors.

Generally, if no Kialo account with the student’s email address has existed previously, a new account will be automatically created and the student is automatically signed into that account whenever they access Kialo via LTI. Subsequently, in most cases students won’t receive a login prompt.

If a Kialo account with the student’s email address has already existed before accessing Kialo via LTI, the student is prompted to log into that account by entering their password. Once they have entered their password, the account is linked to the LMS, so that the next time they access Kialo via LTI they are automatically signed in (even if they have been logged out of https://kialo-edu.com or if they access it via LTI on a different computer). 

For security reasons, the student may be prompted to re-enter their password in certain circumstances, e.g. when they add or change an authentication method on their Kialo account.

Student Account Provisioning Details

When accounts are automatically created during the LTI process, their Kialo username is derived from the LMS account details. If still available, the Kialo account will have the same username as the account in the LMS. If the name is not available or invalid in Kialo, a valid account name will automatically be generated based on the student’s full name.

For provisioned student accounts, the Kialo terms and conditions are implicitly accepted, without the students having to explicitly check any checkboxes.

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