Administrator Setup Guide

This guide connects your LMS to PrepareBuddy. It needs two people for about 15 minutes: a PrepareBuddy organization administrator and an LMS administrator. Platform-specific clicks are in the Canvas, Moodle and Brightspace guides.

Step 1 — Open the LMS integration page in PrepareBuddy

Sign in to PrepareBuddy as an organization administrator and open /lti/manage/ (for example https://www.preparebuddy.com/lti/manage/). If you manage several organizations, pick the right one at the top — students who arrive from this LMS join that organization.

The page shows the exact addresses for your site. Always copy them from there; the examples below use https://www.preparebuddy.com.

Use the address exactly as shown, including www. https://preparebuddy.com redirects to https://www.preparebuddy.com, and an LMS launch cannot survive a redirect.

Step 2 — Connect with LTI 1.3 (recommended)

2a. Give your LMS these tool details

Turn on in the LMS: - Deep Linking (content selection) — lets teachers pick a test, quiz or assessment. - Assignment and Grade Services — lets PrepareBuddy send scores (scopes: score and line item). - Share the user's name and email with the tool ("public" privacy in Canvas, "Always" in Moodle).

2b. Register your LMS in PrepareBuddy

After you save the tool, your LMS shows its own details. Paste them into LTI 1.3 · step 2 on the PrepareBuddy page:

Click Register LMS. The endpoints must be https:// addresses.

Step 2 (alternative) — Connect with LTI 1.1

Only for an LMS without LTI 1.3.

1. On the PrepareBuddy page, under LTI 1.1, enter a name (e.g. "Moodle production") and click Create LTI 1.1 key. Copy the consumer key and shared secret straight away.
2. In your LMS, add an external tool with:
3. Launch / Tool URL: https://www.preparebuddy.com/lti/launch/
4. Consumer key and shared secret: from step 1
5. Configuration XML (if your LMS can read one, e.g. Canvas "By URL"): https://www.preparebuddy.com/lti/config/
6. Privacy: send the user's name, email and role; accept grades from the tool.
7. Keep the secret private. If it ever leaks, click New secret on the PrepareBuddy page and paste the new one into the LMS — the old one stops working immediately.

Step 3 — Try it in a sandbox course

Do this once before telling teachers:

1. As a teacher, add one PrepareBuddy test (or quiz) to a sandbox course as a graded assignment (Teacher Guide).
2. As a test student, open it. PrepareBuddy should open in a new tab, signed in, on that test.
3. Complete it.
4. Check the gradebook — the score should appear within about a minute.
5. As the teacher, open the assignment again: you should see the student marked Completed and In gradebook.
6. On the PrepareBuddy page, Recent gradebook deliveries shows the same delivery with the LMS's reply.

Who can do what

• Students who arrive from the LMS become members of your organization. PrepareBuddy never gives anyone a teacher or admin role because of their LMS role.
• An existing PrepareBuddy account is linked only when its email matches and it belongs to no other organization. PrepareBuddy staff accounts are never opened from an LMS.
• If you deactivate a student's membership in PrepareBuddy, they cannot get back in from the LMS until you reactivate it. (Removing the membership entirely lets them rejoin the next time they open a link — deactivate if you want to keep someone out.)

Turning it off

• LTI 1.3: Turn off next to the LMS registration.
• LTI 1.1: Turn off next to the key.

Launches stop immediately. Records of earlier launches and grades are kept.