LtiResourceLinkRequest requires roles claim and must contain at least one role URI from the published role vocabularies.
IMS 1.3 spec lists 3 role vocabularies (link ) but does NOT limit their use to specific conditions.
System roles
Institution roles
Context roles
Spec further subdivides each of these into core and non-core URIs.
In the launch claim example in the spec (link ), the roles claim contains 3 array elements, 1 from institution roles and 2 from context roles.
Claims in example link request from spec
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/deployment_id":
"07940580-b309-415e-a37c-914d387c1150",
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/message_type": "LtiResourceLinkRequest",
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/version": "1.3.0",
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"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/roles": [
"http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/institution/person#Student",
"http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/membership#Learner",
"http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/membership#Mentor"],
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"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/role_scope_mentor": [
"fad5fb29-a91c-770-3c110-1e687120efd9",
"5d7373de-c76c-e2b-01214-69e487e2bd33",
"d779cfd4-bc7b-019-9bf1a-04bf1915d4d0"
],
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/context": {
"id": "c1d887f0-a1a3-4bca-ae25-c375edcc131a",
"label": "ECON 1010",
"title": "Economics as a Social Science",
"type": ["http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/course#CourseOffering"]
},
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/resource_link": {
"id": "200d101f-2c14-434a-a0f3-57c2a42369fd",
"description": "Assignment to introduce who you are",
"title": "Introduction Assignment"
},
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/tool_platform": {
"guid": "ex/48bbb541-ce55-456e-8b7d-ebc59a38d435",
"contact_email": "support@platform.example.edu",
"description": "An Example Tool Platform",
"name": "Example Tool Platform",
"url": "https://platform.example.edu",
"product_family_code": "ExamplePlatformVendor-Product",
"version": "1.0"
},
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/target_link_uri":
"https://tool.example.com/lti/48320/ruix8782rs",
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/launch_presentation": {
"document_target": "iframe",
"height": 320,
"width": 240,
"return_url": "https://platform.example.edu/terms/201601/courses/7/sections/1/resources/2"
},
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/custom": {
"xstart": "2017-04-21T01:00:00Z",
"request_url": "https://tool.com/link/123"
},
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/lis": {
"person_sourcedid": "example.edu:71ee7e42-f6d2-414a-80db-b69ac2defd4",
"course_offering_sourcedid": "example.edu:SI182-F16",
"course_section_sourcedid": "example.edu:SI182-001-F16"
} Open edX implementation In the implementation here , we see 2 kinds of available mappings:
LTI_1P3_ROLE_MAP
LTI_1P3_CONTEXT_ROLE_MAP
Roles mapping in Open edX
LTI_1P3_ROLE_MAP = {
'staff': [
'http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/system/person#Administrator',
'http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/institution/person#Instructor',
],
'instructor': [
'http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/institution/person#Instructor',
],
'student': [
'http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/institution/person#Student'
],
'guest': [
'http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/institution/person#Student'
],
}
# Context membership roles
# https://www.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/v1p3/#lis-vocabulary-for-context-roles
LTI_1P3_CONTEXT_ROLE_MAP = {
'staff': [
'http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/membership#Administrator',
],
'instructor': [
'http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/membership#Instructor',
],
'student': [
'http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/membership#Learner',
],
} The following table is generated by performing launch of IMS global test suite with different course roles in Open edX.
Note that LTI_1P3_CONTEXT_ROLE_MAP does NOT seem to be used in roles claim at all.
Current URIs in roles claim
Current URIs in roles claim
Course Admin
/institution/person#Instructor (non-core)
Course Staff
/system/person#Administrator (core)
/institution/person#Instructor (non-core)
Limited Staff
/system/person#Administrator (core)
/institution/person#Instructor (non-core)
None
/institution/person#Student (core)
All other roles
/institution/person#Student (core)
This raises a few problems.
Problems 1. Limited support for core roles The spec states:
Core should support may use non-core
However, as we see in the table above, very few core roles are used. For example, Course Admin is mapped to only 1 role and that too is non-core.
2. Integration failure: TurnItIn Abstract Technology , an Open edX partner, tried integration with TurnItIn. They learned from the team at TurnItIn that the tool is looking for /membership#Learner in role claim in the LTI request with student role. But the platform’s request ONLY contains /institution/person#Student. So the launch fails.
Launch claims in IMS LTI 1.3 LtiResourceLinkRequest from Open edX Ulmo
{
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/message_type": "LtiResourceLinkRequest",
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/version": "1.3.0",
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/deployment_id": "1",
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/target_link_uri": "https://lti-ri.imsglobal.org/lti/tools/5878/launches",
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/roles": [
"http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/institution/person#Student"
],
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/resource_link": {
"id": "block-v1:edx+LTI101+2026+type@lti_consumer+block@cf1b149fc06d4bf2b568e626bb09415e"
},
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/launch_presentation": {
"document_target": "iframe"
},
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/context": {
"id": "course-v1:edx+LTI101+2026",
"type": [
"http://purl.imsglobal.org/vocab/lis/v2/course#CourseOffering"
],
"title": "LTI testing - aayub - edx",
"label": "course-v1:edx+LTI101+2026"
},
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/tool_platform": {
"guid": "76834479-ae8b-5249-a190-842b90f777ee",
"name": "Ulmo"
},
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti/claim/custom": {
"quiz_id": "az-123",
"duedate": "2026-02-08T07:09:21+00:00"
},
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti-ags/claim/endpoint": {
"scope": [
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti-ags/scope/lineitem",
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti-ags/scope/result.readonly",
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti-ags/scope/score"
],
"lineitems": "https://ulmo.openedx.io/api/lti_consumer/v1/lti/7/lti-ags",
"lineitem": "https://ulmo.openedx.io/api/lti_consumer/v1/lti/7/lti-ags/11"
},
"https://purl.imsglobal.org/spec/lti-nrps/claim/namesroleservice": {
"context_memberships_url": "https://ulmo.openedx.io/api/lti_consumer/v1/lti/7/memberships",
"service_versions": [
"2.0"
]
}
} Proposed solution Following the spec, we should include at least core roles from all 3 vocabularies in the roles claim. This will enable TurnItIn integration and avoid potential problems with other tools.
Here’s the proposed new mapping. Including a non-core role /institution/person#Instructor will include backwards compatibility incase any tools have already adopted to Open edX’s use of this role.
System
/system/person#Administrator
/system/person#None
Institution
/institution/person#Administrator
/institution/person#Staff
/institution/person#Faculty
/institution/person#Student
/institution/person#Guest
/institution/person#Other
/institution/person#None
/institution/person#Instructor (non-core)
Membership
/membership#Administrator
/membership#Instructor
/membership#Mentor
/membership#ContentDeveloper
/membership#Learner
Another view for proposed mapping.
Proposed URIs in roles claim
Proposed URIs in roles claim
Course Admin
/system/person#Administrator (System - core)
/institution/person#Administrator (Institution - core)
/membership#Administrator (Membership - core)
/institution/person#Instructor (Institution - non-core)
Course Staff
/system/person#None (System - core)
/institution/person#Staff (Institution - core)
/institution/person#Faculty (Institution - core)
/membership#Instructor (Membership - core)
/system/person#Administrator (core)
/institution/person#Instructor (Institution - non-core)
Limited Staff
/system/person#None (System - core)
/institution/person#Staff (Institution - core)
/institution/person#Faculty (Institution - core)
/membership#Instructor (Membership - core)
/system/person#Administrator (core)
/institution/person#Instructor (Institution - non-core)
None
/system/person#None (System - core)
/institution/person#Student (Institution - core)
/membership#Learner (Membership - core)
All other roles
/system/person#None (System - core)
/institution/person#Student (Institution - core)
/membership#Learner (Membership - core)