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LTI Application · Project Management · Old Dominion University · United States

Online course production, tracked end-to-end inside the LMS

Initiation to invoice, tracked

Application Overview

Old Dominion University.

Old Dominion University’s Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) produces online courses for the university. We built a project-management LTI application for CLT director M’hammed Abdous to track the entire course-production process — integrated with ODU’s Canvas LMS and existing systems.

Outcomes at a Glance

End-to-endproduction tracking

LTICanvas-native embed

Init → invoiceone workflow

Kanban + listdashboards

The Brief

The challenge & our solution.

The challenge

Online course production ran across disconnected tools and spreadsheets — from agreement preparation to faculty invoices. CLT had no single place to track a course’s progress, assign staff, monitor tasks, or follow payments from initiation through completion and maintenance.

The solution

We engineered an LTI application embedded in the LMS that tracks the full course-production lifecycle: Kanban and list dashboards, project and task tracking, team and role management, questionnaires, templated email, review-and-approve flows and user activity — all integrated with Canvas LMS and CLT’s existing systems.

How It Works

How we delivered it.

01

LTI integration

Embedded the tool inside Canvas LMS via the LTI standard and wired it into CLT’s existing systems — single sign-on, no new logins.

02

Production tracking

Modeled the full lifecycle from initiation to completion, payment and maintenance, with Kanban and list dashboards.

03

Tasks & teams

Built project and task tracking, staff assignment, team management and role-based access for CLT.

04

Review & invoicing

Added questionnaires, templated email, review-and-approve and activity tracking through to faculty invoices.

Technology Stack

LTI 1.3Canvas LMSRuby on RailsKanban / TasksRole-based accessSystem integrations

Inside the Build

The complete walkthrough.

13 screens walk through the build end to end — pick a step, use the arrows, or play the tour.

  • 01Dashboard — Kanban viewCourse-production records move across stages on a Kanban board, so CLT can monitor work and keep every course progressing.
  • 02Dashboard — List viewThe same courses in a dense, sortable list — a different, detail-rich view of everything in production.
  • 03Projects listEvery course-production project in one place, filtered by category or search.
  • 04Project in detailA single project in depth — faculty, department, dates, budget, progress and milestones.
  • 05QuestionnaireStructured questionnaires capture faculty preferences and intent before production begins.
  • 06Team managementManagers delegate tasks, set checkpoints and keep the production team on track.
  • 07User role managementRole-based access controls who can reach confidential course and payment information.
  • 08Email templatePre-defined email layouts with reusable content and merge fields for production communications.
  • 09Adding a userInvite teammates by email to join a production team in seconds.
  • 10Notification preferencesEach user chooses which production notifications they receive, and how.
  • 11Project task pageTrack and manage a project and every task from initiation through to invoice.
  • 12Review & approveEvaluate a completed project against its goals and sign it off — or request changes.
  • 13Users activityA full activity trail of who did what across every project and task.

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Play tour

Enlarge

Dashboard — Kanban view

Course-production records move across stages on a Kanban board, so CLT can monitor work and keep every course progressing.

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The Result

Engineered for measurable impact.

From agreement preparation to faculty invoices, the entire online course-production process is tracked in one LMS-integrated application.

ODU-CLT · Project Management LTIBuilt and delivered by ZionStar

End-to-endproduction tracking

LTICanvas-native embed

Init → invoiceone workflow

Kanban + listdashboards

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