Single sign-on and LMS integration

SimChat can connect to your existing login and learning systems, so learners and staff don't need a separate SimChat password.

Single sign-on (SSO)

With SSO, your users sign in to SimChat through your organisation's own identity provider, using the credentials they already have. SimChat supports SAML 2.0, which works with most identity providers (such as Microsoft Entra ID, Okta and Google Workspace).

Benefits:

• Users sign in with their existing institutional account
• No separate SimChat password to manage or reset
• Access follows your normal joiner and leaver processes

LMS integration

SimChat supports LTI 1.3, the standard used by learning management systems such as Moodle, Canvas and Blackboard. Once it's set up, you can add SimChat to a course in your LMS, and learners launch straight into SimChat from there - already signed in.

How people get the right role

When someone arrives through SSO or your LMS for the first time, SimChat creates their account automatically. Their SimChat role comes from a role mapping agreed during setup:

• Students are mapped to the learner role and can start practising straight away
• Staff are usually held in a pending approval queue. Administrators see them on the Staff page and approve each person with the right role (viewer, assessor, author or administrator) and, for authors and assessors, the cohorts they'll staff. The person is emailed when they're approved.

This means you never need to guess in advance which staff member should get which permissions - your identity system says who is staff, and you decide their exact role in SimChat.

Enrolling learners into cohorts from LMS courses

With LMS integration, you can link a SimChat cohort to one or more of your LMS courses (when creating or editing the cohort, under Linked LMS courses). Learners who launch SimChat from a linked course are added to that cohort automatically, so course-restricted scenarios just work - no invite links needed. See Creating and managing cohorts.

Setting it up

Because SSO and LMS integration depend on your own systems, we configure them with you rather than through a self-service screen.

To get started, contact the SimChat team. We'll let you know exactly what's needed, which is usually:

• For SSO: the details of your SAML identity provider (and we'll share SimChat's in return)
• For LMS: the LTI 1.3 connection details for your LMS, plus how your LMS reports who is a student and who is staff (so we can set up the role mapping above)

It's best to arrange this as part of your rollout. See Preparing to deploy SimChat.

Updated on: 11/07/2026