ILIAS (software)

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ILIAD

Logo ILIAS.svg
Basic data

developer ILIAS open source e-learning e. V.
Current  version 5.4.14
(July 31, 2020)
Current preliminary version 6.1
(July 10, 2020)
operating system platform independent
programming language PHP
category Learning platform
License GPL ( free software )
German speaking Yes
www.ilias.de

ILIAS is free software for operating a learning platform , with the help of which internet-based teaching and learning materials (for e-learning ) are created and made available as well as communication and cooperation between teachers and learners, examinations and evaluation as well as didactic structures for complete courses can. The possibilities for using the software are also reflected in the name ILIAS, which stands as an abbreviation for Integrated Learning, Information and Work Cooperation System .

Origin and development

ILIAS has been published under the GNU General Public License since 2000 . The software is thus available to everyone for free use and further development. ILIAS can be operated entirely on the basis of open source components such as Apache server , MySQL or PostgreSQL database and PHP . Use with an Oracle database is also possible. ILIAS is the first open source LMS that supports the most important e-learning standards SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 and is XML- based from version 3 .

The software was developed in 1997/98 as part of the VIRTUS project at the WiSo Faculty of the University of Cologne at the chair for political theory and the history of ideas by Professor Wolfgang Leidhold . The goals of VIRTUS were to supplement classroom teaching through the use of new information and communication technologies (ICT), time and location-independent studying and improved communication between students and teachers.

Due to the great interest of other universities, ILIAS was published as open source software under the General Public License (GPL) in 2000 . Between 2002 and 2004, the technological basis was fundamentally redeveloped (modular, object-oriented, XML-based, RBAC ), which became effective from version 3.

The software development was carried out for many years by the cooperation network ILIAS open source , in which institutions (especially the academic sector) were involved. In 2009 the project was continued. Since then, the support and further development of the software has been in the hands of the ILIAS open source e-learning association. V., in which private individuals, companies, educational institutions and ILIAS service providers are involved. Software development coordinators are Matthias Kunkel and - since 2005 - Alexander Killing. Services and adaptation work are now also offered by commercial service companies.

use

Since 2000, ILIAS has been used as open source software at numerous universities, academies and further training institutions in various countries (status at the end of 2009: around 2500 known reference installations). Many companies and administrative organizations are now also using the platform for training and further education measures. Since 2006, NATO has also been using ILIAS as a learning platform. The Bavarian Police have been using ILIAS as an electronic learning platform (LP-Pol) since 2013 .

Community

ILIAS users organize themselves primarily via the ILIAS eV website. They are divided into so-called user groups and special interest groups.

ILIAS functionality

concept

In contrast to many learning platforms from the Anglo-Saxon region, ILIAS is not only focused on learning and working in courses. Rather, ILIAS is more oriented towards the idea of ​​the library and enables learning and working materials to be made available in all areas of the platform. Content can also be made accessible to non-registered users. There is also a shop system for marketing learning content.

personalization

ILIAS offers a number of options for individualizing the learning environment on the "personal desk", the workplace and information board of every user:

Personal desk in ILIAS
  • Display of occupied and selected courses, learning modules, forums, working groups, etc.
  • Management of the personal profile: password management, language selection for user guidance (28 languages)
  • Bookmark management
  • personal and public notes
  • individual compilation of RSS - web feeds
  • Appointment calendar and timetable
  • individual setting for receiving internal e-mails
  • individual learning progress report
  • public profile for providing personal information
  • personal portfolios and personal blogs
  • personal workspace for uploading your own files

The visual components of the “personal desk” can be individually adapted in terms of display, arrangement and level of detail.

Learning and course management

As a central element on an ILIAS installation, courses and groups offer numerous possibilities to support the course of courses, seminars or training courses:

  • Automated registration
  • Learning planning for courses
  • Time-controlled and test-sensitive release of learning materials
  • Learning goal-oriented provision of learning materials
  • Management of face-to-face events
  • Learning progress control for course members
  • collective addressing of course members via email
  • automatic and manual generation of notifications (news) on price-relevant events and topics
  • Calendar for managing appointments within a course (so-called sessions)

cooperation

There are several functions that are designed to promote collaboration and getting to know one another:

  • Group system
    • automatically generated member galleries
    • common appointment calendar
  • collaborative blogs where multiple users can post
  • Display of concurrent users ( awareness )
  • vCard (profile) including export
  • History and versioning of files for collaborative editing

communication

Various communication functions are available for establishing contact:

  • Integrated mail system (file attachments, mailing to external addresses)
  • Creation of bulk mails to group and course members
  • Chat with chat rooms for courses and groups, as well as public chat rooms
  • Forums (moderation function, file attachments, notification of new / answered posts, export, forum statistics)
  • Mediacasts , so far for the formats MP3 , Flash , GIF and PNG
  • Interfaces to virtual classrooms (commercial and open source third-party software, e.g. OpenMeetings )

Test and survey

With the help of tests , learners can receive an assessment of their knowledge, be examined or prepared for exams. The ILIAS test system is also used for online exams at various universities:

  • Different question types ( multiple choice , fill in the blank test including error tolerance , numerical question, text subset, assignment and arrangement tasks with drag-and-drop support, image map , free text questions, imported Java applets )
  • Reuse the questions from pools
  • automatic random selection of questions
  • QTI interface for accepting externally created questions
  • Definition of processing options such as processing time, permitted attempts, etc.
  • Freely configurable grading schemes including ECTS information
  • differentiated evaluation of results (including export)
  • Online check with computer station control and supervisory function

An integrated survey instrument is also available, which also offers various reusable and importable question types and a differentiated result evaluation, as well as:

  • Creation of adaptive questionnaires
  • also for anonymous public surveys

Competence management

As of version 4.2, ILIAS also offers a competence management system that allows both the self-assessment of a user and external assessments by colleagues:

  • Creation and management of competencies and hierarchical competence structures
  • Templates for the quick adoption of competence grids
  • Self-assessment
  • External assessment via survey with 360 ° feedback
  • Comparison of self and external assessment in a network diagram
  • Creation and administration of job profiles with learning recommendations for each skill level

Authoring

Integrated authoring environment

ILIAS offers an integrated authoring environment with the help of which learning materials can be compiled from text and multimedia elements into web-based training units ( WBTs ):

  • XML-based, optional JavaScript support
  • Import from Open Office
  • Export ( XML , HTML , SCORM 1.2)
  • Standard formats (" stylesheets ")
  • LaTeX support, e.g. B. for formula display
  • internal links to other learning objects
  • automatic checking of external hyperlinks
  • Print and download function for learners
  • Metadata support on all content levels in accordance with the LOM standard

Integrated SCORM editor

From version 4.0 ILIAS also offers an integrated editor for creating learning modules from SCORM 1.2 and 2004, 3rd Edition. The most important features support the requirements of interoperability, especially the adaptation / further processing of created content by third parties:

  • supports style sheets (several possible, integrated editor)
  • editable page templates (use optional)
  • editable table templates (use optional)
  • integrated question types (export with learning module)
  • Standalone glossary (export with learning module)
  • Export as SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004, HTML and ISO
  • Exported SCORM modules can be imported into other ILIAS installations as "editable" and further processed there.

Import of existing content

There are various import interfaces for SCORM -1.2-, SCORM-2004-, AICC and HTML-based learning modules for the provision of already existing content . ILIAS is certified as a Learning Management System ( LMS ) for SCORM Conformance Level LMS-RTE3 (1.2) and SCORM 2004 3rd Edition.

With the help of the eLAIX Open Office plug- in , learning modules can also be created and imported offline.

System administration functions

  • flexible role-based rights system ( RBAC )
    • global / local roles
    • automatically generated local forum, chat, group and course roles
    • Roll templates
    • Inheritance of rights including possible interruption and role protection
  • Authentication options: CAS , LDAP , SOAP , RADIUS and Shibboleth
  • automatic password generation / sending
  • automatic role assignment according to email domain
  • flexible adaptation of the graphic design via templates / skins
  • Multi-tenancy
  • extensive web service interface ( SOAP )

ILIAS objects

The following object types can be created within an installation:

ILIAS magazine
Container objects
Category, folder, group, course
These objects can contain other ILIAS objects and control access to them. Various forms of presentation of this content can be selected within a course, such as learning goal-oriented view or learning planning view. With the object type meeting, face-to-face events can be mapped in a course or a group. Using the page editor, a category or course can be made like a simple web page to provide users with more information.
Learning objects
Forum, chat, blog, wiki, data collection (from 4.3), file, web links, web feed, mediacast / podcast, ILIAS learning module, HTML learning module, SCORM / AICC learning module, glossary, exercise, test, survey, booking pool, voting (from 4.3) , Literature list (from 4.4)
Pool objects
Media pool, pool of questions for test, pool of questions for survey
These objects can serve as containers for data such as pictures or films or even for questions so that they can be reused at any time.
Plugin objects
EtherpadLite, OpenMeetings, LiveVoting, flashcard training and more
These objects can be used in ILIAS using a plug-in. Some of these objects require third-party software. The ILIAS plugin database provides a detailed overview

All objects are created in ILIAS in the “magazine”. This metaphor for a library magazine, which comes from the library sector , contains a tree structure in which the ILIAS objects are stored and access to them is controlled via the rights system (similar to the root directory of a file system). Content objects can be stored as references in different places in the directory tree.

literature

  • Matthias Kunkel: The official ILIAS 4 practical book: Learning, working and communicating online together . 1st edition. Addison-Wesley, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-8273-2963-9 .
  • J. Henning, G. Dewal, M. Quenzer: ILIAS - The Open Source Learning Platform: Manual for users, lecturers and administrators . 2nd revised edition. uni-edition, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-937151-97-7 .
  • H. Weber, S. Zalewski, T. Kastenholz: E-learning in teaching: overview and example implementation with ILIAS . 1st edition. Grin Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-640-23836-1 .
  • J. v. Kiedrowski, M. Kunkel: Design of learning platforms as open source software using the example of the ILIAS platform . In: Dieter Euler, Sabine Seufert (Ed.): E-learning in universities and educational centers . Oldenbourg Verlag, 2005, ISBN 3-486-20008-9 , p. 437-451 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Software and hardware requirements for ILIAS - ILIAS website, accessed on February 10, 2014.
  2. ↑ Kiedrowski, Kunkel: Design of learning platforms as open source software using the example of the ILIAS platform. 2005, p. 446.
  3. ↑ Kunkel: The official ILIAS 4 practical book. 2011, p. 40 f.
  4. ↑ http://www.fhoed.de/fachhochschulen.htm Website of the member institutions of the Federal Working Group on Digital Teaching at the Universities of the Public Service in Germany, accessed on October 19, 2017
  5. ↑ ILIAS features . Information module on ILIAS website, accessed on February 10, 2014.
  6. ↑ ILIAS plug-in database