ILIAS
Encyclopedia
ILIAS is an open source
web-based learning management system
(LMS). It supports learning content management (including SCORM
2004 compliance) and tools for collaboration, communication, evaluation and assessment. The software is published under the GNU General Public License
and can be run on any server that supports PHP
and MySQL
.
. On November 2, 1998 version 1 of the learning management system ILIAS was published and offered for learning at the Cologne faculty of business administration, economics and social sciences. Due to increasing interest of other universities, the project team decided to publish ILIAS as open source software under the GPL in 2000. Between 2002 and 2004, a new ILIAS version was developed from scratch and called "ILIAS 3". In 2004, it became the first open source LMS that reached full SCORM
1.2 compliance. SCORM
2004 compliance has been reached with version 3.9 in November 2007.
(RBAC) of ILIAS. The repository is structured as tree with a root node and multiple levels. Each repository item is assigned to one node in the RBAC tree.
Official ILIAS communities
Bibliography
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
web-based learning management system
Learning management system
A learning management system is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, and reporting of training programs, classroom and online events, e-learning programs, and training content...
(LMS). It supports learning content management (including SCORM
SCORM
Sharable Content Object Reference Model is a collection of standards and specifications for web-based e-learning. It defines communications between client side content and a host system called the run-time environment, which is commonly supported by a learning management system...
2004 compliance) and tools for collaboration, communication, evaluation and assessment. The software is published under the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
and can be run on any server that supports PHP
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
and MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
.
History
ILIAS is one of the first Learning Management Systems that have been used in universities. A prototype has been developed since end of 1997 within the VIRTUS project at University of CologneUniversity of Cologne
The University of Cologne is one of the oldest universities in Europe and, with over 44,000 students, one of the largest universities in Germany. The university is part of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, an association of Germany's leading research universities...
. On November 2, 1998 version 1 of the learning management system ILIAS was published and offered for learning at the Cologne faculty of business administration, economics and social sciences. Due to increasing interest of other universities, the project team decided to publish ILIAS as open source software under the GPL in 2000. Between 2002 and 2004, a new ILIAS version was developed from scratch and called "ILIAS 3". In 2004, it became the first open source LMS that reached full SCORM
SCORM
Sharable Content Object Reference Model is a collection of standards and specifications for web-based e-learning. It defines communications between client side content and a host system called the run-time environment, which is commonly supported by a learning management system...
1.2 compliance. SCORM
SCORM
Sharable Content Object Reference Model is a collection of standards and specifications for web-based e-learning. It defines communications between client side content and a host system called the run-time environment, which is commonly supported by a learning management system...
2004 compliance has been reached with version 3.9 in November 2007.
ILIAS Concept
The idea behind ILIAS is to offer a flexible environment for learning and working online with integrated tools. ILIAS goes far beyond the idea of learning being confined to courses as a lot of other LMS do. ILIAS can rather be seen as a type of library providing learning and working materials and contents at any location of the repository. This offers the possibility to run ILIAS not as a locked warehouse but as an open knowledge platform where content might be made available for non-registered users too.Features
ILIAS offers a lot of features to design and run online-courses, create learning content, offer assessments and exercises, run surveys and support communication and cooperation among users.Personal Desktop
A general characteristic of ILIAS is the concept of Personal Desktop and Repository. While the Repository contains all content, courses and other materials structured in categories and described by metadata, the Personal Desktop is the individual workspace of each learner, author, tutor and administrator. The Personal Desktop contains selected items from the repository (e.g. currently visited courses or an interesting forum) as well as certain tools like mail, tagging, a calendar and also e-portfolio and personal blogs.- Listing of selected courses, groups and learning resources
- Personal profile and settings like password and system language
- Bookmark Management
- Personal Notes
- External Web Feeds
- Internal News
- Personal Workspace
- Blogs
- e-Portfolio
- Calendar
- Internal Mail
- Personal Learning Progress
Learning Content Management
Another important characteric of ILIAS is the repository. All learning content but also forums or chat rooms, tests and surveys, as well as plugged in virtual classrooms or other external tools are created, offered and administrated in the repository and its categories. Therefore it is not necessary to build up courses for offering learning content. ILIAS could also be used like a kind of knowledge base or website. Access to all repository item is granted by the role-based access controlRole-Based Access Control
In computer systems security, role-based access control is an approach to restricting system access to authorized users. It is used by the majority of enterprises with more than 500 employees, and can be implemented via mandatory access control or discretionary access control...
(RBAC) of ILIAS. The repository is structured as tree with a root node and multiple levels. Each repository item is assigned to one node in the RBAC tree.
- ILIAS offers four kinds of container for delivering content:
- Categories -
- Courses incl. member administration
- Groups incl. member administration
- Folders (within courses and groups)
- Container objects can be extended by using the page editor for adding text, images or videos to the page.
- All content objects are handled as references. They can be moved, copied or linked into other branches of the repository tree. A file that has already been uploaded can be linked multiple times in different courses and categories without being uploaded a second time.
Course Management
- Enrollment Settings
- Learning Resource Management
- Time triggered/Conditional Access
- Learning Progress Tracking for Members
- Member Gallery and (Google) Map
- Course News and Announcements
Cooperation
- Group Management
- Awareness Feature (who is online?)
- vCardVCardvCard is a file format standard for electronic business cards. vCards are often attached to e-mail messages, but can be exchanged in other ways, such as on the World Wide Web or Instant Messaging...
Export - File Sharing
- Wiki
Communication
- Internal Messaging
- Chat
- Forum
- Podcasting
- EtherpadEtherPadEtherpad is a web-based collaborative real-time editor, allowing authors to simultaneously edit a text document, and see all of the participants' edits in real-time, with the ability to display each author's text in their own color...
/ Edupad plugin
Test/Assessment
- Question Types: Multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks, numerical, matching, ordering, hot spot, essay
- Question Pools for re-using questions in different tests
- Randomization of questions and choices
- IMS-QTI Import and Export
- Online exams
- Learning progress control
Evaluation
- Personalised and anonymous surveys
- Question types: Multiple choice, matrix, open answer
- Poosl for question administration and re-use
- Online report analysis
- CSV and excel export of survey results
Learning Content / Authoring
- XML-based learning document format, exports to HTML, XML and SCORM
- SCORM 1.2 (Certified for SCORM-Conformance Level LMS-RTE3)
- SCORM 2004 (Certified as LMS for SCORM 2004 3rd Edition)
- AICC
- Open OfficeOpen officeOpen office may refer to:* OpenOffice.org, a free and open source suite of office productivity programs .* OpenOffice.org XML, a deprecated international file format used by earlier versions of OpenOffice.org....
Import Tool (eLAIX) - LaTeXLaTeXLaTeX is a document markup language and document preparation system for the TeX typesetting program. Within the typesetting system, its name is styled as . The term LaTeX refers only to the language in which documents are written, not to the editor used to write those documents. In order to...
-Support - HTML Site Import
- Wiki
- File Management (all formats)
Administration
- Role administration (global roles, local roles, role templates)
- User administration
- Authentication CASCentral Authentication ServiceThe Central Authentication Service is a single sign-on protocol for the web. Its purpose is to permit a user to access multiple applications while providing their credentials only once. It also allows web applications to authenticate users without gaining access to a user's security credentials,...
, LDAPLightweight Directory Access ProtocolThe Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is an application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol network...
, SOAPSOAPSOAP, originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks...
, RADIUSRADIUSRemote Authentication Dial In User Service is a networking protocol that provides centralized Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting management for computers to connect and use a network service...
and ShibbolethShibbolethA shibboleth is a custom, principle, or belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people, especially a long-standing one regarded as outmoded or no longer important... - Individual layout templates / skins
- Support for multiple clients
- PayPalPayPalPayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
payment - Didactic templates
- Statistics and learning progress administration
- SOAP Interface
External links
Official SiteOfficial ILIAS communities
- ILIAS.dk - Danish ILIAS site with automated online try-out installation
- ILIAS France - French ILIAS site
- ILIASuisse Swiss ILIAS community site
Bibliography
- Matthias Kunkel: Das offizielle ILIAS 4-Praxisbuch: Gemeinsam online lernen, arbeiten und kommunizieren. 1. Auflage. Addison-Wesley, München 2011, ISBN 978-3-8273-2963-9.