Ilias

From Bazaar Wiki

1 Type of application / System Requirements
2 Purpose
3 What it does
4 How can it be used for creation of OERs
5 How can it be used for consumption of OERs
6 How can it be used for reuse of OERs
7 License support
8 Standards / Compatibility
9 HOW TO USE IT
10 Links / examples / Who is using it
11 Sandbox
12 Comments / Discussion

Type of application / System Requirements

ILIAS is an open source Learning Management System running as a server application. Operation system of the web server can be Unix, Linux, Mac OSX or Windows. Server's system requirements are

Apache web server
PHP 5 (since ILIAS 3.8) including support for GD (jpeg, png, gif), DOM, XSL, MySQL and PEAR packages Auth, DB and HTML_Template_IT
MySQL database
ImageMagick
Info-Zip and Info-Unzip

For some optional ILIAS features additional libraries are necessary:

SCORM 2004: If you plan to use SCORM 2004 support, you will need MySQL 4.1 or higher and the PHP JSON extension.
Link Checker: PEAR package HTTP_Request
SOAP Authentication: PEAR::Auth 1.3.0 or higher
CAS Authentication: PEAR::Auth 1.3.0 or higher, PHP 4.3.1 or higher with CURL 7.5 or higher
Radius Authentication: PEAR::Auth_Radius 1.0.5 or higher
LDAP Authentication: PEAR::Auth 1.4.0 or higher. Optional: PEAR:Log 1.9.11 for extended authentication infos in the ILIAS log file.
Internet compliant E-Mail addresses: PEAR::Mail 1.1.14 or higher.

Please check the ILIAS Information Center for the current status of requirements: http://www.ilias.de/docu/goto.php?target=pg_6531_367&client_id=docu

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Purpose

ILIAS is a flexible and multifunctional learning management system that integrates tools for learning, teaching, collaboration, communication, assessment and evaluation in one environment. It can be used in all fields of e-learning but is often utilised in bigger institutions like universities and enterprises. ILIAS is not focused on a specific didactical approach. Unlike most LMS from anglo-saxon countries, ILIAS is not course-centered (even if it has a powerful course management) but follows the repository concept where all learning contents and services are presented in a "world of knowledge". Depending from their permissions users can put these resources on their personal desktop which is their individual workspace in the system. Therefore ILIAS combines ideas of LMS and PLE.

ILIAS is available as open source software under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Universities, educational institutions, private and public companies, and every interested person may use the system free of charge and contribute to its further development.

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What it does

ILIAS is probably one of the most flexible Learning Management Systems on the market. With its internal permission management a range of learning scenarios can be realized. Hierarchical institutions have the possibility to map their organizational structure to the system but it can also be used as an open learning materials repository where every user may contribute content to the site.

ILIAS offers the following features and services that can be used to support learning, teaching and content creation scenarios:

Every user in ILIAS has his or her own Personal Desktop. It collects all resources, that are needed by the learning to fulfill the daily learning tasks. The personal desktop features News, Personal Messages, Learning Resources, Personal Notes, Bookmarks, External Web Feeds and other information. The learner can re-arrange these blocks of information according to his needs.
ILIAS allows efficient creation of courses and course materials. It offers standardized tools and templates for the learning and working process including integrated navigation and administration.
Groups in ILIAS allow cooperative learning and working on the platform without additional tools. Learning groups, working groups or groups for certain fields of interest could be contructed. Groups can use all ILIAS tools like forums or file sharing. Users can create groups that are open for everyone or have specially defined access restrictions, e.g. access with a password.
ILIAS offers multiple ways to deliver learning content. All types of document files can be uploaded, SCORM 2004, 1.2 and AICC are supported. ILIAS includes an internal authoring environment to create XML-based learning modules, that can include images, flash, applets and other web media files. It is possible to create glossaries and reuse term definitions within other learning modules.
ILIAS offers an integrated enviroment for the creation and enforcement of tests & assessments. This can be used for the monitoring of learning progress by the users as well as the tutors and examiners. ILIAS Test & Assessment supports multiple choice, single choice, allocation questions, cloze questions (free text, select box), ordering, matching, hot spot and more question types.
The system supports standard ways of communication as chats, forums and mails. The personal desktop includes an awareness function, that shows users, that are currently online. ILIAS also sends information via RSS to the user and displays external RSS feeds in the system.
Beside RSS support, ILIAS offers the ability to manage podcasts. To create a podcast is as easy as uploading a audio file to the web. The author decides whether items are available throuh the web, or within the LMS only.
In ILIAS you can use surveys to easily collect information from a large number of users, for example to evaluate courses or other events. ILIAS surveys are easy to create and administer, even for non-experienced users. With a sufficient basis of survey questions, teachers could create their own evaluations fast and efficient.

Due to its complexity and multitude of features, it needs a little bit of time to learn to use it. But once you have become an experienced user it will offer you great flexibility to realize a wide range of learning experiences.

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How can it be used for creation of OERs

ILIAS has an integrated authoring system to create online web modules. These modules can be used in ILIAS or exported as XML file (to be reused in other ILIAS installations), HTML file or SCORM 1.2 package.

The role-based access control of ILIAS allows authors to publish all their learning resources in ILIAS to users outside the installation by granting permission to the anonymous user. Therefore ILIAS can also be used as a repository to publish and share OER.

Additionally, there is an Open Source third-party tool called eLAIX that allows you to convert OpenOffice.org text documents into ILIAS learning modules. You can find detailed information about using eLAIX in the HOW TO USE IT paragraph below.

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How can it be used for consumption of OERs

The built-in repository enables file storage and sharing so you can upload Open Educational Resources and share them within a group, with all registered users and also with the public. Moreover, it is possible to import OERs in HTML or SCORM/AICC formats.

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How can it be used for reuse of OERs

Reusing OERs requires that an appropriate copyleft license can be added to the particular resource. At the time, you can achieve that by manually adding copyright metadata to the resource but there is no automated mechanism to add Creative Commons licenses.

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License support

ILIAS offers creative commons support for all learning resources. Authors can assign the appropriate CC licence to a file, learning module or course. Also other licences can be added to the licence administration. These licence informations are stored in the rights section of the LOM metadata information of any resource.

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Standards / Compatibility

Content: ILIAS accomplishs the e-learning-standard SCORM 1.2 and first of all open-source-LMS, it achieves the maximum conformance level LMS-RTE3. The latest version 3.9 will be also conformant with SCORM 2004. It also supports LOM metadata standard, AICC and IMS-QTI.
Authentication: ILIAS supports several standard authentication methods like LDAP, Shibboleth, RADIUS and CAS
Syndication: ILIAS supports RSS external webfeeds in courses, groups or other resources and to deliver news about activities in ILIAS to feed readers.

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