In “Community Stories: People. Projects. Practice”, we provide insights into the many possible uses of ILIAS. Whether university, company or organization: our community shows how individually ILIAS can be used. Together we highlight inspiring stories and plans for the future, challenges and success stories - from innovative teaching concepts to impressive projects realized by ILIAS. From you, for you. Today, Jesús Copado from SURLABS gives us an exciting insight into the development possibilities of artificial intelligence in ILIAS and shows us that we can consider the potential of this so-called “danger” in the education sector too.

Alina:

Hi Jesús, thank you for taking the time for this interview. Why don't you start by telling us who you are and what makes you so special as an ILIAS service provider?

Jesús:

Hello! Thank you for having us.

We are proud to be the youngest and southernmost ILIAS service provider. I bring over a decade of experience as an ILIAS developer and manager at the University of Erlangen. After returning to my hometown, Dos Hermanas in Spain, I teamed up with my colleagues Juan and Dani to create SURLABS.

Although we are a small team of five developers, we are deeply passionate about software development and dedicated to integrating cutting-edge technologies into ILIAS. Our focus right now is leveraging the power of AI to enhance ILIAS, ensuring it remains competitive with both open-source and commercial LMS platforms. We’re confident that we’re on the right track to achieving this vision.

Alina:

That sounds very promising indeed. Do you have any examples of innovative functions or approaches that you have developed specifically for ILIAS?

Jesús:

We have. We take pride in supporting the ILIAS community by maintaining and enhancing tools that are essential for many users. For example, we ensure the ongoing development of STACK, the most advanced question type for creating STEM assessments in both ILIAS and Moodle, we have created Whiteboard, a collaborative real-time whiteboard designed specifically for ILIAS and some others plugins.

Beyond developing new features, we actively contribute by maintaining critical components like the LTI integration and revitalizing previously unmaintained plugins, such as LiveVoting and Panopto. By doing so, we help ensure that ILIAS users do not lose access to valuable functionalities, strengthening the platform for the entire community.

Alina:

You said that your focus is on the use of AI. Have you already connected artificial intelligence with ILIAS? And if so, how can we visualise this?

Jesús:

Yes, we are actively connecting AI with ILIAS. At the ILIAS Süd Meeting in Fürth in December 2023, we showcased our AIChat Plugin plugin, a repository object plugin for ILIAS. This plugin allows users to create chat rooms where they can interact with a Large Language Model (LLM), such as GPT or LLaMA.

We are continuously refining this plugin and exploring its potential. Our next milestone is to enable users to feed the LLM with specific content from ILIAS, allowing the chat to deliver more precise and context-aware feedback. This will greatly enhance the user experience by addressing their unique needs within the platform.

Alina:

So we can remain excited. Artificial intelligence is now commonplace in many areas and it's hard to imagine life without it. Do you have more planned?

Jesús:

We are deeply concerned about the challenges posed by fake news and misinformation. To address this, we are actively researching ways to use AI for automatic fact-checking of digital content. Our aim is to develop a reliable tool that helps users verify the authenticity of news and other information found online.

In addition, we are exploring innovative ways to integrate this fact-checking tool into the digital education sector. By doing so, we hope to empower educators and learners with resources to critically evaluate information, fostering a more informed and discerning approach to digital content.

Alina:

That sounds really exciting. I very much hope that you succeed and that we can soon hope for even more AI in the education sector - taking into account the possible risks.

By the way, there was a very informative keynote on the topic of AI in further education at the ILIAS Conference 2024 in Graz. For those of you who are interested in why AI can also be beneficial for the education sector, you can watch the recording of Irmgard Hoislbauer's talk on our YouTube channel.

Back to you, Jesús. Thank you very much for taking the time for this interview. We are and remain excited to see what your young company has in store for the ILIAS community in the future and who knows, maybe one day we'll see you at an ILIAS conference in Spain!