Leibniz Universität Hannover (LUH) relies on a combination of Stud.IP and ILIAS to organise digital teaching and learning processes. Cornelis Kater is part of the e-learning team (ZQS/elsa) and not only has many years of experience, but also a clear vision for open, future-proof educational platforms. In this interview, he explains how the systems at LUH complement each other, what developments are currently underway - and also takes a look at the political framework conditions surrounding open source at universities.

Alina:

Dear Cornelis, thank you so much for taking the time out for this interview for our blog. We went over a couple of possible topics of discussion for this interview in advance - and touched upon some really interesting stuff. That's why we are not going to be only talking about your university, but are also going to cover some political topics. But to start, we will turn to your university, the Leibniz University Hannover.

You use both Stud.IP and ILIAS. Has that always been the case or did you introduce ILIAS later?

Cornelis:

That is a great question. We have had our e-learning service (elsa) at the Leibniz University Hannover since 2005. Back then we started with Stud.IP as a central learning management system for the university. In 2008 we introduced ILIAS as an additional LMS for online learning modules. The idea behind this was that Stud.IP (back then) supported classroom teaching with a wide range of digital tools, whereas ILIAS was used for scenarios such as blending learning and the provision of digital learning modules in depth. Nowadays, learning content can also be created in Stud.IP via courseware, but the platforms have very specific and sometimes complementary focuses, which are of great value to us as a large establishment.

Alina:

Can you go into a little more detail on that? How do you use ILIAS today and how comes you have retained this division?

Cornelis:

Currently, we are running three different instances of ILIAS. One of those is LUH-ILIAS, which is especially for teaching. Then we have an instance for electronic exams and an additional one that is connected directly to Stud.IP - our so-called Stud.IP-ILIAS.

The division occurred because Stud.IP, as a central system, didn't originally offer the possibility to create learning content in the way that it is possible to do so in ILIAS. Stud.IP was initially designed primarily as a system to support classroom teaching, whereas ILIAS was created to directly support e-learning resources such as learning modules, tests or interactive content. Also, there was originally no course-independent content in Stud.IP, which led to us setting up an ILIAS installation. In the coming semesters we are planning to amalgamate two of our existing ILIAS instances, in order to create an integrated learning landscape comprised of Stud.IP and ILIAS - the best of both worlds you could say.

Alina:

That sounds very successful and also like a good plan for the future. Do you have any other projects planned for the future in this regard?

Cornelis:

Yes, we have several projects that we would like to tackle. Two important internal projects have to do with our plans to amalgamate two of LUH's ILIAS instances. These two instances were originally used for different scenarios. In retrospect, however, it became clear that this division resulted in, among other things, confusion among teaching staff and increased maintenance and support costs. For this reason our Stud.IP-ILIAS is going to be shut down and its contents migrated to LUH-ILIAS, which will then be connected to Stud.IP. We have had the interface required for this (which is actually a joint development of both platforms and has been around now for more than 15 years) extensively expanded.

Another important project that is almost complete is the development of a self-learning environment that, among other things, will provide tutorials and support for using ILIAS. The self-learning environment is called 'Digitale Lernwelten' (Digital Learning Worlds). We are currently in the process of collecting and preparing real-world examples from the LUH in order to show what is possible -  for example via the gamification concept in ‘Syntagma’. 

And a third project aims to create a comprehensive self-learning platform for all employees for LUH's continuing education curriculum using ILIAS. Here we are expanding the area of traditional teaching, which focusses on students, to include LUH employees.

Alina:

Wow - that sounds like a huge undertaking! I look forward to seeing the results.

After years of experience with ILIAS you became an institutional member of the ILIAS Society last year. What do you hope to gain from your membership?

Cornelis:

In the last few year we have tried to be more involved in the ILIAS Community, as we fully believe that Open Source does not mean 'free' and that we have to get involved. We have been doing so with Stud.IP for a long while now. Due to limited resources, it was only in the last couple of years that we have been able to properly get involved in the ILIAS Community. A first step towards this is our participation in various Special Interest Groups such as Accessibility, Test & Assessment and Nachhaltige ILIAS Plugins (NIP) (Sustainable ILIAS Plugins). A second important step was our investment in development via 'Basispflege LMS' (Basic Maintenance LMS), a project from the time of the Covid-19 Pandemic, in which we were able to contribute around a quarter of a million Euros, also to ILIAS.

Alina:

And how does joining the Society fit into this strategy?

Cornelis:

Joining the ILIAS Society is one more important step towards actively supporting and helping shape open-source development. Our membership means that we can help shape the further development of the software and contribute to ILIAS's open source community. Simply put: we want to be an active part of this community and take on responsibility.

Alina:

Fantastic. We are always delighted to have active and motivated members in the society. Whether private, institutional or as developers.

So... let's now move on to political topics...

Cornelis, you and Matthias Kunkel have known each other for quite a while now thanks to your work together in the 'Initiative Open Source LMS'. At the last ILIAS Conference, you both spoke about funding from Hochschule.digital Niedersachsen (HdN) together with the Volkswagen Foundation: HdN's project 'Open Source Development Network' (OSDN) was going to distribute around three million Euros in direct funding for the development of the important learning management systems ILIAS, Moodle and Stud.IP. Additional money was to go to the platform 'Opencast' and the OERSI (Open Educational Resources Search Index).

What's the current state of affairs here? Can you tell us a bit how it's going?

Cornelis:

The project has two main pillars:

On the one hand, the consistent development of the platforms mentioned. The funds will mainly be awarded via contracts between 2024 and 2028, in order to access the widest range of expertise.

On the other hand, it should be made clear to stakeholders at both state and federal level, as well as LMS-using higher education institutions, that a permanent structure of this kind is required. This is the only way to generate predictable resources for the most important platforms in teaching and to sustainably improve quality.

We have already carried out extensive consultations with all communities. In this, the LUH is responsible for ILIAS and Stud.IP; the other communities are being dealt with by other higher education institutions. We have finalised the roadmaps for the first project term, prepared the awarding of contracts and will now discuss and implement individual aspects in a series of workshops. A major conference is planned for 2027 to bring together developers from the communities, from politics and universities as well as other stakeholders for the first time in order to make the OSDN model even better known.

Alina:

What role does 'digital sovereignty' play in this?

Cornelis:

A large one! We are convinced that it is an invaluable advantage that we have the development and therefore ultimately the product management of our platforms in our own hands and can shape them to be exactly as we need them. This autonomy - also known as digitale Plattformsouveränität (digital platform sovereignty) - is important in order to make us independent of rising licence fees and the other limitations of proprietary platforms.

As many of these come from the USA, where the political situation for free and open data and platforms is not currently developing in a positive direction, it is up to us. Europe and its values are needed and we believe that open source in Europe will play an even more important role. Our project comes at the exactly the right time, even if we didn't wish for the external situation in its current form.

Alina:

How can an open source community be built in such a sustainable and long-term way that its further development and continued existence are no longer dependent on individual projects or short-term initiatives?

Cornelis:

The important thing is to raise open source development to the next level. A large part of development work is still being financed via projects. The resources that platforms as large as ILIAS or Stud.IP need, especially for largely 'invisible' improvements in the areas of accessibility, software quality, security, but also modern usability and up-to-date concepts, are usually financed 'on the side' from the funding for projects that aim to implement innovative teaching concepts. That has to change! In the same way that we regularly, and without questioning, pay licence fees for other important software at universities, for example for accounting or office software, the developments that the OSDN is trying to secure on a permanent basis also need to become a matter of course.

Alina:

How is it in your experience: are open source solutions and licenced products treated the same at public institutions?

Cornelis:

Unfortunately there is a degree of unfairness in this respect: open source products are viewed in a similar manner to a lot of critical infrastructure - it is taken for granted until further down the road problems maybe appear or the software is no longer viewed as being modern enough. Then people are quick to criticise open source because this type of software 'can't keep up with the well-designed commercial solutions anyway' - and then, without batting an eyelid, large sums of money are paid out for the next annual licence.

We want to make this imbalance transparent, to show how useful open software is and at the same time take away people's fears - open source is just as feasible as universities having buildings constructed and then using them themselves, entirely according to their requirements and usually without paying rent!

Alina:

That is a great comparison: ILIAS is like a house that we can use and help shape free of charge once we have invested in the basic structure.

I have one final question regarding the EU-Allianzprojekt EULiST (EULiST Alliance) in which the LUH also actively participates:

The idea behind EULiST is to create a common European 'educational space'. In this context, how can learning content, for example created in ILIAS, be shared efficiently within the alliance between the various higher education institutions and be integrated into other learning management systems?

Cornelis:

The diverse EU projects (there are now more than 50 European university alliances with around ten times as many universities in these alliances) create an ideal space to set up the exchange of material between the various institutions and make these available to a large circle of users. There is finally a great deal of political will to make this possible, and as the majority of European higher education institutions already rely on the platforms of the OSDN, connecting them more effectively is an idea use case. The open software landscape in the higher education institutions of Europe certainly pays off, as thanks to the open nature of the platforms, it sometimes only takes a few simple steps for the first networks to become possible and for students to find each other via our platforms. Much like the Erasmus Programme makes this possible in face-to-face settings.

Alina:

Cornelis, thank you so much for your extremely interesting explanations and the insights you have given us into your university and the political situation around the topic of open source. The future of our platform affects us all and it is good to know that so many in our community actively take part in keeping it going and, in addition to the further development of the software, are also devoting themselves to the important political issues.