Who-is-online Revision

1 Description

The current implementation for «Who is online?» fits well for smaller installations with only a few concurrent users (currently online). But for bigger installations with usually more then 100 users online at the same time it is not satisfying. First, you see only the first ten users (ordered alphabetically) and you need to click through all these pages to see if your friend Zeno Zafirelli is online or not. Second, the more users are online the longer it takes to display the results. Third, there are several complaints concerning data protection.

My suggestion:

1. «Who is online?» shows only how much users are currently online (e.g. "155 registered users and visitors") but no names and no accounts!
2. If enabled, «Who is online?» shows members of my courses and groups (already implemented)
3. If enabled, «Who is online?» shows my buddies (new!), see Rename Address Book to Contacts for more information!

2 Additional Information

• Idea / concept: Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel]
• Funding: Required
• Development: Feature is to be developed by Leifos

3 Discussion

Actually, since ilias 3.9 at least, In the administration panel / user account settings / settings, we can set "show active users" to "only course and group members" by default for all users. We can also make it not "changeable". Do you think this feature can satisfy you need ?

Laurent Merle - 24-11-2009

Actually, we can see "Users online" only from the personal desktop. We want to suggest to make the "active users" block also visible from categories, courses, groups and folders, just like the "news block" and the "calendar block". It seems more interesting to see who is online when you're located in a working space like a category, a course or a group than only in the personal desktop.
For example, a student is looking for a file, or any feature for his work but he doesn't find it or doesn't understand waht is expected by his teacher. By seeing who is online directly from where he is located in Ilias, it could be easier for him to send a mail to his teacher or any other students to aks for help. Going back to the personal desktop to see who is online or using mail system requires special skills about Ilias.

According to us, the new feature in courses, groups and categories should show only courses and groups members.

What do you think about that ?

Laurent Merle - 24-11-2009

JF 30 Nov 2009: We like the who-is-online features in groups and courses (see members that are currently online). The buddy concept is still under discussion.

I understand the problem with larger installations, but I think there should be a way of solving this problem optionally. For a small installation - like the one I'm working on - the way the active users are displayed is perfect - with one exception.

Sven Fockner 02 - 03 - 2010

Kunkel, Matthias [mkunkel], June 16, 2015: In the meantime we have developed a concept of [[[Project] Concept for Learning Communities]] and as part of it scheduled a Who is online? tool for awareness for ILIAS 5.1. It will substitute the current "Who-is-online?" feature on the Personal Desktop and offer a list of online contact on all screens. The only thing left is a simple presentation of the number of online users.

4 Follow-up