The initial version of the actricle is mixing up issues of post-conditions learning paths and linking. 

Complex didactic scenarios often demand using a variety of interconnected and structured learning tool within a course context. This often means that objects are used in multiple subcontexts at that same time or that objects of different kinds are linearly or even multivalently chained together.

1.1 Here are some example scenarios to start with:

• Imagine a course with 30 groups. The students “spend” most of their time within the groups. Global material and activities (like a forum, a wiki, the general course syllabus, additional reading material) that concern all students shall be available both in each group and for the sake of updating this content (uploading a new file version) in the course as such.

• Image a course with 10 groups. Every group contains 2 wikis. One wiki belongs to the respective group (let’s call that group A) as their working space while the second is the working space of another group, Group B, which Group A is supposed to comment on . A third Group (say C) contains the working space of Group A, and so on.

• Image a learning module in which uses several tests as breakpoints and feedback mechanism for the instructor with respect to the state of knowledge of the learners. The tests are put as internal links to repository objects on the several pages. Instead of the test, this scenario can be extended to virtually any repository which can be linked onto a page in a wiki, learning module, …)

• Imagine a test which has a survey that is chained to it as a means of evaluations directly after the test has been taken by a student.

• Imagine a diagnostic test, which consists of a test followed by a survey (as a competence self-evaluation tool) followed by a second test (testing the self-evaluated competences)´

1.2 Kinds of semantic links

These scenarios can be reduced to some abstract concepts and requirements. The basic idea is to give connections between objects /  parts of obejcts (e.g. pages, ...) some kind of meaning. Thus, this can be subsumed as “meaningful” or “semantic” linking affecting how ILIAS handles such interconnected objects (when copied, accessed, completed, …). Following the idea of concept maps, two linked items then form a concept by being connected by an action or realting information.

• structural linking of objects (which are items or subitems of the same context): when the context of these linked objects is copied, ILIAS creates a context-immanent clone copy of the linking structures (e.g. a forum and two groups in a course, forum is linked into both groups  the copy of the course again contains two groups with a linked NEW forum, not a link within the groups to the forum of the old course)

• sequential chaining of objects (or follow-ups, "post-conditions") to make sequential object clusters possible (when an object bears a learner state like completed, passed, failed …). When one object has reached a certain state, the user is redirected to the next object (simple example: test followed be evaluation survey ). Within learning modules this concept extends the existing functionalities of restricting the navigation based on questions / visited pages / etc.
• referential / hard linking, which is basically the current linking concept. ILIAS creates something like a hard link (in the unix sense) from an existing object in one context to another context.
• responsive / adaptive links: With this a link could even contain more than one targets depending on the learning state of the object from which it originates (similar to precondition handling or rather auto-forwarding conditions)
• other ways, meanings, actions that hold some items together

These ways of linking things should incorporate / be available for links of both existing kinds: ILIAS page editor “internal links” (e.g. tests / surveys / files in learning modules) and linked objects.
As an extension of / addition to the linking concept above, the introduction of “object clusters” or clouds of semantically interconnected items could be considered, with, for example, new container element “object cluster” either keeping, organising or handling linked objects in a structural, referential, adaptive, sequential, ... way when accessed or copied or deleted.

1.3 Usability:

There should be a graphical interface to visualize and modify linking structures within a context (object links and internal links in ILIAS page editor content) in addition to a new step when linking objects where the user is asked which kind of link is supposed to be created: referential, structural, adaptive, sequential ... .

With this tool it would be easy to build even complex structures to offer content motivated structures and ways through learning material.