Remove the option to let anonymous take tests in public area

1 Reasons to Abandon Feature

That anonymous users can take tests in the public area comes with a heavy price in code complexity. This should be abandonned to reduce code complexity. 

2 Technical Information

{The maintainer has to provide necessary technical information, e.g. dependencies on other ILIAS components, necessary modifications in general services/architecture, potential security or performance issues.}

3 Contact

• Author of the Request: Tödt, Alexandra [atoedt]
• Maintainer: Strassner, Denis [dstrassner], Becker, Maximilian [mbecker]
• Implementation of the feature is done by: {The maintainer must add the name of the implementing developer.}

4 Funding

Removing the feature from the ILIAS code base might need funding. If you are interest in funding this request, please add your name and institution to this list.

• ...

5 Discussion

Use the following discussion section to express your objections against this request or your consent to get rid of this feature.

Lauener, Hansjörg [lauener] At the university of Bern, we use the anonymous test in some special cases

• In public area, as an application for employment (Bewerbung auf Post-Doc Stellen)
• Some Open Educational Ressources
• Instead of creating onw self-assessment website, we`ll use our selfeval-plugin and the ILIAS-test for these self-assessments, in the public area.

Jackisch, Ingo [jackisch] the tradeoffs between code complexity and use-cases for ILIAS should be discusses thoruoghly for this feature. I can imagine several good use-cases for tests (e.g. self-asessment, demo-tests) in the public area. If the code-complexity is not too problematic I would vote for the feature to be kept up.

Hilbert, Mirco [mirco.hilbert] Please keep up this feature! We also use tests in the public area. For example our demo tests to promote ILIAS.
Code complexity should not be a reason to abandon features that are in use. There might be other ways to decrease the code complexity.

Strassner, Denis [dstrassner], 19 JUL 2021: We have to say goodbye to little-used yet complex features given the problems of the ILIAS T&A. Therefore, I would like to get rid of this feature. The anonymous use of ILIAS tests without a user account is one of these things.

Kergomard, Stephan [skergomard], 19 JUL 2021: We at the Hochschule Luzern are occasional users of this feature. I would still support the request of Strassner, Denis [dstrassner] to get rid of it as I don't believe the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.

Seeland, Per Pascal [PerPascalSeeland] 26 JUL 2021: The University of Stuttgart would like to keep this feature, as it is the only way for people to try out with Viplab plugin in ILIAS. As this plugin requires some backend infrastructure to work, there is no easy way for others to try this plugin.

Bogen, Christian [bogen] 2021-07-26: Removing anonymous tests altogether would indeed be a big problem for the University of Stuttgart. With regards to ViPLab we might even work around it one way or another with organizational measures, but anonymous test are—among other use cases—an integral part of the our university’s Studienwahl-Kompass. A lot of work has been invested in some 50 tests that are supposed to show the would-be students what kind of test questions they’d have to answer in the degree programs.

We’d actually be happy to get rid of the whole access code shebang, especially in the context of the Studienwahl Kompass mentioned above. Most if not all of our anonymyous test usage is a of a “throw away” kind, ie. it’d be sufficient for the anonymous users to be able to take the test, maybe see their results at the end—and that’s it. They don’t need to be able to come back to that.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 26 JUL 2021 : We see that there is a strong need to run tests as anonymous user (without account) at some institutions. Therefore we reject the general removal of the entire feature and reduce the request to "Abandon Access Codes in Tests"! We strongly recommend to offer a workshop with all users that have already contributed to the discussion and communicated their need of the feature. The new request would still be accepted for ILIAS 8 - if necessary resources are available.

6 Implementation

{The maintainer has to give a description of the final implementation and possible consequences for existing installations.}

Approval

Approved at {date} by {user}.