Improvement of deleting competences

1 Initial Problem

In this article we want to outline the problem of deleting competences which are not used anymore. Currently, it is pretty tricky to find all the objects and users which are using competences and it is sometimes impossible to even delete a competence. We will try to outline all the pitfalls and bugs when trying to delete a competence. From this point we want to start a discussion about how to deal with the deletion of competences in the future. Are they actually supposed to be deleted or do we want to pursue a path of simply setting them offline without deleting them at all? Both ideas have their pros and cons and our goal with this article is to simply list all the problems arising when trying to delete a competence. The discussion about the upcoming path will either have to be in the jour fixe or in the competence+portfolio SIG.

We found seven issues that are not clear yet and will need to be solved. Most of them are belonging together and need a decision which is valid for all of them:

1. Competences can't be deleted as long as a user is assigned to a competence. A user is assigned to a competence (pic. 1) as soon as he worked on a test or a survey which is linked to the competence management and got a competence level assigned. The problem, however, is that there is no way to find out which users have competence levels assigned. Thus, it is not possible to delete a competence.

2. Competences can't be deleted as long as a user has this competence listed on his competence overview. This is listed in the deletion dialogue (pic. 1) as "personal competence". There is, however, no chance of figuring out which user added which competence to his competence overview.

3. Competences can't be deleted as long as a profile includes this competence (pic. 1). In order to find all the profiles which include the competence, it is necessary to click through each profile to find all the profiles including the competence. This might easily create a huge workload for the person who is responsible for this.

4. Competences can't be deleted as long as a user assigned an object to a competence level. As far as we know there is no way of figuring out which user added which object to which competence levels. Thus, competences can't be deleted as soon as only one user assigned an object to a competence level.

5. This is a clear behaviour but it is not clear yet if this is the behaviour we wish for: There is the option to assign a competence level to a member within a course. Upon doing and publishing that the competence is shown in the new tab "Assigned objects" (starting from ILIAS 7. This tab lists all the object from the "General Use in Repository Objects"-line in "usages" tab of the competence). This assignment also counts into the "assign to users" statistics when trying to delete a competence. As far as we remember the competence result is deleted when deleting the assignment.

6. Competence can't be deleted as long as there are assigned competence levels which prevent the deletion. Those might e.g. stem from a test (linking questions to a competence) or from a survey (linking questions to a competence). The problem is that these competence results can't be deleted at all. Even when deleting the object and removing the object from the trash the assignment is still valid for the user.

Pic 1. Overview of available information when trying to delete a competence

2 Conceptual Summary

Competences should be able to be deleted directly. If the admin chooses Delete and then clicks Execute, all contexts in which the competence is in use will be listed. Administrators are strongly reminded that when they delete the competence, they also delete all usages and achieved competence entries of users. If an administrator confirms the deletion, the competence occurrences in the following contexts are removed / deleted:

• All competence levels, which were created for this competence.
• Assignment to competence tree: Administrative competence tree, selection within repository objects (courses, surveys, tests etc.), selection by user himself. They can no longer be selected there.
• Assignments of the competence in repository objects which uses the competence service (courses, surveys, tests etc.). They can no longer be used there. ["General Use in Repository Objects"]
• Entries, which users have achieved for this competence. They will no longer be displayed on screens where the users have seen them before, like the global view (Achievements > Competences), as well as Portfolios, OrgUnits and repository objects. Exceptional case for Learning History (see below). ["Assigned to Users"]
• Selections as Personal Competence. If users have selected the competence as as Personal Competence, they will no longer see it in this view ["Selected by Users as Personal Competence"]
• Assignments of user's material from the Personal Workspace to competence levels of the competence. ["Users assigned material from their personal resources"]
• Assignments of repository objects to competence levels of the competence for working with Competence Profiles ["Repository Objects Assigned as Suggested Resource"]
• Assignments to Competence Profiles. The profiles may be empty after deletion. ["Used in Competence Profiles"]
  • Note: Deleting competences can affect the completion of Competence Profiles, which in turn affects learning progression. A note, that the competence fulfillment will be recalibrated, is useful here. It could be added e.g. to the message box which an admin sees before executing the deletion process.

However, the entries in the Learning History remain (according to the concept of Learning History).

Delete action as a single link (rejected)

Needs to be clarified

Since deleting competencies removes/deletes many dependencies, it should not be possible to delete competencies multiple times. Currently, however, delete is displayed as a multiaction in the dropdown above or below the table.

It would be better if the delete option is displayed as a link in the right column.

Edit (Famula, Thomas [tfamula], 15.08.2022): I reject this proposal because mass-deletion of competences on a historically grown installation (like official ILIAS test installations) is strongly recommended.

Conceptual issues discussed in several workshops.

Needs to be clarified:

1. Wann sollen Kompetenen gelöscht werden?

2. Warum reichen die Optionen "Veraltet" und "In Vorbereitung (Offline)" nicht aus (Screenshot siehe Feature Request)?

• Aktuelles Verhalten des "Veraltet"-Status:
  • Die Kompetenz kann nicht mehr ausgewählt werden, d.h. Benutzer können die Kompetenz nicht mehr ihren Kompetenzen hinzufügen (Lernerfolge > Kompetenzen > Kompetenzeinträge), die Kompetenz kann auch keinem Profil und keinen ILIAS Objekten mehr zugewiesen werden.
  • Hat ein Benutzer die Kompetenz hinzugefügt, bevor der Status auf "Veraltet" gesetzt worden ist, kann er die Kompetenz weiterhin bearbeiten. Ihm werden Materialien vorgeschlagen, er kann weitere Materialien zuordnen und auch Level erreichen.
  • Das gilt auch für die Zuweisung zu Profilen und ILIAS Objekten. Auch hier kann weiterhin mit einer "veralteten" Kompetenz gearbeitet werden.

• Aktuelles Verhalten des "In Vorbereitung (Offline"-Status:
  • Die Kompetenz kann nicht mehr ausgewählt werden und wird nicht mehr angezeigt. Das gilt für alle Profile, ILIAS Objekte und auch die Benutzerauswahl (Lernerfolge > Kompetenzen > Kompetenzeinträge). Alle Kompetenzeinträge(Benutzer XY hat ein Level erreicht) bleiben erhalten.

• Anmerkung TF: In Profilen und Objekten wird eine Offline-Kompetenz dem User noch (teilweise) angezeigt
  • Achievements > Competences > Competence Recors: Nicht sichtbar
  • Achievements > Competences > Assigned Profiles: Sichtbar, aber ohne Kompetenzeinträge und Aktionen-Dropdown
  • Course > Competences > Show: Nur in Spider Diagramm sichtbar

• EZ: Muss der Status veraltet überarbeitet werden ODER benötigen wir einen zusätzlichen Status? Sollen hier die auch die Aktionen und Lerninhalte entfernt werden, sodass bei einer "Veralteten" Kompetenz lediglich der Kompetenzeintrag erhalten bleibt.

3. Ab wann gilt ein Löschvorgang als kritisch? Reicht hier schon die Zuweisung von Kompetenzen zu Objekte oder sollen erst Kompetenzeinträge (Benutzer XY hat ein Level erreicht) durch Benutzer das Löschen verhindern?

• EZ: Ein Löschvorgang wäre ohne weiteres möglich, wenn die Kompetenz einem Profil oder ILIAS Objekten zugewiesen wurde. Erst wenn Benutzer einen Eintrag generiert haben, wird die Kompetenz (nicht?) gelöscht.

4. Wenn Kompetenzeinträge (Benutzer XY hat ein Level erreicht) exisitieren?

• Soll das löschen dann nicht mehr möglich sein? Wenn ja, sollte die Option dann auch nicht mehr angezeigt werden?
• Löschen ist weiterhin möglich.
• A (bisheriges Verhalten): Alle Benutzer, die Kompetenzeinträge erreicht haben, und Objekte, in denen die Kompetenzen verwendet werden, werden aufgelistet. Erst wenn alle Zusammenhänge aufgelöst wurden, kann die Kompetenz gelöscht werden.
• B: Wenn Zuweisung von Kompetenzen zu ILIAS Objekten den Löschvorgang nicht beeinflusst. Alle Benutzer, die Kompetenzeinträge erreicht haben, werden aufgelistet. Erst wenn alle Zusammenhänge aufgelöst wurden, kann die Kompetenz gelöscht werden.
• Harter Löschvorgang. Kompetenz wird ohne Rücksicht auf Verluste gelöscht und aus allen Profilen, Objekten entfernt?

3 User Interface Modifications

3.1 List of Affected Views

• Achievements > Competences > Competence Tree > Competences > Delete

3.2 User Interface Details

• See Conceptual Summary

3.3 New User Interface Concepts

• none

3.4 Accessibility Implications

No Accessibility Implications.

4 Technical Information

If a competence is deleted, this has an impact on repository objects which use the competence service. If the competence was used there in form of an assignment (e.g. selected competences in courses or assignment of competences to a question in tests), the assignment will no longer exist and the competence vanishes in these objects.

5 Privacy Information

Data Deletion

If a competence is deleted, the following user-related data of this competence will also be deleted, if existent:

• Level entries, which the user has already achieved for the deleted competence
• Selections as Personal Competence for the deleted competence, which the user has made
• Assignments of the Personal Workspace to a level of the deleted competence, which the user has made

6 Security Implications

No Security Issues.

7 Contact

• Author of the Request: Falkenstein, Rob [rob], Famula, Thomas [tfamula], Zenzen, Enrico [ezenzen]
  
• Maintainer: Famula, Thomas [tfamula]
• Implementation of the feature is done by: Famula, Thomas [tfamula]

8 Funding

If you are interest in funding this feature, please add your name and institution to this list.

• …

9 Discussion

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 22 AUG 2022 : We highly appreciate this suggestion and schedule the feature for ILIAS 9. Please consider to present the delete confirmation as a modal - even if the table could be very long due to a lot of related objects.

Famula, Thomas [tfamula], 15 SEP 2023 : The article says "the entries in the Learning History [will] remain (according to the concept of Learning History)". The thing is, that there is not such a concept. The entries are based on competence-specific database entries and not separately stored. The same goes for Learning History entries coming from other components. Because of this initially wrong assumption, we would like to reject this exception in the article. This would mean that the entries in the Learing History will be deleted like all the other listed competence-related data, too.

JourFixe, ILIAS [jourfixe], 18 SEP 2023 : Thanks for clarifying that entries in the Learning History are deleted when related competencies are deleted.

10 Implementation

Famula, Thomas [tfamula], 17 AUG 2023 : The delete confirmation will not be presented as a modal in ILIAS 9. The reason is that the deletion is called from a legacy table, in which it is not technically possible to trigger an UI Modal with the required information. At the moment, the new UI Data Table has not the ability to trigger an Interruptive Modal with Interruptive Items, too. The conversion of the confirmation to a Modal could possibly be made in a later release.

Test Cases

Test cases completed at 2023-09-28 by Tödt, Alexandra [atoedt]

Deleted Case

• Löschung genutzter Kompetenzen nicht möglich

New Test Cases

• 63509 : Kompetenz löschen
• 63510 : Kompetenzvorlage löschen
• 63512 : Kompetenz aus einem Profil löschen

Approval

Approved at 2023-10-17 by Falkenstein, Rob [rob].