Revision of Course Learning Objectives View

1 Requirements

1.1 Problems of the current version and suggestions

Since ILIAS 4.0 the answer sensitivity of the final test is no longer working in the Learning Objectives view of a course. Instead of presenting only those questions that are related to a learning object which has not been reached by a learner yet, ILIAS shows all questions again and again - no matter how good one performed in the final test runs before.
 
This problem cannot be resolved by a simple bug fix but need a general change in the communication between course and final test. Additionally, some usability problems should be solved when revising this feature:

1. Recommended chapter and pages of learning module cannot be distinguished from not-recommended content when clicking through the learning module.
2. Authors are missing assistance when creating a learning objective course.
3. The current implementation does not prevent authors from mixing entrance and final test and their question.
4. The matrix view in learning progress is ignoring learning objectives.
5. There is no dedicated tutor view on the course which makes the course handling more difficult as it could be.
6. The page of a learning objectives course cannot be edited with the ILIAS page editor in a satisfying way (only one text block below headline).

1.2 Additional requirements

Additional requests from other ILIAS users (i.e. project optes) for an improved course with learning objectives are:

1. It should be possible to have different options for the starting and final test:
   • Course starts with a starting test about all learning objectives but has dedicated final tests for each learning objective
2. Learning objectives should already been certified in the starting test (=> final test is set as start object)
3. It should be possible to deactivate "Adaptivity" of test and show also questions related to learning objectives that have already been reached.

1.3 Implementation for ILIAS 4.5

A first and general revision of the course mode "Learining Objectives" will be implemented for ILIAS 4.5. It contains the following features / changes:

• Settings: The former Presentation Type "Learning Objectives View" is now a Course Type and can be selected in the Settings of the course, incl. the kind of presentation of this course:
  • Course starts with diagnostic test
  • Course starts with qualifiying test
  • Course starts with content and self-assessment part
• Learning Objectives: A wizard is supporting the course creator and shows the current status of its elements:
  • Course settings
  • Learning objectives added
  • Learning material assigned
  • Diagnostic test configured (only shown when selected in Settings)
  • Qualifying test configured
  • Learning objectives configured
• Diagnostic and qualifying tests can have fixed selection of questions or random selection of questions.
• Qualifying tests show onlythose questions that are related to yet unreached learning objectives
• Every object type can be used as learning and training material in the content section of the course (also tests, e.g. for self-assessment).
• Each learning objective is presented in an accordion with the assigned material in it. ILIAS shows if the learning objective has already been reached or if it is recommended for learning.
• The ILIAS page editor allows to add additional text information to each learning objective section.

2 Status

• Scheduled for Release: Release 5.0
• Funding: Helmut Schmidt Universität
• Development: Feature is to be developed by Leifos and Databay AG

3 Additional Information

• If you want to know more about this feature, its implementation or funding, please contact: Matthias Kunkel

4 Discussion

Conclusion of a telephone conference at 28 April 2011 (participants: Hartung, Koch, Suittenpointner, Killing, Meyer, Kunkel):

• All participants agreed upon the need and importance of the learning objectives view in courses; especially as an USP of ILIAS. Option 1 (as mentioned above) is highly appreciated. Moving from a set of questions that trigger a learning objective to whole tests is not considered as that flexible and nice to use as the original concept.
• The entire feature is not available since 4.0 due to the bug mentioned above. Questions to learning objectives that have already been reached are presented in a second or third run of the final test nevertheless. Therefore, the idea of an adaptive presentation of test questions is not given at the moment. But the major idea of the feature - recommending learning content according to unreached learning objectives - is supported and available. As a workaround, course creators can create one test for each learning objective. Once a learning objective has been reached, the test is passed - and its questions are no longer presented in the second or later run of a test.
• It is necessary to define a clear interface between test and course and to add a new option to the test tool which supresses questions that have been answered correctly. The missing interface is the reason for the maintenance efforts for each ILIAS version (see above).
• Due to restricted manpower, a revision of the learning objectives view will not be available for 4.2 and is now scheduled for 4.3 Hopefully, the revision is funded by Helmut Schmidt Universität Hamburg / ENCOA. Precondition for funding the revision on HSU side is that this will guarantee sustainability and stability of the feature. The revision might be offered as 4.2 patch for HSU as well.
• After publishing 4.2, Matthias Kunkel will schedule a meeting with all involved developers/module maintainers (Meyer, Schottmüller/Databay, Killing) to work out a reasonable concept.

JF 9 July 2012: We re-schedule this topic for 4.4. Matthias Kunkel and Alexander Killing will discuss the conceptual details during the next weeks.

Jour Fixe, 16 Sep 2013: Facing the upcoming beta release date and open conceptual discussion we need to postpone this feature to 4.5.

Matthias Kunkel, Aug 14, 2014: Due to open conceptual questions and necessary time for implementing additional functionalities for the learning objectives mode, Stefan Meyer will implement a first version of the course revision for 4.5 and a second with additional options for 4.6. The features and changes for 4.5 are listed above in chap. 1.3.

5 Implementation