ILIAS-Blog

Ein neues Feature, das die Einsatzmöglichkeiten von ILIAS im Bereich der Personalentwicklung vergrössern wird, steht ab ILIAS 4.4 zur Verfügung - die 360°-Umfrage. Dieser besondere Modus des Umfragetools erlaubt es, die Fähigkeiten und Fertigkeiten einer Person durch Kollegen oder andere Personen bewerten zu lassen und gegebenenfalls mit der Selbsteinschätzung zu vergleichen. Im Zusammenspiel mit dem Kompetenzmanagement von ILIAS ist der Vergleich dieser Bewertungen mit Stellenprofilen möglich. Und um die in der Gap-Analyse identifizierten Schwächen einer Person zu überwinden, können entsprechende Lernmaterialien hinterlegt werden.

Even if e-learning means more than file sharing, the file object in ILIAS is for sure the most used object type to publish and share learning content. Therefore it is obvious to support ILIAS users with a good working tool for uploading, sharing and providing files in the system. Thanks to a Swiss project at PH Zurich it is now possible to offer an improved and user-friendly file handling in ILIAS 4.4. Some of these features are already available in the test installation.

A new implementation of the explorer that represents tree structures in ILIAS has been developed and committed this week by Alexander Killing. It is part of the development activities to remove framesets from ILIAS for 4.4. A first impression of its look & feel can be evaluated at the ILIAS 4.4 test installation.

Since version 4.3 there is a new type of object in ILIAS called Data Collection. It is made to collect and show information and data in a kind of database. At the ILIAS homepage we have started to use this repository object to build up a Plugin database and to create a new version of the Known Installations (that has been a learning module for years).

Using ILIAS on mobile devices has been a main topic in past conferences and user meetings. Users want to have access on their contents and information in ILIAS also with their smartphone or other mobile devices. The Mobile Plugin developed by studer + raimann ag and already presented on the last ILIAS conferences in Bern and Stuttgart is one way - and a very smart one. But with ILIAS 4.3 it is also possible to use ILIAS on your smartphone without having this plugin on your installation - thanks to "Responsive Design".

A glossary is a powerful tool to collect and define terms and definitions and make this knowledge available for a course or learning community. The ILIAS glossary does not only allow to add text but also images, videos or audio files. And it supports several definitions for one term. The bigger a glossary gets, the higher is it's value for learners. But even if there are several options to explore a glossary like a search or alphabetical navigation, users get sometimes overwhelmed of the number of glossary entries and prefer to have a kind of structure in this list of terms. With 4.3 this problem has been solved with the introduction of taxonomies in glossaries.

In 4.1 we removed the description text for roles in the object permission matrix (see first screenshot below). This has been done to reduce clutter and improve usability. Instead of showing always the type of role (global or local node where the role has been created) this information has been moved into a tooltip. But sometimes I am missing the option to see immediately which of the roles in the matrix are global and which local ones. Now I have made a little change in my role administration to make this possible!

If you install ILIAS 4.2 out of the box you have a small main menu for navigating in ILIAS. The menu items are Personal Desktop, Repository and - if you have the appropriate role - Administration. It is possible to rename Repository and to use a more convenient name like Content or Library. But a default ILIAS does not allow you to add additional menu items, e.g. for pointing directly on popular pages or important course offers. Now, the user interface plugin hook can overcome this obstacle and offer you the chance to create a main menu according to your needs - as you can see on the ILIAS homepage at www.ilias.de.

Since version 4.2 ILIAS offers the possibility to import and use didactic templates. The idea behind this concept is to ease the modification of an object's permission to adopt it to the need of a specific didactical scenario, e.g. a space within a course where course members can exchange files to collaborate. The ILIAS website template.ilias.de offers didactic templates for download and an introduction into writing didactical scenarios by your own.