We Always Come Back to Didactics

Last friday, I had the honour to open the first E-Learning Day at FH Dortmund (Tag der mediengestützten Lehre) with a speach about "Didaktische Potenziale von ILIAS" (didactical capabilities of ILIAS). When I prepared my presentation I noticed that we spent a lot of time in the last ten years of e-learning at German universities with technical evaluation and discussion, especially in the first years. I remember well that we got almost once a month a request to fill out an evaluation paper about ILIAS and its capabilities. There were discussions whether open source or commercial software is better and sustainable. We disputed about the advantages of PHP and Java a.s.o.

But suddenly, this discussion came to an end and we entered a second stage of e-learning development: the question of integration and organisation. Main trigger for this discussion was the implementation of Bologna at German universities. I believe that Bologna has a bigger influence on the further development and implementation of e-learning at our universities then any national or EU funded IT and e-learning programme. We started to connect our e-learning platforms with campus management systems and tried to implement an integrated information and identity management. At several universities this step towards an integration of e-learning into the IT infrastrucutre and adminstration processes is well-developed today.

So, now is the time for a third stage: starting (again) with e-learning. I still use this word - regardless of a current discussion in the German e-learning scene to abolish this term. And so we come back to didactics. As long as most of our platforms are nothing but a download center for pdf and powerpoint files, I see a lot of possibilities of improvement from this point of view. The technical and organisational framework is given (at a lot of institutions). Now we should focus on how we support classroom teaching with appropriate e-learning. No matter if it is more cooperative or collaborative, if we support self-assessment or adaptive learning, as long as teachers/professors are creative and interested to use the existing tools and use them in daily teaching, I am confident of an improvement of e-learning. And we go on to offer the right tool for it. ;-)

Significant Layout Improvement in New eLAIX and ILIAS

At the last Unirep-Online project meeting we had a look at the new version of the OpenOffice extension eLAIX and how it supports new layout features of ILIAS 4. In the past, the strict DTD for ILIAS learning modules in ILIAS 3 reduced the layout options of learning modules to a basic set of semantic decorations like «Example», «Citation», «Remark» or «Additional». eLAIX version 2 supported these formats but ignored other formatting when exporting an OpenOffice document as ILIAS learning module.

With the new eLAIX version 3 and ILIAS 4 the options of formatting a document will increase enormously. With ILIAS 4, a user can define additional formats for paragraphs, texts a.s.o. The new eLAIX is using this feature to transfer every style sheet of an OpenOffice document to ILIAS where it is presented appropriately. You only need to define the style sheet in OpenOffice. All style sheet information will be transfered to ILIAS during the export and added as a new format within the learning module.

In our project Unirep-Online we are using this feature to create and use nested lists (with five and more levels), marginal notes at the left or right side of the text, and specific layouts for juridical documents (Unirep-Online is a project for exam preparation in law studies). But there are a lot more possible applications.

At the time being, eLAIX 3 is still under development. It will be released in sufficient time before the next ILIAS conference in Budapest where an eLAIX workshop is offered as well.

ILIAS in Public Administration

Yesterday, I had the chance to speak about ILIAS at the Linuxtag in Berlin. The focus of the conference slot was on how open source software is used in Germany's public administration. A few cities (Munich, Schwäbisch Hall) have successfully migrated from Microsoft to Linux in the last years. The department of foreign affairs (Auswärtiges Amt) is a trailblazer for open source software among German ministries. And I noticed that there are a lot of departments and public institutions that are already using ILIAS for supporting their learning and training activities.

In my presentation I've tried to show the variety and possibilites of ILIAS in three good practices. One of the earliest ILIAS users in public administration is the Bundesakademie für öffentliche Verwaltung - BAköV (federal academy of public administration). They belong to the minstry of internal affairs and are responsible for the teaching and training activities of their ministry and other departments. ILIAS at BAköV is used as the central repository for all e-learning-based activities. They are offering a lot of self-training modules which can be used any time any place. And due to their ILIAS knowhow and big server capacities, they are also offering hosting for other federal institutions and departments, e.g. Bundesrechnungshof.

The second example was a very different scenario. I explained how the Bundesverwaltungsamt is using the test system of ILIAS in their intranet to run applicant selection for eleven different vocational trainings. The former paper-pencil-tests have been transformed to online assessments with a duration of 70 minutes. Multiple-choice, gap text and drag&drop are mixed with open answers which need to be graded manually in relation 3 to 1. But even with these text answers, the time to correct a test has been reduced from 90 to 20 minutes! And the variety of test questions has considerably increased. And - very important - the test candidates prefer the online test and feel much more comfortable with it!

The last example I presented in Berlin is maybe the most extended of the three scenarios. I showed what the Technische Hilfswerk (THW) has built up in the last years. ILIAS at THW is not only used to offer learning material and documentation but to run blended learning courses as well as supporting collaboration and cooperation within the different  THW working groups and task forces. E-learning courses are often combined with a virtual classroom which can be connected easily to an ILIAS course. Because THW is mainly based on the work of volunteers, a time and place independent training is raising the acceptance of these people to continue their engagement for THW. Instead of spending their weekends in a THW school somewhere in Germany, the volunteers can now often stay at home and do required training activities in ILIAS and the virtual classroom.

First ILIAS 4 Presentation

Last saturday (13 June) I made the first presentation of the new ILIAS 4. It took place at the « Salon des nouvelles technologies » - an e-learning event of the Académie de Bordeaux in La Réole (Gironde). I was invited by our friends and partners from ARGOS to talk about new development activities. It was the right moment and the right audience for a «première mondiale» of the new ILIAS version 4.0.

Since schools in South-West France are using our Learning Management System for several years,  a lot of participants of my workshop knew and worked already with ILIAS intensively. Académie de Bordeaux is offering a central hosting of the ILIAS LMS for all schools between Dordogne and Pyrénées. In the Département Pyrénées-Atlantiques all « collèges » using ILIAS for supporting teaching and learning at schools! Therefore, a lot of experts were listening to my presentation. I was very happy when I saw there faces smiling after showing them the new look of ILIAS 4 and some of the changes and improvements we made in the last weeks and month. Some features that have already been published with 3.10 like WebDAV and the new calendar were highly appreciated, too.

Besides interesting talks with teachers about the use of ILIAS in school, I also enjoyed to talk with Didier Leconte from LaPoste (the French post) and to Bernard Beron de l'armée française. Both are currently running pilot projects with ILIAS to see if it fits to the needs of their institutions. And it looks good! Didier has already changed the skin of ILIAS according to LaPoste's CI. If both institutions would go for ILIAS, this would have a big impact on the activities of ILIAS France!

Last but not least - I want to thank Laurent Merle and Bruno Marty for realising this excellent event and for their hospitality. Next year, I'll come again!!!