website

OLAT - The Open Source LMShttp://www.olat.org - 3.2009 v1.5

@2009 CopyrightSome rights reserved! This document is copyright protected by the owners and companies listed below under theAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons license. For more information check:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ch/

Responsible persons:

• Joël Fisler (Overall), University of Zurich, MELS, [email protected]

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ch/

OLAT - The Open Source LMS

http://www.olat.org - 26.11.2009 1

Content

1. More Information About OLAT ......................................................................................................... 91.1. OLAT Feature List and Some Screenshots ................................................................................ 101.2. Future OLAT Development: Roadmap ...................................................................................... 131.3. OLAT Demo Server: Test OLAT Before Downloading It! ....................................................... 141.4. What users say about OLAT - From A to Z .............................................................................. 151.5. Who Uses OLAT? List of OLAT Installations .......................................................................... 201.6. Company Service ........................................................................................................................ 311.7. OLAT Download Material ......................................................................................................... 311.8. Short Overview of the History of OLAT ................................................................................... 331.9. OLAT 10 years movie ................................................................................................................ 331.10. Press .......................................................................................................................................... 33

2. Download the OLAT Software ......................................................................................................... 382.1. Release Notes ............................................................................................................................. 402.2. Documentation ............................................................................................................................ 422.3. Server Requirements: No Need for a High-End Server! ............................................................ 452.4. The OLAT Software License ..................................................................................................... 48

3. OLAT Community Services .............................................................................................................. 503.1. Mailing Lists for Developers, Translators, Users etc. ................................................................ 503.2. OLAT groups within social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing, Ohloh) .................. 513.3. Developer Core Community (CoCo) Meetings .......................................................................... 563.4. OLAT User Day 2009: Friday, September 11th ........................................................................ 593.5. OLAT Conference 2008 ............................................................................................................. 593.6. Google Summer of Code ............................................................................................................ 62

4. Development: More Information for Developers .............................................................................. 674.1. Code samples .............................................................................................................................. 704.2. Incubation Process ...................................................................................................................... 704.3. Translations ................................................................................................................................. 71

5. OLAT Newsletter 2009 | no. 1 ......................................................................................................... 736. OLAT Search ..................................................................................................................................... 777. Sponsoring OLAT: Meet our sponsors ............................................................................................. 788. OLAT News-Archive ........................................................................................................................ 809. Getting OLAT Support ...................................................................................................................... 9210. Glossary ........................................................................................................................................... 9511. Bibliography .................................................................................................................................... 97




Welcome to OLAT (Online Learning And Training), the web-based open source Learning Management System

(LMS) 1 based on Java and completely free of charge.

The development of OLAT started in 1999 at the University of Zurich [http://www.uzh.ch/] , Switzerland, whereit is the strategic learning management system and deployed on the main OLAT server [https://www.olat.uzh.ch]

. The University of Zurich leads the further development and provides a team [Page 92] of 12 developerspushing OLAT to the next level.

NEWS:

OLAT @ DevLearn 2009(19.11.2009) OLAT was well represented at last weeks DevLearn conference and Expo. At the Expo theUniversity of Zurich's booth, where Joël Fisler presented both OLAT and eLML, was well visited by peoplefrom higher education and from company representatives. Hardly anyone in the US had ever heard of OLAT

Joël Fislers presentation @ DevLearn 2009

and so most people where even more surprised when they saw the live demo and the clean and easy to useinterface. We did receive a lot of comments saying that at first impression OLAT seemed easier to use andmore powerful than many commercial and open source learning management systems used within the USmarket. Joël Fisler attended also the demofest and the conference where he was able to hold a presentationabout the tools followed by a lively discussion about open source tools in education. First cooperation plans

1 A Learning Management System (or LMS) is a software package, usually on a large scale (that scale is decreasing rapidly), that enables

the management and delivery of learning content and resources to students. Most LMS systems are web-based to facilitate "anytime,

anywhere" access to learning content and administration. Some famous open source LMS are OLAT and Moodle, famous commercial

LMS are WebCT and Blackboard.

http://www.uzh.ch/

https://www.olat.uzh.ch



with commercial companies and with a US university have been established and we will announce them on ourwebsite as soon as the deals are fixed. After visiting three conferences and expos in the US and Canada duringthe last month we feel optimistic that finally OLAT will start to become recognized and used in North America.

OLAT 6.2.2 released!(11.11.2009) Recently we released the new version 6.2.2 - this is another maintenance release. For a full listof bugfixes and improvements check our Bug tracking System [http://bugs.olat.org/] . Continue to the downloadsection... [Page 38]

Joël Fislers presentation @ AACE's E-Learn 2009

OLAT @ AACE's E-Learn 2009(04.11.2009) OLAT was present at AACE's E-Learn 2009 conference [https://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/] inVancouver in late October. Joël Fislers "best practice" presentation entitled "Creating, handling andimplementing e-learning courses and content using the open source tools OLAT and eLML at the Universityof Zurich" covered both the content creation tool eLML and the open source LMS OLAT plus a short livedemonstration. The conference offered up to 12 parallel session, so we are happy to have counted maybe20 attendees at our session. A second OLAT demonstration was held two days later at a swap of ideas andopen source tools between educators and IT specialists. Besides these presentation lots of informal talks andexchanging of ideas made the E-Learn 2009 in Vancouver a real success for the OLAT project.

OLAT 6.2.1 released!(15.10.2009) The OLAT team has released OLAT 6.2.1 today. As usual for a maintenance release it containssome bug fixes and also some improvements: QTI editor provides now a table functionality, formatting issueswith TinyMC and tests, forum preview, css default theme references files that do not exist, daily updated searchindex. Continue to the download section... [Page 38]

http://bugs.olat.org/

https://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/



TELearn participants visiting the OLAT booth.

OLAT @ TELearn Taipei(13.10.2009) Considering the fact that OLAT has been translated to both traditional and simplified Chinese,it was about high time to get in touch with interested OLAT users and translators from the area. Participatingin the TELearn (Technology Enhanced Learning) conference in Taipei seemed just about the right occasionto mingle with university members interested in LMS and open source software in general. We had manyopportunities to talk about the features and functionalities of our LMS during the poster session and to get intotouch with people visiting our small booth. We'd like to welcome new OLAT users and invite you to shareyour impressions as a OLAT newbie with our community. At the same time, subscribe to our newsletter [Page

73] and keep yourself posted!

OLAT newsletter 2009 no. 1(06.10.2009) OLAT grows continuously and so does the number of users and developers. This results ininteresting news and information we want to share with you. So, here it is: the first OLAT newsletter [Page

73] .

OLAT 6.2.0 public release available!(29.09.2009) As planned, the new version 6.2.0 is released today. Some major enhancements are done and abulk of new features have been added: calendar import/export, new IMS-Content-Packages Editor, a TinyMCEditor Upgrade (e.g. formula editor), extended export function for grouplists and many more.

For a full list of bug fixes and improvements check the release notes [Page 40] . Continue to download section[Page 38] ...



eLML wins the CH Open Source Award 2009(24.09.2009) On 23th September the 2nd CH Open Source Award was held during the "OpenExpo 2009" [http://

www.openexpo.ch/] in Winterthur (Swiss). "eLML" [http://www.elml.org] won in the category 'Education Award'!With this price young talents are promoted, who are campaigning in a FOSS project. Check the CH OpenSource Award Website [http://www.ossaward.ch] for further information.

So, the whole OLAT team cheers: Congratulations Joël!!!

OLAT @ 21st Century Learning Conference | 17.-19.9.2009(23.09.2009) This year's "21st Century Learning Conference" [http://21c-learning.hk] took place in Hong Kongand was about "Extending Tomorrow's Leader with Digital Learning". The conference was mainly attendedby teachers and IT administrators of international schools from Asia and Oceania. OLAT seized the chanceto be present in this area for the very first time. Even if the scope of the conference was rather broad, therewere surprisingly many participants interested in OLAT, or in open source software in general. There was avivid discussion about "E-learning and open source tools" during the Unconference session on Friday and a45min presentation about "What is a LMS? What is OLAT?" held by Sandra Arnold-Roth. The audience wasparticularly impressed about the multilingual user interface - big thanks to our active translator community!

First OLAT User Day was a success!(21.09.2009) The first OLAT User Day was held on September 11th at the University of Zurich. So far wecan say: it was a success! The OLAT User Day gave the participants the opportunity to meet up others fromthe OLAT community. Just to come together, share ideas and to discuss matters of common interests. Mainissues were the work with and on OLAT: Developers, authors and users were swapping ideas on workflows,problems, news and particularities the whole day through. The participant’s feedback was throughout positive.

In some way special was the format, the User Day was held like. This yet young concept of an "unconference"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference] - sessions can be proposed and are determined by vote - did work alsovery well. Besides preliminary proposed sessions, last-minute contributions been considered. All sessions andits minutes, as well as further information to the OLAT User Day can be accessed online: check the OLATUser Day Wiki [http://wiki.olat.uzh.ch/xwiki/bin/view/Main/] .

Last but not least: The first OLAT User Day also been the official celebration of the 10 years OLAT anniversary.

OLAT User Day 2009: Registration open!(13.07.2009) As already announced in spring, the OLAT User Day will be held on September 11th, 2009, andyou are kindly invited to participate. The OLAT User Day is an event where the OLAT community gatherstogether to exchange ideas. During the day, there will be kind of an „unconference“; in several sessions topicsof common interests will be discussed. In the evening, we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of OLAT. Fordetails, registration (until August 30th!), submitting a session proposal etc. check the OLAT User Day Wiki[http://wiki.olat.uzh.ch/xwiki/bin/view/Main/] .

New 'COMMUNITY' tab in OLAT website(25.05.2009) As most of you know, we did have a core community meeting two weeks ago at the University ofZurich in which also BPS, Frentix and the University of Hamburg (UHH) participated. The result of this verysuccessful meeting was a detailed roadmap [Page 13] , a more concise incubation and publication process[0] for new features and a core community meeting page [Page 56] with more information about the

http://www.openexpo.ch/

http://www.elml.org

http://www.ossaward.ch

http://www.ossaward.ch

http://21c-learning.hk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference

http://wiki.olat.uzh.ch/xwiki/bin/view/Main/





held presentations, photos, slides etc. Since there are more and more community events (OLAT Conference,OLAT User Day, Google Summer of Code etc.) we decided to introduce a new "Community" tab [Page 50]

within the OLAT website. The "Community" section contains both existing and new pages.

OLAT 6.1.1 public release(20.05.2009) Our first scalable 6.1 release needed some improvements and thus our first maintenance release6.1.1 contains about 40 fixed Jira issues. The bug fixes include:

• IMS QTI improvements

• Layout-improvements and bug fixes for IE8

• Bug fixes within the user deletion workflow

• Fixes due to problems with language codes that contain underscore (e.g. zh_tw)

• Bug fixes concerning group management, WebDAV, Wiki, CSS etc.

For a full list of bug fixes and improvements check the release notes [Page 40] . Continue to download section[Page 38] ...

IMS Learning Impact 'Leadership Award' 2009 for OLAT for best open source learning platform(18.05.2009)

At last week's IMS Learning Impact conference in Barcelona the Global Learning Consortium announced theresults of the Impact Award competition [http://www.imsglobal.org/pressreleases/pr090514.html] . OLAT was awardedwith a "Leadership Award" for "Best Open Source Learning Platform". The OLAT team is honored to havereceived such a unique award. A quote from the press release of IMS: "The LIA awards are unique in that theyrecognize the use of technology in context. Nominations include not only information about the technology buthow it is used by an education provider. In addition, the entries are evaluated according to eight criteria ofimpact, including improving access to learning, improving affordability of learning, and improving the qualityof learning." (IMS 2009)Starting in 2009 OLAT plans to become an IMS member and implement more IMS standards.

Core Developer Meeting in Zurich(30.04.2009) Next week the OLAT core developers from the University of Zurich, Frentix GmbH,Bildungsportal Sachsen (BPS) and the University of Hamburg will meet for three days in Zurich to discussissues about OLAT development, eAssessment, scalability, testing infrastructure and the OLAT roadmap.Besides that we will also integrate new features from our German partners into the main OLAT core duringour "hackfest". We'll post the results of the three-day workshop on the OLAT website. If you're interested

http://www.imsglobal.org/pressreleases/pr090514.html



about the detailed schedule, download our PDF-information file [http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/OLAT-

CORE-COMMUNITY-TREFFEN.pdf] or contact Patrick Brunner, the head of our development team. Both thedocument and the workshop are held in German but the results will be published in English.

OLAT is IMS Learning Impact Award 2009 finalist(22.04.2009) OLAT was chosen as a finalist for the IMS Learning Impact Award 2009 [http://www.imsglobal.org/

learningimpact2009/liafinalists2009.html] . On Monday, May 11th 2009 at 5pm Joël Fisler will present OLAT at theIMS Learning Impact conference [http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact2009/] in Barcelona. The conference lastsfrom May 11th to 14th, contact us if you plan to participate and would like to meet OLAT staff members.We did submit a short OLAT introduction video [] for the jury (also available on YouTube [http://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy0UzSy_RmU] ).

OLAT 6.1 release available!(15.03.2009) With some days of delay we are proud to announce our latest OLAT release (OLAT 6.1). Certainlythe most important new feature is: clustering! For about two years we have been working on a scalablesolution for our LMS and are happy to release with 6.1 the first scalable version of OLAT. Consisting of threeindependent nodes the main OLAT server at the University of Zurich has been running stable for over a monthnow.

A second important new feature is internationalization: OLAT offers a new translation tool as well as an easieradministration interface to install new languages. For a full list of bug fixes and improvements check the releasenotes [Page 40] and the updated OLAT manuals [Page 42] . Continue to download section [Page 38] ...

10th OLAT Birthday: OLAT User Day 2009 on September 11th(11.03.2009) On the 11th September 2009 we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of OLAT, and would liketo invite you, as a user and member of our community, to join us. You will have the opportunity to meet upwith like-minded people, to discuss matters of common interests, swap ideas, and – of course – to celebratewith us. So don‘t miss the OLAT User Day 2009, and make the entry in your diary today! More details willfollow. Hope to see you in Zurich! Feel free to download the postcard [http://www.olat.org/website/en/image/userday09/

userday_web.pdf] if you didn't get one by "Snail Mail".

OLAT User Day 2009 Postcard (front)

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/OLAT-CORE-COMMUNITY-TREFFEN.pdf

http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact2009/liafinalists2009.html

http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact2009/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qy0UzSy_RmU

http://www.olat.org/website/en/image/userday09/userday_web.pdf



University of Hamburg switches from Blackboard to OLAT!(17.02.2009) Yesterday the University of Hamburg announced that they will switch from Blackboard to OLAT.Their blackboard license ends in April 2010 but they will already offer an OLAT server for the next summersemester 2009. Thanks to the scalability release 6.1 OLAT fits Hamburg's needs for a high number of concurrentusers. For more information read the press release [http://www.uni-hamburg.de/eLearning/OLAT_Information.pdf Filesize:

50kB. Type: PDF in German. ] or visit the University of Hamburg eLearning website [http://www.uni-hamburg.de/

eLearning/index.html] . Welcome on board!!!

Check our older OLAT news in the news archive [Page 80] .

http://www.uni-hamburg.de/eLearning/OLAT_Information.pdf

http://www.uni-hamburg.de/eLearning/index.html



1. More Information About OLAT

OLAT in 5 minutes (Video)OLAT was nominated as an IMS Learning Impact Award [http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact2009/awards.html]

finalist. Each finalist had the possibility to submit a 5 minute video about their tool. If you're interested inOLAT this video might be a good starting point. Please not that this is not a tutorial. We do have a tutorialvideo about creating an OLAT course in the documentation section [Page 43] .

Only pictures can be viewed in the PDF version! For Flash etc. see online version. Only screenshotsof animations will be displayed. [link]

Why should I use OLAT?Thanks for your interest in OLAT

• It is open source and therefore free of charge

• The Java based framework can handle over 700 students simultaneously on one standard Linux server[Page 45] . If you install an OLAT-cluster (available since OLAT 6.1) you can serve even morestudents!

• Thanks to its simple and intuitive web frontend, users will learn how to work with OLAT in no time

• OLAT uses cutting edge AJAX/Web 2.0 technology and the layout is based on the CSS frameworkYAML [http://www.yaml.de]

• It is multilingual (UTF8) and offers translations for over 30 languages [Page 71] . The new translationtool 2009 makes OLAT translation simpler than ever!

• OLAT supports eLearning standards such as SCORM 2, IMS Content Packaging or QTI 3

See the feature list [Page 10] for more details.

http://www.imsglobal.org/learningimpact2009/awards.html

http://www.olat.org/website/en/

http://www.yaml.de

http://www.yaml.de



The user's home portal with configurable portlets

Only pictures can be viewed in the PDFversion! For Flash etc. see online version.Only screenshots of animations will bedisplayed. [link]

These facts about OLAT were compiled by the opensource network Ohloh.net [https://www.ohloh.net/projects/

olat] .

AwardsOLAT won some important awards in the past. The most important ones are certainly:

IMS Learning ImpactLeadership Award:

Leadership Award for best

open source LMS in 2009

[http://www.imsglobal.org/

pressreleases/pr090514.html]

Swiss OpenSource Award 2008:

OLAT won 2008

the Swiss(ness)

Open Source Award

[http://www.ossaward.ch/]

Medida Prix 2000:

OLAT won the

first Medida Prix

in the year 2000

[http://www.medidaprix.org/]

1.1. OLAT Feature List and Some Screenshots

Click on the screenshots to get a full-size view!


https://www.ohloh.net/projects/olat



General Overview

• Open Source (Apache 2 License [Page 48] )

• Java based framework (Brasato [http://www.brasatoframework.org/] ) with special Accessibility-mode, HTMLbased frontend GUI (XHTML 1.0)

• AJAX/Web 2.0 enabled

• Entirely multilingual, UTF8 supported, online translation tool

• Supports standards such as IMS CP, SCORM 1.2, QTI 1.2 etc.

• Server requirements [Page 45] : With OLAT, there is no need for a high-end server!

• Scalability: Install an OLAT cluster if one server alone does not meet your requirements!

• CSS framework YAML [http://www.yaml.de] : Increased robustness and browser-compatibility of entirelayout.

• Portlets on HOME-tab are configurable

Users & Groups

• Unlimited number of accounts

• Different roles

• Various authentication methods

• Administrators can add, modify or delete users

• Personalized authoring and learning environment

• Manage your files via HTTP or WebDAV

• Configure your personal home portal

• Calendar (per course, per group and combined personal calendar), also via ical, notifications (via eMailor RSS)

• Be up-to-date as regards news and changes via e-mail or RSS feed

• Full-text search

• Share resources with other authors (learning resource repository)

• Form your own project groups and invite buddies

• Use discussion forums, file share space, contact forms etc.

• Instant Messenger: See who is online and chat with others using either the integrated chat client (AJAXbased) or an external Jabber client

Authentication Options

• Users can create their own accounts (with/without approval by administrators)

• Direct login into OLAT with OLAT user name and password

• Access file system via WebDAV login

• Full Shibboleth integration

• Single sign-on e.g. via Switch AAI

• Control access to courses by means of AAI attributes

http://www.brasatoframework.org/

http://www.yaml.de



Course Management

• Flexible course system

• Based on IMS Learning design concepts

• Create a personalized course structure according to your needs

• Course editor: create your course using OLAT course elements

• Group management: manage your learners

• Rights management: grant specific users access to course tools

• Assessment tool: assess your learners

• Archive tool: download log files or runtime data and import/export courses

• Create your own course layout using CSS 7

Course Elements OLAT Offers

• Wiki

• Single pages with integrated WYSIWYG HTML editor (+ jsMath)

• Include external pages or sites via tunneling

• Both SCORM 1.2 and IMS Content Packages (+ CP editor)

• Forums and "file dialog" element to discuss papers

• Folders for download material

• Tasks with drop box, sample solution and scores

• Tests (with scores) and self-tests (anonymous, no scores) based on QTI 1.2 standard

• Questionnaire for course evaluations

• Enrollment for groups (by student or tutor or both) with wait lists

• Contact forms for easy communication with group members or tutors

Online Help and Documentation

• Extensive context-sensitive help

• User manual available as HTML or PDF

• Demo courses and course templates

• Comprehensive help, manual, tutorials and discussion forum

Multilingual

• Entirely supports UTF8

• Our main translations: German, English, French, Italian and Spanish

• Community translations: Portuguese, Russian, Czech, Polish, Lithuanian, Danish, Greek, Chinese(traditional and simplified) and Farsi (Persian)

• Under development: Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Hebrew, Hungarian, Indonesian (Bahasa), Rumantschand Turkish

• The online translation tool has been rebuilt in 2009 and is simpler than ever!

• More information in the translations chapter [Page 71]



For a more detailed description of the features OLAT offers please refer to the functional survey [http://

www.olat.org/website/en/download/OLAT_6_0_Functional_Survey.pdf Filesize: 1.3MB. Type: PDF. ] (also available in German:"OLAT Funktionsübersicht [http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/OLAT_6_0_Funktionsuebersicht.pdf Filesize: 1.7MB.

Type: PDF. ] "). Click on the image to see bigger screenshots in the right column.

The resource list displays all available

courses according to a student's role

The OLAT administration offers tools to log, modify

and delete sessions, errors, log levels, locks etc.

In the user management you can

add, modify or delete OLAT users

In OLAT each user can modify his or

her personal settings in the home tab

1.2. Future OLAT Development: Roadmap

The following roadmap shows the planned new OLAT features for 2010.The logo shows if the feature is developed by the University of Zurich

, by frentix

or by Bildungsportal Sachsen (BPS)

.

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/OLAT_6_0_Functional_Survey.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/OLAT_6_0_Funktionsuebersicht.pdf



Release 6.3.x (Public Release: March 23th, 2010)

• Add podcasts to courses

• Mavenized/Springiefied configuration

• "Topic Selection" course element ("Themenbörse")

• Blog integration

• Easy Course Creation Wizard

• Show course progress and resume GUI session

• Group Management refactoring part I (financed by UZH)

• Improved course config page

• New Logging Infrastructure

• Centralized path generation and better handling of special characters in file/path names

• Refactoring of depricated forms using "Flexi Form" infrastructure part II

• Inline Editing GUI Elements

• RSS-Portlet

• Various Component Improvements

Release 6.4.x (Public Release: September 28th, 2010)

• Permalinks (static URLs) in courses and groups

• Backbutton

• Various Component Improvements

• External Tools Building Block (IMS LTI)

• Group Management refactoring part II (financed by UZH)

• OLAT to SIS connection

• QTI 2.1 engines

1.3. OLAT Demo Server: Test OLAT Before Downloading It!

Feel free to test OLAT before you download and install it. Our demo server allows a login in different rolesand languages. Please do not store any data on it since all courses are deleted automatically every weekend.

To access our demo server, please go to:demo.olat.org [http://demo.olat.org]

http://demo.olat.org



1.4. What users say about OLAT - From A to Z

Dr. Hans-Gert Graebe, apl. Prof. am Institut für Informatik der Universität Leipzig

"OLAT ist ein schönes System, das bei uns nicht nur zur Begleitung vonLehrveranstaltungen eingesetzt wird, sondern auch in unserem Software-Praktikum als komplexes Softwareartefakt zu Studien- und Erweiterungszweckeneine Rolle spielt. Aus diesen Arbeiten sind eine Reihe von Erweiterungenentstanden, wie z.B. unser OLAT-PA-Modul zur Prüfungsanmeldung. ImGegensatz zu anderen Anwendern fahren wir mehrere kleine, an konkreteSituationen angepasste OLAT-Instanzen, weil ich meine, dass eine solchedezentrale Infrastruktur die Struktur der Verantwortlichkeiten an einer Universitätbesser widerspiegelt.

Eine besonders interessante Anwendung ergab sich aus dem Vergleichmit Anforderungen an eine kooperative Plattform im Bereich derRegionalentwicklung. Hier ist die erste Version eines Systems zur Unterstützungvon Kundenbetreuern der Anhalt Dessau AG auf der Basis von OLAT so gut wiefertig."

More about OLAT at the LeipzigUniversity[http://bis.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/en/Projects/EEE/

OLAT]

Susanne Haab, e-learning coordinator at the University of Zurich

"The OLAT designers did a really good job in tidying up the OLAT 6 layout,which is very smooth and calm now."

Weiter zur E-Learning-Koordination(ELK) der Philosophischen Fakultät[http://www.phil.uzh.ch/institute/elearning.html]

http://bis.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/en/Projects/EEE/OLAT

http://bis.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/en/Projects/EEE/OLAT

http://www.phil.uzh.ch/institute/elearning.html

http://www.phil.uzh.ch/institute/elearning.html



Kurt Hanselmann, PhD Microbiology, CEO of swiss | i - research and training, uses computer-supported teaching in courses on microbiology, biochemistry, systems biology and geobiology withOLAT for self-learning, evaluation and testing as well as for scientific networking and distancetraining

Self-Learning"When I began evaluating my own teaching performance, it became obvious thatlecturing is one of the less effective means of training students. We still do it,because it has always been done this way and neither students nor peers seem tobe able to define what "effective" teaching should look like. Employing OLAT asteaching and learning support allows one to initiate guided self- learning by thestudent and it opens new options for evaluating one's own teaching performance."

Self-Testing"OLAT and the internet alone do not make better students and they do notlead to better grades at exams. But they give students more opportunities tolearn by themselves and to check their performance regularly. They can preparethemselves optimally for their profession and learn how to interpret and usescientific knowledge and to think scientifically. OLAT learning tools allowstudents to build knowledge from facts by themselves and to use their study timeefficiently. There is more time left for both, the interaction with the teacher forclarification as well as the evaluation of scientific evidence rather than solely forinformation transfer."

Prof. Klaus Hering, Beauftragter für e-Learning an der Hochschule für Technik, Wirtschaft undKultur (HTWK) Leipzig

"Wir haben 2006 nach Tests in ausgewählten Lehrveranstaltungen denhochschulweiten Einsatz von OLAT beschlossen und die Entwicklung einereigenen Lernplattform eingestellt. OLAT hat uns vor allem durch dieFlexibilität und Vielfalt der Gestaltbarkeit kursbegleitender Strukturen unddie Möglichkeiten der Organisation von Kommunikation und Kooperationin Gruppen überzeugt. Wir nutzen OLAT-Kursstrukturen auch losgelöst vonkonkreten Veranstaltungen zur Unterstützung studienorganisatorischer Prozessewie etwa der Semesterplanung für Wahlpflicht-Module.

Im Rahmen des Bildungsportals Sachsen wird OLAT den SächsischenHochschulen von der BPS Bildungsportal Sachsen GmbH in Form derLernplattform OPAL (Online-Plattform für Akademisches Lehren und Lernen)zur Verfügung gestellt. Der kooperative Ansatz erlaubt eine Konzentrationknapper Mittel für Weiterentwicklung und Support. Außerdem bietet er Potenzialfür hochschulübergreifende Lehr-, Lern- und Forschungsaktivitäten. Inzwischenweist OPAL in Sachsen über 49.000 registrierte Nutzer auf."



Petra Kauer-Ott, elearning coordinator Geosciences at University of Zurich

"OLAT is not a «eierlegende Wollmilchsau», but not far away from! The platformis easy to use for students - more complex for authors - but this complexity allowsto create courses fulfilling the needs of both, lecturers and students. I have beenworking with the platform since 2002, and the development from that time on hasbeen impressive. Features like tunneling, wikis, waiting lists or import of contentpackages are integrated in OLAT and meanwhile indispensable for our courses.To be prepared for the future, OLAT has permanently to be enhanced and adapted- a big amount of work, hopefully manageable by the OLAT team as good as inthe past. As a member of the OLAT usability group I try to encourage the furtherdevelopment and place the users viewpoint. "

eLearning@GeoWiss[http://www.geo.uzh.ch/en/services/elearning]

Frank Mäder, E-Learning Koordinator der Rechtswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität Zürich

• Wir verwenden OLAT für administrative Prozesse im Zusammenhangmit der Durchführung von Lehrveranstaltungen. Namentlich für dieAnmeldung bei limitierten Teilnehmerzahlen, die Durchsetzung vonAbgabefristen, das "Einsammeln" der Falllösungen, etc. ist OLAT einunverzichtbarer Helfer und Prozessoptimierer geworden.

• Das System besticht trotz diverser Releases und damit verbundenerErweiterung der Features im Grundsatz durch eine einfache Schulbarkeit,d.h. die von mir betreuten Assistierenden können innert sehr kurzer Zeitdazu befähigt werden, ihre OLAT-Kurse selbständig zu betreuen und spätereigene Kurse aufzusetzen.

• Schliesslich scheint es OLAT fertiggebracht zu haben, der unglaublichenVielfalt an Bedürfnissen aller Fakultäten und Institute gerecht zu werdenund ein umfassendes Angebot an Lösungen zu präsentieren.

E-Learning @ RWF[http://www.ius.uzh.ch/ELearning.html]

Cerstin Mahlow, M.A., Senior Scientific Officer at FHNW and Lecturer at the Faculty of Humanitiesand Arts at University of Zurich

"I have been using OLAT from the year 2001 on. Since then a lot of featureshave been added making OLAT suitable for a broad variety of didactic scenarios.In contrast to other LMS, the architecture of OLAT has evolved to keep pacewith today's requirements for mission-critical e-learning platforms with respectto scalability and reliability. What I like most from the pedagogical perspective:Lecturers are not forced to follow a predefined concept but can build coursesperfectly tailored to their particular needs. As a user I can contribute to thedevelopment by making proposals and specifications for features, reporting onbugs and testing new features. That way I am part of the OLAT community,helping to improve and to explore new forms of e-learning."

http://www.geo.uzh.ch/en/services/elearning

http://www.ius.uzh.ch/ELearning.html



Joachim Saleyka, Technical Manager,Department Learning Services, Informations- undMedienzentrum, University of Applied Sciences Furtwangen (Germany)

"OLAT is the platform we chose for our central Learning Management System

which we call FELIX 10 (Furtwangen E-learning and Information eXchange). Wehave been using OLAT for almost one and a half years now. Metaphoricallyspeaking FELIX has really grown up and made many friends ever since he movedfrom our former (commercial) LMS to OLAT."

Felix 2 HS Furtwangen[https://felix2.hs-furtwangen.de/dmz/]

Katja Seifried, e-learning coordinator, Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research (IPMZ),University of Zurich

"I like working with OLAT not least due to its modularity. The compositionof customized learning environments is very convenient. I can perfectly fit thecontents of my lectures with the particular online-components that are didacticallyexpedient for me."

E-Learning@IPMZ[http://www.ipmz.uzh.ch/page.php?site=studium,E-

Learning,Allgemein&expandable=0]

Dr. phil. Roland Streule, Koordinator edulap and PTO

"I like the manifold tools and functionalities of OLAT, which can be freelycombined to build up didactical scenarios for almost every purpose. Starting fromimplementing content for self-study parts to integrating collaborative tools orembedding external applications, OLAT offers a lot of possibilities. Moreover, itis easy to use and is being improved constantly."

"Ich mag vor allem die vielfältigen Werkzeuge und Funktionalitäten von OLAT.Man kann sie frei miteinander kombinieren und damit praktisch jedes denkbaredidaktische Szenario umsetzen. Angefangen von der Realisierung von Inhaltenfür das Selbststudium über deren Verflechtung mit kollaborativen Werkzeugenbis hin zur Einbindung externer Anwendungen, bietet OLAT viele Möglichkeiten.Zudem ist OLAT einfach zu nutzen und wird ständig weiterentwickelt."

Mehr über PTO (Psychopathology TaughtOnline)[http://www.pto.uzh.ch/]

https://felix2.hs-furtwangen.de/dmz/

http://www.ipmz.uzh.ch/page.php?site=studium,E-Learning,Allgemein&expandable=0

http://www.pto.uzh.ch/




Benjamin Wilding, lic.oec.publ., Projektleiter eCF

"OLAT ist für mich als eCF-Projektleiter ein sehr wichtiges Werkzeug, um denStudierenden eLearning-Angebote liefern zu können. Ich schätze OLAT sehr,da es für mich als Kursadministrator viele Möglichkeiten bei der Kurserstellungbietet und da es für die Studierenden sehr einfach zu handhaben ist. Zudemist OLAT sehr zuverlässig und weisst rasche Antwortzeiten auf. OLAT hat mirdie Arbeit sowohl aus administrativer wie auch aus inhaltlicher Sicht bedeutendvereinfacht."

Weiter zur eCorporate Finance (eCF)website[http://www.getinvolved.uzh.ch/]

OLAT Team at the Furtwangen University"OLAT is the central Learning Management System used by the Furtwangen University of Applied Sciences.It is promoted using the name FELIX (Furtwangen E-Learning and Information eXchange). Currently, wecompleted the initial phase of our OLAT installation. The results are very encouraging. One feature that's verypopular among students is the possibility to autonomously create and manage project groups. Within summerterm 2008 more than 150 project groups have been initiated.

Furthermore, OLAT's well-structured design and its simple navigation lead to a positive rating in terms ofusability. Thus, compared to times of our previous Learning Management System, the number of studentssupport inquiries decreased significantly. In a similar vein, the teachers emphasize the functionality andusability of OLAT. Hence, the central Learning Management System FELIX is widely accepted.

In summary, we made encouraging experiences in the initial phase of our OLAT installation and we are lookingforward to the next winter term, when we will promote OLAT as the central Learning Management System ofthe Furtwangen University of Applied Sciences."

Felix 2 HS Furtwangen[https://felix2.hs-furtwangen.de/dmz/]

The OLAT team of the Hochschule Furtwangen

Weitere Kundenmeinungen

Erfahrungen von Dozierenden der Hochschule für Technikund Wirtschaft Dresden (FH)[http://www.htw-dresden.de/ecampus/erfahrungen.html]

http://www.getinvolved.uzh.ch/

http://www.getinvolved.uzh.ch/


http://www.htw-dresden.de/ecampus/erfahrungen.html

http://www.htw-dresden.de/ecampus/erfahrungen.html



1.5. Who Uses OLAT? List of OLAT Installations

As far as we know, there are about 150 OLAT installations running worldwide. Some of them are just for testpurposes, some are used for internal training but most of them are productive installations at some universityor higher education institution. We do list the most important ones below. To our knowledge, OLAT has beeninstalled in the following countries:

• Australia

• Austria

• Brazil

• Chile

• China

• Croatia

• Czech Republic

• Denmark

• France

• Germany

• Greece

• India

• Indonesia

• Iran

• Italy

• Korea

• Kyrgyzstan

• Lithuania

• Malaysia

• Peru

• Poland

• Portugal

• Russia

• South Africa

• Spain

• Sweden

• Switzerland

• Taiwan

• Turkey

• Ukraine

• USA

• Vietnam

From the visits on our website we know that there are people interested in OLAT at the following locations(see ClustrMaps for more information [http://www3.clustrmaps.com/counter/maps.php?url=http://www.olat.org] ):

OLAT.org website visits since the release of OLAT 5.2 (July 2007)

Furthermore OLAT has been or is being translated into most of the above countries' national language and moretranslations are on their way. Please check our OLAT translations [Page 71] page for a complete overview!If your country is missing or if you are interested in translating OLAT, please send us an e-mail [Link to URI

mailto:[email protected]] .

OLAT Main Installation: Universities of Zurich, Basel, Lucerne, PH St. Gallen and the FederalInstitute of Technology

The main OLAT installation is located at the University of Zurich [http://www.uzh.ch] (maintained by theMultimedia & E-Learning Services of the University of Zurich [http://www.id.uzh.ch/org/mels.html] ) but used bymore universities such as the University of Basel [http://www.unibas.ch] , the University of Bern [http://www.unibe.ch/]

http://www3.clustrmaps.com/counter/maps.php?url=http://www.olat.org

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.uzh.ch

http://www.id.uzh.ch/org/mels.html

http://www.unibas.ch

http://www.unibe.ch/



, the University of Lucerne [http://www.unilu.ch] , the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich [http://

www.ethz.ch/] and in Lausanne [http://www.epfl.ch/] . It is accessible via the "Swiss Login" AAI 12 and thereforeavailable for all AAI member institutions. Up and running since 1999 when OLAT 1.0 was installed.

• 03.11.2009: release 6.2.2 installed, 42000 users, 1000 authors and nearly 2200 published courses

• Between 400 and 700 users simultaneously online every day; the maximum is 1100 users

• Single-server environment for OLAT, MySQL and Wildfire IM Server. See server requirements [Page

45] for more technical information.

University of Zurich OLAT Server[https://www.olat.uzh.ch/]

Bildungsportal Sachsen BPS

The BPS Bildungsportal Sachsen GmbH [http://bildungsportal.sachsen.de/] decided to use OLAT as their strategicfuture LMS. The BPS is a joint venture company financed by 10 universities in the state of Sachsen, Germany.

Since BPS customized OLAT and built new features they renamed their product from OLAT to OPAL 13 andpromote their LMS under this name.

• Authentication done via Shibboleth infrastructure (Sachsen first and only German state using Shibbolethstate-wide at all universities)

• Currently using the latest 5.2 release

• Nearly 20'000 registered users

BPS Bildungsportal Sachsen GmbH is one of the major contributors of the OLAT project.

BPS OPAL/OLAT Server[http://bildungsportal.sachsen.de/opal]

12 AAI stands for Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure (AAI). For detailed information both on technical and organizational

level refer to the SWITCH AAI page.

13 In Saxony the BPS GmbH (Bildungsportal Sachsen) is one of Germany's major OLAT users. They chose to rename their product from

OLAT to OPAL which stands for "Online Plattform für akademisches Lehren und Lernen". The BPS team is not only an OLAT user but

their team also contributes to the OLAT code by submitting new features, improvements and bug fixes. Link to the OPAL server.

http://www.unilu.ch

http://www.ethz.ch/

http://www.epfl.ch/

https://www.olat.uzh.ch/

http://bildungsportal.sachsen.de/

http://bildungsportal.sachsen.de/opal



University of Macerata – Italy

OLAT is the new central learning management system used by the University of Macerata for the “IntelligentLearning Environment” project. The installation is configured as follows:

• Installation of OLAT 6.0.4

• Instant Messaging / Jabber enabled

OLAT is managed by the university's Centre for e-Learning (CELFI) supporting all Faculties offering e-Learning courses. Planned extensions (phased implementation during the ILE – Project):

• Tagging and LSA Tool

• Integrated Blog

• E-Portfolio

• AI – Tutoring Subsystem

• Video Conferencing facility (OpenMeetings)

University of Macerata OLAT Server[http://olat1.unimc.it/olat]

Hochschule Furtwangen University

OLAT is the central learning management system used by the Furtwangen University of Applied Sciences. Itis promoted using the name FELIX 2 (Furtwangen E-Learning and Information eXchange).

• Installation of OLAT 6.0

• Authentication via Shibboleth and customized auto-registration process linked to the central userdirectory of the university

• Extensions for special university Single Sign-on services


http://olat1.unimc.it/olat



OLAT is managed by the university's Informations- und Medienzentrum, Department for Learning Services[http://www.fh-furtwangen.de/deutsch/studienangebote/elearning/index.html] .

HS Furtwangen OLAT Server[https://felix2.hs-furtwangen.de]

Warmia and Mazury Vocational Education Centre in Olsztyn (Poland)

Warmia and Mazury Vocational Education Centre in Olsztyn is an educational organisation which dealwith vocational courses in many areas such as: building construction, landscape architecture, surveyingand many others. It provides also many driving license courses. Server maintained by Biuro ProjektówGeoinformatycznych GEOMATIKK [http://www.geomatikk.pl/olat] .


• Default language is Polish

• Instant Messaging / Openfire enabled

Warmia and Mazury Vocational Education Centre OLATServer[http://www.ekursy.wmzdz.pl]

Andowson Chang - Translation and Installation Help, OLAT Chinese Users Community, Taiwan

Andowson Chang [http://www.andowson.com] is devoted to the support of open source technologies in e-Learningfor Chinese Users.

• Installation of OLAT 6.0.6(Apache 2.0.52 + Tomcat 5.5.26 + PostgreSQL 7.4.19)

• Instant Messaging / Openfire enabled

• Only a few users and course right now

Andowson Chang's OLAT installation[http://www.andowson.com/olat]

http://www.fh-furtwangen.de/deutsch/studienangebote/elearning/index.html

https://felix2.hs-furtwangen.de

http://www.geomatikk.pl/olat


http://www.ekursy.wmzdz.pl

http://www.ekursy.wmzdz.pl

http://www.andowson.com

http://www.andowson.com/olat



Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich

Evaluation of students of primary schools using the OLAT testing and evaluation tools. Status: Version 4.1.1installed, 41'000 randomly generated evaluation accounts (regular OLAT users with access to evaluationcourses).

IT-Test OLAT Server[http://test.it-test.uzh.ch/ittest/dmz/]

TechNet – IT & Network Support Services, Greece

TechNet [http://www.technetgr.com/] specializes in developing, deploying and maintaining e-learning solutions andcontent, based on OLAT, under the name TechNet LMS [http://lms.technetgr.com/] while also offering commercialsupport. Our Services include (but are not restricted to): Customizing, Development, Support, Training &Content Production.

• OLAT 6.1.1 release installed

• Openfire 3.6.4 release installed

• Modified OLATcore and theme

• 20 Demo SCORM Courses

TechNet OLAT Demo Server[http://demo.technetgr.com]

http://test.it-test.uzh.ch/ittest/dmz/

http://www.technetgr.com/

http://lms.technetgr.com/

http://demo.technetgr.com



iVee - Instituto Virtual de Ensino Estruturado (Brazil)

The iVee [http://www.ivee.com.br/] is not only running an OLAT installation in Brazil, it is also responsible forthe OLAT translation into Brazilian Portuguese.

iVee OLAT Server[http://200.196.254.27:81/olat/dmz/]

Multicoisas Franquias Ltda. (Brazil)

Another OLAT installation in Brazil is run by the company Multicoisas Franquias Ltda [http://

www.multicoisas.com.br/home/] . They currently have around 100 registered users but this number will grow to morethan 600 in the future when more employees get more used to using OLAT. This company is a store franchisethat sells home accessories and currently have 60 stores in all over Brazil. They plan to use OLAT to help thelearning and training inside the company.

Multicoisas OLAT Server[http://olat.multicoisas.com.br/olat/dmz/]


• Default language is Portuguese

http://www.ivee.com.br/

http://200.196.254.27:81/olat/dmz/

http://www.multicoisas.com.br/home/

http://olat.multicoisas.com.br/olat/dmz/



mesimi.net, Kosova

Mesimi.net [http://www.mesimi.net] is an education plattform from Smart Bits GmbH (Switzerland, Kosovo).Smart Bits developed content for English, Project Management and ECDL. The courses are accessible forschools in Kosovo, the American University Kosovo (AUK) and private companies and institutions.

It is planned to rollout OLAT in all important education scenarios in Kosovo.

• Installation of OLAT 6

• Usage of english and albanien language

• Custom development to support remote login form

• Most content SCORM based

• Customized GUI

Customization and installation done by frentix GmbH [http://www.frentix.com]

Mesimi OLAT Server[http://www.mesimi.net/mesimi/]

Gartenbauschule LVG Heidelberg, Germany

The LVG Heidelberg is a school for horticulture in Germany.



• Customized GUI

Customization and installation done by frentix GmbH [http://www.frentix.com/] .

http://www.mesimi.net

http://www.frentix.com

http://www.mesimi.net/mesimi/

http://www.frentix.com/



Gartenbauschule OLAT Server[http://www.gartenbauschule.de/]

Zentrum für Ausbildung im Gesundheitswesen Kanton Zürich (ZAG), Switzerland

The ZAG is a new Swiss school for health care.


• User authentication using the LDAP extension

• Customized code extensions

• Video streaming and Picturepark media management integration

• Intranet is managed using OLAT; intranet designed on the OLAT course system (permanently visiblein the top navigation unlike regular OLAT courses)


• Customized GUI

Hosting, installation, customization and extension development done by frentix GmbH [http://www.frentix.com/] .

ZAG OLAT Server[http://olat.zag.zh.ch/olat]

Hochschule für Soziale Arbeit Zürich HSSAZ, Switzerland

The HSSAZ is one of the eight Universities of Applied Sciences in Zurich and specializing in social workeducation.

http://www.gartenbauschule.de/


http://olat.zag.zh.ch/olat



• Installation of OLAT 4.0.1 standard version


• Integrated additional non-OLAT component project agenda; a straightforward project-planning tool

Hosting, customization and installation of OLAT by imachine projekt ag [http://www.imachine.ch/] .

HSSAZ OLAT Server[http://www.olat.net/olat/]

University of Zurich IRC (Accounting and Controlling)

Decentralized installation for the accounting and controlling institute of the University of Zurich. Fork of earlyOLAT version, individual GUI implementation

IRC OLAT Server[http://www.planet-irc.uzh.ch/]

Academia Bohemica

The Academia Bohemica is a new internet university with the target to provide good university education forunprivileged people. Courses in philosophy and history are now in preparation.

• OLAT 4.1 release installed

• Default language is Czech

• Some courses accessible with guest account

Academia Bohemica OLAT Server[http://olat.academia-bohemica.org/]

http://www.imachine.ch/

http://www.olat.net/olat/

http://www.planet-irc.uzh.ch/

http://olat.academia-bohemica.org/



Frentix E-Learning Server

The frentix GmbH [http://www.frentix.com/] offers commercial services such as ASP, hosting, customizing,development, support, and training for the LMS OLAT. The learn.frentix.com server is used by frentix forOLAT training courses and hosts courses from frentix customers.

Currently the version 6.0 is installed.

frentix OLAT Server[http://learn.frentix.com/]

Swiss Federal Strategy Unit for Information Technology FSUIT

The HERMES project management method [http://www.hermes.admin.ch/] is used to manage, develop andexecute projects in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). It has been developed by the federaladministration in 1975 and has since then underwent extensive revisions in 1986 and 1995. HERMES is notjust used by the federal administration as open standard but is also at the disposal of cantons, educationalinstitutions and business enterprises. HERMES has become a significant success as regards numerous ICTprojects and serves as a common guideline for service providers and service procurers, in particular for projectpurchasers, project managers and project employees.

OLAT is used to train the HERMES project management method. Currently the version 5.0 is installed.

Installation, customization and extension development done by frentix GmbH [http://www.frentix.com/] .

HERMES E-Learning OLAT Server


http://learn.frentix.com/

http://www.hermes.admin.ch/


http://gershwin.bfi.admin.ch/olat/dmz/



[http://gershwin.bfi.admin.ch/olat/dmz/]

KTSI: Höhere Fachschule (HF) für Technik

The KTSI [http://www.ktsi.ch/] is a technical school in Basel, Switzerland.

In 2006 students evaluated and tested OLAT. The positive result of that project convinced the school board topush OLAT as their e-learning platform. In January 2007 OLAT went live and is very successful accordingto the school director.

KTSI E-Learning OLAT Server[http://olat.ktsi.ch/olat/dmz/]

Top Originators, USA

The goal of Top Originators [http://toporiginatorsu.com/] is to introduce their customers to the profitable worldof loan origination. For online training purposes the company is using a customized and extended version ofOLAT.

• Based on OLAT 3.2.1

• Addition of a certification course element

• Addition of a search course element

• GUI customization

Installation, customization and extension development done by Agile Studios [http://www.agilestudios.com/] , USA.

http://www.ktsi.ch/

http://olat.ktsi.ch/olat/dmz/

http://toporiginatorsu.com/

http://www.agilestudios.com/



Top Originators OLAT Server[http://toporiginatorsu.com/olat]

Alta scuola pedagogica dei Grigoni, SwitzerlandSince spring 2007 the Pädagogische Hochschule Graubünden [http://www.phgr.ch/] offers an OLAT serverrunning on the latest 5.1.3 release.

Realized and implemented by the ICT-Atelier [http://www.ict-gr.ch/] in Chur.

PHGR OLAT Server[http://olat.exigo.ch/olat/dmz/]

Are You Missing Your OLAT Installation Here?Please send a mail to [email protected] [Link to URI mailto:[email protected]] along with your text and links if you wantto be added to this site!

1.6. Company Service

There are companies worldwide providing Service to host, install, develope or customize OLAT fitting yourneeds.If you do so yourself, please let us know. Fill out the form and we will add you to the list!

frentix GMBH, Switzerlandfrentix GmbH does offer various services for the LMS OLAT also to international customers.www.frentix.com [http://www.frentix.com]

[email protected] [Link to URI mailto:[email protected]]

BPS Bildungsportal Sachsen GmbH, GermanyBPS Bildungsportal Sachsen GmbH advises and guides mostly german companies.www.bps-system.de [http://www.bps-system.de]


Roundbox Global, USA and Costa RicaRoundbox Global is a strategic business and technology consulting firm.www.rbxglobal.com [http://www.rbxglobal.com]


1.7. OLAT Download Material

Flyers and PostersFeel free to download and print the product flyer of OLAT if you would like to promote OLAT on congresses,in workshops, your organisation or elsewhere. Please contact us [Page 92] if you need the original AdobeIllustrator or InDesign files.

OLAT 6 broschure (4 pages DIN A5)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_broschure_print.pdf]

5.8MB PDF Print resolution

OLAT 6 broschure (4 pages DIN A5) 0.2MB PDF Web resolution

http://toporiginatorsu.com/olat

http://www.phgr.ch/

http://www.ict-gr.ch/

http://olat.exigo.ch/olat/dmz/




http://www.bps-system.de


http://www.rbxglobal.com


http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_broschure_print.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_broschure_web.pdf



[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_broschure_web.pdf]

OLAT 6 flyer (DIN A6 back and front)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_flyer_print_en.pdf]


OLAT 6 flyer (DIN A6 back and front)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_flyer_web_en.pdf]

0.1MB PDF Web resolution

OLAT 6 flyer (DIN A6 back and front) - German[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_flyer_print_de.pdf]


OLAT 6 flyer (DIN A6 back and front) - German[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_flyer_web_de.pdf]


OLAT 6 poster (DIN A0)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_poster_print.pdf]


OLAT 6 poster (DIN A0)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_poster_web.pdf]


The OLAT Logo

The new OLAT 3D logo, 72x72 pixels[http://www.olat.org/website/en/../../_templates/olat/images/

olat_logo2_72.png]

12kB PNG New OLAT 3D Logo


olat_logo2_128.png]



olat_logo2_256.png]



olat_logo2_720.png]


University of Zurich LogoIf you need the University of Zurich logo or font have a look at the UniCommunication Corporate Design [http://

www.unicom.uzh.ch/cd/logo.html] page. Unfortunately this page is only accessible for students and staff. Thereforewe publish the PNG version (can be used for web and print) of the logo below:

Logo University of Zurich (Black Font)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/Unilogo/

unilogo_pp_schwarz_en.png]

40kB PNG English, Black Font

Logo der Universität Zürich (Schwarze Schrift)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/Unilogo/

unilogo_pp_schwarz_de.png]

40kB PNG German, Black Font

Logo University of Zurich (White Font) 40kB PNG English, White Font

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_flyer_print_en.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_flyer_web_en.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_flyer_print_de.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_flyer_web_de.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_poster_print.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/olat_poster_web.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/../../_templates/olat/images/olat_logo2_72.png




http://www.unicom.uzh.ch/cd/logo.html

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/Unilogo/unilogo_pp_schwarz_en.png

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/Unilogo/unilogo_pp_schwarz_de.png

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/Unilogo/unilogo_pp_weiss_en.png



[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/Unilogo/

unilogo_pp_weiss_en.png]

Logo der Universität Zürich (Weisse Schrift)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/Unilogo/

unilogo_pp_weiss_de.png]

40kB PNG German, White Font

1.8. Short Overview of the History of OLAT

Please use the green dot at the bottom of the timeline to scroll.


1.9. OLAT 10 years movie

OLAT is celebrating its 10 years anniversary. Have a look at the OLAT 10 years movie!


1.10. Press

• Franck, Christian, 2009. OLAT LMS - Präzise wie ein Schweizer Uhrwerk. eLearning Journal, 1/09,79.The January 2009 issue of the German eLearning Journal brought an advertorial by Christian Franck (Frentix) which was

distribtuted at the Learntec conference in Karlsruhe.

Download: ../download/publications/eLearning_Journal_01_09_OLAT_Frentix.pdf

• anonymous (2009). Synergien durch hochschulübergreifende Lernplattform [online]. München:CHECK.point eLearning/INFObases GmbH. Available from: http://www.checkpoint-elearning.de[Accessed 11.02.2009].Article from CHECK.point eLearning about OPAL aka OLAT in Saxony.

Download: http://www.checkpoint-elearning.de/article/6327.html

• eLearning Journal im Gespräch mit Marcel Dübner (Inside) und Christian Franck (Frentix GmbH),2009. Podcast. By Siepmann, Frank. Learntec Karlsruhe, Germany: eLearning Journal.Video-Podcast: eLearning Journal Chefredakteur Frank Siepmann im Gespräch mit Marcel Dübner (Inside) und Christian Franck

(Frentix GmbH) an der Learntec 2009 in Karlsruhe.

Download: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7ePF4gOeuU

• Fuchs, Mariate (2009). E-Learning: OLAT an der Elbe. unipublic [online], 15.03.2009. Available from:http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch [Accessed 15.03.2009].Unipublic-Interview with Hans-Jörg Zuberbühler about the new partnership with the University of Hamburg.

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/Unilogo/unilogo_pp_weiss_de.png



http://www.checkpoint-elearning.de

http://www.checkpoint-elearning.de/article/6327.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7ePF4gOeuU

http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch



Download: http://www.uzh.ch/news/articles/2009/olat-an-der-elbe.html

• anonymous (2009). Universität Hamburg: Umstieg auf OLAT [online]. München: CHECK.pointeLearning/INFObases GmbH. Available from: http://www.checkpoint-elearning.de [Accessed15.03.2009].Also CHECK.point eLearning talks about the LMS-switch at the University of Hamburg from Blackboard to OLAT.


• Gnägi, Florian (2009). Learning Management Software OLAT and YAML - a success story [online].Jesse, Dirk. Available from: http://blog.yaml.de [Accessed 17.04.2009].OLAT's Florian Gnägi wrote an article for the YAML Developers Blog about the YAML-integration into OLAT.

Download: http://blog.yaml.de/post/78/learning-management-software-olat-and-yaml-a-success-story/

• anonymous (2009). Open Source LMS OLAT gewinnt IMS Leadership Award [online]. München:CHECK.point eLearning/INFObases GmbH. Available from: http://www.checkpoint-elearning.de[Accessed 30.05.2009].CHECK.point eLearning talks about the IMS Leadership Award that OLAT won at the IMS Conference in Barcelona.


• Zuberbühler, Hans-Jörg (2009). Erstellung von strukturierten e-Learning Inhalten mit eLML (eLessonMarkup Language). ZInfo - Die elektronische Zeitschrift der Informatikdienste [online], 26.05. Availablefrom: http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo [Accessed 2.6.2009].Download: http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo/olatopen.html

• IDG (2008). Erfolgreiche OpenExpo. PCTipp [online]. Available from: http://www.pctipp.ch [Accessed30.9.2008].A news feed by PCTipp online talking about the Open Expo in general and mentioning the winners of the OSS-Awards.

Download: http://www.pctipp.ch/news/gesellschaft/45264/erfolgreiche_openexpo.html

• Hilzinger, Marcel (2008). Beste Schweizer Open-Source-Projekte ausgezeichnet. Linux Magazin[online]. Available from: http://www.linux-magazin.de [Accessed 30.9.2008].The Linux Magazine presents the winners of the first Swiss Open Source Awards.

Download: http://www.linux-magazin.de/meldung/26704

• Hawthorn, Leslie (2008). Hacking Zurich. Google Open Source Blog [online]. Available from: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com [Accessed 30.9.2008].Leslie Hawthorn (responsible for the Google Summer of Code program) talks about the what has been achieved in Zurich and

about the upcoming Open Expo in Winterthur.

Download: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/09/hacking-zurich.html

• Zuberbühler, Hans-Jörg (2008). OLAT im neuen Kleid. ZInfo - Elektronisches Informationsbulletinder Informatikdienste [online], 26. Available from: http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo [Accessed 01.07.2008].Article about release 6.0, which is based on the CSS framework YAML.

Download: http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/zinfo/zinfo0026/kataktuell/olat-26.html

• Digitalk 58: E-Learning an der Universität Zürich, 2008. Podcast. By Zedi, Roger, Schüssler, Matthias.Zürich: Tages-Anzeiger.Eva Seiler (head of the E-Learning Center at the University of Zurich) and her Co-Worker Matthias Rohs are talking in this Podcast

about the E-Learning situation at the UZH. Digitalk is the Podcast-series from the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger.

Download: http://digitalk.kaywa.ch/default/digitalk-58-e-learning-an-der-uni-zuerich.html

• Fuchs, Marita (2008). UZH-Software für alle. unipublic [online], 20.03.2008. Available from: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch [Accessed 23.4.2008].unipublic presents the OLAT conference and the Google Summer of Code participation.

Download: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/campus/uni-news/2008/2844.html

http://www.uzh.ch/news/articles/2009/olat-an-der-elbe.html



http://blog.yaml.de

http://blog.yaml.de/post/78/learning-management-software-olat-and-yaml-a-success-story/



http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo

http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo/olatopen.html

http://www.pctipp.ch

http://www.pctipp.ch/news/gesellschaft/45264/erfolgreiche_openexpo.html

http://www.linux-magazin.de

http://www.linux-magazin.de/meldung/26704

http://google-opensource.blogspot.com


http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/09/hacking-zurich.html


http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/zinfo/zinfo0026/kataktuell/olat-26.html

http://digitalk.kaywa.ch/default/digitalk-58-e-learning-an-der-uni-zuerich.html



http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/campus/uni-news/2008/2844.html



• Bleisch, Barbara, 2008. E-Learning: Lesen Sie die Packungsbeilage!. NZZ Campus, March 11th.The "campus" magazine (edited by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ) talked about E-Learning at the University of Zurich and about

OLAT.

Download: ../download/publications/nzz_campus_2008.png

• Fuchs, Marita (2008). Medida-Prix: Drei UZH-Projekte in der Finalistengruppe. unipublic [online],25.08.2008. Available from: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch [Accessed 27.8.2008].Marita Fuchs (unipublic) presents the three UZH-finalists for the Medida Prix. One of them is BioSym - Learning Modules for

Systems Biology - an eLearning course realized with OLAT. A second one is eLML, an open source XML framework to create

eLearning lessons, also developed and used by the OLAT-team.

Download: http://www.unipublic.unizh.ch/campus/uni-news/2008/3096.html

• Fisler, Joël, Schneider, Franziska, 2008. Creating, Handling And Implementing E-Learning Coursesand Content Using the Open Source Tools OLAT and eLML at the University of Zurich. In: Shortis,Mark, König, Gerhard, ed. ISPRS Conference 2008 -TS ThS-16: New Approaches and Tools forEducation and Capacity Building, 3-11 July 2008, Bejing. Beijing, China: International Society forPhotogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS).Both OLAT and eLML were presented by Joël Fisler at the ISPRS Conference 2008 in Beijing, China.

Download: ../download/publications/isprs2008_beijing_fisler.pdf

• Hage, H.-J., Hübner, Sandra, 2008. FELIX 2.0: Usability Test - Weiterentwicklung der Lernplattform.pe-press: Zeitschrift der Fakutlät Product Engeneering an der Hochschule Furtwangen, 24, 12.The OLAT-version used at the Hochschule Furtwangen is named "FELIX" and the Usability-Tests for Felix 2.0 are presented

in this article.

Download: ../download/publications/felix_hs_furtwangen_102008.pdf

• Fuchs, Marita (2007). Vorlesungen «on demand». unipublic [online], 14.06.2007. Available from:http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch [Accessed 23.4.2008].Marita Fuchs (unipublic) talks with Dr. Kurt Hanselmann about his extensive use of new media for both his lecture and for e-

assessments.


• Gremmelmaier, Eric, 2007. NZZ: Nach dem Hype der Alltag. Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ, April 3rd.On the 3rd of April 2007 one of the biggest daily newspapers, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ, wrote a second article on e-learning

at the University of Zurich. In that article Eric Gremmelmaier has a closer look at online courses and teaching material at the

University of Zurich.

Download: ../download/publications/nzz_hype_alltag.pdf

• Zuberbühler, Hans-Jörg, 2007. Vom E-Learning zum «Blended Learning». Neue Zürcher ZeitungNZZ, March 9th.On the 9th of March 2007 one of the biggest daily newspapers, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ, dealt with e-learning at the

University of Zurich. In that article Hans-Jörg Zuberbühler (member of the OLAT team) talks about OLAT and eLML at the

University of Zurich.

Download: ../download/publications/nzz_blended_learning_print.pdf

• Strunk, Holger, 2007. Open Source und kostenlose Software – Einsatzmöglichkeiten im Unterricht.B&B Agrar - Die Fachzeitschrift für Bildung und Beratung, 3, 88.Holger Strunk at the Staatliche Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt für Gartenbau Heidelberg explains how OLAT is used at their school.

Download: http://www.frentix.com/de/resources/articles/Artikel-BBAgrar-2.pdf

• Schulze-Fröhlich, Ruben (2006). Interview OLAT (Florian Gnägi) [online]. lmsnews.com. Availablefrom: http://www.lmsnews.com [Accessed 22.11.2006].

../download/publications/nzz_campus_2008.png


http://www.unipublic.unizh.ch/campus/uni-news/2008/3096.html



http://www.frentix.com/de/resources/articles/Artikel-BBAgrar-2.pdf

http://www.lmsnews.com



In this interview Florian Gnägi, one of the founder of the OLAT LMS, talks about the early days of OLAT, its possibilities and

where it is heading. It gives also some insight into the project's structure and its development cycle.

Download: http://www.lmsnews.com/modules/content/index.php?id=28

• Genner, Sahra, 2006. Exportschlager E-Learning. iQ - Quartalinfo für Uni und ETH, 18th April, 11.Sarah wraps up the history of OLAT and talks about the current situation in a short article in IQ. That article is based on an

interview with one of the OLAT founders, Sabina Jeger.

Download: ../download/publications/iQ51-p11.pdf

• SwissICT, 2006. FOSS-Studie Schweiz 2006. Baden: Schweizerischer Verband der Informations- undKommunikationstechnologie SwissICT.In the Swiss FOSS study of 2006 Florian Gnägi presents how he introduced OLAT at the Zentrum für Ausbildung im

Gesundheitswesen (ZAG).

Download: http://www.swissict.ch/fileadmin/sekretariat/download/foss-studie_2006.pdf

• Schleifer, Hans-Jörg, Strunk, Holger, 2006. Blended-Learning in der Fachschule - Einsatz einerLernplattform im Unterricht. B&B Agrar - Die Fachzeitschrift für Bildung und Beratung, 5, 162.Download: http://www.frentix.com/de/resources/articles/BB-Agrar-Artikel-1.pdf

• Zuberbühler, Hans-Jörg (2005). OLAT bringt Release 4.0. ZInfo - Elektronisches Informationsbulletinder Informatikdienste [online], 18. Available from: http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo [Accessed 22.11.2006].Hans-Jörg explains in this article what has been added to the OLAT 4.0 release and gives a short outlook into the future. The

article has some nice screenshots of some of the new OLAT features.

Download: http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/publikationen/zinfo/zinfo0018/kataktuell/olat.html

• Fuchs, Marita (2005). E-Learning im Ernstfall. unipublic [online], 26.08.2005. Available from: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch [Accessed 22.11.2006].This summer at the University of Zurich the first real online tests have been taken substituting paper-based tests in the field of

veterinary medicine. These tests are not just self-tests; students can appeal the test's results should they fail. These online tests

are based on a standard OLAT installation in IMS QTI format. The article further describes this major milestone in the e-learning

process at the University of Zurich.


• Abächerli, Martina (2005). Uni Zürich öffnet E-Learning-Plattform für andere Universitäten [online].pressetext.schweiz. Available from: http://www.pressetext.ch/ [Accessed 22.11.2006].This article describes the current state of OLAT and how it applies a Shibboleth interface to allow any Swiss student to log in

to the University of Zurich platform.

Download: http://www.pressetext.ch/pte.mc?pte=050805044

• von Däniken, Theo (2005). Beim E-Learning die Nase vorn. unipublic [online], 05.08.2005. Availablefrom: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/ [Accessed 22.11.2006].This article describes the current state of OLAT and how the spin-off company goodsolutions has been founded in spring 2005.


• Kosler, Monique, Hahn, Daniel, 2005. Projekthandbuch: Funktionelle und softwaretechnische Analysesowie Dokumentation der Lernplattform OLAT Version 3.1.4. project thesis. University Chemnitz,Germany.Review and documentation of the OLAT 3.2. system architecture.

Download: ../download/publications/OLAT_Projekthandbuch_mitAnhang.pdf

• Anonymous (2005). OLAT 4.0.1 Review [online]. lmsnews.com. Available from: http://www.lmsnews.com [Accessed 22.11.2006].A detailed test review of OLAT 4.0.1. The review covers the following aspects: installation, features, learner experience, teacher/

administrator experience and didactic value

http://www.lmsnews.com/modules/content/index.php?id=28

http://www.swissict.ch/fileadmin/sekretariat/download/foss-studie_2006.pdf

http://www.frentix.com/de/resources/articles/BB-Agrar-Artikel-1.pdf


http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/publikationen/zinfo/zinfo0018/kataktuell/olat.html




http://www.pressetext.ch/

http://www.pressetext.ch/pte.mc?pte=050805044

http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/






Download: http://www.lmsnews.com/modules/content/index.php?id=21

• Anonymous (2005). Course Platform Evaluation Report: OLAT 3.2 [online]. Edutech. Available from:http://www.edutech.ch [Accessed 22.11.2006].OLAT 3.2.1. Review: This review covers the following aspects: student's environment, tutoring and didactics, course development,

system and administration

Download: http://www.edutech.ch/lms/ev3/showreport.php?prodid=1

• Gnägi, Florian, 2005. Interview mit Florian Gnägi, Partner JGS goodsolutions GmbH. InfoWeek, 15.August, 9.This Swiss IT newspaper interviewed Florian Gnägi, one of the co-founders of OLAT.

Download: http://www.infoweek.ch/archive/ar_single.cfm?ar_id=15562&ar_subid=2&sid=0

• Schnider, Guido, 2004. Instant Messaging Technologien in Learning Management Systemen. Diplomathesis (PDF). Institut für Informatik der Universität Zürich.In the past few years, Instant Messaging has become popular in private as well as in economic environments. This work discusses

the possibilities of applying Instant Messaging in a webbased learning environment and its didactic benefits and implements Instant

Messaging tools into the learning environment of the University of Zurich. Current research in the fields of didactics and awareness

are fundamental for this discussion. Instant Messaging tools try to connect learning individuals that are spatially separated. The

tools should also enable spontaneous communication between learners as well as support the creation of learning groups. The

results of this theoretical analysis serve as basis for the implementation of selected Instant Messaging elements into the web-based

learning environment at the University of Zurich. The implementation is based on the Jabber Internet standard.

Download: http://www.ifi.uzh.ch/ifiadmin/staff/rofrei/DA/DA_Arbeiten_2005/Schnider_Guido.pdf

• Steinemann, Coni (2004). OLAT 3: Die vollständige Neuentwicklung des strategischen LearningManagement Systems der Universität Zürich ist in Betrieb. ZInfo - Elektronisches Informationsbulletinder Informatikdienste [online], 15. Available from: http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo [Accessed 22.11.2006].Download: http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/publikationen/zinfo/zinfo0015/live/kataktuell/olat.html

• Schneider, Franziska (2004). OLAT: Das strategische Learning Management System. ZInfo- Elektronisches Informationsbulletin der Informatikdienste [online], 13. Available from: http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo [Accessed 22.11.2006].Download: http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/publikationen/zinfo/zinfo0013/olat.html

• Anonymous (2000). MeDiDa-Prix an Zürcher Projekt OLAT. unipublic [online], 26.09.2000. Availablefrom: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/ [Accessed 22.11.2006].Download: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/campus/uni-news/2000/medida/


http://www.edutech.ch

http://www.edutech.ch/lms/ev3/showreport.php?prodid=1

http://www.infoweek.ch/archive/ar_single.cfm?ar_id=15562&ar_subid=2&sid=0

http://www.ifi.uzh.ch/ifiadmin/staff/rofrei/DA/DA_Arbeiten_2005/Schnider_Guido.pdf


http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/publikationen/zinfo/zinfo0015/live/kataktuell/olat.html



http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/publikationen/zinfo/zinfo0013/olat.html


http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/campus/uni-news/2000/medida/



2. Download the OLAT Software

OLAT 6.2.2 Easy Installer Version (Demo Use Only!)Just double-click the installer and OLAT will be installed andpreconfigured automatically. No need to get Tomcat, MySQL or anythingelse. Use this version only for demo purposes or to create courses locallyon your computer.You need a Java SDK >= 1.6 on your computer. Not yet installed? Get ithere [http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp] .If you want to test OLAT, play around a bit, this package is all you need.

OLAT 6.2.2 Easy Installer Version[http://www.olat.org/downloads/stable/

OLAT-6.2.2-Installer.zip]

122MB ZIP

Quick Download

OLAT 6.2.2 Source Code Version (for Productive Use)This package contains everything you need to install OLAT in a productiveenvironment. It features an ant-based configuration and installationprocedure; it requires a tomcat and a database installation as well as a JavaSDK. A manual for the installation procedure can be downloaded in ourdocumentation section [Page 42] .If you want to use OLAT in a productive environment then this is the rightchoice.

OLAT 6.2.2 Source Code Version[http://www.olat.org/downloads/stable/

OLAT-6.2.2.zip]

132MB ZIP

Quick Download

See the release notes [] of the following major release cycles for more information about the changesin each version. For a roadmap of our upcoming versions, please visit the OLAT roadmap page [Page 13] .

Do you use OLAT?If yes, click on the button to add yourself on our Ohloh.net page [https://

www.ohloh.net/projects/olat] . Only pictures can beviewed in the PDFversion! For Flash

etc. see online version.Only screenshots of

animations will bedisplayed. [link]

Download MaterialIf you would like to download OLAT material such as flyers, logos or posters please have a look at the AboutOLAT: Material [Page 31] section.

http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp

http://www.olat.org/downloads/stable/OLAT-6.2.2-Installer.zip

http://www.olat.org/downloads/stable/OLAT-6.2.2.zip





Previous OLAT VersionsIf you need an earlier version of OLAT you can download the latest four major releases below as ZIP archive.

For all other versions please use CVS 15 directly.

OLAT 6.2.1 Easy[http://www.olat.org/downloads/stable/OLAT-6.2.1-Installer.zip]

119MB ZIP OLAT 6.2.1 EasyInstaller Version

OLAT 6.2.1 Source[http://www.olat.org/downloads/stable/OLAT-6.2.1.zip]

125MB ZIP OLAT 6.2.1 Source CodeVersion













OLAT 5.2 Easy[http://www.olat.org/downloads/stable/OLAT-5.2.3-Installer.zip]


OLAT 5.2 Source[http://www.olat.org/downloads/stable/OLAT-5.2.3.zip]


Of course you can also access our CVS repository [Page 67] to access older versions.

15 CVS, the Concurrent Versions System, is the most widely used tool for controlling different versions of a source code and for a group

of programmers to work simultaneously on a source code. Before working with a file, a user needs to do a "checkout" of the file from

a "repository" stored on the project server. When writing updates back to the repository (called "committing"), CVS checks issues like

access privileges, actual status of code and if no other group member meanwhile altered the code, CVS writes it back to the repository.

By doing a "update" all project group members get the latest version of the code. CVS of course stores information about who altered

which part of the code and automatically stores different versions of the code. Therefore using CVS it is possible to always reconstruct

a former state of the code. The OLAT code is managed using CVS. At the University of Zurich all eLML projects use CVS to store the

XML code, images and multimedia elements of a lesson.













I like OLAT. Can I donate?


2.1. Release Notes

Here we give you a short summary on the last OLAT Releases. For detailed information on bugs, improvements,new features or tasks related to an already published or an upcoming release check out our Bug Tracking system[http://bugs.olat.org] .

OLAT 6.2.0The new features in OLAT 6.2 are:

• HTML editor : Update to new TinyMCE version, and enabled jsMath (LaTex) in TinyMCE. AddedTinyMCE as RichText editor at following places: editing wiki pages, creation of forum posts, variousdescription fields and questions in QTI editor.

• Calendar Upgrade: now provides import/export via ical; create iterative events; additional views; "real"subscription function

• Forum Upgrade: Display of the forum course node description on the forum page; Chronological sortingor all view in forum, not threaded; Adding real threaded view to forum; See original posting whenreplying to forum post; Move forum message to another topic; User filter in forum: see who posted whatas a moderator tool

• New Content Editor: There is now an IMS-Content-Packages Editor

• IMS CP Export in the Wiki: export the entire Wiki to your personal folder as an IMS Content Packagewhich can be imported as CP learning resource (authors) or used offline.

• Glossary: Improved display of glossary items; glossary functionality for guests enabled

• Ressources: A Test is as long editable and replaceable on building block until it is passed at least onetime; Folder course node displays title and description

• Adding more metadata to files in folder module

• Upgrade to Shibboleth 2.0: using Shibboleth 2.0 requires installation of Apache and mod_shib

Check out the complete Release Notes OLAT 6.2.0 [http://bugs.olat.org/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?

version=10131&styleName=Html&projectId=10001&Create=Create]

OLAT 6.1.xThe two main new feature in OLAT 6.1 are:

• Scalability: Run OLAT in cluster mode on several servers at the same time

• Internationalization: New translation tool and easier administration interface to install new languages

Check out the complete Release Notes OLAT 6.1.0 [http://bugs.olat.org/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?

version=10310&styleName=Html&projectId=10001&Create=Create]


http://bugs.olat.org

http://bugs.olat.org/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?version=10131&styleName=Html&projectId=10001&Create=Create

http://bugs.olat.org/jira/secure/ReleaseNote.jspa?version=10310&styleName=Html&projectId=10001&Create=Create



OLAT 6.0.xPlease note that OLAT 6.0.0 was a public release only. The first release installed at the University of Zurichwas OLAT 6.0.1 on July 15th, 2008. The latest release for both UZH and public is !

OLAT 6.0 is a major release including new functionality as well as bug fixes. The most important new featuresof the 6.0 release are listed below. Thanks to OLAT community that helped finding bugs that made this releasemore stable. The community did also a great job in updating several language translations.

• Portlets on HOME are configurable: Decide, how many entries will be displayed, and in which order.

• Layout updated including enlarged, new icon set.

• CSS framework YAML [http://www.yaml.de] : Increased robustness and browser-compatibility of entirelayout.

• Further accessibility improvements: So called Web2.a mode (beta) which allows visually impaired usersto swiftly detect parts of the screen, that have been changed after the last click.

• Various chat improvements: E.g. more than one chat conversations possible, chat window remains whilebrowsing through OLAT.

• OLAT output complies with XHTML 1.0 Transitional.

• New wizard component, used e.g. in enhanced course publish workflow.

• Course content is by default rendered in an iframe: increased navigation speed.

• New plain text editor in OLAT folders: create .txt and .css files instantly - no need to upload.

• Various SCORM improvements.

• Custom fields: User attributes are configurable by system administrators, not stored hardcoded.

As a matter of fact, there are no Release Notes in the Bug Tracking System to this version.

Check out the complete Release Notes OLAT 6.0.x

Only pictures can be viewed in the PDF version! For Flash etc. see online version. Onlyscreenshots of animations will be displayed. [link]



http://www.yaml.de








OLAT 5.2 Public ReleasePlease note that OLAT 5.2.0 has only been released at the University of Zurich. The OLAT 5.2 Public Releaseis in fact OLAT 5.2.1.

The OLAT 5.2 release is a big step towards Web 2.0 and usability. In this release we tried to implement theresults of the usability report done by the University of Berne. We also rebuilt the chat client using AJAXtechnology and updated the forum. Here is a short list of improvements:

• Usability: New tabs for navigation, creating groups from within course editor, better publishing supportetc.

• Web 2.0/AJAX: Faster!

• Better chat client: Now HTML/AJAX based

• Forum: Mark threads as sticky or important, split threads

• Deleting workflow: Now you can delete users, groups, courses or resources using sophisticated filtersand with prior notification of users and owners

• The OLAT help in German is now Wiki based (authors can help improve the manual!)

As a matter of fact, there are no Release Notes in the Bug Tracking System to this version.

Check out the complete Release Notes OLAT 5.x.x


2.2. Documentation

OLAT Overview of FunctionsThis paper explains the most important features of OLAT 5. It is meant for decision makers who need to get aquick overview of the functionality offered by OLAT. This paper does also contain some screenshots of OLAT.






OLAT Functional Survey[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/

OLAT_6_0_Functional_Survey.pdf]

1.3MB PDF Overview of OLATfunctions

OLAT Funktionsübersicht[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/

OLAT_6_0_Funktionsuebersicht.pdf]

1.7MB PDF Übersicht der OLATFunktionen

Movie: How to create a course in OLAT?Please note that there is no sound in this movie but the written comments are in German. The total lenght is10 minutes.

• QuickTime Version [http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/OLAT_kurs_erstellen.mov Filesize: 36MB. Type: QT. ]

• Flash Version [http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/OLAT_kurs_erstellen/Kurs_erstellen_v08.html Filesize: 18MB.

Type: Flash. ]

OLAT User Manual / Online HelpThe comprehensive OLAT manual covers authoring of courses and other advanced features. It serves also asgeneral help for users. The same manual is also implemented in each installed OLAT as an online course.OLAT has also an integrated context-sensitive help. Throughout OLAT you will find a little question markthat gives you an explanation about the topic you are currently looking at. Currently this context-sensitive helpis available in German, Italian, English, French and other languages. Translating the help or manual into otherlanguages [Page 71] is very welcomed.

Official OLAT 6.2 manualWe rewrote the OLAT user manual for OLAT 6.2! You can now download the user manual as a PDF (onlineand print version). These documents are available for German, English, French and Italian. For other languagescheck the next section where we present translations by the community.

French version of 6.2 is coming soon!

OLAT 6.2 User Manual (Online Version)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/

OLAT_6_2_Manual_EN_online.pdf]

947kB PDF English

OLAT 6.2 User Manual (Print Version)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/

OLAT_6_2_Manual_EN_print.pdf]

957kB PDF English

OLAT 6.2 Benutzerhandbuch (Bildschirmversion)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/

OLAT_6_2_Manual_DE_online.pdf]

1.259kB PDF German

OLAT 6.2 Benutzerhandbuch (Druckversion)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/

OLAT_6_2_Manual_DE_print.pdf]

1268kB PDF German

OLAT 6.1 Manuel d'utilisation (Online Version) 232kB PDF French

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/OLAT_6_0_Functional_Survey.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/OLAT_6_0_Funktionsuebersicht.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/OLAT_kurs_erstellen.mov

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/OLAT_kurs_erstellen/Kurs_erstellen_v08.html

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/OLAT_6_2_Manual_EN_online.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/OLAT_6_2_Manual_EN_print.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/OLAT_6_2_Manual_DE_online.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/OLAT_6_2_Manual_DE_print.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/OLAT_6_1_Manual_FR_online_090306.pdf



[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/

OLAT_6_1_Manual_FR_online_090306.pdf]

OLAT 6.1 Manuel d'utilisation (Print Version)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/

OLAT_6_1_Manual_FR_print_090306.pdf]

232kB PDF French

OLAT 6.2 Manuale d'uso (Online Version)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/

OLAT_6_2_Manual_IT_online.pdf]

921kB PDF Italian

OLAT 6.2 Manuale d'uso (Print Version)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/

OLAT_6_2_Manual_IT_print.pdf]

930kB PDF Italian

Please note that the user manual refers to the main OLAT installation [https://www.olat.uzh.ch] at the Universityof Zurich. If you want to translate the OLAT manual for your installation please contact [email protected] [Link

to URI mailto:[email protected]] .

Manuals translated by the communityWe appreciate the fact the our active community helps translating the OLAT manual in various languages. Thelist below is updated on a regular basis:

OLAT 6 Short Manual in Vietnamese[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/

OLAT_6_Manual_VI.pdf]

1.2MB PDF By TU Dresden

Installation DocumentationThe technical documentation explains the installation process and gives you hints on how to customize yourOLAT installation. This documentation is only available in English and updated frequently. The single-pageversion is identical to the multiple-pages version but rendered as one big HTML page for better searching andprinting. Many thanks to all those developers who contributed to OLAT's technical documentation! Specialthanks go to the MELS development team who wrote most of the documentation. More technical manuals andinformation can be found in the Development section [Page 67] .

Installation Documentation OLAT 6.x[http://www.olat.org/docu/install/index.html]

231kB HTML Multiple pages

Installation Documentation OLAT 6.x[http://www.olat.org/docu/install/

olat_install_admin_docu_one_page.html]

231kB HTML Single page

Mavenized Installation Documentation OLAT 6.x[http://www.olat.org/docu/install/

olat_install_admin_docu_one_page_mvn.html]

233kB HTML Single page

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/OLAT_6_1_Manual_FR_print_090306.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/OLAT_6_2_Manual_IT_online.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/OLAT_6_2_Manual_IT_print.pdf



http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/help/OLAT_6_Manual_VI.pdf

http://www.olat.org/docu/install/index.html

http://www.olat.org/docu/install/olat_install_admin_docu_one_page.html

http://www.olat.org/docu/install/olat_install_admin_docu_one_page_mvn.html



OLAT Translation ToolContact Marion Weber [Link to URI mailto:[email protected]] if you'd like to help translating OLAT. How to usethe translation tool and set up a new language in your own OLAT installation is described in "Understandingthe Internationalization (I18n) and Translation System" on our translations-page [Page 71] .

External Documentation

E-Learning Center (ELC), University of ZurichThe ELC at the University of Zurich created an OLAT Factsheet PDF [http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/OLAT-

Factsheet.pdf] in German that describes the most important building blocks.

frentix GmbHfrentix has many documents available for download and other overall information about the OLAT LMS:

• frentix Website [http://www.frentix.com/]

• frentix OLAT Overview Page [http://www.frentix.com/de/olat/overview/index.html] (in German)

• frentix OLAT Resources Download [http://www.frentix.com/de/olat/docu/index.html] (mostly in German)

BPS Bildungsportal Sachsen GmbHBPS hosts an OLAT Wiki on their OPAL server that is used by the development team for specifications anddiscussions that are not hosted in the OLAT bug and issue tracking system JIRA [http://bugs.olat.org] .

• BPS Website [http://bps-system.de/]

• BPS OLAT/OPAL Wiki [https://bildungsportal.sachsen.de/opal] (in German)

2.3. Server Requirements: No Need for a High-End Server!

The following list should give you an impression on what kind of server you will need if you want to installOLAT. Here are some general tuning tips:

1. Use fast RAM. Be aware that fully buffered memory (FDIMMS) are usually slower than normal DIMMS.Use FDIMMS only if you really need a lot of memory in your server. If you run OLAT with only 4GB,there is no need for FDIMMS.

2. Use fast disks. Normally the bottlenecks in OLAT are IO operations; faster disks can deliver more data.3. If you use a hardware RAID controller, you can enable a disk cache that will speed up things quite a bit.

But be aware that this can cause loss of data in case of a hardware or power failure. In addition be awarethat XFS does not immediately write data to disks!

4. If you have no performance problems, run OLAT, MySQL and OpenFire on the same server. The firstthing you might want to separate is the OpenFire server with its database.


http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/OLAT-Factsheet.pdf


http://www.frentix.com/de/olat/overview/index.html

http://www.frentix.com/de/olat/docu/index.html


http://bps-system.de/

https://bildungsportal.sachsen.de/opal



University of Zurich (UZH)

Probably the biggest OLAT installation can be found at the University of Zurich:

• OLAT Installation: 43'000 registered users, about 2'500 courses, max. 2'000 users at the same time,1.5h Sessiontimeout

• Hardware/CPU:

• Clustered setup with 4 Machines

• 1 Frontend with Apache, Shibboleth, Jabber server, 1 OLAT Tomcat running

• 2 Machines with 5 Tomcats running

• 1 Backend with MySQL

• Each Machine is a PowerEdge M605 from Dell

• 2x CPU's Quad-Core AMD Opteron, 64Bit, 2.7GHz

• 16GB RAM

• Filesystem NFS

• 4x Gigabit Interface

• Software/OS: Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS Hardy, Java 1.6, Tomcat 6, MySQL 5.0.51, Apache 2.0, Openfire 3.64

• Configuration:

• Apache MaxClients = 2'000

• Tomcat (VM Options) -Xss 256k -Xms 2560m -Xmx 2560m

• Tomcat (server.xml) = MinProcessors set to 10 and MaxProcessors 1000 set to

• Used disk space:

• 350 GB eContent/Data

• 900 MB DB Dump

• Tivoli Storage Manager for Backup



frentix GmbH

frentix GmbH [http://www.frentix.com] is the main commercial OLAT provider in Switzerland.

• OLAT Installation: Up to 15000 registered users with up to 400 users at the same time

• Hardware/CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 64Bit Dual Core 2.4 Ghz and 4GB RAM, 100 MBits internalnetwork and 2x150GB disks (RAID1)

• Software/OS: OpenSuSE 10.2, Java 1.5, Tomcat 5.5, MySQL 5, Apache 2.0 und OpenFire 3.3

• Configuration:

• Apache MaxClients = 150

• Tomcat (VM Options): -Xss256k -Xmx2048m

• Tomcat (server.xml): maxThreads=150 minSpareThreads=25 maxSpareThreads=75

Bildungsportal Sachsen

BPS GmbH [http://www.bps-system.de/] is the main OLAT partner in Germany.

• OLAT Installation: 36000 registered users with up to 500 users at the same time, about 3200 courses

• Hardware/CPU: VMWare ESX on Dell PowerEdge 6950 64GB RAM, 4xAMD Opteron 8218, 1 GBitsinternal network and 700 GB FibreChannel Disks

• Software/OS: Scientific Linux 5.2, Java 1.6, Tomcat 5, Postgresql 8.1 , Apache 2.0 und OpenFire 3.5

• Configuration:

• Apache MaxClients = 500

• Tomcat (VM Options): -Xss2048k -Xms1G -Xmx2G

• Tomcat (server.xml): maxThreads = 500


http://www.bps-system.de/



Other Installations?We would be happy to publish your server data in order to give new users an impression what hardware theywill need if they choose OLAT. Just drop us an email [Link to URI mailto:[email protected]] with the information listedabove. Thanks.

2.4. The OLAT Software License

OLAT is released under the Apache 2.0 Open Source License. For more information about this license visithttp://www.apache.org/licenses/ [http://www.apache.org/licenses/] If you download OLAT you receive a copy ofthe License (see file COPYING distributed along with each release).

OLAT is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND,either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitationsunder the License.

Contributors

CompaniesThis Software contains code contributed by the following companies and people:

• Multimedia- & E-Learning Services (MELS) [http://www.id.uzh.ch/org/mels.html] , University of Zurich [http://

www.uzh.ch/] , Switzerland

• frentix GmbH [http://www.frentix.com] , Switzerland: Florian Gnägi

• BPS Bildungsportal Sachsen GmbH [http://www.bildungsportal.sachsen.de] , Germany

• goodsolutions GmbH [http://www.goodsolutions.ch] , Switzerland: Felix Jost, Mike Stock

• beecom [http://www.beecom.ch] , Switzerland: Gabriel Bucher, Rainer Kulow, Pascal Pellmont

• Nouvelle srl [http://www.orion.it] , Italy: Roberto Bagnoli

• LaLiLuna tutorial site [http://www.laliluna.de] , Germany: Sebastian Hennebrueder

© 1999-2008 by the following contributersHanspeter Brun, Patrick Brunner, Gabriel Bucher, Lavinia Dumitrescu, Claudia Ehrle, Joël Fisler, FlorianGnägi, Christian Guretzki, Roman Haag, Stefan Hofstetter, Sabina Jeger, Felix Jost, Andreas Kapp, MartinKernland, Rainer Kulow, Kristina Isacson, Marc Luder, Pascal Pellmont, Tiziana Perini, Sandra Roth,Alexander Schneider, Franziska Schneider, Guido Schnider, Ruth Schuermann, Maya Schüssler, ConiSteinemann, Mike Stock, Alexandra Stucki, Marion Weber, Hans-Jörg Zuberbühler.

With the valuable support of the GUI groupBeat Affolter, Raffaella Albione, Gilbert Francz, Christoph Fuchs, Désirée Iturbide, Michael Keller, MichaelKorner, Thomas Korner, Annette Langedijk, Frank Mäder, Cerstin Mahlow, Tobias Marquart, Pit Meurer,Andreas Nef, Caspar Noetzli, Melanie Paschke, Roland Peer, Sam Schluep, Wolfram Schneider-Lastin,Christian Schorno, Urs Suter, Björn Theise, Michael Wegmüller.

MultilingualMohammad Atef, Fitim Bejtullahu, Thomas Peter Berntsen, Vlastimil Boura, Franca Caspani, Hanna Chen,James Clopton, Maggie Dang, Fernanda Dylis, Joël Fisler, Bartlomiej Gajc, George Garantzias, AndreaHeiglmaier, Sergio Hoein, Prarim Hoxha, Adam Jaworski, Francois Jimenez, Piotr Kowalski, Henrik


http://www.apache.org/licenses/

http://www.id.uzh.ch/org/mels.html

http://www.uzh.ch/


http://www.bildungsportal.sachsen.de

http://www.goodsolutions.ch

http://www.beecom.ch

http://www.orion.it

http://www.laliluna.de



Kramshøj, Vivi Li, Rubén López, Jonathan Luo, Daniel Majchrzak, Claire Muller, Ahmet N Murati, GiovanniNicoli, Valentina Shcherba, Jonas Silickas, Skaitmeninio Sertifikavimo Centras [http://www.ssc.lt] , DavidTouvet, Xi'an Caro Technologies R&D Ltd. Corp. [http://www.xiancaro.com] , Agnes Zavala, Karen Zhang andQinrong Zhou helped to translate OLAT. Many thanks!

Layout based on YAMLThe layout of this application is based on the YAML framework [http://www.yaml.de] written by Dirk Yess. Theembedding of the YAML framework into OLAT and the creation or the default theme has been done by frentixGmbH by order and in collaboration with the University of Zurich.

Other Licenses affected by this DistributionThis product includes...

• software based on the Apache Software License [http://www.apache.org/licenses/] such as Tomcat, Ant,Velocity, Log4J

• software developed by the JDOM Project [http://www.jdom.org]

• net.sf.jazzlib [http://jazzlib.sourceforge.net] library. It is under GPL [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html] witha special exception: "As a special exception, if you link this library with other files to producean executable, this library does not by itself cause the resulting executable to be covered by theGNU General Public License. This exception does not however invalidate any other reasons why theexecutable file might be covered by the GNU General Public License."

• DHTML calendar [http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/jscalendar] software developed by Mike Bazon [http://

www.bazon.net/mishoo/] at dynarch.com. This program is free software published under the terms of theGNU Lesser General Public License [http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html] .

• TinyMCE [http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/] WYSIWYG HTML editor (LGPL).

• rss4j library [http://www.churchillobjects.com/c/13005.html] from ChurchillObjects.com.

• SMACK [http://www.jivesoftware.org/smack/] client library from jivesoftware.org.

• Alex Macartney comic strips [http://www.macartney.ch] . Please note that these comics are not public domainand must not be used for any other purpose than being displayed in the OLAT home portal.

• software developed by the reload SCORM player project [http://www.reload.ac.uk/scormplayer.html] .

• SCORM API adapter developed by the ISN (International Relations and Security Network [http://

www.isn.ethz.ch] ). Author: Matthai Kurian [Link to URI mailto:[email protected]] .

• software for the wiki rendering engine developed by jamwiki.org [http://jamwiki.org/] .

• jsMath [http://www.math.union.edu/~dpvc/jsMath/] Java-Script library.

• tooltip-js javaScript library [http://tooltip.crtx.org/] from Jonathan Weiss

• Quartz job scheduler library [http://www.opensymphony.com/quartz/] from the OpenSymphony project(Apache 2 license)

• prototype javascript framework [http://www.prototypejs.org]

• script.aculo.us javascript framework [http://script.aculo.us/]

• extjs javascript framework [http://extjs.com/]

http://www.ssc.lt

http://www.xiancaro.com

http://www.yaml.de

http://www.apache.org/licenses/

http://www.jdom.org

http://jazzlib.sourceforge.net

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/jscalendar

http://www.bazon.net/mishoo/

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html

http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/

http://www.churchillobjects.com/c/13005.html

http://www.jivesoftware.org/smack/

http://www.macartney.ch

http://www.reload.ac.uk/scormplayer.html

http://www.isn.ethz.ch


http://jamwiki.org/

http://www.math.union.edu/~dpvc/jsMath/

http://tooltip.crtx.org/

http://www.opensymphony.com/quartz/

http://www.prototypejs.org

http://script.aculo.us/

http://extjs.com/



3. OLAT Community ServicesWelcome to our OLAT Community page! Our community's main channel of communication is via mailinglists.We do have a mailinglist for developers, for OLAT users running an OLAT server or working as OLAT authorsand for translators. Other channels for interactions between community members are Social Networks likeFacebook, Xing or LinkedIn. Of course we dont want to miss personal contacts and therefore we are holdingregular meetings of core developers, an OLAT User Day and OLAT conferences.

--> Registration and session proposal for OLAT User Day 2009 [Page 59] is open until August 30th!

Christian Guretzki (UZH) talking about

scalability

UZH and frentix crew celebrating at an

Italian restaurant in Zurich after successful

OLAT release

Marc Alier (Moodle, Universitat

Politècnica de Catalunya), Joël Fisler

and Guido Schnider (OLAT, UZH), Chuck

Severance (Sakai, IMS Global) at the GSoC

Mentors Meeting in Mountain View

3.1. Mailing Lists for Developers, Translators, Users etc.

OLAT offers different mailing lists you can subscribe to:

• Announcement list [https://lists.uzh.ch/lists.olat.org/sympa/info/olat-announce] : New releases are announced viathis list. At maximum one mail per month (moderated list!). This one is a must!

• Users' list [https://lists.uzh.ch/lists.olat.org/sympa/info/olat-users] : You have installed OLAT and now havequestions or comments on using OLAT? This is your list.

• Developers' list [https://lists.uzh.ch/lists.olat.org/sympa/info/olat-developers] : You are a Java developer workingwith OLAT and would like to discuss technical stuff. This is your list.

• Translators' list [https://lists.uzh.ch/lists.olat.org/sympa/info/olat-translators] : If you are translating OLAT, then thisis your list. Don't miss it, its new since February 2009!

• Usability list [https://lists.uzh.ch/lists.olat.org/sympa/info/olat-usability] : Want to discuss about the OLATinterface, GUI, accessability and usability? This is your list.

The OLAT customer team at the University of Zurich regularly checks the users' list; then the developer teamwill respond to mails on the developers' list. So please post general questions and comments on these lists anddo not mail the OLAT team directly.

Subscribing to Lists, Managing SubscriptionsTo add or remove mailing list subscriptions you have to login to our list-server first!

https://lists.uzh.ch/lists.olat.org/sympa/info/olat-announce

https://lists.uzh.ch/lists.olat.org/sympa/info/olat-users

https://lists.uzh.ch/lists.olat.org/sympa/info/olat-developers

https://lists.uzh.ch/lists.olat.org/sympa/info/olat-translators

https://lists.uzh.ch/lists.olat.org/sympa/info/olat-usability



Do you have Swiss SWITCH AAI Single-Sign-On Login?

If yes, please use your regular AAI-Login to subscribe to our lists or manage your subscriptions.


If you dont know what we are talking about then you probably dont have an AAI-Login :-) Please proceedwith the normal login:

Get Your PasswordIf you have never subscribed to one of our lists and do not have a password (or if you forgot your password)you can enter your e-mail address below and the server will send you your password:


Login to the List ServerIf you have received your password or can still remember it you can login to our list server and manage yoursubscriptions (add, remove, browse etc.):


3.2. OLAT groups within social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing,Ohloh)

We are aware that social networks are becoming more and more important for communication both on a privateand on a business level. That's why we created OLAT groups in the most popular Social Networks. We wouldlike to encourage you to become a member of these groups and participate at group activities.






OLAT.org website remains the main communications channel!

These groups are not meant as a replacement to our website or our mailing lists! But they offer some nicefeatures that we cannot offer on our website. For example we might publish one or two photos about anOLAT event on our website and additionally publish a photo album within Facebook where you can alsopublish comments etc. So please use these groups as an additional channel for communication withinthe OLAT community but not as the unique communication channel.

TwitterIn countries all around the world, people follow the sources most relevantto them and access information via Twitter as it happens - from breakingworld news to updates from friends. There are no Groups, just use thesearch to check out what's up on OLAT!

"Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service thatenables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweetsare text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author'sprofile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are knownas followers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle offriends or, by default, allow open access. Users can send and receivetweets via the Twitter website, Short Message Service (SMS) or externalapplications. While the service, itself, costs nothing to use, accessing itthrough SMS may incur phone service provider fees." (Wikipedia 2008)

• Social Network Type: Micro blog

• Members: About 11.5 million users (June 2009)

• Translations: English or Japanese - French, German, Italianand Spanish are planned [http://www.expatica.com/es/news/spanish-news/

Twitter-plans-French_-German_-Italian-and-Spanish-sites_57120.html] .

• Headquarters: San Francisco, California, USA

• Fee: No membership fee

• Search for OLAT on Twitter [https://twitter.com/#search?q=olat]

Check out the Twibes [http://twibes.com/olat] summary service (groupsTwitter users based on their interests and hobbies).

http://www.expatica.com/es/news/spanish-news/Twitter-plans-French_-German_-Italian-and-Spanish-sites_57120.html

http://www.expatica.com/es/news/spanish-news/Twitter-plans-French_-German_-Italian-and-Spanish-sites_57120.html

https://twitter.com/#search?q=olat

http://twibes.com/olat



FacebookUS-Student Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook is probably one of the mostfamous social networks. We are aware that Facebook is mainly used forprivate social interaction and not for business but we would still like togather the OLAT community in Facebook using this group. Here's whatWikipedia says:

"Facebook is a social networking website launched on February 4, 2004.The free-access website is privately owned and operated by Facebook,Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, andregion to connect and interact with other people. People can also addfriends and send them messages, and update their personal profile tonotify friends about themselves. The website's name refers to the paperfacebooks depicting members of a campus community that some UScolleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, andstaff as a way to get to know other people on campus." (Wikipedia 2008)

• Social Network Type: Private contacts

• Members: About 3 million users

• Translations: 35 Languages available

• Groups: About 20 million groups available

• Headquarters: Palo Alto, California, USA


• I want to join the "OLAT" group on Facebook! [http://

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43551410823]

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43551410823



LinkedInThe US-based LinkedIn business network offers the possibility to createa personal profile and add business contacts (called "connections") toyour profile. These contacts can send or request recommendations to/from you and you also have the possibility to list your experiences,current and past jobs, education etc. within your profile. Here's whatWikipedia says:

"LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking site founded inDecember 2002 and launched in May 2003 mainly used for professionalnetworking. As of December 2007, its site traffic was 3.2 million visitorsper month, up 485% from the end of 2006. As of October 2008, ithad more than 30 million registered users, spanning 150 industries."(Wikipedia 2008)

• Social Network Type: Business contacts


• Translations: English, French and Spanish in Beta mode

• Groups: 180'000 active groups

• Headquarters: Mountain View, California, USA

• Fee: Basic account free, Premium account available for $20 to$200/month

• I want to join the "OLAT" group on LinkedIn! [http://

www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1473557]

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1473557



Xing (former OpenBC)Europe's answer to LinkedIn is called XING. It offers nearly the samefeatures as LinkedIn with the exception of adding and inviting to events("Termine"). Compared to LinkedIn the groups in Xing are created afterbeing reviewed by a Xing staff member and groups offer more features.Here's what Wikipedia says:

"XING (named openBC/Open Business Club until November 17, 2006)is a social software platform for enabling a small-world network forprofessionals. The company operating it claims that it is used by peoplefrom over 190 countries, albeit the majority of users are Germans.By displaying how each member is connected to any other member, itvisualises the small-world phenomenon.The platform offers personal profiles, groups, discussion forums, eventcoordination, and other common social community features. Basicmembership is free. But many core functions, like searching for peoplewith specific qualifications or messaging people to whom one is notalready connected, can only be accessed by the premium members.Premium membership comes at a monthly fee of around 9 USD. Theplatform uses https and has a rigid privacy and no-spam policy. Unlikemany other networking websites, XING provides its members very easyemail access to any members. " (Wikipedia 2008)

• Social Network Type: Business contacts


• Translations: German, English, Spanish, Turkish and Chinese

• Groups: 15'000 active groups

• Headquarters: Hamburg, Germany

• Fee: Basic account free, Premium account available for 6 Euro/month

• This OLAT group communicates mainly in German!

• Ich will der "OLAT" Gruppe in XING beitreten! [http://

www.xing.com/group-31182.2dc45e]

http://www.xing.com/group-31182.2dc45e



OhlohThis social network is only targeted at open source projects andits developers. Through retrieving the sourcecode from the projectsrepository (CVS, SVN etc.) it derives statistics like the activity of theproject, the amount of active developers, the licenses etc. We maintain aproject website for OLAT on Ohloh and you can find some statistics onthe OLAT development page [Page 67] ! Here's what Wikipedia says:

"Ohloh is a website which provides a web services suite and onlinecommunity platform that aims to map the landscape of open sourcesoftware development. It was founded by former Microsoft managersJason Allen and Scott Collison in 2004 and joined by the developer RobinLuckey. " (Wikipedia 2008)

• Social Network Type: Open Source projects and developers

• Members: About 180'000 developers

• Translations: English

• Groups/projects: 50'000 open source projects listed

• Headquarters: Bellevue, Washington, USA


• Click the button below to join the "OLAT" project on Ohloh:

Only pictures can be viewed in the PDF version! For Flashetc. see online version. Only screenshots of animations will bedisplayed. [link]

3.3. Developer Core Community (CoCo) Meetings

OLAT does not only have a growing user base but more and more Java developers start creating new featuresor extensions for OLAT. The most active developers are with no doubt our spin-off company Frentix GmbH,our German partner Bildungsportal Sachsen GmbH and since a few months the University of Hamburg. Tocoordinate all our developments with the main roadmap we organized a first "Core Community" (CoCo)meeting in May 2009 at the University of Zurich. Starting in 2009 we plan to hold these meetings on a yearlybasis and hope that the CoCo meetings help to improve both the features available for OLAT as well as itsstability. Our aim is to make all OLAT developers around the world collaborate and to consolidate their effortsin one great product. Forking is for losers and not an option :-)

The first Core Community Meeting 2009The first Core Community meeting took place from May 6th to 8th at the University of Zurich. The developercore community UZH, Frentix, BPS, University of Hamburg) met to participate in a lively exchange ofexperiences and knowledge.




The meeting was held in German, you can download the full program here [Link to URI Filesize: ../download/OLAT-

CORE-COMMUNITY-TREFFEN.pdf. ] . Some impressions from our sessions can be taken from the pictures below:

Patrick Brunner (UZH, standing) talking

about clustering and scalability

Employees of UZH, Frentix, BPS and

University of Hamburg discussing the

marketing of OLAT

Creative chaos at the first core community

meeting in Zurich

Joël Fisler (UZH, standing) presenting

results about the use of OLAT worldwide

Christian Guretzki (UZH, standing)

describes how to use the EventBus

Joël Fisler (UZH, standing) and Patrick

Brunner (UZH, sitting) arguing

Results of the first CoCo meeting (slides below)

1. Elaborating a joint roadmap [Page 13]

2. Discussing and defining a collective incubation process [Page 70]

3. Exchanging knowhow about tools for OLAT setup, maintenance, log file analysis etc.4. Knowledge transfer about clustering, scalability and selenium testing5. Hackathon and incubation code review prototype6. Common strategy about OLAT marketing and community work7. Creation of a "marketing group" and an internal OLAT marketing blog [http://olatmarketing.blogspot.com/]

8. Creation of a new OLAT operations blog (OLAT Betriebs Blog [http://blogs.uzh.ch/olat/] , German) anddeveloper Wiki (English, soon available)

Presentations of the CoCo participantsPlease note that the meeting was held in German so the slides available for download are also mostly in German.Some of the slides might be hard to understand for developers that have not attended the meeting. Nevertheless,we decided to communicate very openly about our meeting and publish all the available slides. Feel free tocontact Patrick Brunner [Link to URI mailto:[email protected]] (head of development team at UZH) if youhave further questions concerning one of the presentations. The slides are ordered according to the meetingschedule [Link to URI Filesize: ../download/OLAT-CORE-COMMUNITY-TREFFEN.pdf. ] :

http://olatmarketing.blogspot.com/

http://blogs.uzh.ch/olat/




UZH Roadmap[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/di/

CoreCommunity_Roadmap.pdf]

0.2 MB PDF By Patrick Brunner

Frentix GmbH Roadmap[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/di/20090505-

communityweek-roadmap.pdf]

2 MB PDF By Florian Gnägi

BPS GmbH Roadmap[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/di/2009_05_05_UZH

BPS Roadmap.pdf]

1.9 MB PDF By Stefan Köber

E-Assessment[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/di/20090505_E-

Assessment_OLAT.pdf]

1 MB PDF By Marion Weber (UZH)

Selenium Testing[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/di/Selenium_testing.pdf]

2.6 MB PDF By Lavinia Dumitrescu(UZH)

Scalability[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/mi/

cg_skalierbarkeit.pdf]

1.1 MB PDF By Christian Guretzki andPatrick Brunner (UZH)

Scalability Reference Card[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/mi/

OLAT_Skalierbarkeit_ReferenceCard_org.doc]

0.1 MB DOC By Christian Guretzki

OLAT Incubation Process[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/mi/CoreCommunity-

Incubation.pdf]

0.6 MB PDF By Patrick Brunner andHansjörg Zuberbühler(UZH)

Scan of Incubation Process sketch[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/mi/incubation-process-

scan-der-skizze.pdf]

0.4 MB PDF By all participants

Tools for OLAT[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/mi/

OLAT_uzh_tools_speech.pdf]

0.1 MB PDF By Romand Haag(Frentix)

Tools und Helferlein[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/mi/

BPS_Tools_Helferlein.pdf]

0.6 MB PDF By Ingmar Kroll (BPS)

OLAT Deployment @ UZH[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/mi/OLAT-Deployment-

UZH.pdf]

1.1 MB PDF By Patrick Brunner(UZH)

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/di/CoreCommunity_Roadmap.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/di/20090505-communityweek-roadmap.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/di/2009_05_05_UZH BPS Roadmap.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/di/20090505_E-Assessment_OLAT.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/di/Selenium_testing.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/mi/cg_skalierbarkeit.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/mi/OLAT_Skalierbarkeit_ReferenceCard_org.doc

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/mi/CoreCommunity-Incubation.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/mi/incubation-process-scan-der-skizze.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/mi/OLAT_uzh_tools_speech.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/mi/BPS_Tools_Helferlein.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/coco/mi/OLAT-Deployment-UZH.pdf



3.4. OLAT User Day 2009: Friday, September 11th

The first OLAT User Day was held on September 11th at the University of Zurich. So far we can say: itwas a success! The OLAT User Day gave the participants the opportunity to meet up others from the OLATcommunity. Just to come together, share ideas and to discuss matters of common interests. Main issues werethe work with and on OLAT: Developers, authors and users were swapping ideas on workflows, problems,news and particularities the whole day through. The participant’s feedback was throughout positive.

In some way special was the format, the User Day was held like. This yet young concept of an "unconference"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference] - sessions can be proposed and are determined by vote - did work alsovery well. Besides preliminary proposed sessions, last-minute contributions been considered. All sessions andits minutes, as well as further information to the OLAT User Day can be accessed on the OLAT User DayWiki [http://wiki.olat.uzh.ch/xwiki/bin/view/Main/] .

Last but not least: The first OLAT User Day also been the official celebration of the 10 years OLAT anniversary.

3.5. OLAT Conference 2008

Next OLAT conference in 2010?

Organizing a three-day conference is a lot of work. Furthermore participants do not have material forsuch excellent presentations as we did see in 2008 every year. Therefore we decided to organize OLATconferences in a two- or maybe even three-year cycle. So the next OLAT conference might take placein 2010 or 2011, we are not sure yet. Nevertheless, we will be holding the one-day OLAT User Day[Page 59] every year!

First OLAT Conference 2008, March 26th to 28thWe are happy to announce that the first OLAT conference has successfully been closed. You will find the fulldetails about the program, the presentations etc. in the archive of the conference website:

OLAT Conference Website[http://www.olat.org/conference]

HTML

OLAT Conference Proceedings (Abstracts, Program etc.)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/

olat_konferenz_unterlagen.pdf]

2.4MB PDF

OLAT Conference Brochure (Preliminary program)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/

olat_konferenz_programm.pdf]

0.3MB PDF

Conference Photo GalleriesClick on the photo to see the corresponding gallery. On the first row you will find the presentations/workshopand on the second row the social events for the corresponding day.




http://www.olat.org/conference

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/olat_konferenz_unterlagen.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/olat_konferenz_programm.pdf



Wednesday (March 26th, 2008):

Pre-Conference Workshops

[http://www.olat.org/conference2008/

workshops]

Warm-Up Cocktail@MyPlace


warmup]

Thursday (March 27th, 2008):

First Conference Day


day1]

Conference Dinner@Giesserei Zurich


dinner]

Friday (March 28th, 2008):

Second Conference Day


day2]

Fondue Night@Jurablick Hütte


fondue]

Video-Streams and PodcastsYou can download all the presentations in full resolution or low resolution (recommended for iPods) usingiTunes or you can access our RSS-feeds to view all the presentation either as a normal stream or as a flashstream.

Download Podcast version (opens in iTunes)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/text/itpc://econf.switch.ch/econfportal/

www/streaming_rss/?id=000732&type=ipod]

Podcast

Full resolution download (opens in iTunes)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/text/itpc://econf.switch.ch/econfportal/

www/streaming_rss/?id=000732&type=full]

Podcast

RSS-Feed Streaming version QuickTime[http://econf.switch.ch/econfportal/www/streaming_rss/?

id=000732&type=play]

RSS

RSS-Feed Streaming version Flash[http://econf.switch.ch/econfportal/www/streaming_rss/?

id=000732&type=flash]

RSS

http://www.olat.org/website/en/text/itpc://econf.switch.ch/econfportal/www/streaming_rss/?id=000732&type=ipod

http://www.olat.org/website/en/text/itpc://econf.switch.ch/econfportal/www/streaming_rss/?id=000732&type=full

http://econf.switch.ch/econfportal/www/streaming_rss/?id=000732&type=play

http://econf.switch.ch/econfportal/www/streaming_rss/?id=000732&type=flash



Pre-Conference WorkshopsWe did not record the pre-conference workshops of course. You will find some photos in the gallery aboveand we would also like to offer you the PowerPoint slides downloadable as PDF documents below:

E-Learning-Kurse erstellen mit OLAT: Eine Einführung fürAutorInnen[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/

workshop_olat_for_authors.pdf]

0.7MB PDF

OLAT Layout Workshop[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/

workshop_yaml.pdf]

1.4MB PDF

OLAT for Developers: Introduction to Working withEclipse[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/

workshop_developer_OLATinEclipse.pdf]

0.8MB PDF

OLAT for Developers: Adapting OLAT to Your NeedsUsing Java[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/

workshop_developer_OLATextending.pdf]

0.3MB PDF

eLesson Markup Language (eLML) Workshop[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/

workshop_elml.pdf]

0.6MB PDF

Thursday - March 27th, 2008You will find below the conference program and the corresponding streaming links. The buttons correspondto the two streaming formats we offer:

QuickTime streaming video[http://econf.switch.ch/econfportal/www/streaming_rss/?

id=000732&type=play]

quicktime

Flash streaming video[http://econf.switch.ch/econfportal/www/streaming_rss/?

id=000732&type=flash]

flash

The first day of the conference started with a joint opening session followed by OLAT presentations in thelarge conference room (G55) and "E-Learning in Medicine"-presentations in the seminar room (H38).


http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/workshop_olat_for_authors.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/workshop_olat_for_authors.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/workshop_yaml.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/workshop_developer_OLATinEclipse.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/workshop_developer_OLATinEclipse.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/workshop_developer_OLATextending.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/workshop_developer_OLATextending.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/workshop_elml.pdf

http://econf.switch.ch/econfportal/www/streaming_rss/?id=000732&type=play

http://econf.switch.ch/econfportal/www/streaming_rss/?id=000732&type=flash




Friday - March 28th, 2008The second day of the conference offered presentations for users in the large room (G55) and developer orientedpresentations in the smaller seminar room (H38) during the morning. Unfortunately we had a streaming problemduring the developer session and therefore two presentations are missing. We are very sorry for that but thereis nothing we can do, no data has been recorded. In the afternoon the closing session took place in the largeconference room.


3.6. Google Summer of Code

Google Summer of Code 2010?

OLAT participated at Google Summer of Code for the first time in 2008. In 2009 we did not participatebut maybe we will apply again in 2010 and hopefully get selected as a mentoring organization. If youare interested, check back in early 2010.

GSoC 2008: Video and PhotosOLAT was participating in Google's Summer of Code program 2008 [http://code.google.com/soc/2008/] and hasreceived funding for a total of 8 projects (check the overview page [http://code.google.com/soc/2008/uzh/about.html] ).

Six of the projects were related to OLAT and two projects were related to eLML 19. If you are a student andwould also like to participate in the GSoC project, please check the information about GSoC 2009 above!

All the students successfully finished their projects and presented their work at the University of Zurich's "GSoCClosing Event". After two hours of presentations and discussions - one as a conference call from Germany andtwo students via video from India - the student and mentors celebrated with barbecue and beer until late at theIrchel campus. The presentations are available online as video streams:

19 The eLesson Markup Language (eLML) is an open source XML framework for creating structured eLessons using XML. Many OLAT-

authors use eLML to create their e-Learning courses and import it into OLAT using either the IMS CP or the SCORM format. Check the

eLML website www.elml.org for more information.


http://code.google.com/soc/2008/

http://code.google.com/soc/2008/uzh/about.html



GSoC Closing Event: QuickTime video stream

[https://cast.switch.ch/vod/clips/2hd1ffjlen/quicktime.mov Type:

QuickTime. ]

GSoC Closing Event: Flash video stream

[https://cast.switch.ch/vod/clips/2hd1ffjlen/flash.html Type:

Flash. ]

You can also download the iPod version [https://cast.switch.ch/vod/clips/2hd1ffjlen/ipod.m4v Type: iPod. ] if you want towatch the presentations on your mobile devices. Below you will find some photos of the social event followingthe presentations:

https://cast.switch.ch/vod/clips/2hd1ffjlen/ipod.m4v



The GSoC 2008 projects for OLAT and eLML

Project Student Origin Mentor Status

LDAP (more [http://

code.google.com/

soc/2008/uzh/

appinfo.html?

csaid=44B184324AF34809]

)

Maurus Rohrer HSR Hochschule fürTechnik Rapperswil

Florian Gnägi [Page

93] (Frentix)Completed!

Calendar (more[http://code.google.com/

soc/2008/uzh/

appinfo.html?

csaid=CE0A827938ADFF57]

)

Udit Sajjanhar Indian Instituteof TechnologyKharagpur

Marion Weber [Page

92] (UZH)Completed!

Blog (more [http://

code.google.com/

soc/2008/uzh/

appinfo.html?

csaid=D04B0E0849B6304E]

)

Thomas Bernhart University of Zurich Guido Schnider[Page 92] (UZH)

Completed!

CP Editor (more[http://code.google.com/

soc/2008/uzh/

appinfo.html?

csaid=C6B1C7145D5545AA]

)

Sergio Trentini University of Zurich Florian Gnägi [Page

93] (Frentix)Completed!

Tagging (more[http://code.google.com/

soc/2008/uzh/

appinfo.html?

csaid=4871D197F4377D39]

)

Marcel Karras TU Chemnitz Jens Schwendel[Page 93] (BPS)

Completed!

Clipboard (more[http://code.google.com/

soc/2008/uzh/

appinfo.html?

csaid=D693F5ED75773601]

)

Mayank Jain Indian Instituteof TechnologyKharagpur

Felix Jost [Page

94] (JLSGoodsolutions)

Completed!

eLML TemplateGenerator (more[http://code.google.com/

soc/2008/uzh/

appinfo.html?

csaid=8BE887D7E47F3CB5]

)

Thomas Linowsky TU Chemnitz Joël Fisler [Page

92] (UZH)Completed!

eLML to DocBookConverter (more[http://code.google.com/

soc/2008/uzh/

appinfo.html?

csaid=CFC226E3202794AE]

)

Alberto Sanz University of Zurich Joël Fisler [Page

92] (UZH)Completed!

http://code.google.com/soc/2008/uzh/appinfo.html?csaid=44B184324AF34809

http://code.google.com/soc/2008/uzh/appinfo.html?csaid=CE0A827938ADFF57

http://code.google.com/soc/2008/uzh/appinfo.html?csaid=D04B0E0849B6304E

http://code.google.com/soc/2008/uzh/appinfo.html?csaid=C6B1C7145D5545AA

http://code.google.com/soc/2008/uzh/appinfo.html?csaid=4871D197F4377D39

http://code.google.com/soc/2008/uzh/appinfo.html?csaid=D693F5ED75773601

http://code.google.com/soc/2008/uzh/appinfo.html?csaid=8BE887D7E47F3CB5

http://code.google.com/soc/2008/uzh/appinfo.html?csaid=CFC226E3202794AE



More information for all GSoC-participants

• OLAT-GSoC-Wiki-page [http://code.google.com/p/olat/wiki/2008GoogleSummerOfCode] : students and mentorsplease use this page to track your progress, submit specifications etc.

• How to install OLAT in Eclipse? [http://code.google.com/p/olat/wiki/SetupOlatInEclipse] Manual with videosetc. Please make sure to read the prerequisites [http://code.google.com/p/olat/wiki/SetupOlatPrerequsites] beforestarting.

• Development guidelines [http://code.google.com/p/olat/wiki/DevelopmentGuidelines] : must be followed by allstudents and mentors when committing to the OLAT SVN repository

GSoC 2008 Bonding Apero PhotosSwiss GSoC mentors and students met on May 7th 2008 for a "Bonding Drink" at the MyPlace Café in Zurich.Please click on the image to see a large version of the photo.

http://code.google.com/p/olat/wiki/2008GoogleSummerOfCode

http://code.google.com/p/olat/wiki/SetupOlatInEclipse

http://code.google.com/p/olat/wiki/SetupOlatPrerequsites

http://code.google.com/p/olat/wiki/DevelopmentGuidelines



4. Development: More Information for DevelopersMake sure that you downloaded the OLAT source code [Page 38] and read the installation documentation [Page

42] before you start developing for OLAT.

Bug and Feature Development TrackingFor bug tracking and enhancement issues we use JIRA. Go to bugs.olat.org [http://bugs.olat.org/] to see whichbugs are open or already fixed and which features are in the development process. If you find a new bug pleasedo post that bug on our developers' mailing list. If we can reproduce the bug we will add it to the bug trackingsystem. Please do always search for existing bug reports before you send a mail. To watch what is committedand by whom visit our fisheye CVS view [http://fisheye.olat.org/] :

• OLAT main branch development [http://fisheye.olat.org/browse/~br=MAIN/OLAT] (RSS-Feed [http://

fisheye.olat.org/changelog/%7Ebr%3DMAIN/OLAT?view=fe&max=30&RSS=true] )

• All OLAT development activities [http://fisheye.olat.org/changelog/OLAT/] (RSS-Feed [http://fisheye.olat.org/

changelog/OLAT?view=all&max=30&RSS=true] )

Technical and Developer DocumentationThe technical documentation chapter covers OLAT concepts, system architecture and the OLAT developmentframework.

Technical documentation OLAT 6.x[http://www.olat.org/docu/dev/index.html]

HTML Multiple pages

Technical documentation OLAT 6.x[http://www.olat.org/docu/dev/olat_dev_docu_one_page.html]

HTML Single page

New OLAT 6 layout concept based on YAMLOLAT 6 and the underlying brasato framework have a totally new layout concept based on the YAMLframework [http://www.yaml.de] . Using YAML and the new brasato framework OLAT 6 will offer a lot ofimprovements towards clean, browser-independent and accessible layout. Please have a look at the followingtechnical documentation if you plan to adapt the OLAT layout to your needs.

Understanding the brasato layout[http://www.olat.org/docu/gui/index.html]

HTML Multiple pages

Understanding the brasato layout[http://www.olat.org/docu/gui/olat_gui_docu_one_page.html]

HTML Single page

Understanding the Internationalization (I18n) and Translation SystemThis documentation by Florian Gnägi explains how translation and internationalization work in OLAT. It alsocontains extensive information about the new translation tool.

Understanding the Internationalization and TranslationSystem[http://www.olat.org/docu/i18n/index.html]

HTML Multiple pages

http://bugs.olat.org/

http://fisheye.olat.org/

http://fisheye.olat.org/browse/~br=MAIN/OLAT

http://fisheye.olat.org/changelog/%7Ebr%3DMAIN/OLAT?view=fe&max=30&RSS=true

http://fisheye.olat.org/changelog/OLAT/

http://fisheye.olat.org/changelog/OLAT?view=all&max=30&RSS=true

http://www.olat.org/docu/dev/index.html

http://www.olat.org/docu/dev/olat_dev_docu_one_page.html

http://www.yaml.de

http://www.yaml.de

http://www.olat.org/docu/gui/index.html

http://www.olat.org/docu/gui/olat_gui_docu_one_page.html

http://www.olat.org/docu/i18n/index.html




Understanding the Internationalization and TranslationSystem[http://www.olat.org/docu/i18n/olat_i18n_docu_one_page.html]

HTML Single page

How to set up OLAT in EclipseIf you would like to develop some extensions or just play with the source code and debug some workflows of arunning OLAT you will need to run OLAT out of the Eclipse IDE. Check our installation documentation [Page

42] plus there is a nice guide available from BPS about setting up an OLAT development environment [https://

twiki.tu-chemnitz.de/bin/view/OLAT/HowToSetupDevelopmentEnvironment] under the Eclipse IDE. We suggest to use theEclipse WTP build [http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/downloads/] which includes by default a lot of useful plugins

OLAT Javadoc / API documentationThe generated javadoc of the source code can be found here. A good starting point is the top level packageorg.olat [http://www.olat.org/api/org/olat/package-summary.html] which contains a graphical overview. You will findtechnical explanations of packages and code examples.

Access to the OLAT CVSWe use the Concurrent Versioning System (CVS) to manage the OLAT source code. If you are interested in thecutting-edge version of OLAT or if you want to develop OLAT extensions you should check the OLAT CVSHEAD. We recommend checking OLAT from within the Eclipse IDE (see above). We develop using Eclipse;all project settings are also part of the project.

• Host: cvs.olat.org

• Repository path: /usr/local/cvs

• User: anonymous

• Password: anonymous

• Connection type: pserver

• After configuring your new CVS location check olat3 of the HEAD branch

When checking OLAT on a shell use the following commands:

1. cvs -d :pserver:[email protected]:/usr/local/cvs login (password is anonymous)2. cvs -d :pserver:[email protected]:/usr/local/cvs co olat3

If you want to send us some code, please send only patches you have made using the patch mechanism fromEclipse. Send us the patch via the developers' mailing list.

See the fisheye cvs archive viewer [http://fisheye.olat.org/] to get an impression of current development activities.

OLAT Testing EnvironmentThis document explains how the OLAT Test Environment using Selenium [http://seleniumhq.org/] works at theUniversity of Zurich. This document is not of general interest for non-UZH developers.

OLAT Test Documentation[http://www.olat.org/docu/test/index.html]

HTML Multiple pages

OLAT Test Documentation HTML Single page

http://www.olat.org/docu/i18n/olat_i18n_docu_one_page.html


https://twiki.tu-chemnitz.de/bin/view/OLAT/HowToSetupDevelopmentEnvironment

http://download.eclipse.org/webtools/downloads/

http://www.olat.org/api/org/olat/package-summary.html

http://www.olat.org/api/org/olat/package-summary.html

http://fisheye.olat.org/

http://seleniumhq.org/

http://www.olat.org/docu/test/index.html

http://www.olat.org/docu/test/olat_test_docu_one_page.html



[http://www.olat.org/docu/test/olat_test_docu_one_page.html]

Other documents by our communityAt the University of Leipzig Prof. Gräbe is using OLAT in his Knowledge Environment Engineering [http://

bis.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/de/Forschung/EEE/Seminar] Seminar. Students have done some quite interesting researchpapers about OLAT there:

QTI 1.2 Integration in OLAT (German)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/graebe/qti_olat_vortrag.pdf]

0.4MB PDF By Daniel Gerber andMarvin Frommhold

Datenanbindung über Hybernate in OLAT (German)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/graebe/Jia-07.pdf]

1.4MB PDF Seminararbeit von Jia Xie

OLAT Technologie Überblick (German)[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/graebe/Rublack-07-

folien.pdf]

0.4MB PDF Presentation by RalfRublack

http://bis.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/de/Forschung/EEE/Seminar

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/graebe/qti_olat_vortrag.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/graebe/Jia-07.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/graebe/Rublack-07-folien.pdf



4.1. Code samples

If you are looking for code samples it's best to seeworking code from OLAT. To make this process aseasy as possible we have enabled in the demo.olat.org[http://demo.olat.org/] a special tab called gui demo,which you can see if you log in as administrator. Thegui demo tab contains most of the widgets from theOLAT framework you can work with.

To view the source code which consists normaly froma velocity file which acts as a html template and a javacontroller class which fills the template with variablesand receives events and refreshes the component ifnecessary you can click the "view java source code" or"view velocity source code" from the gui demo stuffyou are interested in.

This gui demo tab is specially enhanced with thesource view links but you can achieve the samebehavior by clicking the small green bug icon on theupper left corner which shows you a developer toolbarwith a debug button. By pressing the debug button thelayout gets spitted into its components and you canhover over the edges to get the classes and velocityfiles sourcecode.

You can turn on both the green bug icon and the guidemo tab in your development environment. First isdone be turning debug to true in the build.propertiesfile and second by uncommenting the gui demo tab inthe olat_extensions.xml file.

OLAT view via the gui demo

Read more in the technical documentation [http://www.olat.org/docu/dev/olat_dev_docu_one_page.html] .

4.2. Incubation Process

This is a typical OLAT release cycle:

1. Before code freeze: for each incubation candidate a Jira [http://bugs.olat.org] issue is created with versionset to "Incubation". Reviewers and testers are defined.

2. Before code freeze: link to Jira [http://bugs.olat.org] issue is published on the developers list [Page 50] anddiscussed by the community (via comments in Jira [http://bugs.olat.org] ).

3. CODE FREEZE about two months before semester start(for 6.2: mid-July 2009; for 6.3: mid-December 2009; for 6.4: Beginning of June 2010)

4. After code freeze: CVS branch [Page 68] is opened for each feature. Small enhancements/bugs canbe integrated into one branch.

5. After code freeze: URL of branch instance is introduced to involved reviewers and testers.

http://demo.olat.org/

http://www.olat.org/docu/dev/olat_dev_docu_one_page.html






6. After code freeze: testing - bug fixing - testing cycles.7. GO LIVE of Release Candidate at University of Zurich [https://www.olat.uzh.ch] ; about one month before

semester start(for 6.2: mid-August 2009; for 6.3: end of January 2009; for 6.4: mid-August 2010)

8. Beta testing of Release Candidate at University of Zurich9. PUBLIC RELEASE max. one month after semester start

(for 6.2: end of September 2009; for 6.3: mid-March 2009, for 6.4: Beginning of August 2010)10. After public release: merge each feature branch to head

The following picture illustrates the incubation process and release cycle:

OLAT incubation process and release cycle for OLAT 6.1

4.3. Translations

OLAT 6 is released along with the following user interface languages (the percentage show how much of theOLAT GUI has been translated):






OLAT offers full UTF-8 support and an online translation tool. If you want to help translating OLAT, pleasecontact Marion Weber [Link to URI mailto:[email protected]] or use our new translators-mailinglist [https://

lists.uzh.ch/lists.olat.org/sympa/info/olat-translators] if you have questions. For more information about where OLATis in use please check our OLAT worldwide [Page 20] page. A short description on how to use the integratedOLAT translation tool that makes translating really easy:

PLEASE NOTE: Since OLAT 6.1 release in March 2009 we have a new simpler tranlsation tool!

Understanding the Internationalization (I18n) and Translation SystemThis documentation by Florian Gnägi explains how translation and internationalization work in OLAT. It alsocontains extensive information about the new translation tool.

Understanding the Internationalization and TranslationSystem[http://www.olat.org/docu/i18n/index.html]

HTML Multiple pages

Understanding the Internationalization and TranslationSystem[http://www.olat.org/docu/i18n/olat_i18n_docu_one_page.html]

HTML Single page

Understanding the Internationalization and TranslationSystem[http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/

Understanding_the_Internationalization_and_Translation_System.pdf]

1.6MB PDF

Translators MailinglistIn 2009 we started a separate mailinglists for translators. If you are either an active translator or if you areinterested in becoming a translator, please subscribe to this mailinglist and send your questions conceriningthe OLAT translation tool or translation process there:

OLAT Translators Mailinglist[https://lists.uzh.ch/lists.olat.org/sympa/info/olat-translators]







http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/Understanding_the_Internationalization_and_Translation_System.pdf

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/Understanding_the_Internationalization_and_Translation_System.pdf




5. OLAT Newsletter 2009 | no. 1Dear Community,

OLAT grows continuously and so does the number of users and developers. This results in interesting newsand information we want to share with you. So, here it is: the first OLAT newsletter.

There was one major event this year: the 10th anniversary of OLAT! And we celebrated this appropriatelywhile and with the first OLAT User Day. But read more below...

Have fun and enjoy the newsletter.

Kind regardsYour OLAT Team

#new OLAT releaseOn 29th of September the new version 6.2.0 was released. Some major enhancements were included and manynew features have been added.

The calendar now provides an import/export function: Import your calendar from applications like Thunderbirdvia an ical link into OLAT (read more in Wikipedia on icalendar). Same with exporting your OLAT calendarinto an external application. Hint: Usually you cannot edit an imported calendar in the external application orOLAT lacking writing access.

You can now create IMS-Content-Packages (CP learning content) directly in OLAT. The new CP editor allowscreating, copying and importing of single HTML pages. You also can export your CP for the use in otherapplications: Make sure you’re in the “Detailed view” of the learning resource. On the right side in the boxyou have the link "export content" to start the download of your CP as a zip-file.

We upgraded the integrated WYSIWG editor. The special feature that comes with this is a formula editor. Nomore inserting mathematical formulas as pictures is needed, just edit it right away with the "jsmath" editor.The forum obtained another upgrade in formatting: Now you can use special characters. All in all the editingis much more comfortable.

And some more in a short outline:

• the export function for group lists is extended: you can now choose different Excel formats in a dropdown

• in the glossary synonyms can be defined, text formatted and you can call flexions

• notifications of new events in a subscribed calendar are now possible

• a new course function "close" to mark a course as finished but still keep the content accessible

• e-mail workflows are enhanced

• some improvements in the forum: e.g. reply with quotation and an extended sorting/viewing of threads

• enhanced editing of the user’s profile and visiting card

• learning resources (test, wiki, etc.) can now be created from within the course editor

#new OLAT memberSince February 2009 OLAT has got a new member in its community: the University of Hamburg [http://www.uni-

hamburg.de/index_e.html] .

http://www.uni-hamburg.de/index_e.html



With about 38.000 students, the University of Hamburg (UHH) is one of the top 5 of Germany's largestuniversities. Even though its roots date back to the 17th century, it was officially founded in spring 1919. Asan e-learning-strategy was formulated at the UHH in 2006 a new portal has been established under the name„MICHeL - Media | Internet | Community | Hamburger eLearning”. The decision for OLAT fell last Februaryand it is already productively in use. From April 2010 on it will be the main LMS at the UHH.

www.michel.uni-hamburg.de [http://www.michel.uni-hamburg.de/]

#news from the communityThe University of Macerata [http://www.unimc.it/] (Italy) developed a platform-independent tracking andmonitoring toolkit.

E-tutors have to spend much effort to deal with issues concerning students who are stuck somewhere in theire-learning environment. To adjust a pedagogical model, it is up to the e-Tutor to collect and remember allthese issues. To facilitate this process the University of Macerata (Italy) developed a platform-independenttracking and monitoring toolkit. The idea is to enhance already available Open Source LMS to "support e-Tutorsrecognizing and dealing with pedagogical patterns stored in a decentralized knowledge base". The toolkit isnot a feature to be patched to OLAT, but as a matter of fact OLAT 6.1 is the first LMS for which an interfaceis provided.

#OLAT@events: recent and upcoming

21st Century Learning 17. – 19. Sept 2009 Hong Kong

Open Expo 22. – 23. Sept 2009 Winterthur

Technology Enhanced LearningConference 2009

06. – 08. Oct 2009 Taipei

ICEIT 2009 conference 20. – 22. Oct 2009 San Francisco

E-Learn 09 by AACE 26. – 30. Oct 2009 Vancouver

DevLearn Expo by the eLearningGuild

10. – 13. Nov 2009 San Jose

Online Educa 02. – 04. Dec 2009 Berlin

Learn Tec 02. – 04. Feb 2010 Karlsruhe

Read a short report on the OLAT User Day:

The first OLAT User Day was held on September 11th at the University of Zurich. So far we can say: itwas a success! The OLAT User Day gave the participants the opportunity to meet up others from the OLATcommunity. Just to come together, share ideas and to discuss matters of common interests. Main issues werethe work with and on OLAT: Developers, authors and users were swapping ideas on workflows, problems,news and particularities the whole day through. The feedback was throughout positive.

http://www.michel.uni-hamburg.de/

http://www.unimc.it/



The User Day was organized as an "unconference” [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference] . This yet youngconcept - sessions can be proposed and are determined by vote - did work very well. Besides previouslyproposed sessions, last-minute contributions were considered. All sessions and minutes, as well as furtherinformation about the OLAT User Day can be accessed online: http://wiki.olat.uzh.ch/xwiki/bin/view/Main/[http://wiki.olat.uzh.ch/xwiki/bin/view/Main/]

At the end of the first OLAT User Day we officially celebrated the 10th anniversary of OLAT.

#how to...This is somehow funny: often forum threads start with "I really used the search function, but couldn’t findanything regarding my issue..." And if not, most first answers point out to the search function.

There is a well detailed documentation on how to install and customize OLAT fitting your needs. Here, wewould just like to refer to some basic, but important things!

...change the title in the address bar of OLATThe title in the browser window is combined by "page.appname - page.title - browser name". First two can beadapted easily via OLAT without editing the code.

• Go to the tab 'Administration' and click the 'Language adaption tool'.

• Use the search for the term "page.appname" (check 'Translation key', 'Language' and 'All packages')

• As a single result the package "org.olat.core" is shown. Just click 'Adapt'

• By default it is set to "OLAT".

• You can now insert your own title within the field “Adaptions”

• Save it and you’re done

It is the same with "page.title" that is set by default to "Online Learning And Training".

Don't forget to make the changes in each language!

There are some other keys that might be of interest to you, too:

• login.headertitle on top of the login page

• welcome.headertitle on top of the welcome page after logging in

• guestwelcome.headertitle on top of the welcome page after logging in as a guest

• guestwelcome.messagelines right under the guestwelcome.header

...adapt the designIt is possible to adapt the layout of a course according to your own design needs by overwriting the OLATlayout, which is loaded by default. You only have to create your own CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) file, uploadit to the storage folder and select it via "Modify properties" (in the box on the right in the detailed view).





As a matter of fact, there are many OLAT CSS selectors, classes and id's defined. Below we refer to a few ofthem, so you can see what’s possible.

• body elementWith the body you can define e.g. the font, its size and the color:h3 { font-size: 200% }

• headingsThere are different headings in use structuring the content. For example the heading of a single page isdefined as 'h3'. Would you like to increase its size?body { color: red; font-family: Arial; font-size: 77.00%; }

• background-Image(s) and -colorOn the left the course menu, in the middle the content area and on the right the tool boxes: these threeare arranged like columns (left to right). You have to set the background-color to transparent:#b_col1 { background-color: transparent }#b_col3 { background-color: transparent }#b_col2 { background-color: transparent }Around these three there is a box where you can place a background-image:#b_main { background-image: url(path and filename) }Or just give all of them a unique background color:#b_main { background-color: dedicated color}You can also give each column a different color or background-image.

• page widthYou can limit the size of the whole page width (within the browser window):#b_page_margins { min-width: 540px; max-width: 80em; margin: 0 auto; }

• Hide Header/FooterYou can hide the OLAT Header and/or Footer via:#b_header { display:none; }#b_footer { display:none; }

#imprintOLAT TeamUniversity of Zurichhttp://www.olat.org [https://www.olat.org]


If you like to unsubscribe from this newsletter, send a message to [email protected] [Link to URI

mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe%20OLAT%20Newsletter]

If this newsletter was forwarded to you and you want to subscribe to it, send a message to [email protected][Link to URI mailto:[email protected]?subject=subscribe%20OLAT%20Newsletter]

https://www.olat.org


mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe%20OLAT%20Newsletter

mailto:[email protected]?subject=subscribe%20OLAT%20Newsletter



6. OLAT SearchPlease use our personalized Google search to find documents on olat.org, within the mailing-list archives, onour University of Zurich OLAT server and on our partners server frentix.com and bildungsportal.sachsen.de(both host a lot of manuals, tutorial-videos and documentation).





7. Sponsoring OLAT: Meet our sponsorsOLAT is open source and therefore free. But there are still a lot of people working for an open source project.Would you like to support them? Are you a satisfied OLAT user and would like to donate money?

The sponsors that support OLAT (in alphabetical order):

• ch/open: Swiss Open Systems User Group

• Citavi: Literaturverwaltung und Wissensorganisation

• DOIT: Dermatology online course [http://www.swisdom.org]

• eCF-Projekt

• FocusedPublishing GmbH

• Frentix GmbH

• Letec AG [http://www.letec.ch]

I like OLAT. Can I donate?


Thank you very much for your donation!

Why should I donate? Because...

• you get great open source software worth a lot of money (check project cost estimate [Page 67] ondevelopers page) without paying anything.

• supporting open source projects is a good thing and you will be (or at least feel like...) a better personafter donating to an open source project

• your name will be listed on our sponsors page (read fineprint below)

• your company name will be associated with a very friendly product

• our website is visited and linked from all over the world [Page 20] and thus your Google ranking willskyrocket having a link on our website

Fineprint...

• Money donated to the OLAT project is used only for OLAT: facilitating the open source-communitywork, organizing events, implementing new features into OLAT, fixing bugs etc.

• If you want to spend money for a certain feature that you need: contact our commercial partners Frentix[http://www.frentix.com] or BPS [http://www.bps-system.de] .

• Sponsors donating at least €100 are listed on this page.

• Sponsors donating more than €1000 get a link to their website for one year (€2000: link for two yearsetc.).

http://www.swisdom.org

http://www.letec.ch






• The listing is optional, if you want to remain anonymous, let us know [Page 92] . If you want theamount of your donation to be listed, let us know [Page 92] .

• We only publish sponsors who donated money paid through the PayPal-link above.

• The OLAT-Team can reject donations without giving reasons. Rejected donations are fully reimbursedto the donator.



8. OLAT News-Archive

OLAT release 6.1 planned for March 10th(13.02.2009) We have since two weeks a beta version of OLAT 6.1 - the first fully scalable OLAT version -running successfully on three nodes at the University of Zurich. A few more bug fixes and then we are readyto release it to the public. The release is planned for Tuesday, March 10th 2009. We will be in the OLAT andthe facebook chat the whole morning of the release, so join in Facebook if you have questions, comments,feedback etc.

Looking back at the Learntec 2009(12.02.2009) At this year's Learntec OLAT had again its own booth conveniently situated next to the fair hallentry. And as we don't change winning teams the University of Zurich was again supported by Frentix GmbH(Christian Franck) and by the Bildungsportal Sachsen (Frank Richter). This time we put some extra effort infurnishing our booth: new posters were designed and lots of OLAT cubes made of cardboard folded. Checkout the pictures to see them hanging from the booth ceiling.Many interested fair attendees paid a visit to our booth for a shorter or longer OLAT presentation. We gotlots of positive feedback concerning the smooth OLAT 6 layout, the bunch of functionalities and of coursethe Swiss chocolate we use to offer. Furthermore, Christian Franck was interviewed for a video podcast whichwill hopefully be broadcasted soon.



More Photos can be found on our Facebook group page [Page 51] . You can also find a podcast interview withChristian Franck from frentix [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7ePF4gOeuU] on YouTube.

What users say about OLAT(11.02.2009) People all over the world are working with OLAT. We wanted to know what users think aboutOLAT and started a page What Users say about OLAT [Page 15] . If you like to contribute with a statement,send us [Page 92] a photo, your name and job description plus a comment about OLAT.

OLAT 6.1 successfully released at the University of Zurich(02.02.2009) We have been working on a scalable OLAT-solution since nearly two years now. Scalable meansthat you can install OLAT not only on one server but on many servers and thus serve a lot more concurrentusers than with only one installation. This morning we released OLAT 6.1 at the University of Zurich and thenew installation consisting of three OLAT server-nodes is successfully running since five hours now. We willhave to monitor it during the next days and then decide when to do a public OLAT 6.1 release. Furthermorewe are still waiting for some translations to be done before we can release OLAT 6.1 for our community. Soit might take another three or four weeks. We'll keep you updated!

Google Summer of Code 2009 announced: OLAT will participate(21.01.2009) Google announced their Google Summer of Code 2009 project and it is most probable that theUniversity of Zurich will be a mentoring organization again. As in 2008 we will participate again with ourtwo eLearning open source projects OLAT and eLML. Interested students from all over the world will be ableto apply for a grant for one of our projects. Please have a look at our GSoC project list [Page 62] and startcontacting us if you are interested in particpating. The starting date for submitting applications has not yet beenpublished but it will proably be in late March 2009. More information here... [Page 62]

Join our OLAT social network groups at Facebook, LinkedIn or Xing(23.12.2008) Consider it a Christmas gift: "OLAT team goes social networks" :-) You will find moreinformation here. [Page 51]

New OLAT broschure, flyer, poster, logo etc. available(17.12.2008) Check out our brand new broschure (A5, 4 pages), the flyer (A6) and poster (A0) that we createdfor the Online Educa conference. A fresher OLAT screen design also required new print products. Then wealso uploaded our new 3D logo in various sizes. Please have a look at the material section [Page 31] and contactus if you need the original Adobe InDesign or Illustrator files.





OLAT@Online Educa Berlin 2008

(09.12.2008) OLAT was again present at this years Online Educa 2008 [http://www.online-educa.com/exhibitors-

and-sponsors] in Berlin. Our team consisted of members of the University of Zurich (Sandra Roth, LaviniaDumitrescu and Joël Fisler), Frentix GmbH (Christian Franck) and from the Bildungsportal Sachsen (FrankRichter). We had a lot of interested e-learning experts passing by and getting impressed when we gave them ashort OLAT-demonstration. "This looks a lot cleaner than the cluttered Moodle-workspace" was something weheard quite often :-) Furthermore we had someone from the Educa-staff passing at our stand and interviewingJoël Fisler about OLAT and eLML. You can find this interview on the Online Educa Podcast [http://www.icwe.net/

oeb_blog/wordpress/?p=85] page. In the last session of the conference Andreas Wittke from Oncampus [http://

www.oncampus.de] and Joël Fisler (University of Zurich) were holding a presentation about "Mega ContentTransformation with Open Source Educational Content Project eLML (eLesson Markup Language) [http://

www.online-educa.com/programme_detail.php?id=CCC85] ". Surprisingly there were still over 30 participants attendingthis session, which is not bad for being the last presentation at nearly 6pm on Friday afternoon. For morepictures you can visit our new Facebook group OLAT [http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43551410823] . If youmissed the Online Educa you can visit us at our next event, the Learntec [http://www.learntec.de] in Karlsruhestarting on February 3rd 2009.

Yet another release today: OLAT 6.0.7 released!(04.12.2008) We had to release OLAT release 6.0.7 today because there were some bugs in the chat andnotification system we needed to fix! But there are more bug fixes and further improvements included into thisnew OLAT release. For a full list of bug fixes and improvements check the release notes [Page 40] . Continueto download section [Page 38] ...

http://www.online-educa.com/exhibitors-and-sponsors

http://www.icwe.net/oeb_blog/wordpress/?p=85

http://www.oncampus.de

http://www.online-educa.com/programme_detail.php?id=CCC85

http://www.online-educa.com/programme_detail.php?id=CCC85

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=43551410823

http://www.learntec.de



OLAT 6.0.6 released!(20.11.2008) Today OLAT release 6.0.6 (including unplublished 6.0.5 release) was published. The new releasecontains improvements of the HTML editor, SCORM and IMS CP improvements, support for Java 1.5 and alot of bug fixes! For a full list of bug fixes and improvements check the release notes [Page 40] . Continue todownload section [Page 38] ...

OLAT team members participated at Google summit(05.11.2008) Guido Schnider and Joël Fisler participated at the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) MentorSummit [https://gsoc-wiki.osuosl.org/index.php/Main_Page] at the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. Thesummit took place Saturday and Sunday, 25./26. October 2008, and was held in the spirit of an unconference[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference] . It was very interesting to particpate at various spontaneously organizedworkshops and to talk to and meet some of the 200 mentors from over 150 open source projects that participatedat this years GSoC. For pictures check out the Mentor Summit 2008 photos at Flickr [http://www.flickr.com/search/?

q=mentorsummit08&w=all] and for more information about GSoC 2008 and the upcoming GSoC 2009 visit OLATGSoC page [Page 62] .

OLAT @ Ohloh.net(04.11.2008) We added OLAT to the open source network Ohloh.net. So please visit our [email protected] [https://www.ohloh.net/projects/olat] and add yourself as an OLAT user (we want to see that "I am using OLAT"-list growing fast!), leave a comment, add yourself to the development team etc. Become active and make usproud :-) Furthermore we added some Ohloh-Widgets throught our website (e.g on the download [Page 38] oron the development [Page 67] page).

OLAT 6.0.5 cancelled, waiting for 6.0.6(03.11.2008) Due to various reasons the public release of OLAT 6.0.5 (currently only running at UZH) hasnot been published yet. Since we planned a 6.0.6 for November 18th we will cancel the public release 6.0.5and you have to wait for 6.0.6. Sorry...

OLAT wins the Swiss(ness) Open Source Award 2008!(29.09.2008)

[http://www.ossaward.ch/]

https://gsoc-wiki.osuosl.org/index.php/Main_Page

https://gsoc-wiki.osuosl.org/index.php/Main_Page


http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mentorsummit08&w=all





At last weeks Open Expo [http://www.openexpo.ch] in Winterthur OLAT received the Swiss Open Source Award2008 in the category "Swissness". According to the jury members OLAT is one the biggest Swiss E-Learningprojects. We are very happy to have received this open source award and that the jury recognized our nearly10 years of hard work. The prize was a golden keyboard together with CHF 1600.-. Check the Swiss OpenSource Award Website [http://www.ossaward.ch/] for more information or read the article published in the PCTipp[http://www.pctipp.ch/news/gesellschaft/45264/erfolgreiche_openexpo.html] or Linux Magazine [http://www.linux-magazin.de/

meldung/26704] .

Jobs available at OLAT (University of Zurich)(16.10.2008) We are currently looking for a Java developer and an E-Learning specialist. Please check the"Jobs@OLAT" box on the right side for more information.

Video-Streams for GSoC Closing Event available(10.09.2008)

The Google Summer of Code Closing Event took place on September 4th at the University of Zurich. Allstudents (or their mentors) presented their project. We would like to thank everyone for the nice and successfulclosing event. A reminder: most presentations are in German. You can find the video of the presentations andphotos of the social event that followed on the OLAT GSoC page [Page 62] .So what has been accomplished in GSoC 2008? OLAT 6.1.x release will contain the results of the Calendarproject (Udit Sajjanhar) and also the LDAP end result (Maurus Rohrer). Also ready for publication are thetwo eLML projects "Template Builder" and "DocBook Converter". They will be published in late September2008. Not yet ready for production are Blog (Thomas Bernhart), CP Editor (Sergio Trentini), Tagging (MarcelKarras), and Clipboard (Mayank Jain). They are very valuable prototypes enhancing the OLAT project andprobably ready for release 6.2.

http://www.openexpo.ch

http://www.ossaward.ch/

http://www.ossaward.ch/





OLAT 6.0.4 released!(12.09.2008) The OLAT team has released OLAT 6.0.4 today. The release 6.0.4 contains as usual many bugfixes. But we also implemented some improvements: Better print support, optimized calendar portlet and somesecurity issues were fixed. Continue to download section... [Page 38]

OLAT 6.0.3 released!(28.08.2008) The OLAT team has released OLAT 6.0.3 today. This release includes many bug fixes for OLAT6.0 and the final layout (new icon set etc.) and the updated user manual in four languages. Have a look at thelist of chances in the OLAT 6.0.3 release notes [Page 40] . Continue to download section... [Page 38]

Google Summer of Code Closing Event(27.08.2008) As most of you probably know the OLAT project participated as a mentoring organization at theGoogle Summer of Code (GSoC) [Page 62] project. GSoC will officially end on September 1st and we willhave a public closing event on Thursday, September 4th 2008 from 4 to 6pm (Swiss time). All students willpresent their projects and talk about their experiences with GSoC and the OLAT mentors. The presentationwill be held at the Irchel Campus of the University of Zurich in room Y27-H35/36 Y35-F51 (new location!!!)and will be available as videostream afterwards. The GSoC Closing Event is a public event open to everyone(E-Learning staff, students interested in GSoC 2009 etc.) and will be followed by a social event - Barbecueand beer - in the Irchelpark afterwards. Please download the PDF file for more information [http://www.olat.org/

website/en/download/gsoc2008_final_event.pdf] .

OLAT 6 released today!(05.06.2008) The OLAT team has released OLAT 6.0 today. This is a major release including new functionalityas well as bug fixes. The most important new features of the 6.0 release are listed below. For a full list ofchanges please refer to the OLAT 6.0 release notes [Page 40] . Many thanks to the OLAT community that helpedfinding bugs, which helped make this release more stable. The community also did a great job in updatingseveral language translations. Continue to download section... [Page 38]

• Portlets on HOME are configurable: decide how many entries will be displayed, and in which order.

• Layout updated including enlarged, new icon set.

• CSS framework YAML [http://www.yaml.de] : increased robustness and browser-compatibility of entirelayout.

• Further accessibility improvements: so called Web2.a mode (beta) which allows visually impaired usersto swiftly detect parts of the screen that have been changed after the last click.

• Various chat improvements: e.g. more than one chat conversation possible, chat window remains whilebrowsing through OLAT.

• OLAT output complies with XHTML 1.0 Transitional.

• New wizard component, used e.g. in enhanced course publish workflow.

• Course content is by default rendered in an iframe: increased navigation speed.

• New plain text editor in OLAT folders: create .txt and .css files instantly - no need to upload.

• Various SCORM improvements.

• Custom fields: user attributes are configurable by system administrators, not stored hardcoded.

http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/gsoc2008_final_event.pdf

http://www.yaml.de



Polish version of OLAT website(28.05.2008) Last week Bartek Gajc from Olsztyn (Poland) released a translated version of the olat.org website.You can find the OLAT website in Polish at www.geomatikk.pl/olat [http://www.geomatikk.pl/olat] ! Thanks toBartek and his GEOMATIKK-team!

OLAT 6 release on June 3rd(21.05.2008) We are closing the last bugs and the next big OLAT release version 6.0 seems ready for publicrelease. We plan to have OLAT 6 published here on Tuesday, June 3rd 2008. OLAT 6 will be based on anew layout - created with the CSS-framework YAML [http://www.yaml.de] - and will offer some new featurespresented when the release is ready.

GSoC Bonding Apero

[Page 62] (19.05.2008) Swiss GSoC mentors and students met on May 7th for a "Bonding Drink" at the MyPlaceCafé in Zurich. We were around ten people, mostly students and mentors from the OLAT or eLML project.Although the meeting was published on the Google list we had only one guest from another project: DonatAgosti from the Plazi project [http://plazi.org/] . Thanks for joining! We plan to do a next event in summer, maybea barbecue in our beautiful University Irchel park. Please send us a note if you are interested in participating.Everybody is welcome! Check out the pictures... [Page 62]

Google accepts 8 OLAT student projects(22.04.2008) This year OLAT is participating for the first time in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) [http://

code.google.com/soc/2008/] project and has been chosen by Google to be one of the mentoring organizations. TheOLAT team is very happy to have a total of 8 student proposals accepted. The accepted students are citizensof Switzerland, Germany and India. Read on for more information... [Page 62]

OLAT Conference 2008 Video Streams and Photo Gallery

[Page 59] (02.04.2008) The successful start of the first OLAT conference in Zurich consisted of five fullybooked workshops. We discussed topics like usage, deployment, and extension of OLAT with the participantsand tried to give a deeper insight into layout issues and content creation for OLAT. After the quite challengingworkshops, we needed to relax at the bistro MyPlace. In the following two days we listened to 45 talks onvarious issues around OLAT like use cases, online assessments, usability, recent and future development,content creation and - at a special track - e-learning in medicine. This fascinating but exhausting "business"part was framed by social events: conference diner and party at the "Giesserei" on Thursday, and a fondue


http://www.yaml.de

http://plazi.org/

http://code.google.com/soc/2008/



diner in a sylvan hut full of atmosphere on Friday. All the 170 conference participants mainly from Germany,Austria, and Switzerland contributed in one way or another to the great success of the OLAT conference. We,the OLAT team, would like to thank all of them.We are looking forward to reading your posts on the OLAT lists and seeing you again soon. Continue...(Streams, Podcasts, Photos) [Page 59]

OLAT accepted at the Google Summer of Code students program (new deadline!)(18.03.2008) OLAT has been accepted at the Google Summer of Code program [http://code.google.com/soc/2008/

uzh/about.html] . The GSoC initiative offers students the possibility to work for open source projects and be paidby Google (around $5000 for a summer job). The aim of GSoC is to foster open source projects and to recruittalented programmers. Students interested in receiving such a grant should apply until March 31st April 7th,2008 (new deadline)!

Registration closed - 200 participants at OLAT conference(10.03.2008) The registration for the first OLAT conference (including the DOIT session "E-Learning inMedicine") closed on Friday, 7th of March 2008. We are happy to announce that a total of 170 participants200 participants (updated 26.3.2008) registered mainly from Switzerland (70%), Germany (20%) and Austria(5%). Another 5% are from various countries like Poland, Egypt, Turkey, Palestine etc.

Program for OLAT conference 2008 online(30.01.2008) Since today the final program for the first international OLAT conference is online and can bedownloaded here [http://www.olat.org/konferenz2008.pdf] . The conference starts on Wednesday (March 26th, 2008)with pre-conference "hands-on"-workshops on OLAT and eLML. The official conference starts on Thursday(March 27th, 2008) with two sessions: One session on OLAT use cases, online assessments and usability,the parallel session - hosted by our partner "DOIT" - on "E-Learning in Medicine". On Friday (March 28th,2008) there will be a session for users (use cases and content creation) and a second session for developers on"Proprietary Development for OLAT". In the evenings there will be social events where you can meet peersand colleagues or talk with the OLAT team.Most presentations in both rooms will be recorded and be available after the conference via "streaming video"at our conference website. Most of the presentations will be in GERMAN. Depending on the number of Englishnative speakers we will offer a simultaneous translation. Please let us know if you don't speak German at all!Visit our conference website [http://www.olat.org/conference] to register. You should register until the end ofFebruary 2008 but - as seats are limited - we are giving them away on a first come, first served basis.

OLAT, Frentix and BPS @ Learntec Karlsruhe(28.01.2008) Together with Frentix and BPS GmbH the OLAT team will be at the Learntec in Karlsruhe [http://

www.learntec.de/] . If you plan to attend this conference feel free to visit us at booth C31 [http://www.learntec.de/cgi-

bin/x-mkp/fair/exhibitor.pl?language=1&eve_id=3&exh_id=320] .

First international OLAT conference 2008(26.11.2007) We are very happy to announce the first international OLAT conference from March 26th to 28th2008 in Zurich, Switzerland

http://code.google.com/soc/2008/uzh/about.html

http://www.olat.org/konferenz2008.pdf


http://www.learntec.de/

http://www.learntec.de/cgi-bin/x-mkp/fair/exhibitor.pl?language=1&eve_id=3&exh_id=320



We would like to welcome speakers from all over the world. If you would like to give a presentation or presentyour OLAT use case at the conference visit the conference website [http://www.olat.org/conference] and submityour abstract by January 7th 2008.

For more information, registration, submission of abstracts etc. -- don’t miss the "early bird" special fee until31 December 2007 -- visit our conference website: www.olat.org/conference [http://www.olat.org/conference] ordownload the conference flyer [http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/flyer-olat.pdf] .

OLAT 5.2.3 release(22.11.2007) The latest bug fix release for OLAT 5.2. is available: 5.2.3. It contains many fixes for performanceimprovement under high load and instant messenger bugs. The latest release also contains a bug fix for thecalendar and the change from 2007 to 2008. We therefore strongly recommend that you update your OLAT5.2 release to 5.2.3!

OLAT and Frentix @ Online Educa Berlin(18.11.2007) Together with Florian Gnägi from Frentix GmbH the OLAT team will be at the Online Educa inBerlin [http://www.online-educa.com/] . If you plan to attend this conference feel free to visit us at booth A24.

OLAT 5.2.2 release(24.09.2007) Last week we released OLAT 5.2.2 a minor bug fix release for OLAT 5.2.



http://www.olat.org/website/en/download/conference/flyer-olat.pdf

http://www.online-educa.com/

http://www.online-educa.com/



OLAT at OpenExpo 2007 in Zurich(17.09.2007) Next Wednesday and Thursday (September 19./20. 2007) the OpenExpo 2007 [http://

www.openexpo.ch] takes place in Zurich. On both days you can listen to interesting speeches about free andopen source software with a business-focus on Wednesday and a technology-focus on Thursday. Together witheLML we will have a booth/stand from 9am to 5pm with information about eLML. Come and visit us!

PTO wins public-price of MedidaPrix 2007(15.09.2007) The eLearning project Psychopathology Taught Online (PTO) [http://www.pto.uzh.ch/] wins thepublic-price of MedidaPrix 2007 [http://www.medidaprix.org] . PTO is a University of Zurich project using theOLAT LMS. Congratulations from the OLAT-team!

OLAT 5.2 Public Released!(12.09.2007) OLAT 5.2 - 5.2.1 to be correct, 5.2.0 was only an internal release - has been released today whichis a big step towards Web 2.0 and usability. In this release we tried to implement the results of the usabilityreport done by the University of Berne. We also rebuilt the chat client using AJAX technology and updatedthe forum. Here's a short list of improvements:

• Usability: New tabs for navigation, the option to create groups from within the course editor, betterpublishing support etc.

• Web 2.0/AJAX: Faster!

• Better chat client: Now HTML/AJAX based

• Forum: Mark threads as sticky or important, split threads

• Delete Workflow: Now you can delete users, groups, courses or resources using sophisticated filterswith prior notification of users and owners

• OLAT help in German is now Wiki based (authors can help improve the manual!)

bla[http://www.olat.org/help/en/]

Please refer to the release notes [Page 40] to see a full list of changes and grab your copy from the download page.

New olat.org Website(11.09.2007) Along with the OLAT 5.2 release the OLAT team completely rebuilt the olat.org website. Nowthis website is based on the eLesson Markup Language (eLML) and offers a layout similar to OLAT itself. Alot of old stuff was deleted and new sections were added. For those of you who are interested in OLAT pleasecheck the about section [Page 9] ; for those of you who would like to install and use OLAT please go to thedownload section [Page 38] ; and for those of you who are Java programmers and would like to mess with thecode please check the development section [Page 67] .

Roadmap for OLAT 5.2: Usability (Usage and Installation), Workflows and AJAX(12.06.2007) We are currently working on the next OLAT release 5.2 due in late summer 2007. The maintopics planned for the next release are:

• AJAX: from Beta feature to Productive

• User deletion

• Usability (usability lab results, easier group management, forum, portlets, glossary, overlays, Wizards)

http://www.openexpo.ch


http://www.medidaprix.org

http://www.olat.org/help/en/



• Community, installer for productive environment

OLAT 5.1.3(08.05.2007) The latest OLAT release contains some bug fixes in the HTML and test editor. Please refer to thecomplete notes to see a full list of changes and grab your copy from the download page [Page 38] .

OLAT 5.1.2 Released!(13.04.2007) OLAT 5.1.2 is out! It is most and for all a bug fix release to resolve problems caused by theearlier version.Please refer to the complete notes to see a full list of changes and grab your copy from the download page[Page 38] .

OLAT 5.1 Public Release Available(19.03.2007)The OLAT 5.1 Public has been released today (March 14th, 2007). Please note that OLAT 5.1.0has only been released at the University of Zurich. The OLAT 5.1 Public Release is in fact OLAT 5.1.1.

OLAT 5.1 is mainly a consolidation release. As you can see from the notes the OLAT team contributed over170 bug fixes and improvements. We decided that before implementing new features we needed to improvethe existing features. Nevertheless OLAT 5.1 comprises some new features:

• New Wiki engine: The new Wiki engine offers a lot more functions (e.g. image thumbnails, footnotesetc.) and is superior to the one introduced in OLAT 5.0 (many bugs have been fixed). Please refer toJamWiki [http://jamwiki.org/wiki/en/Wiki_Syntax] for a full Wiki syntax.

• Glossary: OLAT now offers a learning resource called "glossary" which can be included into one orseveral courses. Please refer to the manual for further information.

• The HTML editor now offers a possibility to include internal links to course elements (no need to copyand paste IDs and go-to-node javascripts)

OLAT Presented in the Newspaper ''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'' (NZZ)(10.03.2007) One of the major Swiss newspapers, the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" (NZZ), presents OLAT inits section on "Media and Informatics" (March 9th, 2007). You can find the article "Vom E-Learning zum«Blended Learning»" online on the NZZ website. The article is available in the Press section [http://www.olat.org/

website/en/text/about_furtherReading.html] but only in German.

OLAT Webapp Framework @ JAX

(08.03.2007) OLAT has its own web application MVC GUI framework. The essence of the separatedframework is submitted under the name brasato framework for the JAX Innovation Award 2007.

• brasato framework [http://www.brasatoframework.org/]

• brasato demo [http://www.brasatoframework.org:8080/demo/]

• jax-innovation-award [http://jax-award.de/]

http://jamwiki.org/wiki/en/Wiki_Syntax

http://www.olat.org/website/en/text/about_furtherReading.html

http://www.brasatoframework.org/

http://www.brasatoframework.org:8080/demo/

http://jax-award.de/



OLAT 5.1 Public Release in Two Weeks(07.03.2007)The OLAT 5.1 Public Release was planned for tomorrow (March 8th, 2007). Unfortunately wemust announce that the release has to be deferred for at least two weeks. OLAT 5.1 was released at theUniversity of Zurich one week ago. This server hosts more than 25'000 users and more than 1000 courses.While the system is up and running we have found some hidden bugs and would like to fix them before we gopublic with OLAT 5.1. We would like to apologize for the delay and comfort our open source user with thefact that when OLAT 5.1 Public is released, it will be thoroughly tested and will work no matter what yoursetup is. Thanks for your patience and your interest in OLAT!

Using OLAT for E-Assessments at the University of Zurich(16.02.2007) The E-Learning Center of the University of Zurich has currently presented E-Assessments in itspodcast [http://www.elc.uzh.ch/static/elearningpodcast/] . In the last edition of the E-Learning podcast the OLAT teamleader Franziska Schneider talks about "OLAT & E-Assessments". You can download and listen to this 15min-podcast here [http://www.elc.uzh.ch/static/elearningpodcast/] . Furthermore the online magazine "unipublic" hasjust published an article on the same topic. Please visit the unipublic website [http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/campus/

uni-news/2007/2458.html] for more information. Both publications are only available in German.

OLAT Team at LearnTec in Karlsruhe (Germany)(14.02.2007) The OLAT-team visited the LearnTec 2007 in Karlsruhe.

Presenting OLAT to eLearning professionals

http://www.elc.uzh.ch/static/elearningpodcast/

http://www.elc.uzh.ch/static/elearningpodcast/




9. Getting OLAT SupportSo you started to like OLAT, maybe even downloaded the code and tried to installed it on your server. Butsomehow Tomcat just wont start up? Or you're not sure if OLAT offers a certain feature? Creating a courseand OLAT does not do what you expected? Please read the following box on how to get support:

Steps you should follow to get support

1. Keep cool! There's a solution for everything :-)2. Have a look at the available documentation [Page 42] (for UZH-members visit also this link [http://

www.id.uzh.ch/dl/elearning/olatunizh/dokumentationen.html] ).3. Search through our website, manuals, APIs, mailing list archive etc. using the search field above.4. If you did not find an answer yet: Send a message to either the users- or the developers-mailing

list [Page 50] .5. If these tips didn't help you can get commercial support from one of the companies below. Please

remember: Free software does not equal free support!

For all other general enquiries send us a mail to: [email protected] [Link to URI mailto:[email protected]] . Weespecially welcome mails if you have installed a new OLAT server and would like to be listed on ourOLAT worldwide [Page 20] page :-)

University of Zurich (UZH)

The OLAT project has been founded 1999 at the University of Zurich and is now hosted by its Multimedia andE-Learning Services (MELS) [http://www.id.uzh.ch/dl/elearning.html] division. The university operates and supportsa very large OLAT installation that can also be used by other Swiss universities under a service level agreement.

The OLAT team at the University of Zurich

The OLAT team is part of the Multimedia and E-LearningServices (MELS). Besides E-Learning MELS offersAudio/Video (AV) services and multimedia production.Franziska Schneider is the head of the MELS [http://

www.id.uzh.ch/org/mels/orgmels.html] .

1. row (top): Milanka Ringwald, AlexanderSchneider, Kristina Isacson, Matthai Karumacheril

2. row (top middle): Stefan Egli, Renata Sevcikova,Alan Moran, Franziska Schneider

3. row (bottom middle): Christian Guretzki, JoëlFisler, Guido Schnider, Immo Wille

4. row (bottom): Hans-Jörg Zuberbühler, MarionWeber, Patrick Brunner, Alberto Sanz, LaviniaDumitrescu

http://www.id.uzh.ch/dl/elearning/olatunizh/dokumentationen.html


http://www.id.uzh.ch/dl/elearning.html


http://www.id.uzh.ch/org/mels/orgmels.html



• Web: www.id.uzh.ch [http://www.id.uzh.ch/dl/elearning.html]

• Contact: [email protected] [Link to URI mailto:[email protected]] (for Swiss University members only:[email protected] [Link to URI mailto:[email protected]] )

• Type: Academic

• Available: Switzerland

• Target group: Members of Swiss universities, no commercial support

• Services: operating, software development, training, support, consulting, content production

frentix GmbH

Florian Gnägi

frentix is an official spin-off company that has been founded in 2006 by one of the co-founders of the OLATproject to offer commercial support for the open source LMS OLAT. As a one-stop-shop e-learning serviceprovider frentix offers all necessary services to successfully setup, customize, introduce and operate OLATinstallations and empower users in building rich e-learning courses. Since frentix is an active partner in theOLAT open source community and the development team has a long record in the OLAT project, the companyis also capable of developing new OLAT modules or extending the system architecture on client request.

• Web: www.frentix.com [http://www.frentix.com]

• Contact: [email protected] [Link to URI mailto:[email protected]]

• Team: Florian Gnägi (founder), Christian Franck, Roman Haag, Maurus Rohrer (Student), SergioTrentini (Student)

• Type: Commercial

• Available: Switzerland, Europe and worldwide

• Target group: Schools, colleges, universities, companies and other associations

• Services: hosting, operating, customizing, software development, training, support, consulting, contentproduction

BPS Bildungsportal Sachsen GmbH

The BPS acts as an OLAT service provider for higher education in the state of Sachsen in Germany. BPSoperates and supports a large OLAT installation under the brand OPAL for its university clients and offeresthe same services also to other clients in the field of higher education in Germany. BPS is a spin-off from 11universities of Sachsen, Germany.








• Web: BPS Contact [http://www.bps-system.de] , Project website [http://www.bildungsportal.sachsen.de]


• Type: Commercial and academic

• Available: Europe and worldwide

• Target group: Universities, universities of applied science, companies and other associations

• Services: operating, software development, training, support, consulting, customizing, hosting

JLS goodsolutions GmbH

goodsolutions is an official spin-off company that has been founded in 2005 by previous members of the OLATproject team to offer commercial java development services based on the OLAT software framework whichis also known under the name brasato framework. goodsolutions has in-depth knowledge about the OLATsystem architecture and is capable of developing new OLAT modules or extending the system architecture onclient request.

• Web: www.goodsolutions.ch [http://www.goodsolutions.ch]


• Type: Commercial

• Available: Switzerland, Europe and worldwide

• Target group: Companies and universities

• Services: Software development


http://www.bildungsportal.sachsen.de


http://www.goodsolutions.ch




10. GlossaryAAI: AAI stands for Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure (AAI). For detailed information both ontechnical and organizational level refer to the SWITCH AAI page [http://www.switch.ch/aai/] .

CSS: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): A stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a documentwritten in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML andXHTML, but the language can be applied to any kind of XML document. CSS is a W3C Standard [http://

www.w3.org/Style/CSS/] .

CVS: CVS, the Concurrent Versions System, is the most widely used tool for controlling different versions ofa source code and for a group of programmers to work simultaneously on a source code. Before working witha file, a user needs to do a "checkout" of the file from a "repository" stored on the project server. When writingupdates back to the repository (called "committing"), CVS checks issues like access privileges, actual statusof code and if no other group member meanwhile altered the code, CVS writes it back to the repository. Bydoing a "update" all project group members get the latest version of the code. CVS of course stores informationabout who altered which part of the code and automatically stores different versions of the code. Thereforeusing CVS it is possible to always reconstruct a former state of the code. The OLAT code is managed usingCVS. At the University of Zurich all eLML projects use CVS to store the XML code, images and multimediaelements of a lesson.

eLML: The eLesson Markup Language (eLML) is an open source XML framework for creating structuredeLessons using XML. Many OLAT-authors use eLML to create their e-Learning courses and import it intoOLAT using either the IMS CP or the SCORM format. Check the eLML website www.elml.org [http://

www.elml.org] for more information. (Fisler 2007)

FELIX: The Furtwangen University of Applied Sciences has switched from an LMS called Clix to OLAT in2007. They called their first LMS "FELIX", standing for "Furtwangen E-Learning & Information eXchange"and after switching to OLAT they renamed OLAT to "FELIX 2". Link to FELIX 2 server [https://felix2.hs-

furtwangen.de/dmz/] .

IMS: The IMS Global Learning Consortium [http://www.imsglobal.org/] (usually known as IMS) is a non-profitstandards organization concerned with establishing interoperability for learning systems and learning contentand the enterprise integration of these capabilities. Their mission is to "support the adoption and use of learningtechnology worldwide". Some famous IMS standards are the CP (Content Package) standard used to import/export of content, the "Learning Resource Meta-data Specification" (LOM) or the QTI standard for questionand test interoperability. OLAT support both the IMS Content Package format to import content and the QTIstandard to import tests and quizzes.

LMS: A Learning Management System (or LMS) is a software package, usually on a large scale (thatscale is decreasing rapidly), that enables the management and delivery of learning content and resources tostudents. Most LMS systems are web-based to facilitate "anytime, anywhere" access to learning content andadministration. Some famous open source LMS are OLAT [http://www.olat.org] and Moodle [http://moodle.org/] ,famous commercial LMS are WebCT [http://www.webct.com/] and Blackboard [http://www.blackboard.com] .

http://www.switch.ch/aai/

http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/

http://www.elml.org


http://www.imsglobal.org/

http://www.olat.org

http://moodle.org/

http://www.webct.com/

http://www.blackboard.com



OPAL: In Saxony the BPS GmbH (Bildungsportal Sachsen) is one of Germany's major OLAT users. Theychose to rename their product from OLAT to OPAL which stands for "Online Plattform für akademischesLehren und Lernen". The BPS team is not only an OLAT user but their team also contributes to the OLAT codeby submitting new features, improvements and bug fixes. Link to the OPAL server [https://bildungsportal.sachsen.de/

opal/dmz/] .

SCORM: The Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is a standard for web-based eLearning.It defines how the individual instruction elements are combined at a technical level and sets conditions for thesoftware needed for using the content. SCORM is distributed by the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL)Initiative [http://www.adlnet.org/] , a US organization under the Department of Defense (DoD). OLAT supportsSCORM 1.2 and therefore SCORM content can be imported into OLAT.

Shibboleth: Shibboleth is standard-based and open source middleware software which provides Web SingleSignOn (SSO) across or within organizational boundaries. It allows sites to make informed authorizationdecisions for individual access of protected online resources in a privacy-preserving manner. See the ShibbolethWebsite [http://shibboleth.internet2.edu/] for more information.

https://bildungsportal.sachsen.de/opal/dmz/

http://www.adlnet.org/

http://www.adlnet.org/

http://shibboleth.internet2.edu/

http://shibboleth.internet2.edu/



11. Bibliography

Conference Papers:

• Fisler, Joël, Bleisch, Susanne, 2006. eLML, the eLesson Markup Language: Developing sustainablee-Learning Content Using an Open Source XML Framework. In: WEBIST 2006 - InternationalConference on Web Information Systems and Technologies, April 11th-13th 2006. Setubal, Portugal.Download: ../download/publications/WEBIST2006_eLML.pdf

• Fisler, Joël, Schneider, Franziska, 2008. Creating, Handling And Implementing E-Learning Coursesand Content Using the Open Source Tools OLAT and eLML at the University of Zurich. In: Shortis,Mark, König, Gerhard, ed. ISPRS Conference 2008 -TS ThS-16: New Approaches and Tools forEducation and Capacity Building, 3-11 July 2008, Bejing. Beijing, China: International Society forPhotogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS).Download: ../download/publications/isprs2008_beijing_fisler.pdf

E-Journal Articles:

• Anonymous (2000). MeDiDa-Prix an Zürcher Projekt OLAT. unipublic [online], 26.09.2000. Availablefrom: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/ [Accessed 22.11.2006].Download: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/campus/uni-news/2000/medida/

• Fisler, Joël (2007). Erstellung von strukturierten e-Learning Inhalten mit eLML (eLesson MarkupLanguage). ZInfo - Die elektronische Zeitschrift der Informatikdienste [online], 23. Available from:http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo [Accessed 1.7.2007].

• Fuchs, Mariate (2009). E-Learning: OLAT an der Elbe. unipublic [online], 15.03.2009. Available from:http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch [Accessed 15.03.2009].Download: http://www.uzh.ch/news/articles/2009/olat-an-der-elbe.html

• Fuchs, Marita (2008). UZH-Software für alle. unipublic [online], 20.03.2008. Available from: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch [Accessed 23.4.2008].Download: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/campus/uni-news/2008/2844.html

• Fuchs, Marita (2007). Vorlesungen «on demand». unipublic [online], 14.06.2007. Available from:http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch [Accessed 23.4.2008].Download: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/campus/uni-news/2007/2616.html

• Fuchs, Marita (2005). E-Learning im Ernstfall. unipublic [online], 26.08.2005. Available from: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch [Accessed 22.11.2006].Download: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/campus/uni-news/2005/1824.html

• Fuchs, Marita (2008). Medida-Prix: Drei UZH-Projekte in der Finalistengruppe. unipublic [online],25.08.2008. Available from: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch [Accessed 27.8.2008].Download: http://www.unipublic.unizh.ch/campus/uni-news/2008/3096.html

• Hawthorn, Leslie (2008). Hacking Zurich. Google Open Source Blog [online]. Available from: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com [Accessed 30.9.2008].Download: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/09/hacking-zurich.html

• Hilzinger, Marcel (2008). Beste Schweizer Open-Source-Projekte ausgezeichnet. Linux Magazin[online]. Available from: http://www.linux-magazin.de [Accessed 30.9.2008].Download: http://www.linux-magazin.de/meldung/26704

• IDG (2008). Erfolgreiche OpenExpo. PCTipp [online]. Available from: http://www.pctipp.ch [Accessed30.9.2008].


http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/campus/uni-news/2000/medida/



http://www.uzh.ch/news/articles/2009/olat-an-der-elbe.html










http://www.unipublic.unizh.ch/campus/uni-news/2008/3096.html



http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/09/hacking-zurich.html

http://www.linux-magazin.de


http://www.pctipp.ch



Download: http://www.pctipp.ch/news/gesellschaft/45264/erfolgreiche_openexpo.html

• Schneider, Franziska (2004). OLAT: Das strategische Learning Management System. ZInfo- Elektronisches Informationsbulletin der Informatikdienste [online], 13. Available from: http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo [Accessed 22.11.2006].Download: http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/publikationen/zinfo/zinfo0013/olat.html

• Steinemann, Coni (2004). OLAT 3: Die vollständige Neuentwicklung des strategischen LearningManagement Systems der Universität Zürich ist in Betrieb. ZInfo - Elektronisches Informationsbulletinder Informatikdienste [online], 15. Available from: http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo [Accessed 22.11.2006].Download: http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/publikationen/zinfo/zinfo0015/live/kataktuell/olat.html

• von Däniken, Theo (2005). Beim E-Learning die Nase vorn. unipublic [online], 05.08.2005. Availablefrom: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/ [Accessed 22.11.2006].Download: http://www.unipublic.uzh.ch/campus/uni-news/2005/1741.html

• Zuberbühler, Hans-Jörg (2008). OLAT im neuen Kleid. ZInfo - Elektronisches Informationsbulletinder Informatikdienste [online], 26. Available from: http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo [Accessed 01.07.2008].Download: http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/zinfo/zinfo0026/kataktuell/olat-26.html

• Zuberbühler, Hans-Jörg (2005). OLAT bringt Release 4.0. ZInfo - Elektronisches Informationsbulletinder Informatikdienste [online], 18. Available from: http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo [Accessed 22.11.2006].Download: http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/publikationen/zinfo/zinfo0018/kataktuell/olat.html

• Zuberbühler, Hans-Jörg (2009). Erstellung von strukturierten e-Learning Inhalten mit eLML (eLessonMarkup Language). ZInfo - Die elektronische Zeitschrift der Informatikdienste [online], 26.05. Availablefrom: http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo [Accessed 2.6.2009].Download: http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo/olatopen.html

Journal Articles:

• Franck, Christian, 2009. OLAT LMS - Präzise wie ein Schweizer Uhrwerk. eLearning Journal, 1/09,79.Download: ../download/publications/eLearning_Journal_01_09_OLAT_Frentix.pdf

• Hage, H.-J., Hübner, Sandra, 2008. FELIX 2.0: Usability Test - Weiterentwicklung der Lernplattform.pe-press: Zeitschrift der Fakutlät Product Engeneering an der Hochschule Furtwangen, 24, 12.Download: ../download/publications/felix_hs_furtwangen_102008.pdf

• Schleifer, Hans-Jörg, Strunk, Holger, 2006. Blended-Learning in der Fachschule - Einsatz einerLernplattform im Unterricht. B&B Agrar - Die Fachzeitschrift für Bildung und Beratung, 5, 162.Download: http://www.frentix.com/de/resources/articles/BB-Agrar-Artikel-1.pdf

• Strunk, Holger, 2007. Open Source und kostenlose Software – Einsatzmöglichkeiten im Unterricht.B&B Agrar - Die Fachzeitschrift für Bildung und Beratung, 3, 88.Download: http://www.frentix.com/de/resources/articles/Artikel-BBAgrar-2.pdf

Newspaper Articles:

• Bleisch, Barbara, 2008. E-Learning: Lesen Sie die Packungsbeilage!. NZZ Campus, March 11th.Download: ../download/publications/nzz_campus_2008.png

• Genner, Sahra, 2006. Exportschlager E-Learning. iQ - Quartalinfo für Uni und ETH, 18th April, 11.Download: ../download/publications/iQ51-p11.pdf

• Gnägi, Florian, 2005. Interview mit Florian Gnägi, Partner JGS goodsolutions GmbH. InfoWeek, 15.August, 9.Download: http://www.infoweek.ch/archive/ar_single.cfm?ar_id=15562&ar_subid=2&sid=0




http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/publikationen/zinfo/zinfo0013/olat.html


http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/publikationen/zinfo/zinfo0015/live/kataktuell/olat.html




http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/zinfo/zinfo0026/kataktuell/olat-26.html


http://www.id.uzh.ch/cl/publikationen/zinfo/zinfo0018/kataktuell/olat.html


http://www.id.uzh.ch/zinfo/olatopen.html

http://www.frentix.com/de/resources/articles/BB-Agrar-Artikel-1.pdf

http://www.frentix.com/de/resources/articles/Artikel-BBAgrar-2.pdf

../download/publications/nzz_campus_2008.png

http://www.infoweek.ch/archive/ar_single.cfm?ar_id=15562&ar_subid=2&sid=0



• Gremmelmaier, Eric, 2007. NZZ: Nach dem Hype der Alltag. Neue Zürcher Zeitung NZZ, April 3rd.Download: ../download/publications/nzz_hype_alltag.pdf

• Zuberbühler, Hans-Jörg, 2007. Vom E-Learning zum «Blended Learning». Neue Zürcher ZeitungNZZ, March 9th.Download: ../download/publications/nzz_blended_learning_print.pdf

Publications from Corporate Bodies:

• IMS, 2009. IMS Global Learning Consortium Announces 2009 Global Learning Impact AwardRecipients. Barcelona: IMS Global Learning Consortium, 14 May.Download: http://www.imsglobal.org/pressreleases/pr090514.html

• SwissICT, 2006. FOSS-Studie Schweiz 2006. Baden: Schweizerischer Verband der Informations- undKommunikationstechnologie SwissICT.Download: http://www.swissict.ch/fileadmin/sekretariat/download/foss-studie_2006.pdf

Thesis:

• Kosler, Monique, Hahn, Daniel, 2005. Projekthandbuch: Funktionelle und softwaretechnische Analysesowie Dokumentation der Lernplattform OLAT Version 3.1.4. project thesis. University Chemnitz,Germany.Download: ../download/publications/OLAT_Projekthandbuch_mitAnhang.pdf

• Schnider, Guido, 2004. Instant Messaging Technologien in Learning Management Systemen. Diplomathesis (PDF). Institut für Informatik der Universität Zürich.Download: http://www.ifi.uzh.ch/ifiadmin/staff/rofrei/DA/DA_Arbeiten_2005/Schnider_Guido.pdf

Video, Film or Broadcast:

• eLearning Journal im Gespräch mit Marcel Dübner (Inside) und Christian Franck (Frentix GmbH),2009. Podcast. By Siepmann, Frank. Learntec Karlsruhe, Germany: eLearning Journal.Download: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7ePF4gOeuU

• Digitalk 58: E-Learning an der Universität Zürich, 2008. Podcast. By Zedi, Roger, Schüssler, Matthias.Zürich: Tages-Anzeiger.Download: http://digitalk.kaywa.ch/default/digitalk-58-e-learning-an-der-uni-zuerich.html

Contributions on Websites:

• Anonymous (2005). OLAT 4.0.1 Review [online]. lmsnews.com. Available from: http://www.lmsnews.com [Accessed 22.11.2006].Download: http://www.lmsnews.com/modules/content/index.php?id=21

• Anonymous (2005). Course Platform Evaluation Report: OLAT 3.2 [online]. Edutech. Available from:http://www.edutech.ch [Accessed 22.11.2006].Download: http://www.edutech.ch/lms/ev3/showreport.php?prodid=1

• Abächerli, Martina (2005). Uni Zürich öffnet E-Learning-Plattform für andere Universitäten [online].pressetext.schweiz. Available from: http://www.pressetext.ch/ [Accessed 22.11.2006].Download: http://www.pressetext.ch/pte.mc?pte=050805044

• anonymous (2009). Synergien durch hochschulübergreifende Lernplattform [online]. München:CHECK.point eLearning/INFObases GmbH. Available from: http://www.checkpoint-elearning.de[Accessed 11.02.2009].Download: http://www.checkpoint-elearning.de/article/6327.html

http://www.imsglobal.org/pressreleases/pr090514.html

http://www.swissict.ch/fileadmin/sekretariat/download/foss-studie_2006.pdf

http://www.ifi.uzh.ch/ifiadmin/staff/rofrei/DA/DA_Arbeiten_2005/Schnider_Guido.pdf


http://digitalk.kaywa.ch/default/digitalk-58-e-learning-an-der-uni-zuerich.html




http://www.edutech.ch

http://www.edutech.ch/lms/ev3/showreport.php?prodid=1

http://www.pressetext.ch/

http://www.pressetext.ch/pte.mc?pte=050805044




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• anonymous (2009). Open Source LMS OLAT gewinnt IMS Leadership Award [online]. München:CHECK.point eLearning/INFObases GmbH. Available from: http://www.checkpoint-elearning.de[Accessed 30.05.2009].Download: http://www.checkpoint-elearning.de/article/6798.html

• anonymous (2009). Universität Hamburg: Umstieg auf OLAT [online]. München: CHECK.pointeLearning/INFObases GmbH. Available from: http://www.checkpoint-elearning.de [Accessed15.03.2009].Download: http://www.checkpoint-elearning.de/article/6450.html

• Gnägi, Florian (2009). Learning Management Software OLAT and YAML - a success story [online].Jesse, Dirk. Available from: http://blog.yaml.de [Accessed 17.04.2009].Download: http://blog.yaml.de/post/78/learning-management-software-olat-and-yaml-a-success-story/

• Schulze-Fröhlich, Ruben (2006). Interview OLAT (Florian Gnägi) [online]. lmsnews.com. Availablefrom: http://www.lmsnews.com [Accessed 22.11.2006].Download: http://www.lmsnews.com/modules/content/index.php?id=28

• Wikipedia (2008). The Free Encyclopedia [online]. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Available from: http://www.wikipedia.org [Accessed 16.12.2008].





http://blog.yaml.de

http://blog.yaml.de/post/78/learning-management-software-olat-and-yaml-a-success-story/



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