LMS OLAT 5.0.1 review

LMS OLAT is a web-based Open Source Learning Management System (LMS) / Learning Content Management System (LCMS) used in the public s

License: The Apache License File size: 0K Developer: LMS OLAT Team

0

LMS OLAT is a web-based Open Source Learning Management System (LMS) / Learning Content Management System (LCMS) used in the public sector of Switzerland and in many other places in the world.

The initial development started at the University of Zuerich, Switzerland where it is deployed on the main OLAT server. OLAT is open source and completely free of charge.

Official support for OLAT is available at the Multimedia & e-Learning Center for Swiss university members. Commercial support is available through goodsolutions.

Here are some key features of "LMS OLAT":
Pure HTML based GUI, no Java needed (unless your content does need it).
"No frames" solution
Context sensitive help system on screen and comprehensive manual organized as course
Multilingual, currently available in german and english, italian and french.
OLAT is fully UTF-8 based: e.g. a forum can have a post mixed in german and chineese
Printview with optimized printing template and optimized font.
Right based security - more flexible than role based security
OLAT course editor allows creation of new courses within short time
Course system based on ideas of IMS Learning Design (also known as Educational Modeling Language)
Courses can be downloaded and imported again
Course system allows implementation of any paedagogical concept - no concept forced
Course structure is beeing build using easy to configure course building blocks
Structure
IMS Content Packaging content form learning repository
SCORM 1.2 runtime environment for SCORM content packages
Local content (via fileupload or WebDAV, integrated WYSIWYG content editor)
External content (image database, web application)
IMS QTI test, self-test and questionnaire
Task (selection of multiple tasks, dop-in-box, manual scoring)
Manual scoring
Enrolment in groups
Discussion forum
Chat
File share folder
Shared folder for resources needed in several courses
Contact form
Course audit infrastructure. Different files record changes, user behavior and access statistics.
Course preview with simulation of time, groups membership and attributes
Ability to custom style your courses
Advanced enrolment system (self enrolment in groups, management of available seats)
Advanced group management, associating groups to learning areas
Support for self organized learning / collaborative work via project groups: every user can create his or her own group and work together with peers.
Instant Messaging and awareness integration. The jabber instant messaging system is fully integrated into OLAT. See which users / Buddies are online, chat with anyone who is online.
Be informed about changes using notifications. Currently notification subscriptions are implemented for forum and folders and test results
Personalized RSS news feed keeps you up to date
Testing system with various testing types (Multiple Choice, Single Choice, kPrim, Fill in blank), fully based on IMS QTI v1.2 (See the OLAT QTI conformance statement).
Score based course system: score can be fed automatically (by online tests) or manually (by the coaches)
Personalized task management
Personalizable portal style user home
Questionary/Survey system, fully based on IMS QTI v1.2.1.
OLAT catalog allows hierarchical structuring of learning resources as you know it from the Google/Yahoo directories
File sharing disk space for each user (via HTTP or WebDav)
Virtual file system lets users access all accessable fileresources over a single mount point
File sharing features a public folder to share content with other OLAT users
No additional e-mail account needed, makes use of existing user email accounts
Easy backup of folders and files via ZIP compression
Full integration of the Shibboleth authentication and authorization protocol (In Switzerland used by SWITCH AAI)
Extension mechanism for developers to extend OLAT for custom needs
100% Java, only tomcat and a relational database required (Tested with MySQL, Postgres and HSQL)
Documentation for users and developers
Unlimited number of user accounts
Unlimited number of courses

And did we already mention it? There are no fees, it is gratis - source code included.

What's New in This Release:
The Wiki building block was added, with support for MediaWiki syntax.
Full text searching with document support was added.
A calender is available for private, group, or course use.
An AJAX-based Web GUI was added for faster user experience.
The Task element was enhanced with preview, sample solution, a subscription feature, and more.
The Enrollment element was enhanced with waiting list functionality.
The Archiving wizard allows simple or customized downloading of results as an Excel sheet.
OLAT log-files can be produced in Apache format.