You are on page 1of 3

OLAT

Time marker for video data

OLAT is an acronym for Online Learning And Training.


It is a web application a so-called Learning Management System that supports any kind of online learning,
teaching, and tutoring with few educational restrictions.
OLAT is free software and is open source. Its development started in 1999 at the University of Zrich and
OLAT won the MeDiDa-Prix prize in 2000. With version 3.0, the system was completely rebuilt and is now
available as a component-oriented application developed
in the Java programming language. OLAT has support
for various E-learning standards such as IMS (IMS Content Packaging, IMS QTI), and SCORM. With version
4.0, many add-ons have been introduced to the system,
which makes it very easy to extend the LMS functionality. With version 5.0, new features like Wiki, Calendar,
AJAX Beta Mode, and Fulltext Search have been implemented. Version 6.0 comprised a new and improved layout based on a usability evaluation. A subsequent version
provides full scalability, meaning OLAT can be run on a
cluster of servers. OLAT 7.0 adds lots of new features, a
course wizard plus the implementation of important standards like REST API, IMS Basic LTI and IMS QTI 2.1.
In autumn 2011 some of the core community contributors left the OLAT community because of strategic differences and started an alternative fork which is named
OpenOLAT.

Scalability: OLAT can be run as a cluster


Multi-language support (OLAT is multilingual and
available in many languages; full support for UTF-8)
OLAT integrates the instant messaging system
XMPP to support the synchronous communication
processes and to extend the users awareness.

2 Current status and future development


As the strategic LMS of the University of Zrich, OLAT
is continuously being developed. In the meantime, OLAT
gains increasingly more attention, especially within the
European higher education market. OLAT and the Sakai
Project have very similar goals, but compared to the
American initiative, OLAT has a much longer development phase and has been successfully in production for
several years. OLAT has been developed from the beginning to support campus-wide E-learning and can be
compared to commercial tools like WebCT Vista.

OLAT is a mature LMS, used to support universities with


thousands of users, e.g. University of Zurich with approx. 50,000, Bildungsportal Sachsen (under the name
1 Features
of OPAL) with approx. 40,000, University of Hamburg
with approx. 30,000 and, as of the summer semester
OLAT has many features typical for e-learning platforms: 2011, Goethe University Frankfurt with approx. 50,000
users.[1]
Content managing
By the end of 2011 the OpenOLAT fork has been started
as an alternative development line by the largest com Forums
munity contributor who by this initiative left the original
File discussions
OLAT community due to strategic dierences. The common base of OLAT and OpenOLAT is the 7.1 release.
Quizzes with dierent kinds of questions
From that point the two systems are heading into dierent
directions. The rst OpenOLAT release was published in
Wikis
February 2012 with the number 8.0.
Blogs
Podcast

3 Recognitions

Surveys

Submission module (for exercises)

OLAT won the MedidaPrix 2000, which is the most


important e-learning award in the German language
area (Austria, Germany, and Switzerland).[2]

Grading module

OLAT won the Swiss Open Source Award 2008.[3]

Chat

7
OLAT won in 2009 the IMS Learning Impact 'Leadership Award' 2009 for OLAT for best open source
learning platform.[4]

Specication

OLAT runs without modication on Unix, Linux,


OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Windows, and Mac OS X.
The requirements for OLAT are basically:
Java SDK
Tomcat Servlet Engine
Database such as MySQL or PostgreSQL
Ant for developers and installing from source
The project was initiated in 1999 but later rebuilt using
Java and released as open source in 2004.

See also
Learning management system
List of applications with iCalendar support

References

[1] http://www.checkpoint-elearning.de/article/6450.html
[2] http://www.medidaprix.org/mdd_2000/orga/
preistraeger.html
[3] http://ossaward.ch-open.ch/awards-2008/
[4] http://www.imsglobal.org/pressreleases/pr090514.html

External links
http://www.olat.org

EXTERNAL LINKS

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

OLAT Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLAT?oldid=656565343 Contributors: Den fjttrade ankan~enwiki, SEWilco, Android79,


CanisRufus, Stesmo, Kelly Martin, FlaBot, Ian Pitchford, Ysangkok, CarolGray, NSR, Tavilis, SmackBot, Where, Iridescent, Fisler,
Neustradamus, MER-C, Dekimasu, Gwern, YUiCiUS, Olak Ksirrin, VolkovBot, Serdelll, Learning dave, Gnaegi, Kramshoej, Mild Bill
Hiccup, Sun Creator, Tahmasp, Addbot, SassoBot, Transmissionelement, ThiemoMD, Diwas, Technetgr, Inevs, Jbo5112, GoingBatty,
Bomazi, BG19bot and Anonymous: 33

8.2

Images

File:Olat_screenshot_wiki.png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Olat_screenshot_wiki.png License:


Apache License 2.0 Contributors: Universitt Zrich Original artist: Jol Fisler

8.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

You might also like