ILIAS is a highly flexible and customisable learning management system used in many universities and organisations. While Moodle is more course-centred and Stud.IP focuses primarily on managing teaching activities, ILIAS positions itself as a comprehensive toolbox.
It can be used to run traditional courses, as well as to create complex learning modules, custom tests, exercises, wikis, or portfolios. Many features are included in the core system, reducing reliance on external extensions. ILIAS also places a strong emphasis on openness: the platform is fully open source, with an active community and clear structures for extensions such as Opencast plugins.
In short: Moodle is often easier to get started with, Stud.IP is well-suited for organisation and administration, and ILIAS excels when very individualised learning and assessment processes need to be implemented.
The current ILIAS-Opencast plugins from the community repository were developed to provide a stable, clean, and well-maintained connection between ILIAS and Opencast. The need for this had existed for some time, but the real "new era" began in early 2022 when the community made a decisive break.
Previous plugins from older repositories were technically outdated, poorly maintained, and often error-prone. As a result, the community—led by the University of Bern—decided to create a shared, open, and reliable development hub: the GitHub repository opencast-ilias. Since 2022, stable releases, regular updates, and transparent, collaborative development have been maintained there.
The purpose of the plugins is essentially simple: ILIAS should be able to seamlessly integrate videos from Opencast. Instructors should be able to manage series and individual recordings, embed them in courses, play, or edit them without leaving the platform. Today, three clearly separated plugins (Series, Page Component, and Event) exist to cover different use cases, all working together seamlessly.
In short: we didn’t develop them from scratch, but we have been one of the driving forces behind the community plugins from the very beginning.
Since the launch of the new community repository in 2022, we (elan e. V.) have served as maintainers. This means we are directly involved in all major technical and organisational decisions. We regularly work on significant refactorings, new features, architectural improvements, and, of course, bug fixes. Additionally, we conduct many code reviews and help ensure the long-term quality and consistency of the plugins.
We are now among the two main developers in the repository. Our role is therefore not just to "assist" but to actively drive development, implement features, and shape the long-term stability of the plugins.
ILIAS benefits in multiple ways from the close and well-coordinated integration with Opencast.
For instructors, many tasks become easier. Many prefer to explain content in a short video rather than writing long texts. With the Opencast plugins, they can do exactly that directly in ILIAS: upload, edit, publish, or embed videos in courses without leaving the platform. This saves time and ensures that videos are actually used.
System administrators also benefit. The plugins are cleanly integrated, highly configurable, and aligned with the features already provided by Opencast. This means fewer special solutions, less maintenance effort, and above all, a stable infrastructure that can be reliably operated.
Ultimately, students benefit the most. They receive videos directly where they learn, without detours or logging into other systems. This makes accessing content much more convenient and supports different learning styles. The close collaboration between ILIAS and Opencast ensures that all users can work with video content more easily and smoothly.
There are several instances where elan e. V. has actively contributed to advancing the ILIAS OC plugins. Many of these improvements are visible, while others work behind the scenes, making the plugins significantly more reliable. Here are a few highlights:
We restructured the plugins so that communication with Opencast no longer occurs directly within the plugin. Instead, everything runs through the Opencast PHP Library, which we developed ourselves. This makes the code much leaner, more stable, and easier to extend.
Together with the University of Cologne, we modernised the plugin foundation. This not only involved cleaning up old structures but also creating space for new features. Many of today’s functionalities are based on this revamp.
Uploading, displaying, and managing subtitles was previously not very user-friendly. We added and stabilised the necessary components, so subtitles are now fully supported.
Similar to subtitles, handling preview images used to be a weak point. We revamped the upload, update, and display processes to ensure they now work reliably.
The video player is the core tool for students. We implemented several updates and fixed issues, resulting in more stable playback and enabling the use of new player features.
Still in development, but crucial for future security and access concepts. The initial building blocks for this also come from us.
These are just a few tangible examples. Many smaller improvements, bug fixes, and code reviews—which make the overall package complete—are also regularly contributed by us.
The community in question is the ILIAS Opencast Plugin Community. It is organised by the University of Bern and serves as the central hub where all participating universities, developers, and administrators exchange ideas, make decisions, and coordinate ongoing development.
Those who actively use the Opencast plugins benefit greatly from a direct line to the developers and other institutions. Members receive early information about new features, can contribute their own requirements, and get support when questions arise. Since the plugins are quite dynamic and frequently gain new features, the community helps users stay up to date and plan updates effectively.
It organises regular meetings, gathers suggestions for improvements, discusses roadmaps, addresses technical questions, and coordinates major decisions collectively. In addition, minutes, materials, and transparent decision-making processes ensure that everyone can follow the development of the plugins. Meetings take place once a month, on the first Tuesday at 1:30 pm (Berlin/EU).
There is an open chat room where everyone can exchange ideas: Matrix/Element: https://matrix.to/#/#ilias-oc-plguin-community:matrix.org
The repositories and technical details can be found here: GitHub: https://github.com/opencast-ilias
The monthly meetings are held online. The general Opencast web meeting link is available here: https://opencast.org/webmeetings
Participation is highly recommended for anyone using or developing the plugins.
