University of Stuttgart — ILIAS for teaching and learning
Announcements
The main menu has been successfully restructured as planned.
On Monday, December 2nd between 16:00 and approx. 16:30, we are planning to restructure the main menu in ILIAS with a clearer layout and fewer items at the top menu level.
In the future, Dashboard, Favorites and Tags as well as the current Communication and Personal Workspace menus will be bundled under My ILIAS.
This means that all functions are visible at a glance in the context menu and can be accessed directly. Both Favorites and Tags can be persistently expanded and collapsed there as required.
The following screenshot illustrates the new structure:
When working with ILIAS, please be aware that the menu will look incomplete for a few minutes during the above-mentioned period.
With ILIAS 9, the visibility of Favorites on the Dashboard and in the main menu are permanently linked to each other (according to the responsible developers from the ILIAS community, this is not a bug). Due to the redundancy, we have therefore decided to no longer display the favorites entry in the main menu at the top level on a trial basis, but (again) in the Personal Workspace menu, where it can also be found by default.
Instead, the main menu now provides quick access to the Tags, i.e. user-assigned (personal) keywords that anyone can add to any repository object.
Of course, you can still find your Favorites directly on the Dashboard.
Tags can be understood as a keyword-grouped variant of favorites. Users can freely assign these keywords for themselves, even several per object, separated by a comma.
This makes tags more versatile than favorites. For example, courses can be tagged both by semester and “crosswise” by subject, exam, etc.
The assignment happens either via the Actions menu or (from outside) via the 🔽 menu.
If you primarily use Tags instead of Favorites, your dashboard will be a little shorter again, similar to the display in ILIAS 7 and 8. For users with a large number of course and group memberships, this may help to provide a better overview. See also the tips in the dashboard in the next section.
Since ILIAS 7, you have been able to curate your Favorites yourself. This means that you decide which courses, groups and other repository objects you want to have as Favorites—and you can also remove Favorites that you no longer need. We recommend limiting yourself to the courses and groups that you currently need frequently. As a rule of thumb, this should be no more than 10 to 15 items for a meaningful overview.
My Courses and Groups has always shown all your course and group memberships (at least from the participant's point of view, those that are online). You can only remove them by leaving or, for lecturers, by deleting the respective object in the repository.
We generally recommend that lecturers delete old courses and groups that are no longer needed (including for students' exam preparation) from time to time. In our experience, courses that are older than four to five semesters are very rarely suitable as templates for up-to-date e-learning.
You can also make use of the course template and working group categories in the respective study program categories to create and maintain your own template courses and groups, for example as material storage.
Both the Favorites and the My Courses and Groups block on the Dashboard have a pagination function since ILIAS 9, so they do not necessarily show all objects at once (depending on the total number). If necessary, pay attention to the corresponding indicator in the upper right corner of the respective block.
If one of your blocks shows more than one page, it might be advisable to tidy up and ‘clean out’, see above.
The upgrade to version 9 of ILIAS on 17.09.2024 was successful. In the coming days, we will collect information on changed behavior and any problems that arise in the aftermath.
- It is not possible for course/group members to download multiple files at once.
- Uploading feedback to multiple participants in exercises is not possible under Windows. The actual cause is the transfer of an incorrect so-called MIME type by Windows to ILIAS. Unfortunately, there is no known workaround, except to switch to other operating systems if necessary. We are waiting for a solution from the responsible ILIAS developers, as it cannot be assumed that Microsoft will fix this error in the near future.
- Possible problems with certain browser plugins: Some problems or error (messages) (e.g. when uploading feedback as a file in exercises) are currently apparently caused by certain browser plugins (e.g. Decentraleyes). In such a case, please first check whether a problem also occurs without browser plug-ins (in many browsers simply via a private browser window) before writing to us.
We will endeavor to resolve any errors as quickly as possible, if necessary with the responsible developers from the ILIAS community.
- The C@MPUS-ILIAS interface is currently still faulty.
- The upload of larger files (from 1 GB) is disrupted.
- Some data collections cannot currently be opened. An error message is displayed. (You do not need to send this to us, the problem is known and reported).
- There are currently several problems with the Exercise object. Some submissions cannot be downloaded and feedback cannot be uploaded. We are currently investigating whether this is related to migration steps that have not yet been completed for the exercise object in ILIAS 9. Unfortunately, these migrations take a relatively long time and are slow due to the amount of data involved. It is therefore possible that it will not be possible to clarify whether there are actual errors in ILIAS 9 until later in week 39.
- Certain special characters may cause problems when logging in with SIAM accounts. If you are unable to log in with a valid SIAM account (ac, st, gs, iaa etc.), please use the Selfservice to assign a new password consisting only of letters and numbers.
- Unfortunately, it is currently not possible for ECS users (e.g. from Hohenheim) to login via the ECS token authentication.
- For some users, the page editor does not load (completely). Deleting the cookies and clearing the cache in the browser has so far provided a very reliable remedy.
- Some users receive an error message when saving any changes in the page editor (e.g. on course pages). If you are experiencing this problem, please change the language of the ILIAS interface in your personal settings from English to German and back again (or vice versa; save each time). In our experience, the error should then no longer occur.
- Uploading evaluations for multiple particiants in Exercise objects does not work correctly.
- LiveVoting objects cannot be copied including their questions.
- Favorites and Dashboard - see the separate message on this page.
- The search and the bell menu at the top right may not work with current versions of Safari 18 on macOS. Use Firefox if necessary.
Mediacasts may show the message “The current presentation mode has been abandoned. Please open the settings and switch to another mode”.
This is not an error. Course/group administrators must actually select the appropriate of the three view modes offered in the settings of the affected mediacasts, depending on the media type.
There are dedicated modes for images, audio files (“podcasts”) and videos. Mixing media types is not possible. (Old mediacasts with mixed content must be split accordingly via copies).
Unfortunately, a central migration is not provided. ILIAS support therefore cannot carry out the migration in this respect.
In case of doubt, students should contact the respective course administrators.
11.08.2023
Since some time it is no longer possible to use e.g. for (new) own course/group/object icons SVG files that contain embedded bitmap graphics (PNG, JPEG etc.). This has security reasons and is therefore unavoidable.
If you want to use such graphics/icons, you have to vectorize the bitmaps with a vector graphics program (e.g. Adobe Illustrator, if you have a license; free alternatives are e.g. Inkscape or Linearity) and convert them into real SVGs. Tutorials on this topic can be found in large numbers on YouTube.
The fact that ILIAS shows an uninformative error message when trying to upload such an SVG file is of course a bug that has already been reported to the responsible developers, but unfortunately has not been fixed yet.
General Notes
Each Thursday there is a scheduled maintenance window between 20:00 and 22:00 during which we might restrict access to ILIAS at a relatively short notice for important service tasks, especially regarding the low-level server infrastructure. This will not necessarily happen every week and we are working hard to keep the actual downtime to a minimum (only a few minutes in most cases) but be we kindly ask our users to keep the possibility of short downtime in mind when accessing ILIAS during that period.
There are currently some problems with the registration of ECS users via CampusConnect (e.g. students of the University of Hohenheim). The error is known and is being worked on by the responsible developers. Unfortunately, we can only ask for patience until a solution is found.
Help with logging in to ILIAS or registering an account
»I have a question about ILIAS a the University of Stuttgart and I am a …«
As a student (incl. PHD students) of the University of Stuttgart you log in to ILIAS with your university student account (aka "TIK account"). No registration is necessary or indeed possible. An ILIAS account will be automatically created during your first login. The login username is the part in front of the @ of your university e-mail address (following the schema of st123456), not the whole address.
In addition to your login a "local" ILIAS username will be generated to identify you only inside the learning management system. ILIAS usernames at the University of Stuttgart follow the schema of FirstnameLastname (plus an incremented number if the name already exisits, e.g. ArnoSchmidt3).
If you are a new student, who is still waiting for the enrollment at the university to be finalized, be advised that it is not possible to receive an ILIAS account ahead of your university account.
Please contact the User Helpdesk.
As a student you log in to ILIAS with your central university account. These accounts are kept in a central directory system to which ILIAS only has read access. Therefore neither ILIAS nor the ILIAS support can reset your password (or tell you your login name).
You can change the password for your university account on the SIAM selfservice page.
As a student you log in to ILIAS with your central university account. These accounts are kept in a central directory system to which ILIAS only has read access. Therefore neither ILIAS nor the ILIAS support can reset your password (or tell you your login name).
ILIAS is the University of Stuttgart’s central learning mangement system, not the mail server and/or the web interface to your mailbox. For the latter please go here:
mail.uni-stuttgart.de
Further information on the student mailboxes can be found here:
www.stud.uni-stuttgart.de/dienste/email
- Questions regarding specific courses/groups, learning materials, course access settings and passwords etc. should always be addressed to the lecturer actually teaching the course and/or the course administrator. You can find the course administrator/owner in the course’s Info tab and can write an ILIAS mail. Further contact information can usually be found on the department homepage. Please refrain from asking the ILIAS support for a lecturer’s contact information.
- For questions regarding any aspect of your university account please contact only the Benutzerberatung (student user support).
- If you have specific question about or problems with ILIAS itself please write to ilias-support@tik.uni-stuttgart.de.
As a lecturer/staff member of the University of Stuttgart you log in directly using your central university account (aka ac or SIAM account). No registration is necessary or indeed possible. An ILIAS account will be automatically created during your fist login. The login name always follows the scheme ac123456. Only the short version (i.e. without @uni-stuttgart.de) may be used.
An ac account is automatically created for everybody who gets any kind of employment contract via the university’s central administration. While the account creation happens automatically for everybody, the distribution of the account data (most likely) does not. The latter is usually done at the departmental level. When in doubt, please ask the administrator of your department who is responsible for issuing your account data to you. Under no cricumstances will you receive your account data from the ILIAS support, so please refrain from asking us otherwise.
This also applies to any kind of guest lecturer with a central employment contract.
Permission for course creation (in the semester sub-categories of the study programme categories in the repository) is automatically granted when logging in with an ac account.
In addition to your login a "local" ILIAS username will be generated to identify you only inside the learning management system. ILIAS usernames at the University of Stuttgart follow the schema of FirstnameLastname (plus an incremented number if the name already exists, e.g. ArnoSchmidt3).
Unfortunately, it is not possible to grant access to ILIAS for new staff members in advance of the creation and/or issuing of the central ac account.
Since the ac/SIAM account you use to log in to ILIAS is kept a central directory service (to which ILIAS only has read access), ILIAS cannot reset your password (and neither can we).
Regarding your login username please keep in mind that it must follow the schema of ac123456 – if it doesn’t, it is most likely simply the wrong username.
You can check whether your login works on the SIAM selfservice page.
Only the colleagues responsible for such matters in your department can reset your password for you. Often two or three people per department have that responsibility. (When in doubt, please ask the department administrator.) If, in case of an emergency, none of them are available, please contact the UniAdmin support. Our colleagues will usually be able to help, too.
You can change your ac/SIAM account password via the SIAM selfservice page.
It cannot be changed in ILIAS.
Everybody for whom a valid ac/SIAM account exists in the university’s central directory service (no matter how temporary) is a staff member – at least as far as ILIAS is concerned. If you have any kind of employment contract via the central administration, this is you (compare »How can I log in to ILIAS?« above).
Yes, in principal, though at the moment we are restructuring our ILIAS training offers. We’ll make further announcements regarding this as soon as possible.
In the meantime please to not hesitate to ask for individual training offers via ilias-support@tik.uni-stuttgart.de.
We also offer individual training on the departmental level.
- Please direct all questions regarding your ac account to the responsible colleagues in your department, or contact UniAdmin support.
- If you have questions regarding the usage of, or problems with, ILIAS itself, please write us at ilias-support@tik.uni-stuttgart.de.
Lecturers of the Universities of Stuttgart, Hohenheim, Tübingen, of the KIT in Karlsruhe and the PH Ludwigsburg can make their ILIAS courses availble for the students of each of the other four universities via a mechanism called E-Learning Community Server (ECS).
It is therefore not necessary and indeed not possible to request local accounts for students from those universities.
The sharing of the courses is an option (usually) activated by the lecturers themselves, so please ask the them whether they have already done so.
There is an exception to the latter: At the moment (since the summer of 2015), each semester the degree programs Anglistik, Germanistik, Linguistik and Sportwissenschaft are shared with the University of Hohenheim as a whole. No individual course needs to be shared.
If you are a student from one of the above-mentioned universities and are experiencing problems, please always contact your local ILIAS support, not us. If necessary, our colleagues will get in touch with us to resolve the matter.
As a student of the HMDK, please first check whether you are already enrolled at the University of Stuttgart, too. This is the most likeley case, in which you will receive a university account and have to follow the instructions for the University of Stuttgart’s regular students above.
If that is definitely not the case, you can receive a registration/reactivation code for an ILIAS account from Prof. Dr. Hermann a the HMDK. Please contact him directly.
Accounts registered/reactivated with a code are only valid for one semester. You will have to get a new account for each semester.
As a student of the ABK, please first check whether you are already enrolled at the University of Stuttgart, too. This is the most likeley case, in which you will receive a university account and have to follow the instructions for the University of Stuttgart’s regular students above.
If that is definitely not the case, you can receive a registration/reactivation code for an ILIAS account from the ABK’s Examination Office. Please contact them directly.
Accounts registered/reactivated with a code are only valid for one semester. You will have to get a new code for each semester.
External students (expressly enrolled at another university) who do not have a University student account including e-mail address of the University of Stuttgart and do not belong to one of the above-mentioned universities can receive a temporary central guest account (gs account) upon request by an institute/chair/facility or a staff member of the University of Stuttgart (usually for one semester), which can also be used for ILIAS.
This means that external students usually have to contact the lecturer or the institute/chair/facility whose course(s) they wish to attend. Contact information for instructors can be found via the Course Catalog or the appropriate institute/facility website. Please refrain from asking ILIAS support for contact data of teachers.
With the gs credentials, which such guest students receive via the respective institute, a direct login to ILIAS is possible. A registration is not necessary.
As a rule, external students cannot request gs accounts or their reactivation/renewal for themselves.
This does not apply for ERASMUS+ and Overseas students. If you come to Stuttgart via the ERASMUS+ and Overseas program, you will (automatically) receive a regular student account from the university. Please see the information for regular students above.
To register a new account please use the registration form.
The reactivation of an existing account simply happens during normal login.
Pleas use the "Forgot password?" or "Forgot username?" features of ILIAS.
- Questions regarding specific courses/groups, learning materials, course access settings and passwords etc. should always be addressed to the lecturer currently teaching the course and/or the course administrator. You can find the course administrator/owner in the course’s Info tab and can write an ILIAS mail. Further contact information can usually be found on the department homepage. Please refrain from asking the ILIAS support for a lecturer’s contact information.
- If you have specific question about or problems with ILIAS itself, please write to ilias-support@tik.uni-stuttgart.de.
Visiting lecturers (those who definitely will not receive an ac/SIAM account, compare the information for staff members above) can receive a code for registering a restricted ILIAS account (usually for the duration of one semester). This code has to be requested by a department/lecturer/staff member of the University of Stuttgart.
Visiting lecturers can under no circumstances request a code for themselves.
The same applies to a code to reactivate an existing account.
To register a new account please use the registration form.
The reactivation of an existing account simply happens during normal login.
Pleas use the "Forgot password?" or "Forgot username?" features of ILIAS.
If you have a specific question about, or problems with, ILIAS itself, please write to ilias-support@tik.uni-stuttgart.de.
This code is only distributed via the Studium Generale office. (Under no circumstances will you receive a code from the ILIAS support.)
Additional notes
- Since ILIAS access for Studium Generale guest users is a voluntary effort we can only offer limited e-mail support and no phone support for these guest users at this time.
- The reactivation of an existing account is only possible after the account has actually become inactive.
- The code is not a new password. Passwords of existing accounts do not change during reactivation.
- If you register a new account even though an older account exists, you have to continue to use the new account; the old one will be deleted.
To register a new account please use the registration form.
The reactivation of an existing account simply happens during normal login.
Pleas use the "Forgot password?" or "Forgot username?" features of ILIAS.
As a Studium Generale guest student you usually cannot register for courses yourself. Instead you have to contact the course’s lecturer and ask to take part and to be added as a course member. Please give your ILIAS username to the lecturer for this purpose.
The lecturer/course administrator/owner can be found in a course’s Info tab. You can write a mail via ILIAS. Further contact information can usually be found on the department homepage. (When in doubt we recommend using the search function on the university homepage.)
After you have been added as a participant, the course will automatically be shown on your Personal Desktop in ILIAS.
Nach der Aufnahme erscheint der jeweilige Kurs direkt auf Ihrem Persönlichen Schreibtisch in ILIAS im Bereich Ausgewählte Angebote.
Selected courses from the Department of History are the exception – you can register for them directly. Please direct all inquiries about this to that department.
If you have problems registering for, or questions about, a specific course and/or its content, pleast always ask the lecturer.
Please do not ask us …
- … to send you a registration code,
- … to grant you access to a course,
- … how to access ILIAS etc.
A guest user (not (Studium Generale) guest students) can receive a code for registering a restricted ILIAS account (usually for the duration of one semester). This code has to be requested by a department/lecturer/staff member of the University of Stuttgart.
Guest users can under no circumstances request a code for themselves.
The same applies to a code to reactivate an existing account.
To register a new account please use the registration form.
The reactivation of an existing account simply happens during normal login.
Pleas use the "Forgot password?" or "Forgot username?" features of ILIAS.
If you have specific question about or problems with ILIAS itself please write to ilias-support@tik.uni-stuttgart.de.
Public Area