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Federated virtual learning management in a European University alliance:
General challenges and first experiences using LTI to connect LMS in Unite!
TU Graz, Educational Technology, www.tugraz.at
Martin Ebner (presenter)
Sarah Edelsbrunner
Katharina Gasplmayr
Katharina Hohla-Sejkora
Philipp Leitner
Sandra Schön
Behnam Taraghi
(all Graz University of Technology,
Austria)
July 2024, Brussels
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License
These slides may be used under the terms of the
CC licence CC BY 4.0 International
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ).
Please use the links and references as sources for
individual illustrations, if applicable.
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Full paper Will be published in the EdMedia
Proceedings as:
Martin Ebner, Sarah Edelsbrunner,
Katharina Gasplmayr, Katharina Hohla-
Sejkora, Philipp Leitner, Sandra Schön,
Behnam Taraghi (2024).
Federated virtual learning management in a
European University alliance: General
challenges and first experiences using LTI
to connect LMS in Unite!
https://doi.org/10.3217/hvftz-w4g37
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Agenda
• Background
• Research Question and Design
• Results: Challenges of federated LMS in an alliance
• Results: Unite! Infrastructure
• Results: LTI Pilots
• Conclusions
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Agenda
BACKGROUND
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Background: TU Graz
Higher Education in Austria, Europe
• 9 million inhabitants, ❤️of Europe
• 22 public universities (51,000 students) (plus 21
universities of applied sciences, teacher training
colleges and private universities)
• Most students attend public universities with
comparably low fees (similar to Germany)
Graz University of Technology (TU Graz)
• Founded in 1811
More than 13,700 regular students
• 7 faculties, 97 institutes, 3 campus locations
• About 180 Million Euro federal budget, 80 Million third-
party funds
We do assess personal equippments of first year students
since 16 years now and present our result at the annualy
EdMedia/EDIL conferences.
Source: Bundesministerium für Bildung,
Wissenschaft und Forschung,
https://www.bmbwf.gv.at/Themen/HS-
Uni/Hochschulsystem.html,Statistisches
Jahrbuch
https://www.bmbwf.gv.at/dam/jcr:00d23d5
2-ba98-44a2-acf0-
9188afc830c2/Stat_TB_2022_BF.pdf
Source: Homepage TU Graz, 12.6.2023
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Background: European University Initiative
Over 40 European university alliances
promoting academic exchange and
innovation
Goals: enhance academic exchange,
research cooperation, educational
innovation
© European Commission,
https://education.ec.europa.eu/education-
levels/higher-education/european-
universities-initiative
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Background:Unite! Alliance
https://www.unite-university.eu/
Nine member universities
From Unite! Mission Statement 2030:
“Unite! creates the hybrid (virtual, physical and blended)
and multilingual Unite! trans-European Campus with
easily accessible joint educational offerings, shared and
pooled resources, efficient services and green mobility” © Unite! alliance, https://www.unite-university.eu/
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Background: Unite! Community 2 „Digital
Campus“
• Responsible („only“) for digital
infrastructure for teaching and learning
• Challenges in digital collaboration and
infrastructure integration
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Background: The Challenge
Build and develop further a well-
functioning Learning
Management System
Infrastructure for our university
alliance Unite!
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Agenda
RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
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Research Question 1
• What are the overarching
challenges concerning learning
management and the
implementation of federated LMS
within European alliances?
(Within our European University
Alliance Unite!)
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Research Approach 1
• Literature Research (not systematically) on challenges of
central/federated learning management in European
university alliances by a multinational team of authors (see
Ebner et al., 2024a, p. 31ff.)
• Descriptions of all Unite! partner infrastructures were created,
which emerged iteratively in a process spanning several
weeks (Ebner et al., 2024b)
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Research Question 2
• Is Learning Tool Interoperability
(LTI) a suitable tool for
interconnecting LMS within a
European university alliance?
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Research Approach 2
• first experiences in piloting LTI within the Unite! alliance
• are described through case studies (cf. for educational
research Hancock, Algozzine & Lim, 2021)
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Agenda
RESULTS:
GENERAL
CHALLENGES
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Challenges & potential solutions using
a federated learning management system (1/3)
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Challenges & potential solutions using
a federated learning management system (2/3)
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Challenges & potential solutions using
a federated learning management system (3/3)
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Agenda
RESULTS:
UNITE!
INFRASTRUCTURE
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Figure 1: Overview of the Unite! Digital Campus Infrastructure Key Platforms and their key applications
Unite!‘s Digital Campus Infrastructure
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The LMS infrastructure of the European
university alliance Unite! in early 2024
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Ebner, M., Schön, S., Alcober, J., Bertonasco, R., Bonani,
F., Cruz, L., Espadas, C., Filgueira Xavier, V., Franco, M.,
Gasplmayr, K., Giralt, J., Hoppe, C., Koschutnig-Ebner,
M., Langevin, E., Laurent, R., Leitner, P., Martikainen, J.,
Matias, J., Muchitsch, M., Oller, M., Pereira, A.B.,
Petersson, J., Santiano, G., Schmidt, A. da Silva, F.M.,
Steitz, K., Taraghi, B., Torchiano, M., Villas, S., Würz, A.
(2024). Aligning IT infrastructures for digital learning
amongst the European university alliance Unite! - The
Unite! digital campus framework and requirements
(1.0). Unite! Community 2 Digital Campus, Graz
University of
Technology.https://doi.org/10.3217/36yen-0wy21
READ MORE
This presentation
and the report are
available under
CC BY 4.0 International
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Agenda
RESULTS:
LTI PILOTS
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Connecting LMS with LTI
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Connection of two LMS via LTI
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A vision
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Overview of LTI pilots
The different LMS which were used are:
• TU Graz LMS (called „TeachCenter“, hosted by TU Graz)
• National Austrian MOOC platform iMooX.at (hosted by TU Graz)
• Unite!‘s federated LMS (called „Metacampus“, hosted by UPC)
All: Moodle, Open Source
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Overview of LTI pilots
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Pilot 1
Connecting the
MOOC platform
iMooX.at and the
university LMS in
several courses
at TU Graz
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Pilot 1
Connecting the
MOOC platform
iMooX.at and the
university LMS in
several courses
at TU Graz
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Pilot 2
Tests on Unite!’s
Metacampus
(Moodle) as LTI
Tool Provider and
LTI Tool
Consumer
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Pilot 2
Tests on Unite!’s
Metacampus
(Moodle) as LTI
Tool Provider and
LTI Tool
Consumer
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Pilot 3
Connecting a
course at Unite!’s
Metacampus with
TU Graz MOOC
platform
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Agenda
CONCLUSIONS
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Remarks
• We used compatible LTI versions
• We linked existing user accounts on both
platforms (we did not tested anonymous user
accounts by the LTI tool provider)
• In our pilots TU Graz had access to all LMS –>
effective support
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Lessons learned
• Two browsers (Safari, Firefox) did not work (but
with the latest installation it is no problem
anymore)
• Linking with external LMS possible, but support
and error identification more challenging
• Confirmed benefit: Central maintenance and up-
to-dateness of course materials
• LTI fundamentally suitable for linking LMS
• Potential to enhance everyday life and teaching
within European university alliances
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Challenges and mitigation issues (1/2)
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Challenges and mitigation issues (2/2)
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Agenda
MORE
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Acknowledgements
Support of e-learning and IT
experts from partner universities
from Unite!
Funding from the European
Commission (Erasmus+)
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Ebner, M., Schön, S., Alcober, J., Bertonasco, R., Bonani,
F., Cruz, L., Espadas, C., Filgueira Xavier, V., Franco, M.,
Gasplmayr, K., Giralt, J., Hoppe, C., Koschutnig-Ebner,
M., Langevin, E., Laurent, R., Leitner, P., Martikainen, J.,
Matias, J., Muchitsch, M., Oller, M., Pereira, A.B.,
Petersson, J., Santiano, G., Schmidt, A. da Silva, F.M.,
Steitz, K., Taraghi, B., Torchiano, M., Villas, S., Würz, A.
(2024). Aligning IT infrastructures for digital learning
amongst the European university alliance Unite! - The
Unite! digital campus framework and requirements
(1.0). Unite! Community 2 Digital Campus, Graz
University of
Technology.https://doi.org/10.3217/36yen-0wy21
READ MORE
This presentation
and the report are
available under
CC BY 4.0 International