Chamilo
Developer(s)BeezNest[1] and Chamilo community members
Stable release
LMS 1.11.26 / 27 September 2023; 7 months ago (2023-09-27)
Written inPHP
Operating systemCross-platform
TypeCourse Management System
LicenseGPLv3 or superior
Websitechamilo.org

Chamilo is a free software (under GNU/GPL licensing) e-learning and content management system, aimed at improving access to education and knowledge globally. It is backed up by the Chamilo Association, which has goals including the promotion of the software, the maintenance of a clear communication channel and the building of a network of services providers and software contributors.

The Chamilo project aims at ensuring the availability and quality of education at a reduced cost, through the distribution of its software free of charge,[2] the improvement of its interface for 3rd world countries devices portability and the provision of a free access public e-learning campus.[3]

History

The Chamilo project was officially launched on 18 January 2010 by a considerable part of the contributing community[4] of the (also GNU/GPL) Dokeos software, after growing discontent on the communication policy inside the Dokeos community and a series of choices that were making parts of the community insecure about the future of developments. As such, it is considered a fork of Dokeos (at least in its 1.8 series). The reaction to the fork was immediate, with more than 500 active users registering on the Chamilo forums in the first fortnight and more contributions collected in one month than in the previous whole year.

The origins of Chamilo's code date back to 2000, with the start of the Claroline project, which was forked in 2004 to launch the Dokeos project. In 2010, it was forked again with the publication of Chamilo 1.8.6.2.

Chamilo used to come in two versions. The LMS (or "1.*") version directly builds on Dokeos. Chamilo LCMS (or 3.0) is a completely new software platform for e-learning and collaboration. However, due to frequent structural changes, the lack of migration workflow from LMS, the complexity of its interface and a certain lack of leadership, support for the project was abandoned by the association in 2015 to focus on improved LMS development.

Community

Due to Chamilo's educational purpose, most of the community is related to the educational or the human resources sectors. The community itself works together to offer an easy to use e-learning system.

Active

Community members are considered active when they start contributing to the project (through documentation, forum contributions, development, design).[5][6][7]

In 2009, members of the Dokeos community started working actively on the One Laptop Per Child project together with a primary school in the Salto city in Uruguay.[8] One of the founding members of the Chamilo Association then registered as a contributing project for the OLPC in which his company would make efforts to ensure the portability of the platform to the XO laptop.[9] The effort has been, since then, continued as part of the Chamilo project.

Passive

The community is considered passive when they use the software but do not contribute directly to it. As of February 2016, the passive community was estimated to be more than 11,000,000 users[10] around the world.

Chamilo Association

Since June 2010, the Chamilo Association has been a legally registered non-profit association (VZW) under Belgian law. The association was created to serve the general goal of improving the Chamilo project's organization and to avoid a conflict of interest between the organization controlling the software project decision process and the best interests of the community using the software. Its founding members, also its first board of directors, were originally 7, of which 3 are from the private e-learning sector and 4 were from the public educational sector. The current board of directors is composed of 5 members.

Main features of Chamilo LMS

Technical details

Chamilo is developed mainly in PHP and relies on a LAMP or WAMP system on the server side. On the client side, it only requires a modern web browser (versions younger than 3 years old) and optionally requires the Flash plugin to make use of advanced features.

Interoperability

The Chamilo LMS (1.*) series benefits from third party implementations that allows easy connexion to Joomla (through JFusion plugin), Drupal (through Drupal-Chamilo module), OpenID (secure authentication framework) and Oracle (through specific PowerBuilder implementations).

Extensions

Chamilo offers a connector to videoconferencing systems (like BigBlueButton or OpenMeetings) as well as a presentations to learning paths converter, which require advanced system administration skills to install.

Releases

You can get more information on releases from the original website.[11] Chamilo LMS and Chamilo LCMS are two separate products of the Chamilo Association, which is why the releases history is split below.

Chamilo LMS

Chamilo LCMS

Statistics

The free-to-use Chamilo campus registered 100,000 users in October 2011 (15 months after its launch), for 38,000 users in December 2010 (11 months after its launch). The Peruvian private Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola reported 1,700 users connected in the same 120 seconds time frame in August 2011. Globally, Chamilo registered 700,000 users in October 2011, more than 5,000,000 users in June 2013 and more than 20,000,000 users in August 2018.[15]

Worldwide adoption

Institutional adoption
Year Number of installations
2012 2,000
2014 11,000
2016 31,000
2019 53,000
2022 82,000

Coverage

See also

References

  1. ^ "BeezNest, Chamilo editor, as established by the Chamilo Association". BeezNest Belgium SPRL. 2023. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  2. ^ "Chamilo project's official website". Chamilo project's website. Asociación Chamilo. 2023. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  3. ^ "Chamilo Free Campus".
  4. ^ See "Chamilo | open source e-learning and collaboration software". Archived from the original on 5 June 2010. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
  5. ^ "Chamilo Community Forum • Index page".
  6. ^ "Chamilo - Chamilo Translations System".
  7. ^ "Chamilo Tracking System".
  8. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: Experiencia con la Plataforma Dokeos en Uruguay OLPC. YouTube.
  9. ^ "Contributors program/June 5, 2009 - OLPC".
  10. ^ "Official Chamilo statistics page".
  11. ^ "Versions | www.chamilo.org". Archived from the original on 4 May 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2013.
  12. ^ "Chamilo 1.8.7.1, Palmas, now available | open source e-learning and collaboration software". Archived from the original on 23 August 2010. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
  13. ^ "Chamilo 1.8.7, Istanbul, now available for download! | open source e-learning and collaboration software". Archived from the original on 22 June 2010. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
  14. ^ "Google Code Archive - Long-term storage for Google Code Project Hosting".
  15. ^ "Chamilo portals around the world". Archived from the original on 16 October 2010. Retrieved 26 June 2010.
  16. ^ "Chamilo Official Providers list". Asociación Chamilo. 2023. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  17. ^ "Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria - INIA - Aula Virtual".
  18. ^ "Statistics page for Chamilo usage". Asociación Chamilo. 2023. Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  19. ^ Chamilo on the FOSS Weekly podcast
  20. ^ Chamilo promoted on EPALE
  21. ^ Interview of then Chamilo Association's president in the Belgian press
  22. ^ Chamilo in the SILL (Socle Interministériel du Logiciel Libre)
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