News
Feature of the Month: Accordeon
Anyone preparing content in ILIAS often faces a familiar challenge: a page needs to hold a lot of information without becoming cluttered. Long blocks of text can quickly become hard to navigate, and important content can easily get lost. This is exactly where the accordion comes in.
What is the accordion in ILIAS?
The accordion is a practical page element that lets you divide content into collapsible sections. Learners initially see only the headings and can open exactly the section that interests them. This keeps pages clear, well structured, and space-efficient.
Typical features of an accordion are:
- one heading per section
- expandable and collapsible content
- multiple sections within one accordion
Why the accordion is so useful
The accordion offers several advantages that make it especially helpful in everyday ILIAS use:
- Better overview: Content is clearly organized and easier to grasp.
- Improved structure: Users can choose what they want to read.
- Space-saving presentation: Pages stay uncluttered, even when there is a lot of content.
- Better user experience: Users who find what they are looking for more quickly are more likely to stay engaged.
- Ideal for supplementary information: Additional details can be moved out of the way without interrupting the main text.
Typical use cases in an ILIAS course
The accordion is versatile and works especially well for:
- FAQs: Present questions and answers in a compact format
- Learning objectives: One objective per section
- Instructions: Reveal steps one by one
- Additional information: Deeper explanations that do not need to be visible right away
- Reading lists and link lists: Grouped by topic
When is the accordion useful?
The accordion is useful when...
- content can be divided into separate topic blocks
- not everything needs to be visible at the same time
- learners are looking for specific information
- a page would otherwise become too long or hard to navigate
It is less useful when...
- a short text is hidden unnecessarily
- key information is only available after expanding a section
- learners have to open every section to understand the content
The accordion should therefore be used where it improves readability — not to artificially hide content.
Tips for using it effectively
- Use precise headings: Instead of vague titles like “Info” or “More,” choose specific labels.
- Keep accessibility in mind: The order should be logical, and the content should still make sense without visual cues.
- Keep important information visible: Anything that needs to be seen right away should not be placed inside an accordion.
- Keep content concise: Short, clear sections work better than long blocks of text.
Conclusion
The accordion is a simple but very useful element in ILIAS for organizing content in a clear and structured way. It is especially well suited for supplementary or thematically separate information — not for central core messages. Used properly, it improves readability and makes pages much more user-friendly.