Identifications keys are indispensable tools for identifying
organisms and understanding biodiversity. It is therefore advantageous to
give a broad public access to these tools. Due to the fact that these tools are
used by very different target groups – pupils, students, researchers, etc. –
customisation and quality enhancement are crucial for effective and appealing
identification keys. The evaluation of key software by inquiring users is
always influenced by various, often subjective impressions and is usually
restricted to a small number of them. The identification keys developed in the
framework the KeyToNature project are available on electronic devices and
allow registering the actions of single users during the identification process.
By transferring user actions to an Learning Management System (LMS) like
ILIAS OpenSource, where they can be correlated to user-data like experience
in the field of identification, courses visited, age etc., it is not only possible
to identify the problems a individual user did encounter and the mistakes he
made, but also to conduct statistical evaluations to review and substantially
improve the keys, to solve problems with single questions, and to optimise
customisation to the different user groups.
