LF applies an innovative way of keeping track of versions of different Learning Objects. Instead of a linear version history as is common in many wiki environments, SELF has a more free approach. In any point of time a user can derive a new version from any existing object and version, thus allowing the creation of a version tree. It is believed by the architects of SELF that the tree structure is needed and useful for collaborative editing of learning materials, as different educators can have different ways of transmitting the knowledge within the scope of a LO. Besides, the tree-like version history avoids the dissipation of energy that used to happen in edit wars: when users don't like a new version, they can continue working on the earlier version and produce their learning material without bothering the versions of authors they don't agree with.

    In short, the Version Manager allows for the following: