The Joy of Learning was created in 2001, and officially launched at HCI Lancaster, UK, in 2006, with the  mission to integrate the emotional dimension into online learning.

Our main objective is to design engaging online learning experiences, spaces that contribute to the student’s enjoyment of the learning process, fosters motivation, curiosity and desire to learn. Its objective is to remove the obstacles that are “frustrating-to-the-student”, to increase their’ overall satisfaction.

Core Team:

• Eva de Lera, Office of Learning Technologies (Project Lead)
• Carles Fernández, Office of Learning Technologies
• Magí Almirall, Director, Office of Learning Technologies
• Llorenç Valverde, VP, Office of Learning Technologies

Specific objectives:

• To identify the right tools and initiatives that will allow e-learning institutions to engage the students in the learning process, allowing them to achieve both their academic/credit objectives, and their study-for-pleasure objectives.
• To identify the way in which the learning environment may, or not, need to interact with their personal and social environment, to facilitate the integration of the learning process into their daily lives.

PRESENTATIONS AND PUBLICATIONS:

• [publication pending] EDEN 2013: The Education Layer: “Boxed-Out” and Shared e-Learning.
• [publication pending] HCII 2013: Improving the User Experience in Online Learning
• de Lera, Eva, et al. “Designing Innovative Open Spaces for Learning: The Case of the Open University of Catalunya.” Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences55 (2012): 1000-1008.
• de Lera, Eva, and Magi Almirall. “Bring in the Joy, bring in the Fun! Inspiring vs Educating Future Learners.” World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications. Vol. 2012. No. 1. 2012.
• Valverde, L., De Lera, E. and Fernandez, C., 2010, Inferencing emotions through the triangulation of pupil size data, facial heuristics and self-assessment techniques, eL&mL International conference on Mobile, Hybrid and Online learning, Netherland Antilles (in press)
• De Lera, E., Fernandez, C. and Almirall, M., 2009. Case study on the integration of the affective dimension in the design of virtual learning environments: evaluating emotions, supporting design and experimenting with new methodologies, in proceedings of HCi in Emotion Workshop, Cambridge, UK, pp. 14-16
• De Lera, Eva, Carles Fernàndez, and Magí Almirall. “Affective Educational Technology: First steps on the introduction of the affective dimension in the core of online design.” World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education. Vol. 2009. No. 1. 2009.
• De Lera, E., Fernandez, C. and Almirall, M., 2009. Affective Educational Technology: first steps on the introduction of the affective dimension in the core of online design, In T. Bastiaens et al. (Eds.). Proceeding sof World Conference on E-learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare and Higher Education 2009, Vancouver, Canada. pp. 2111-2119
• Fernandez, C. and De Lera, E., 2009. Emotions, the forgotten key of success in Online Learning, 13th UNESCO-APEID International Conference (in press), Hangzhou, China
• De Lera, E., Fernandez, C. and Almirall, M., 2009. Affective Edtech: Toward designing Affective Educational Technology Environments, 3rd Elearning Excellence in the Middle East  Forum (in press), Dubai
• De Lera, E., Fernandez, C. and Almirall, M., 2008. Affective Edtech: Initial steps for introducing the affective dimension in virtual learning environments. IADIS conference (in press), Algarve, Portugal
• Online Educa Berlin (Berlin, Dec. 2-4) – Presentation – NMC’s Horizon Project Megatrends
• UNESCO-Asia APEID (Hangzhou, China, Nov. 15th thru 17th) – Presentation on the importance for integrating Emotions
• USID 2009 (Barcelona, Spain, Nov. 12th) – Presentation on Integrating Emotions into Interface Design
• Educause 2009 (Denver, CO, Nov 3-6) – Presentation on the need to automatize the creation of multiple device learning contents to provide choice and flexibility to learners
• De Lera, E. And Almirall, M. 2008. ENJOY: Guidelines for Designing Engaging Elearning Environments. In iLearning Forum 2008 Proceedings - European Institute for E-Learning (EIfEL), Paris, page 42, 2008. Also presented at EDEN 2008, New Media Consortium Summer Conference 2008, UPA 2008. (poster-enjoy-guidelines.pdf)
• De Lera, E. and Mor, E. 2007. The joy of learning: redesigning the e-learning experience. In HCI 2007 Workshop: Design, use and experience of e-learning systems. September 2007, Lancaster. Also presented at E-Learn 2008 (http://www.slideshare.net/edelera/the-joy-of-learning-e-learn-2008-presentation/).
• De Lera, E. and Garreta-Domingo, M. Ten Emotion Heuristics: Guidelines for Assessing the User’s Affective Dimension Easily and Cost-Effectively. In Proceedings of the HCI07 Conference on People and Computers XXI, page 40, 2007. Also presented at HCI International, UPA 2007.
• Ten Heuristics to Evaluate the Emotional Dimension in a User Test. Authors: Eva de Lera, Muriel Garreta. HCII 2007 – Human Computer Interaction International.
• I-Transfer: the user’s platform for content conversion. Authors: Eva de Lera, Josep Rivera. ED-MEDIA 2007 – World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications.
• The 10 Emotion Heuristics. Authors: Eva de Lera, Muriel Garreta. UPA 2007, Usability Professionals’ Association.
• Cost-Effectively Measuring the Emotional Dimension of Virtual Campus’ Interfaces. Authors: Eva de Lera, Muriel Garreta. iLearnForum 2007.
• Gaining Insight into e-learning students: the convergence of usability and accessibility. Authors: Eva Gil, Muriel Garreta, Llorenç Sabaté, Eva de Lera, Magí Almirall, Enric Mor. Educause 2006.
• Usability for all: Towards the improvement of the e-learning experience for visually impaired users. Authors: Eva Gil, Muriel Garreta, Llorenç Sabaté, Eva de Lera, Magí Almirall, Enric Mor. ICCHP 2006, International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs.

For more information please contact Eva de Lera at edelera@uoc.edu