Workshop 2009 - Workshop on Affect and Educational Design Patterns @ICALT2009

Workshop on Affect and Educational Design Patterns
ICALT 2009, Riga -Latvia, July 14-18, 2009
Chairs:
Rafael A. Calvo, The University of Sydney
Michael Derntl, University of Vienna


Workshop Description
In this workshop we aim to bring together research in educational design and affective computing. Recent progress in the two areas is opening up opportunities for synergy that could lead to radical improvements in learning experience design. We invite contributions from both the areas of Educational Design Patterns and Affective Science, and particularly those that explore (or show results of) the combination of the two.
On the one hand, educational design patterns describe reusable solutions to the design of learning tasks and environments. Essentially, a design pattern provides a generic, reusable solution to a recurring design problem or situation. The key is to describe the solution in a way that makes the solution reusable for similar problems. Today there are a significant number of design pattern initiatives and projects dealing with educational design patterns. Despite the general agreement that emotions have a significant impact on learning, they have not been considered in pedagogical designs, probably due to the difficulty posed in doing so up to this point.
On the other hand, affective computing, the design of systems that can recognize, interpret, and process human emotions, has made great progress of late and is now being integrated into current intelligent tutoring systems.
Recent advances in biomedical engineering, neuroscience and data mining have increased researchers ability to investigate this issue. We are at a point where significant accuracy in automatically recognizing emotional states is feasible through a number of approaches, even for collaborative situations. The identification of affective and mental states provides a magnifying glass for closer look into the processes involved in collaborative learning experiences. We are finally in a position where the effect of emotional states on learning experiences, can be taken into account in order to improve the design of these experiences and the technologies that support them.
The envisaged outcomes of the workshop are:
• Contributions on the state-of-the-art in affective computing related to educational technology, in particular technology enhanced collaborative learning.
• Identification and discussion of ways of representing good practice in affective educational computing using the design pattern approach
• Understanding the role and synergies of affective computing and design patterns in the development of advanced learning technologies.
• Proposals of design patterns for affect-aware learning technologies.


Workshop Organization
The workshop will last for 2.5 hours. Speakers will give a 10-15 min presentations (depending in the number of accepted papers). The last 30 min of the session will be devoted to a general debate about the presented approaches and the future perspectives.
Target audience
The workshop is not exclusive to, but is meant especially for:
- Developers, educators, pedagogical experts, and students interested in learning design and / or the impact of affect on learning.
- Researchers who are exploring or plan to explore the impact of affect in learning designs, and / or learning technologies.


Program Committee
• Cristina Conati, University of British Columbia
• Abelardo Pardo, Universidad Carlos III Madrid,
• Carlos Delgado Kloos, Universidad Carlos III Madrid
• Sidney D'Mello, University of Memphis
• Genaro Rebolledo-Mendez, University of Sussex
• Davinia Hernandez-Leo, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
• Simeon Retalis, University of Piraeus, Greece
• Roland Hubscher, University of Colorado, USA


IMPORTANT DATES
February 23, 2009: Deadline for Paper submission to the the Workshop Organisers (IEEE 2-column, 5-pages maximum, or just the 2 pages that will be published)
March 3, 2009: Notification to Authors
March 13, 2009: Author registration deadline
March 25, 2009: Camera Ready and Copyright Form according to the ICALT Guidelines (to be announced in the ICALT2009 Web Site)
July 14-18, 2009 ICALT Conference

SUBMISSION PROCEDURES
All submissions will be handled electronically. Please submit your contribution before the submission deadline to the workshop chairs by e-mail: affective.design-AT-gmail.com.
Each submission will be reviewed by at least three members of the workshop programme committee.
All accepted workshop papers will be published in the online Workshop Proceedings edited by the general Workshop Chairs.
Beside this a short version of each accepted paper (2 pages long, IEEE 2-column format) will be published in the main IEEE proceedings.
Therefore, authors of accepted papers will be asked to prepare an additional short-version camera-ready paper to be included in the main IEEE proceedings.

For Authors guidelines, please look at the IEEE Computer Society guidelines. Authors can also use Word Template and Format guidelines. (See templates in ICALT page)