emotions and e-learning - uoc
DESCRIPTION
Presentation made by Carles Fernandez (UOC) in the EL&ML International Conference in Online Learning, 2010.TRANSCRIPT
eL&mL 2010
Inferencing emotions through the triangulation of pupil size data, facialheuristics and self-assessment techniques
Carles Fernàndez, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)
AFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGY LAB
St. Maarten, Netherland Antilles
They design how you will feel
It is about EMOTIONS
Marketing, Cinema, Videogames…
IT Emotional designers - An existing reality
LeT’s GO into EDUCATION
In online learning… what we are offering is really engaging?
Users expectations…
Promises…
What do we really give them?
UOC – Antigua (2001-2009)
Emotions, the difference between expectations and reality
• Because we know that the emotional dimension is very rellevant for students’ decision making, joy and satisfaction
• Because through the evaluation of emotions we will be able to obtain a wider and global view of students’ experiences
• Because there is no meaningful learning without emotions (emotions are the fuel for learning). Cognitive and affective layers can not work individually without affecting each other.
“ If Education means ‘to change the world’ , let’s use emotions, because they are closer to the soul than thoughts and ideas”
Why do we need to take emotions into account?
• We do not have solid theoretical models to explain them
• Historically, emotions are considered of low importance
• Emotions or beahavior-related are not universal
• Difficulties to measure
“the student asked the zen master: what do I have to do when I have such a big wall in front of me?
And the master responded: ‘just a step ahead’”
Although our current limitations, we know that emotions are esential for success. As such, let’s use them consciously as educational designers
Emotions: why not? Educational positivism against focus on emotions
Concept of ‘affective computing’: “computing that relates to, arises from, or deliberately influences emotion“ (Picard,R.)
As such Affective Educational Technology, could be: “the line of knowledge that focuses in the design and assessment of virtual learning environments and educational tools in order to promote engaging learning experiences (I love learning at UOC) “
Affective computing: the science of emotions and computers
Virtual reality, virtual worlds
Robots with emotions (social robots)
Multicommunication modalities (speech, posture, face…)
Brain research and devices (Neuroscience)
New devices for human-computer interaction
Affective computing: the science of emotions and computers
What do we do with emotions and learning?
About UOC:
• Fully online university (Undergraduate, Graduate and PhD programs)
• Headquarters in Barcelona, Spain• Founded 15 years ago as an online university• 47.000 students, 500 f-t faculty, 2000 p-t faculty
About our students:
- between 24 and 50 years old
- often hold a previous degree
- have work and family
- stressed out
- have little leisure time
- they would like to feel as a part of
an educational and innovative
community
About OLT (Office of Learning Technologies)
OLT MISSION:• to design, develop and deliver a high quality virtual
environment• To test new tools with learning interest• User Centered Design (UCD) approach• Open source technologies• Incorporating the affective dimension
The design and assessment of learning tools and environment at UOC - overview
Since 1995, several teams within the staff of the university have made their contributions to the design of the virtual learning environment
7 years ago we adopted a more systematic approach through the use of User Centered Design methodologies (student at the center)
The environment fit their needs The environment was NOT motivating enough
Introduce elements of engagement in the design of learning environments and tools
we needed
The Affective Technology Lab: where we focus and where we do not
The focus of our analysis of affect are:Virtual learning environmentsLearning tools, spaces and services
Not contents Not pedagogical models
Our objective is:
To design learning environments and tools that promote appropriate affective states such as joy or motivation
To design learning environments and tools that avoid unappropriate affective states such as boring, anxious, anger…
FOUR main things we do with affect
To understand how emotions work
To promote an affective design of learning
environments and tools
To assess learning environments and tools
from the affective point of view
To experment, innovate and play with new
technologies applied to affective computing
Affective Technology Lab: some of our projects
Creating an affective musicplayer
Affective Technology Lab: some of our projects
Adapting an affective-inteligent tutoring system for students
Affective Technology Lab: some of our projects
Empowering the value of community through geolocalisation
Affective Technology Lab: some of our projects
Learning where students are: the facebook experience
Affective Technology Lab: some of our projects
Designing guidelines to support designers in emotional design
The Enjoy Guidelines“A checklist for all”
Based on a set of general principles that all our learning spaces should follow. Designers apply these principles to specific learning tools
Affective Technology Lab: some of our projects
Testing several tools, devices and techniques for affective assessment:
•EEG monitoring•Biosignals (pupil size)•Facial and postural expression•Self-assessment•…
ASSESSING AFFECTIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
AND TOOLS
Testing the possibilities of three techniques to assess emotions
Up to now...
• Universities mainly use questionnaires to assess tools and courses
• Generally these surveys do not gather affective data• They use typical overall items such as: ‘Do you think the
course is motivating enough? Has the course met your expectations?
Our main objective
To test a methodology that allows us to gather relevant affective information of the user-computer interaction
The test
• Our objective: to test the emotional user experience with the new ‘personal homepage of the student’ from the affective point of view
• 7 students interacting for the first time with the new homepage of UOC
• Students have to carry out 5 tasks within the new mainpage (read an email, add a new module, change the position of another module, access a forum an the virtual library).
• These tasks are prone to provoke several affective reactions in the students
A methodology based in the triangulation of three techniques
• Pupil size analysis (quantitative)
• Interpretation of facial and body expressions (quant. / qual.)
• Self-assessment (qualitative)
About the techniques(I) Pupil size
State of the art: Correlation between arousal and pupil size
Is pupil size reactive to particular emotions?
Pupil size reactive to other variables
About the techniques (II)
The 10 Emotion Heuristics“Beyond what they tell us”
Association of facial and body expressions to particular emotions
About the techniques (III)Self-assessment
To gather affective data from the main source: learners
To confirm the data gathered with pupil size and ten heuristics
Test performance: some examples
The results
• We inferred a total number of emotions for each student (TIE). TIE=Emotions Inferred through Pupil size+Ten Heuristics+Self-assessment
• Both pupil size and ten heuristics are able to measure emotional reactions in the test (most of the affective reactions were accompanied of increased pupil size or specific expressions)
• Pupil size does not seem to be a good predictor if we use it alone to infer affective states
• Heuristics were more accurate to validate emotional reactions. Only 40% of observable problematic interactions showed increased pupil size. Ten heuristics may be useful in usability tests to infer emotions (integrated in user-centred desing methodologies).
• Students self-assessment confirmed more than 90% of the inferred affective states with the other techniques
General conclusions – Design&assessment
• Both methodologies for design and assessment are useful, but we need to update them with new advancements in newer technologies
• The affective methodologies should be integrated in the validation and design of prototypes through user-center-design methods
• These methodologies need to be affordable. Guidelines for design of affective environments, for assessment of facial expressions and eyetrackers are some examples
Thank you for your attention
Carles Fernàndez, [email protected] of Learning TechnologiesUniversitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC)