Organizers

• Ingo Dahn, University of Koblenz-Landau
• Christine Kunzmann, Pontydysgu
• Johanna Pirker, Graz University of Technology
• Andreas P. Schmidt, Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences
• Carmen Wolf, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Introduction

Although motivational and affective aspects are one of the most important factors when it comes to acceptance and success of Technology Enhanced Solutions they are frequently neglected in TEL. This becomes even more important as we move towards more open, independent, and informal learning settings. However, our understanding of these aspects and the implication this understanding would have on concrete solutions for learning is very fragmented: Pedagogical models emphasize the importance of holistic perspectives on learning, but still (implicitly) consider these aspects as peripheral. Psychology has investigated this topic area in depth from a theoretical and experimental point of view, but often there is a gap between generic theories of motivation and emotions, and concrete implications for didactical settings, tool design, and organizational guidance. We also know little, e.g., about reflection on emotions and one’s own motivation.

On the technology side, it is often unclear where and how to consider these aspects in the tool design as it requires a much wider perspective. Here, the affective computing strand has concentrated on tackling emotions, but so far has had little relationship to learning. CSCW research (particularly as part of the social media) had a closer look at the influences on collaboration. The (serious) games approach to learning is mainly a response to the motivational success of gaming, but struggles with how to combine this effect with a didactical approach. In workplace settings, particularly in knowledge management, motivation has been recognized as key success factor to ensure that introduced instruments and tools are getting used. However, many approaches have concentrated only on incentives, both in terms of monetary rewards and other extrinsic motivation schemes which are designed mainly as top-down instruments – with mixed success.

We are convinced that we can meet these challenges only in an interdisciplinary way. Therefore we want to bring together in this workshop the different perspectives on the topic in order to foster the formation of a community between psychology, sociology, pedagogy, human resources, CSCW and computer science. The MATEL workshop has a successful history with its first edition at ECTEL 2010 and continued to provide an engaged forum for the subject area, which helped to form a community around the topic, set up a mailing list with more than 130 interested individuals and a website under http://matel.professional-learning.eu. Recently, we have initiated a pattern development initiative around the subject area as a continuation of the workshop activities at ECTEL 2014.

Topics for Position Statements and Scientific Contributions

Topics encompass the following:

• Experience reports and lessons learnt from introduction/usage of tools related to learning or knowledge development/engineering (success and failures), e.g.,
  • Knowledge management and workplace learning
  • semantic technologies
  • CSCL
  • CSCW and Web 2.0, Enterprise 2.0
  • Serious games
  • MOOCs in educational and workplace learning contexts
• E-Coaching and other areas of technology-enhanced consultation
• Pattern-based capturing of design knowledge of soft factors, particularly related to motivation and affective factors, but also in adjacent areas
• Design methodologies for incorporating motivational and affective factors, e.g.
  • experiences with participatory design, engineering socio-technical systems,
  • experiences with concrete research instruments,
  • indicators for evaluation
• Approaches, services, or tools to address motivational and affective aspects, e.g.
  • feedback mechanisms,
  • organizational incentives,
  • detecting affective states via sensors,
  • exploiting curiosity,
  • life logging and Quantified Self inspired approaches,
  • learning about emotions (e.g., coping strategies) through reflection and resource activation, gamification and playful design
• Organizational aspects, such as
  • role of context (social, cultural) on motivation to learn or share knowledge,
  • role of affective aspects for daily work routines
• Models for understanding motivational and affective aspects/emotions from disciplines like pedagogy, psychology, human resources management and economics, sociology, usability engineering (e.g., joy of use driven approaches), or computer science (e.g., context ontologies for affective and motivational factors)

Topics for Tool Demos and Discussions

We invite developers and researchers of tools and systems in the area of Technology Enhanced Learning to present them under the perspective of motivational and affective aspects, such as:

• Tools for supporting individual or team reflection and coaching,
• Quantified Self approaches and use of sensors,
• Mobile learning support apps, e.g., for e-coaching, e-learning,
• Personal Learning Environments,
• Tools for informal learning and knowledge management in organizations,
• Innovative enterprise social media approaches, Serious games

Formats

• Position papers (2-4 pages)
• Tool demos and discussions (4 pages)
• Short research papers (4 pages)
• Long research papers (8 pages)