E-learning design from a "quality of experience" perspective: Heuristics and case-studies

This chapter considers technology-enhanced educational activities spanning along a significant period of time, and explores this context from a "quality of experience" perspective. Rather than addressing the design of technology, interface, or interactive contents for learning, our main focus is the exploration of the process-oriented, affective, socio-contextual issues involved in the design of prolonged workflows of e-learning activities. We propose a set of heuristics for designing e-learning experiences that can maintain learners' engagement along the time and achieve durable, profound educational benefits in the educational context in which they take place, and are valuable for all involved stakeholders. We also pinpoint that involving learners as experience design partners is fundamental for these purposes. Our approach is exemplified by widely discussing two case studies that involve different technologies (shared 3D virtual worlds and online collaborative storytelling) in different educational contexts - high and primary schools.