The document reports on projects undertaken in 2009 by the Office of Learning Technologies at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, an online university based in Barcelona, Spain. It describes 15 e-learning tool projects, 5 interoperable open source projects, 3 portability-based projects, 2 disabled access projects, 2 affective computing projects, and 1 e-learning personalization project. The Office of Learning Technologies is responsible for maintaining the university's online learning environment and conducting exploratory initiatives to design, develop, and deliver engaging online learning experiences for students.

1. OFFICE OF LEARNING
TECHNOLOGIES2009
PROJECTS
REPORT
Office of the Vice President for Technology
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
learningtechnologies.uoc.edu

2. 0.
UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA (UOC)
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu0UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
•Headquarters in Barcelona,
Spain
•Fully online university (BAs,
MAs, PhD)
•Founded 15 years ago as an
online university
•47.000 students, 500 f-t
faculty, 2000 p-t faculty
•Faculty as Mentors
•Students as Teachers

3. 1.
MISSION OF THE OFFICE OF LEARNING
TECHNOLOGIES (OLT)
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu1UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
“The OLT’s mission is to fulfill the needs to design,
develop and deliver an open and high quality
UOC virtual environment which enables fruitful and
engaging student centered learning experiences.”
LLorenç Valverde,
Vice-rector for Technology, UOC
Magí Almirall,
Director of the Office of Learning Technologies

4. OLT RESPONSABILITIES
2.1
UOC online learning environment improvement
and maintenance
2.
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu2UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
2.2
Exploratory Initiatives
2.3
Dissemination Actions
2.4
Projects

5. OLT METHODOLOGIES
3.
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6. Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu4UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
RECOGNITION
4.
“CENTER OF EXCELLENCE” FROM THE NEW
MEDIA CONSORTIUM (NMC) 2009
“BEST LEARNING PORTAL 2009” BY THE IMS
GLOBAL LEARNING CONSORTIUM

7. TEAM
7.
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu5UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA

8. PROJECTS
REPORT

9. 3D SIMULATOR
Adding this tool to a virtual classroom automatically creates a 3D world, where users can
record a video of their interaction in the 3D world. In the 3D Simulator project, users connect
to the 3D world using the SecondLife client, but the server is not SecondLife
but OpenSim.
Francesc Santanach, fsantanach@uoc.edu
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu7UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
E-Learning tools
APERTIUM
An Open Source Translation Platform adapted to the UOC.
Lluís Villarejo, lvillarejo@uoc.edu
CONTENT SEARCH ENGINE
A content search engine that indexes all the components gathered in UOC virtual classrooms. In addition, this project entails an evaluation in terms of usefulness, functionality and usability.
Josep Rivera, jrivera@uoc.edu

10. CRISIS COMMITTE
A simulator tool that monitors decision making and shows the global consequences derived
from individual decisions.
Jordi Casamajó, jcasamajo@uoc.edu
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu8UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
E-Learning tools
E-TRANSFOLIAssessment tool based on competencies. It serves as a student virtual space where the state of the student
learning process is reflected in terms of achieved competences and personal CVs.
Muriel Garreta, murielgd@uoc.edu
FACEBUOC
A 5 week course through Facebook, evaluating the educational possibilities of open social learning platforms in the e-learning field. Results
Eva Gil, egilrod@uoc.edu

11. LANGBLOG
A tool for practicing orals skills of foreign languages, with posts and replies on audio and video. Demo
Francesc Santanach, fsantanach@uoc.edu
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu9UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
E-Learning tools
LEARNING TOOLS FOLLOW-UPThis tool provides tutors with an integrated environment to receive the students’
activities, grade them and provide individual and group feedback. Web, Demo virtual classrooms
Muriel Garreta, murielgd@uoc.edu
MY WAY
Development and use of software that automatically generates different format files (pdf, html, Epub, Mobipocket, Daisy - audiobook - and karaoke - videobook -) for
each of the materials available in a SVN repository. Demo videobook
Josep Rivera, jrivera@uoc.edu

12. The RAC tool provides tutors with an integrated environment to receive the students’ activities, grade them and provide individual and group feedback. Demo
Muriel Garreta, murielgd@uoc.edu
OPENCAST MATTERHORN PROJECTS
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu10UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
E-Learning tools
RAC (Continuous Assessment Evaluation Tool)
RUN TIME SCORMThe RunTime SCORM is a tracking tool for SCORM materials at the UOC, integrated into to the existing infrastructure of the UOC.
Francesc Santanach, fsantanach@uoc.edu
Open source project working within the Opencast Community to develop an end-to-end, open source platform that
supports the scheduling, capture, managing, encoding and delivery of educational audio and video content. Web
Josep Rivera, jrivera@uoc.edu

13. TANDEM
Tool that aims to develop technological and pedagogical mechanisms that allow students to interact online with
native speakers of foreign languages in order to practice their oral communication skills.
Jordi Casamajó, jcasamajo@uoc.edu
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu11UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
E-Learning tools
TALAIAAn observatory devoted to the standardization of Catalan terminology. Web
Josep Rivera, jrivera@uoc.edu
UOC VIDEO PLAYER
Platform to manage the needs to broadcast educational contents in video format. Pilot
Josep Rivera, jrivera@uoc.edu
UOC VIRTUAL NOTEBOOKS
Application that aims to adapt the format of traditional exercise notebooks into electronic ones.
Muriel Garreta, murielgd@uoc.edu

14. VIDEOBlog for FDP
Tool for submitting Final Degree Projects (FDP) that allows uploading and visualizing video
registrations directly from a web application using Flash.
Francesc Santanach, fsantanach@uoc.edu
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu12UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
E-Learning tools
WIKISpaces MANAGERThis tool consists of incorporating the online wiki application WikiSpaces (www.wikispaces.com) into the UOC Virtual Classrooms. Demo
Muriel Garreta, murielgd@uoc.edu
WIRIS
A handy online scientific calculator service.Demo
Jordi Casamajó, jcasamajo@uoc.edu

15. CAMPUS PROJECT STABLE VERSION
The Campus Project Stable Version develops software components that contribute
to the better interoperability between the UOC online learning environment and e-
learning tools from different Learning Management System (LMS) such as Moodle
or sakai. Web, Video
Francesc Santanach, fsantanach@uoc.edu
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu13UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
Interoperable Open Source Projects
FLUID ENGAGEInternational project that creates a service layer that provides a mesh for existing applications available to museums and cultural institutions. Web
Eva de Lera, edelera@uoc.edu
FREE TECHNOLOGY ACADEMY (FTA)
An European educational initiative which aims to create an advanced virtual campus that offers online courses on free software by using open educational. Web
resources.
Josep Rivera, jrivera@uoc.edu

16. MOODLE CLASSROOMS
This tool integrates Moodle classrooms into the UOC online learning environment.
Francesc Santanach, fsantanach@uoc.edu
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu14UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
Interoperable Open Source Projects
SUMAThis project develops a set of services for the better interoperability between the LMS and e-learning tools. It contains a set of OKI service implementations and a
portfolio of tools for e-learning. This project also explores the possibilities and feasibility of systems based on interoperability in the enterprise. Web
Evaristo de Frutos, edefrutos@uoc.edu

17. E-Book USABILITY PILOTS
Testing of the usability of eBooks contextualized for postgraduate courses.
Eva Gil, egilrod@uoc.edu
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu15UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
Portability-Based Projects
edit@edit@ consists of automatically transforming digital contents into innovative formats like audio, daisy, e-book and mobile device formats. Web
Eva Gil, egilrod@uoc.edu
E-PAPER
The e-Paper project entails to jointly develop with Orange a student-oriented prototype
of an e-book suitable for studying in virtual universities.
Magí Almirall, malmirall@uoc.edu
MY WAY
Go to Page 9

18. EDUWAI
EduWai entails the development of learning environments accessible for disabled
people. The role of the OLT in EDUWAI is to collect requirements from users with
disabilities while they interact with virtual environments. Web,
Video about OLT Lab of Accessibility
Eva Gil, egilrod@uoc.edu
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu16UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
Disabled-Access Projects
FLUID ENGAGE
Go to Page 12
MY WAY
Go to Page 9

19. ENJOY GUIDELINES
Set of guidelines to promote the design of virtual learning environments that are more
satisfying, rewarding, motivating and exciting. Web
Eva de Lera, edelera@uoc.edu
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu17UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
Affective Computing
TEN EMOTIONS HEURISTICSThe Ten Emotion Heuristics entails the creation of a guide to easily and effectively evaluate the emotional state of users from their facial and bodily reactions during their interaction
with online applications and interfaces. Web
Eva de Lera, edelera@uoc.edu

20. MYUOC HOMEPAGE
The homepage of the new UOC online learning environment, named MyUOC, was designed to
enhance personalization and flexibility. Based on iGoogle’s standards, it acts as a widget
container. Ultimately, the goal of this project is to enhance the degree of personalization of
MyUOC homepage. Demo
Xavi Aracil, xaracil@uoc.edu; Eva Gil, egilrod@uoc.edu
Office of Learning Technologies · learningtechnologies.uoc.edu18UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA
E-Learning Personalization

21. learningtechnologies.uoc.edu