Ana Afonso is a full researcher at UID-FCT nº 4372, Laboratory of Distance Education and eLearning (LE@D), Universidade Aberta (Portugal). She is also a collaborating researcher at the Centre for Informatics and Systems (CISUC) of the University of Coimbra (Portugal). She is currently an Invited Assistant Professor at the Universidade Aberta. A researcher, lecturer, trainer, author, independent educational and community consultant, is author and co-author of books, book chapters, and conference papers, about distance education and elearning. She has been awarded the BRIPA2020 by EDEN-European Distance and E-Learning Network. Her research interests include open and distance learning, e-learning, contextual learning, e-mentoring, EaD training for teachers, digital transformation in education, virtual learning communities, senior education, game-based learning, game-based learning, playfulness, collective imagination. She graduated in Education Sciences from the University of Coimbra, in 1996, and obtained her Ph.D. in Educational Technologies also from the University of Coimbra, in 2009.
Lina Morgado is a PhD in Education about Online Education. She is Associate Professor of Distance and Networked Learning at Universidade Aberta (Portugal). Diretor of Master Elearning Pedagogy and Full Researcher at Laboratory of Distance Education and eLearning (LE@D) where she conducts research on emerging environments and pedagogies in Open Distance Education field: Social Web and Social Media, Open and Distance Education, OERS, Virtual Mobility in ODL and MOOCs. She is co-author of an european pedagogical model for MOOCs - the sMOOC model supported by European Commission. Co-author of the Virtual Teaching Model ©. Coordinated innovation teams in the Innovation Program in Distance Education at UAb and was responsible for the design and implementation of an innovative training model for university teacher education program for eLearning. She is also an expert in learning design for online learning scenarios
Licínio Roque is Associate Professor at Department of Informatics Engineering (DEI) at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the University of Coimbra (FCTUC)
and coordinates the Centre for Informatics and Systems of the University of Coimbra Information Systems group and the UC Computational Media Design PhD Program. His research employs a socio-technical systems perspective on Information Systems, focusing on the role of context in development processes and on Participatory Media, mainly the design and evaluation of shared computational objects and services to empower creative collaborations. He was principal researcher on various research/industry projects: e-governance and digital transformation, social innovation through creative cultural industries, player-generated content in games, rapid prototyping of mobile AR, signaling of cognitive decay, play-based multisensory stimulation, game-based learning, gamification of knowledge bases, design insights for data science instruments, design of play probes, empowering youngsters through game-based learning and citizen science and simulation-based training to fight pollution at sea and coastal areas. He has an extensive methodological experience in the areas of ISD, HCI and SE, and coordinates the Computational Media Design Doctoral Program at UC.