Octopus: a collaborative environment supporting the development of effective instructional designOctopus: a collaborative environment supporting the development of effective instructional design Πλήρης Δημοσίευση σε Συνέδριο Conference Full Paper 2015-11-152013enCurrent technology does not meet the needs andexpectations of instructional designers and teachers to collabo-rate on creating and using effective instructional designs tokeep learners motivated and maximize the learning outcome.On the one hand, the IMS Learning Design standard is verycomplex for instructional designers and teachers to understandand use as a common language. On the other hand currenttools, especially those close to the standard are not highly usa-ble. This paper presents Octopus, an environment supportingcollaboration between instructional designers and educatorsfor the development of educational templates and scenariosthat can be used and reused in different educational contexts.Octopus pays special attention in the users' needs while it stayscompatible with standards. Thus, usability studies have beenperformed from the earliest development steps, while a num-ber of workshops have been organized with the participation ofpedagogy experts and teachers. A significant number of educa-tional templates and scenarios have been developed with Octo-pus as well, within ongoing EU projects.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Second International Conference on E-Learning and E-Technologies in Education Mylonakis Emmanouil Μυλωνακης Εμμανουηλ Arapi Polyxeni Αραπη Πολυξενη Moumoutzis Nektarios Μουμουτζης Νεκταριος Christodoulakis Stavros Χριστοδουλακης Σταυρος Ampartzaki, Maria Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Distance learning distance education distance learning