The EVAi Story

EVAi (Interactive Virtual Learning Environment) was an educational platform developed in the early 2000s and in use until 2023, created to support university and postgraduate teaching. It allowed resources, forums, chat, link voting, assessments and multiple interactive tools to be integrated in a single online space.

It was born in a university classroom. It was neither a planned project nor an institutional commission: it emerged because there was a need for a digital space to accompany classes, encourage greater participation and offer new ways of working. From the very beginning it was built at the same time as it was being used. Each course and each group contributed something new, and little by little the system grew to meet the real needs of those who used it.

Over time, EVAi also began to be used in development cooperation master's programmes and in collaborations with foreign universities. Many students continued their studies while working for NGOs in different countries. That geographical diversity brought a very simple but decisive problem: time zones. The platform showed the server time, and while some users saw the afternoon, others were in the middle of the night. To solve it, all dates were stored in UTC and displayed in each user's local time. It was a practical solution that allowed students and teachers to coordinate without misunderstandings.

The classroom dynamic was highly participatory. During practical sessions, the teacher projected EVAi on a large screen. Students searched for links related to the subject and uploaded them in real time. Each new link rang a bell, appeared on the screen and was announced by Merlin the wizard, an animated avatar with a synthesised voice. The teacher could type quick phrases on their computer that would suddenly come out of the wizard's mouth as if from nowhere. That blend of humour, surprise and technology turned information searching into a shared game.

Merlin became a symbol. With his animated voice, he congratulated birthdays, celebrated achievements or simply launched quips that broke the seriousness of the moment. He was a touch of humour and warmth that motivated people to keep participating.

Links were not only shared: they were also voted on. This created a ranking where the most valued resources stood out above the rest. On one occasion, a group of students created a fictional user called Daniel the Mischievous, who dedicated himself to giving maximum scores only to his own links. The trick was discovered quickly, amid laughter, and led to the creation of a module that detected anomalies in votes. That small prank became an improvement for the system.

Assessment was also supported by EVAi. Teachers could create multiple-choice tests with time limits, and then combine the results with peer evaluations and their own grade. The calculation was done automatically and with one click a personalised grade was sent to each student by email. A system for sending grades by SMS was even tested, but at the time it was expensive and was not continued.

Alongside the exam module there was a survey module. The teacher could prepare a question bank and, from it, generate different questionnaires. These were sent by email or made accessible on the platform. They were also used for research, since people outside EVAi could respond to them. So, in addition to serving for teaching, the system helped collect data of academic interest.

Interaction was not limited to forums. There were group chats, subject chats and the possibility of opening "on-the-fly" chats that could multiply without limit. There was also an internal messaging area with file sharing between users. All of this maintained a constant flow of communication, as if the platform always had a background hum.

Organisationally, EVAi had different user roles: newcomers who validated their email, students, teachers, subject administrators and superadministrators. Each student had their own personal agenda, where they could make notes and to which teachers added reminders for their subjects, distinguished by colour. There were also working groups with a forum and their own resource folder. Students uploaded files to their personal folders and to their teachers' folders, which made it easier for teachers to review submissions.

The POD (Teaching Organisation Plan) was another important module. It allowed areas and subjects to be created, teachers validated and teaching hours recorded. With it, EVAi served not only as a virtual classroom, but also as an academic management tool.

Not everything was straightforward in the early years. Students were asked to record a personal presentation video, with their motivations and interests, and that caused nerves. Most did not have a camera and often it was the teachers who lent theirs so students could record themselves. Uploading a profile photo was also complicated: few had digital images and connections were slow. What is routine today was a real challenge back then.

Over time, those difficulties were overcome. EVAi remained in use until just a couple of years ago, and by then recording a video or uploading a photo was completely normal for any student. What was initially a technical obstacle later became a natural part of the experience. The first videos were static and shy, but over time they became more creative. It was a way of learning to navigate the future world of social media.

Visually, EVAi was functional. It did not stand out for its design: each module had a different feel. But it loaded quickly, was clear and worked even with a poor connection. It also had creative details, like Merlin or the automatic messages, that made it unique.

Over the years, EVAi accumulated a large database of links and comments, especially in the Human Resources area. Although many of those links are no longer active, what is valuable is that what students wrote about them is preserved: summaries, impressions, connections with their studies. It is an archive built over more than 25 years, showing how students learned and shared in a time when digital education was still being invented.

Today, EVAi can be explored in a demo version. It is accessed with superadministrator permissions, but without the ability to save changes, so that anyone can look at how it really works without changing anything. It thus remains as a living memory of an era when the digital world was improvised with ingenuity, humour and great dedication.

To preserve privacy, names, email addresses and forum entries have been modified in the EVAi demo version. Even so, if any unwanted personal data were to appear, it will be removed in future revisions. You can report it at info@evaidemo.org.

In 2014, the Universitat Jaume I published an official user manual for EVAi. You can consult it here:
http://dx.doi.org/10.6035/Educacio.2014.18

The platform continued to evolve significantly after 2014. The current demo reflects its final state in 2023, with improved security, multi-theme support, QR codes and a more refined interface.