The European Conference on Technology-Enhanced Learning (ECTEL) engages researchers, practitioners, educational developers, entrepreneurs, industry leaders, and policy makers to address current challenges and advances in the field. ECTEL 2026 will take place on 14-18 September 2026 in Valencia, Spain. ECTEL 2026 will be a face-to-face conference.

As technology and increasingly artificial intelligence shapes how we learn, teach, and research, the challenge for the TEL community is to ensure that innovation remains purposeful and grounded in learning theories and robust evidence. The theme of ECTEL 2026 invites research work that pairs scientific rigor with reflective awareness: studies that advance the design and understanding of learning technologies while keeping human values, agency and educational purpose at the center.

This orientation echoes wider European work on digital citizenship in education, where technologies are framed as tools to empower learners, defend human rights and strengthen democracy (Council of Europe, 2023). At the same time, the Artificial Intelligence Act (EU) 2024/1689 explicitly classifies AI systems in education as “high-risk”, particularly those that assign, assess or monitor learners. This tension reminds us that learning technologies, including AI, are not neutral or inevitable, but must remain deliberate choices shaping the educational futures we want.

Against this backdrop, Mindful TEL: Learning Technologies Shaped with Intention calls for research that is not just effective, but meaningful; devised and studied with intention, to enrich learning and shape education’s digital future. With decades of experience and deep, interdisciplinary expertise, the ECTEL community is eminently equipped to lead the way.

We invite submissions that advance and reflect on our understanding of Technology-Enhanced Learning through the lens of purposeful design, rigorous inquiry and human-centred innovation. The topics are structured under the following four broad thematic lenses, each open to multiple research methodologies, learning contexts, and technological forms. Submissions may address but are not limited to the following:

1. Theoretical, methodological and empirical foundations of TEL

• Studies examining how learning technologies intersect with pedagogy, theory and design.
• Research exploring learners’ and educators’ epistemic and metacognitive agency in TEL systems.
• Methodological contributions and empirical investigations that contribute robust evidence of “what works” and “why” in TEL.

2. Technologies, tools and interfaces in TEL

• Design, implementation and evaluation of digital systems (including AI-mediated, immersive, mobile, adaptive) for learning, with a focus on purpose and impact.
• Investigations of human-technology collaboration, agency, transparency and trust in TEL environments.
• Issues of interoperability, scalability, sustainability, data-driven insight and real-world integration.

3. Contexts, practices and learning ecologies

• Studies across educational levels (K-12, higher education, lifelong learning, informal and non-formal) and diverse global, institutional, cultural settings.
• Research on teacher/practitioner professional agency, institutional designs and ecosystem roles in enabling meaningful TEL.
• Explorations of how TEL practices, environments and stakeholders are shaped and reshaped in current and future learning ecologies.

4. Societal, ethical, policy and equity dimensions

• Issues of fairness, inclusion, accessibility, digital/AI literacy, and power relations in TEL.
• Research examining governance, policy and institutional agency that enable responsible, human-centred TEL.
• Critical reflection on the impact of TEL innovations on human values, trust, sustainability and the broader educational mission.

We encourage authors to frame their work in relation to how it contributes to shaping technology for meaningful learning, how it designs with intention, and how it brings rich new insights, not merely novelty. Studies that combine technological innovations with pedagogical depth, reflection, and real-world relevance are particularly welcome.

Research papers are expected to be mature research contributions to the field of technology-enhanced learning. Full research papers should clearly define research objectives and questions that fit within the scope of the conference and its topics. In addition, research papers should discuss the state-of-the-art in the area in which the work is framed, how the new proposal advances state of the art, present an appropriate research methodology, as well as present and discuss the results of the research conducted. Preliminary results or work in progress will likely not meet the bar for a full research paper contribution, but fit well in the poster paper category. Research papers should highlight their novelty and contribution to the field, as well as their fit within the scope of this year’s conference. It is important for ECTEL 2026 research papers to address and integrate aspects of technology and learning rather than focusing on one or the other.

Accepted full research papers will be published in LNCS Springer Conference Proceedings.

Poster Papers report on significant work-in-progress research and developments that fit within the scope of the conference and its topics. Theoretical and practice-oriented contributions are welcomed. The submission should include theoretical background, a description of the work, preliminary results, and references.

Accepted poster papers will be published in LNCS Springer Conference Proceedings.

Demonstration papers are expected to describe innovative TEL applications, practices and prototypes aligned with the conference theme and topics (e.g. dashboards, recommender systems, chatbots, practice-oriented contributions, etc.). The submission should include pedagogical and technological background, a description of the application/practice/prototype/use case to demonstrate its relevance, results and outcomes achieved, future agenda and/or next steps.

Accepted demonstration papers will be published in LNCS Springer Conference Proceedings.

Workshops provide a venue for community building, strategic dialogue and idea generation around emerging, critical, or cross-cutting topics in Technology-Enhanced Learning. They bring together researchers, practitioners and project teams to advance shared research agendas, reflect on ongoing work, and explore how learning technologies create educational value for different stakeholders and contexts.

The conference encourages workshop proposals led by or involving EATEL Special Interest Groups, European and international research projects, research infrastructures and other initiatives. Such workshops may focus on consolidating and advancing SIG agendas, synthesising insights and lessons learned across projects, aligning research, practice, and policy perspectives, shaping future research directions, collaborations, or funding initiatives.

Accepted workshop proposals will not be published in the conference proceedings.

The Doctoral Consortium is an exceptional opportunity for PhD candidates to present, discuss, and receive feedback on their research in an interdisciplinary and international atmosphere. We expect submissions to include a thorough analysis of a research problem, exposition of conceptual basis and relation to prior work, research questions, methods applied, and ideally some initial results. Prominent professors and researchers in the field of Technology-Enhanced Learning will provide formative feedback to the candidates’ research plans through the review process and by actively contributing to discussions of the PhD candidates research at the DC workshop. The DC is likely to be particularly beneficial for PhD candidates who are earlier in their doctoral journey, rather than those in the final stages.

Accepted submissions will be published in a volume of the CEUR Workshop Proceedings.

The Industry and Practitioner Track a platform to showcase real-world implementations of Technology-Enhanced Learning by industry professionals and practitioners. By sharing practical insights, highlighting innovative solutions, and fostering collaborations between researchers and practitioners, this track bridges the gap between theory and practice, contributing to the advancement of TEL in academic and industry contexts.

Industry and practitioner reports should include accounts and findings from practical experience implementing technology-enhanced learning projects. We encourage diverse formats, including i) Description of technology-enhanced learning implementation; ii) Evaluation of technology-enhanced learning in real-world implementation; iii) Reflections on challenges and opportunities in technology-enhanced learning; iv) Innovative design and development of technology-enhanced learning.

Accepted industry and practitioner reports will be published in LNCS Springer Conference Proceedings.

Full Research Papers, Posters, Demonstration, Industry and Practitioner reports

• 13 March 2026: Mandatory submission of an abstract (to prepare the review phase)
• 03 April 2026: Submission of the full version
• 31 May 2026: Notification of acceptance
• 14 June 2026: Camera-ready versions
• 14 – 18 September 2026: ECTEL 2026 conference

Workshops

• 10 May 2026: Submission of workshop proposal
• 25 May 2026: Workshop acceptance notifications
• 7 June 2026: Workshop websites launched
• 14 – 15 September 2026: ECTEL 2026 Workshops

Doctoral Consortium

• 13 April 2026: PhD candidate application opens
• 16 June 2026 – 30 June 2026: PhD candidate application deadline
• 21 July 2026: Doctoral Consortium reviews
• 15 September 2026: EC-TEL 2026 Doctoral Consortium
• 13 October 2026: Camera-ready version of the improved submission
• November 2026: Expected publication date

Research, poster and demonstration paper authors and industry and practitioner report authors must consult Springer’s authors’ guidelines. The use of the supplied template is mandatory in the preparation of their papers:

• LaTeX template (also available on Overleaf)
• Word template

Springer encourages authors to include their ORCIDs in their papers.

Before submission, please make sure that the paper does not exceed the allocated number of pages and does not include appendices.

Accepted research, poster, and demo papers and industry and practitioner reports will be published in the conference proceedings. Like every year, the proceedings will be published within Springer “Lecture Notes in Computer Science” (LNCS) Series.

Please note that at least one of the authors of each accepted submission must register for the conference by the camera-ready deadline for the paper to be included in the proceedings.

Workshop proposals and workshop contributions will not be included in the conference proceedings. Workshop organisers who wish to publish workshop contributions or outcomes are expected to manage the process independently.

Doctoral Consortium papers will be published in CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS).

As in previous years, we want to encourage Open Science within the EATEL research community. We therefore encourage authors to document their research in a reproducible and verifiable manner, and in general to use Open Science best practices. Two best practices that we specifically would be happy to see in ECTEL 2025 research papers are:

1. Pre-registration. Results from empirical studies are more robust when researchers predefine a research and analysis plan and register it before data collection. To do so, we encourage authors to use services like AsPredicted and the Open Science Framework to preregister their research so that confirmatory and exploratory analyses can be better evaluated. The research manuscript should then include a link to the preregistration document.
2. Sharing data and code for replication purposes. Sharing data sources (always anonymised!) as well as the scripts or programs you used to analyse them can help other researchers to replicate or extend your analysis. We encourage authors to share this information by providing a link to the data and code in the manuscript.