EC-TEL 2021: Call for Papers

The European Conference on Technology-Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL) engages researchers, practitioners, educational developers, entrepreneurs, industry leaders and policy makers to address current challenges and advances in the field. EC-TEL 2021 will take place on 20-24 September 2021 with the theme “Technology-Enhanced Learning for a Free, Safe, and Sustainable World“.

We invite contributions for research papers, practice papers, posters, and demonstrations, as well as workshops. A doctoral consortium will be organised concurrently with the workshops. The topics of interest for the conference can be found here.

Research papers, practice papers, posters and demonstrations, as well as Doctoral Consortium (DC) submissions will be handled through EasyChair (https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ectel2021). Apart from the DC submissions, all papers will be reviewed through a double blind review process, i.e. authors must upload their papers without any reference to themselves or their institutions.

Accepted research, poster and demo papers will be published in the conference proceedings. As every year, the proceedings will be published within Springer “Lecture Notes in Computer Science” (LNCS) Series. The use of supplied template is mandatory: https://www.springer.com/de/it-informatik/lncs/conference-proceedings-guidelines. Authors should consult Springer’s authors’ guidelines and use their proceedings templates, either for LaTeX (Overleaf template) or for Word, for the preparation of their papers. Springer encourages authors to include their ORCIDs in their papers. In addition, the corresponding author of each paper, acting on behalf of all of the authors of that paper, must complete and sign a Consent-to-Publish form. The corresponding author signing the copyright form should match the corresponding author marked on the paper. Once the files have been sent to Springer, changes relating to the authorship of the papers cannot be made.

Practice papers will will be published in Companion Proceedings, e.g., via CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS) and authors have to comply with the CEUR template (which is different from the LNCS template).

Workshop proposals will be handled separately.

Doctoral Consortium papers will also be published in CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS) and authors have to comply with the CEUR template.

• Research Papers: 8-14 pages, published in LNCS Springer Conference Proceedings
• Poster Papers: max. 5 pages (published in LNCS Springer Conference Proceedings). If the paper is accepted, authors will be required to prepare an additional page describing their work. This page will not be published in the proceedings, but it will be used to organize the sessions.
• Demonstration Papers:  max. 5 pages (published in LNCS Springer Conference Proceedings). If the paper is accepted, authors will be required to prepare an additional page describing their work. This page will not be published in the proceedings, but it will be used to organize the sessions.
• Practice Papers: 5-10 pages, published in CEUR Companion Proceedings
• Workshop proposals: online form (see subsection), not published in proceedings
• Doctoral Consortium papers: 5-10 pages, published in CEUR DC Proceedings

Research papers for EC-TEL 2021 should be 8-14 pages long. No matter the length, research papers are expected to be mature research contributions to the field of technology-enhanced learning. Research papers should clearly define research objectives and questions. In addition, research papers should discuss the state-of-the-art in the area in which the work is framed, present an appropriate research methodology, as well as discuss the results of the research conducted. Preliminary results or work in progress fit very well in the poster paper category. Research papers should highlight their novelty and contribution to the field. Note that it is important for EC-TEL 2021 research papers to consider both technology and learning.

Posters report on significant work-in-progress research. Considering the current context, we are planning a poster session in which you can present your work in a hybrid format, receiving feedback from online and physically-located EC-TEL participants. Please submit papers of maximum 5 pages, including theoretical background, description of your work, preliminary results that you plan to achieve until September 2021, and references. Poster papers will be published in the EC-TEL 2021 proceedings if accepted.

In case your paper is accepted, you would have to prepare a one-page document to describe your work, along with its implications and future work. This document will not be published in the proceedings, but it will be needed at the conference for organizing and delivering the poster sessions accordingly.

Demo papers are expected to describe innovative TEL applications aligned with the conference theme and topics (e.g. dashboards, recommender systems, chatbots, etc.). Considering the current context, we are planning a demo session in which you can present your work in a hybrid format, receiving feedback from online and physically-located EC-TEL participants. Please submit papers of maximum 5 pages, including a concise scientific description of your research prototype, and references. Demo papers will be published in the EC-TEL 2021 proceedings if accepted. Specifically, the paper may include the following sections:

1. Pedagogical / Technological background
2. Description of the prototype
3. Use case to demonstrate the relevance of your prototype
   
4. Results and outcomes achieved (optional).
5. Future agenda / next steps

In case your paper is accepted, you would have to prepare a one-page document to describe technological aspects of your tool, along with its relationship with the conference topic. This document will not be published in the proceedings, but it will be needed for organizing and delivering the demonstration sessions accordingly.

The Practice Track at EC-TEL is for exchanging knowledge between researchers and practitioners (such as educators and industry specialists) about new digital education tools and technologies. The goal is to share motivating or insightful perspectives on real-world experiences, to inform and engage other members of the community. EC-TEL invites presentations for the Practice track that highlight or address real-world problems or practical use cases. These could either focus on pragmatic and practical solutions, or an analysis of the problem. Both are valuable types of input for a discussion at EC-TEL. The paper should describe a particular problem from a new perspective, or provide a potential solution and evaluate it. Sharing a practice paper at EC-TEL allows practitioners to showcase their experience; to develop their professional networks in Technology-enhanced Learning; and to discuss with an audience that consists both of researchers and practitioners. The submissions will also be published in companion proceedings through CEUR (see below). 

Authors have to make a choice as to which conference track they apply to: Research, Demonstration, Poster or Practice. Submitting the same work to more than one track is not allowed. The different tracks have different submission formats and review criteria. Double submissions will be rejected without review, but if you are a single research group or institution, you may submit more than one work that provides new insights on different aspects of the same project. Submitters who are unsure where to submit their papers can contact the program chairs at the following address: ectel2021@easychair.org

Papers submitted to the Practice Track should consider this year’s EC-TEL conference theme “Technology-Enhanced Learning for a Free, Safe, and Sustainable World“. This includes work that demonstrates how technology can help to understand and address global challenges in education, or work that addresses specific benefits and risks involved. Papers should be based on a practical use of technology to improve, change or enhance educational practice.

Practice papers should follow this basic structure:

• Short Abstract of the project: Summarise your work in a few sentences 
• Context: Describe the context and aim of the work, and which key pedagogical or educational challenges were addressed (e.g. through describing the state-of-practice, or your position relative to competitors if you’re in industry)
• Technological solution: Describe the technological tool or describe what would be needed as a technological tool
• Novelty: Highlight, if applicable, any new or innovative tools and technologies you used in your proposed solutions
• Practical deployment: Provide details of the practical context in which the digital solution has been deployed (stakeholders, process, evaluations) and any experiences in case studies if available.
• Lessons learned: Provide a summary of the major outcomes/impact of the work
• Open challenges: Propose at least one issue that requires further attention or actions 

Practice papers should be 5-10 pages long, depending on the scale of the work, and follow the CEUR template. All submissions should clearly articulate the key contribution of the work in further illuminating or impacting educational practice. Ensure that your paper fits with at least one of the topics provided in the Call for Papers. 

Practice papers will be submitted following the research papers deadline, through EasyChair. Accepted papers will be published in Companion Proceedings, e.g., via CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS), and presented during the main conference.

EC-TEL 2021 offers the opportunity to host half-day or full-day workshops. Organisers interested in coordinating a workshop are requested to submit a proposal by filling out this form (http://bit.ly/EC-TEL21_workshops), no later than 7 May 2021. Successful proposals will be confirmed by 21 May 2021. More information on the submission of workshop proposals can be found on the specific section of the EC-TEL 2021 website.

EC-TEL 2021 will organize a Doctoral Consortium for PhD candidates working on topics related to Technology-Enhanced Learning providing. The Doctoral Consortium is an exceptional opportunity to present, discuss, and receive feedback on their research in an interdisciplinary and international atmosphere. Prominent professors and researchers in the field of Technology-Enhanced Learning will provide formative feedback to the selected papers through the review process and contribute actively to discussions at the workshop. More information on the Doctoral Consortium can be found on the specific section of the EC-TEL 2021 website.

Research papers, Practice papers, Posters, and Demonstrations

• 25 March 2021 – Mandatory submission of an abstract
• 15 April 2021 – Submission of full version
• 04 June 2021 – Notification of acceptance
• 01 July 2021 – Camera-ready versions
• 22-24 September 2021 – EC-TEL 2021 conference

Workshops

• 7 May 2021 – Submission of workshop proposal 
• 21 May 2021 – Workshops notification
• 1 June 2021 – Workshops sites launched
• 20-21 September 2021 – EC-TEL 2021 Workshops

Doctoral Consortium

• 31 July 2021 – PhD candidate application deadline
• 28 August 2021 – Doctoral Consortium reviews
• 20 September 2021 – EC-TEL 2021 Doctoral Consortium
• 20 October 2021 – Camera-ready version of the improved submission
• 20 November 2021 – Expected publication date

All submission deadlines are 11:59pm UTC-12

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 EC-TEL 2021 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 (aspredicted.org) and the Open Science Framework (OSF) 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.

Details on the Conference Organization Committee can be found here, and on the Supporting Organizations can be found here. Contact details are available here.