CALL FOR PAPERS, Case Studies, Work in Progress/Posters, PhD Research, Round Table Proposals, non-academic Contributions and Product Demonstrations

Beyond the gadget: designing for effective use of e-learning

At ECEL this year we want to go beyond the gadgets and establish what really matters in e-learning. How do we find the real value of e-learning, and the role of tools therein? More and more we see that e-learning takes a logical place in the design of materials for learning. E-learning is integrated in the design process of learning. A design cycle is followed that sets goals, works out how these goals are assessed, and then fills out the methods of learning. In this way, e-learning can be chosen as a method of learning, and can be selected for its true value. 

At ECEL 2012 we are looking for examples of great course design as well as examples of good practice, showing the real value of e-learning innovations. Knowing the design and rationale behind a good practice will help individuals apply this in their own setting.

We invite contributions for academic papers, PhD research, case studies, posters, round table discussions, and commercial product demonstrations. You can find full details of the requirements for the various submission options in the submission types document (.pdf format). Papers accepted for the conference will be published in the conference proceedings, subject to author registration and payment. ECEL proceedings are indexed by Thomson ISI. You can see details of all the Proceedings accreditations by clicking on the star to the right. Additionally there exists a further publication opportunity as selected papers from the Conference will be considered for publication in a special issue of the Electronic Journal of e-Learning. (http://www.ejel.org).

In addition to the main conference topics, the advisory group invites submissions to the following mini tracks: Computational Thinking chaired by Prof. Dr. Valentina Dagiene, Institute of Mathematics at Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania; Cloud-based services for Education chaired by Hans Beldhuis, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Changing academic roles chaired by Dr Sue Greener, Brighton Business School, University of Brighton, UK

The conference this year is focusing on the follow Track Themes. You will be asked to select which area your submission fits into when you complete the abstract submission form.

Read the
submission guidelines


Click the icon to download a .pdf version of this page

A prize will be awarded to the best Poster and the best PhD paper

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1.       Open educational resources

The Internet allows us to share content easily. But how do we do this, and how do we manage the copyrights of the owners of materials? How can we restrict the use of some resources? Do we and our institutions even want to share? What models of sharing do we use, and how do we assess quality? In this area contributions may include, but are not limited to:

·         Open educational resources

·         Jurisdiction around open educational resources

·         Success stories on sharing of materials

·         Institutional policies

·         Design of resources 

·         Re-use of resources

2.       (social) Media use in e-learning

What medium do we use for what purpose? What can we do with social media that we couldn’t before? We invite contributions on novel ways of media use including, but not limited to:

·         Mobile learning

·         Augmented reality

·         Gesture based interfaces

·         Weblectures and other uses of video for learning

·         New ways of visualization

·         Mash ups

·         Distance support

·         Gaming

3.       Electronic assessment

Most learners study for what they are assessed on. But how do you assess, and which e-learning tools and techniques are helpful? New tools for assessment and tracking learner progress are appearing in the marketplace. With these tools new forms of assessment are made possible, such as assessment at a distance, and formative assessment via mobile phones. We are looking for experiences in areas such as:

·         Assessment tools (including mobile assessment)

·         Systems for learning analytics

·         Design of physical spaces for assessment

·         Didactic use of formative assessment

·         Automated feedback

4.       Didactics and e-learning

What activities were planned in your e-learning programme, and did this planning work out? How was the overall learning programme designed? Did you cater for special groups of students, such as international students? What innovative strategies did you plan? How do the tools you use follow on from the decisions you made in your design? Contributions to this theme could include:

·         Good practices

·         Digital didactics as part of teacher training programmes

·         Tools for design

·         Tips and tricks for innovative didactics

5.       Other highlights

This track/stream is for contributions that fit in the conference theme of e-Learning research, but are not specifically described above.

Participants will be asked to vote for the best poster and a prize will be given for the poster receiving the highest number of votes. Additionally a prize will be awarded to the best PhD paper presented at the conference.

Mini Track Call for Papers on Computational Thinking   Click icon to download a .pdf

Track Chair: Prof. Dr. Valentina Dagiene, Institute of Mathematics at Vilnius University, Vilnius, Lithuania

Valentina Dagiene

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ICT has pervaded many aspects of our lives. We need to prepare our children to live, work and function in this world of “silicon biology”. By that we mean teaching them skills such as computer literacy and media wisdom. While these skills are necessary, they are not sufficient in the knowledge society - we need to develop Computational Thinking (CT) skills.

CT is a term coined by Jeanette Wing to describe a set of thinking skills that are integral to solving complex problems using a computer in the knowledge society. CT helps to understand how to deal with problems, and realize when it is time to ask a computer scientist to help to solve a problem efficiently. CT shares elements with various other types of thinking: algorithmic thinking, engineering thinking, design thinking, etc.

It is important to discuss opportunities and challenges of CT in the school context and it is important to train teachers in order to achieve these skills. Looking to the future, deeper CT may enable scientists and engineers to better model and analyse their systems.

Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

Submissions can be made on-line directly on the Abstract submission page.

Mini Track Call for Papers on Cloud-based services for Education   Click icon to download a .pdf

Track Chair: Dr Hans Beldhuis, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Dr Hans Beldhuis

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The cloud is no longer just a concept. Many organisations are moving towards external in place of in-house IT provision. There are many options for this, ranging from collaborative solutions between a few organisations (e.g. a shared data centre; mutual back-up) through larger scale but closed collaborations (e.g. private clouds) to commercial hosting or cloud solutions. Individuals within universities are starting to use cloud services,  sharing files through Dropbox, or using Google as their primary e-mail provider. Learners might partake in MOOC’s (massive open online course) to supplement university courses.

Up to now it appears that these cloud-services are mainly used to solve IT-challenges. But what about the Cloud and Education?

Cloud-services can further stimulate educational innovation by supporting a location and time independent working environment. In addition, they support a shift away from large organizational control of the instructional function toward the individual user, both faculty member and learner. It gives us the opportunity to rethink and re-craft services for the academic community

In this track we want to develop a vision for this community: what opportunities are offered by using the cloud? What are problems and pitfalls? How do we deal with resistance against it?

In this mini track the following issues are focused on:

Submissions can be made on-line directly on the Abstract submission page.

Mini Track Call for Papers on Changing academic roles   Click icon to download a .pdf

Track Chair: Dr Sue Greener, Brighton Business School, University of Brighton, UK

Sue Greener

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This Mini Track explores how academic staff are being required to rethink and reframe their learning and teaching roles as e-learning and in particular technology-enhanced learning gains ground in Higher Education. This change is not simply about embracing new technology. This debate strikes at the values of academics and their professional identity as interactive learning environments and learning technologies cause us to redefine what it means to be a teacher in Higher Education. We believe this is a helpful topic for continuing research and would like to stimulate further debate among learning and teaching academics and their subject discipline counterparts.

Topics of interest in this mini track are focused on (but not limited to):

Submissions can be made on-line directly on the Abstract submission page.

Submission details

Abstract details:  All submission types require an Abstract in the first instance. The Abstract should be a minimum of 300 and no more than 500 words including up to five keywords and keyphrases to be received by 7 April 2012. Please read the online guidelines

Submission:        Via the online submission form. Please ensure that all required fields are completed. Abstracts must include the proposed title for the paper, the full names first name and surname, not initials); postal addresses and email addresses of all authors and a telephone number for at least one contact author. Please indicate clearly if the contact author is not the lead author.

Full paper:           Only required when the abstract has been selected and not to be more than 5,000 words including abstract, keywords and references (the Harvard referencing rules need to be followed). Submission date will be no later than 26 May 2012. Papers should be submitted as .doc or .rtf file attachments by email to the conference manager, Carol Sheasby.

Important information

• The selection panel of the conference committee will consider all abstracts received by the submission deadline to ensure that the proposed paper is relevant to the Conference. 
• The authors of abstracts that describe a relevant paper will receive a notification of abstract selection.
• All full papers will be double-blind reviewed by members of the conference committee to ensure an adequate standard, that the proposed subject of their abstract has been followed, that the paper is of a suitable length, the standard of English is adequate and the paper is appropriately referenced.
• For authors whose first language is not English we request that you have your work proof read prior to submission by a native English speaker (or at least a fluent English speaker). Papers can be rejected due to a poor standard of English. We do offer proof-reading services.
• Papers that are accepted will be published in the conference proceedings providing at least one author registers and presents the work at the Conference (see the registration section of the conference website for more information about registration).
• Due to the large number of papers expected for this conference, the committee the committee prefers that an author presents only one paper. However, if multiple papers are accepted for presentation, each paper requires a separate registration fee. Author registration and payment must be completed by 22 September 2012.

Proceedings for previous ECEL conferences can be purchased from our bookshop by clicking on the Purchase proceedings button.

Important dates

Last updated 23 April 2012