deadline for applications is July 15, 2011

20 or 21 September, 2011
Palermo, Italy
http://www.ec-tel.eu/

OBJECTIVES

The EC-TEL Doctoral Consortium brings together Ph.D. students working on topics related to Technology Enhanced Learning. The doctoral consortium will offer Ph.D. students the opportunity to present, discuss, and receive feedback on their research in an interdisciplinary and international atmosphere. The Doctoral Consortium will be accompanied by prominent professors and researchers in the field of Technology Enhanced Learning. Accompanying professors will provide feedback to the papers that are selected for the doctoral consortium and participate actively and contribute to the discussions. The Doctoral Consortium is co-located with and will take place immediately before the EC-TEL 2011 conference. The working language of the Doctoral Consortium is English.

The intention of this doctoral consortium is to support and inspire Ph.D. students during their ongoing research efforts. Therefore, it is necessary that authors will have neither achieved their Ph.D. degree nor officially submitted their thesis before the doctoral consortium (September 2011). To enforce this rule we require authors to disclose their expected graduation date and their advisor’s name when submitting.

FEES, SCHOLARSHIPS for the Doctoral Consortium

The ECTEL 2011 early registration fee for students is €250 and this fee includes participation in the Doctoral Consortium.

For a limited number of accepted contributions we secure funding either from STELLAR (http://www.stellarnet.eu) or EATEL (http://www.ea-tel.eu/) so that registration fees for the conference and the doctoral consortium are waived for participants.

ELIGIBILITY AND APPLICATION PROCESS

In contrast to regular conference papers, submissions should address specifically doctoral work!

Therefore, the following elements have to be addressed in the papers:

• A clear formulation of the research question,
• An identification of the significant problems in the field of research,
• An outline of the current knowledge of the problem domain, as well as the state of existing solutions,
• A presentation of any preliminary ideas, the proposed approach and the results achieved so far,
• A sketch of the applied research methodology,
• A description of the Ph.D. project’s contribution to the problem solution,
• A discussion of how the suggested solution is different, new, or better as compared to existing approaches to the problem.

Papers will be reviewed by at least two members of the doctoral consortium committee who will be selected from the EC-TEL 2011 programme committee. Accepted students will be asked to peer-review two accepted papers prior to the Doctoral Consortium. Accepted papers will be published in the workshop proceedings at http://CEUR-WS.org.

Only electronic submissions are accepted. Please use https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=dcectel2011 for uploading. Papers describing doctoral work should be submitted in PDF format before July 15, 2011. Authors should use the Springer LNCS format. For camera-ready format instructions, please see For Authors instructions at http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html.  The paper length should not exceed 6 pages. A supporting letter by the supervisor of the PhD works should be also uploaded.

Accepted students should prepare:

1. An introduction of themselves and their PhD project for the introductory session. Duration: 60 sec max.
2. A 15 – 20 minute presentation of their PhD project to be used for introducing discussion about their project and its main issues during the small group sessions.
3. Students are also invited to prepare a poster about their Ph.D. for the ECTEL 2011 poster session.

All papers will be reviewed after acceptance by at least two senior researchers and one of the accepted doctoral candidates. A discussant, a member of the doctoral consortium committee, will be appointed to each paper. Discussant comments will be followed by a plenary discussion of the paper. At the end of the consortium there will be a general discussion, including a brainstorming session about current and future research topics in the area.

CALENDAR

• July 15, 2011: Deadline for submitting applications to the ECTEL Doctoral Consortium
• July 20, 2011:  Notification of acceptance, Assignment of Peer Reviews
• August 15, 2011: Peer reviews and discussant reviews sent to students
• September 8, 2011: Final version of Doctoral Consortium Submission sent for publishing
• September 20 or 21, 2011: Doctoral Consortium at ECTEL

Research topics for the Doctoral Consortium at ECTEL 2011

• Technological underpinning:
• Large scale sharing and interoperability
• Personalization, user modelling and adaptation
• Context-aware systems
• Social computing
• Social media
• Semantic Web
• Mobile technologies
• Serious games and 3D virtual worlds
• Network infrastructures and architectures for TEL
• Sensors and sensor networks
• Augmented reality
• Learning-enhanced rooms, campuses and outdoor environments
• Data mining and information retrieval
• Recommender systems for TEL
• Natural language processing and latent semantic analysis
• eLearning specifications and standards
• Learning analytics
• Pervasive and ubiquitous technologies
• Tangible technologies
• Pedagogical underpinning:
• Problem- and project-based learning / Inquiry based learning
• Computer supported collaborative learning
• Collaborative knowledge building
• Game-based and simulation-based learning
• Story-telling and reflection-based learning
• Instructional design and design approaches
• Communities of learners and communities of practice
• Teaching techniques and strategies for online learning
• Learner motivation and engagement
• Evaluation methods for TEL
• Assessment for learning
• Individual, social & organizational learning processes:
• Cognitive mechanisms in knowledge acquisition and construction
• Self-regulated and self-directed learning
• Reflective learning
• Inquiry-based learning
• Social processes in teams and communities
• Social awareness
• Knowledge management and organizational learning
• Sustainability and TEL business models and cases
• Business-learning models
• Trust and reputation in TEL
• Fitness and evolvability of learning environments
• Learning contexts and domains:
• Applications of TEL in various domains
• Formal education: initial (K-12, higher education), post-initial (continuing education)
• Workplace learning in small, medium and large companies
• Aggregated learning at the workplace Distance and online learning
• Lifelong learning (cradle to grave)
• Vocational training
• Informal learning
• Non-formal learning
• Ubiquitous learning
• Knowledge management
• Mobile and contextual learning
• Open learning
• TEL in developing countries:
• ICT Inclusion for learning
• Digital divide and learning
• Generation divide and learning
• Education policies
• Rural learning
• TEL, functional diversity and users with special needs:
• Accessible learning for all
• Visual, hearing and physical impairments
• Psycho-pedagogic support for users
• Educational guidance for tutors
• Adapted learning flow, content and monitoring process
• Standards about accessibility and learning

ORGANISING COMMITTEE

• Katherine Maillet, Telecom & Management SudParis, France
• Mike Sharples, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom