ECEL 2021- Proceedings of the 20th European Conference on e-Learning

These proceedings represent the work of contributors to the 20^th European Conference on e-Learning (ECEL 2021), hosted by ACI and the University of Applied Sciences HTW Berlin (Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft) Berlin, Germany on 28-29 October 2021. We, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Carsten Busch and Prof. Dr. Tilo Wendler, have the honour to act as the Conference Chairs. Prof Dr. Regina Frieß and Martin Steinicke are the Programme Chairs.

ECEL is now a well-established event on the academic research calendar and now in its 20^th year the key aim remains the opportunity for participants to share ideas and meet the people who hold them. We would have loved to welcome you, but due to the global Covid-19 pandemic the conference was moved online to be held as a virtual event. All four of us have a long-standing interest in e-learning and the digitisation of learning scenarios with a focus on game- and “Mixed Reality”-based learning. The pandemic has shown us how much Germany can learn from other countries in implementing innovative ways and formats of learning on- and offline. But on the bright side, this sometimes distressing view of the German educational system in times of stress also set things in motion that will bring new opportunities but also challenges. All of these need to be faced on solid scientific ground thus making the sharing of ideas and results all the more important. The subjects covered and the scope of papers in this year’s ECEL illustrate the wide range of topics that fall into this important and ever-growing area of research and will ensure an interesting two days – to which we look forward.

The opening keynote presentation is given by Dr Dan Remenyi, Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, on the topic of University of the Future. The second day of the conference will include an address by Prof Shawren Singh, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa, entitled Reflecting on Higher Education Examinations.

With an initial submission of 141 abstracts, after the double blind, peer review process there are 68 Academic research papers, 8 PhD research papers, 2 Masters Research papers and 3 work-in-progress papers published in these Conference Proceedings. These papers represent research from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK and USA.