** Description **

In the past few years, the world has seen a tremendous digital transformation in all of its areas. In consequence, the general public needs to be able to acquire an ever-increasing amount of digital literacy and at least some level of proficiency with modern digital tools. While modern software engineering relies heavily on Computer Assisted Software Engineering (CASE) tools and development methodologies (to improve productivity, quality, and efficiency of development teams), those tools remain targeted towards experienced practitioners and computer science remains taught in a very classical way. In the same time, the rise of artificial intelligence allows more and more easily to provide automated support, automate the processing and review of documents such as dissertations and other kinds of exercises, or to predict the needs of students.

This context seems to be a perfect opportunity to foster interesting discussions in a workshop that gathers people from many different communities (software engineering, education science, artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, etc.), through the common lens of how advanced software tools and techniques might be used as a catalyst for a better way to teach various types of students.

** Topics of interest **

Topics include, but are not limited to:

Tools and techniques
- Advances in automated grading of assignments.
- Advances in automated feedback and recommendations to provide support to students.
- Visualization of technical and/or scientific information in various fields (chemistry, software engineering, physics, history, sociology, etc.).
- Efforts related to the improvement of usability of advanced tools for non experienced users.
- Efforts related to inclusion of users with disabilities in the learning environment.
- Dropout prediction in a learning environment using machine learning.
- Methods with a focus on explainability and interpretability (either to students or teachers) are particularly welcome.

Methodologies
- New and unexpected usage of established software engineering practices in the education environment.
- Integration of agile methods principles in the education environment.
- Integration of software quality standards and methods dedicated to continuous improvement in the education environment.
- Application to serious game and gamification in the context of education.
- Team work or individual work in online settings or not.

Evaluations and Lessons Learned
- Feedback on case studies using cutting edge techniques, methods, and tools applied to the education environment.
- Improvement of computational thinking skills and digital literacy through software engineering.
- Improvement of critical thinking and research skills of students.
- Integration of software engineering and artificial intelligence research into teaching and training.
- Introduction to artificial intelligence and machine learning principles for younger audiences.

** Types of submissions **

We invite original papers in the conference format (ACM sigconf, double column, https://2021.esec-fse.org/track/fse-2021-how-to-submit#submission-policies) describing positions and new ideas (short papers up to 4 pages) as well as new results and reporting on innovative approaches (long papers up to 8 pages). All accepted papers will be published in the ACM digital library, together with the other ESEC/FSE workshops proceedings.

The workshop also welcomes presentations of previously peer-reviewed published papers. We will invite authors to submit a one-page extended abstract that will not be included in the proceedings.

** Important dates **

Paper submission: May 14th, 2021 (AoE)
Notification: June 21th, 2021 (AoE)
Camera-ready: July 5th, 2021 (AoE)

** Submission site**

Submissions will be handled via EasyChair: link to be provided

** Modalities **

The workshop will run in online mode. Presenters will be invited to submit a video of their work that will be available to attendees before the workshop begins. Attendees will have the opportunity to access all available content during the week leading up to the workshop and following the end of the workshop. Lightning talk presentations will take place online during the workshop, with online question/answering and timezone mirroring.

** Review process **

The workshop will follow a single-blind peer-review process. Each contribution will be reviewed by at least three members of the program committee. Acceptance will be jointly decided with the reviewers, based on the reviews and discussions.
As previously published papers have been already reviewed and accepted, they will not be reviewed again for technical content. If needed, the presentation’s propositions will be prioritized, based on the content and structure of the sessions.