Special Tracks

Organizers:

• Anna Di Pace – Università Pegaso
• Paolo Raviolo – Università eCampus
• Teresa Savoia – Università Pegaso
• Ilaria Fiore – Università Pegaso

Aim and Scopes:
This special track is grounded in the PRIN project ACONHE – Active Online Assessment in Higher Education, coordinated by the eCampus University, as leading institution, in collaboration with Pegaso Digital University and the University of Florence.

The track aims to explore innovative assessment practices in presence and digitally mediated higher education, focusing on the shift from traditional summative approaches to formative, process-oriented, and student-centered models. Within the ACONHE framework, assessment is conceptualized as an active, participatory, and reflective process that supports learning, fosters engagement, and enhances students’ capacity for self-regulation and critical thinking.

The integration of digital technologies has redefined the relationship between teaching, learning, and assessment, requiring new pedagogical designs and evaluation strategies. In this perspective, active online assessment combines formative assessment, continuous feedback, learner involvement, and the use of digital environments to create meaningful and authentic learning experiences.

The track welcomes theoretical contributions, empirical studies, and case-based research that address the design, implementation, and evaluation of innovative assessment practices, with particular attention to scalability, quality assurance, and alignment with learning outcomes in higher education systems.

Potential Topics of Interest:

• Critical pedagogy and critical thinking
• Active online assessment: models and theoretical frameworks 
• Formative assessment and feedback in digital environments 
• Assessment as learning and assessment for learning 
• E-tivities and e-moderation in online assessment 
• Learning analytics and data-informed assessment practices 
• AI in assessment: opportunities, risks, and ethical implications 
• Student engagement and self-regulated learning 
• Assessment design in synchronous and asynchronous learning 
• Academic integrity and authenticity in online assessment 
• E-portfolio as a tool for reflective assessment 
• Competence-based assessment in higher education 
• Teacher’s role in higher education 
• Quality assurance and evaluation indicators in digital higher education 

Organizers:

• Gabriella Casalino – University of Bari Aldo Moro, Bari (Italy)
• Alessio Ferrato – Roma Tre University, Rome (Italy)
• Carla Limongelli – Roma Tre University, Rome (Italy)
• Daniele Schicchi – Independent Researcher (Italy)
• Davide Taibi – Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto per le Tecnologie Didattiche (CNR-ITD) – (Italy)

Aim and Scopes:
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly evolving technology with the potential to transform various sectors, including education. As such, we are pleased to announce a special track that explores the opportunities and challenges associated with AI in education. We invite researchers, educators, and practitioners to submit papers that address this topic.
This special track’s main objective is to facilitate a constructive dialogue among researchers, educators, and practitioners on the use of AI in education. We aim to identify the key challenges and opportunities associated with AI-powered learning environments, showcase innovative research and practical applications of AI in education, and develop recommendations for the responsible and effective implementation of AI in educational settings.
This special track will significantly advance knowledge and practice in AI and education.

Potential Topics of Interest:

Applications of AI in Education:

• Personalized learning systems
• Intelligent tutoring systems
• Chatbots and virtual assistants
• Automated assessment and feedback
• Content creation using generative AI
• AI-powered educational games and simulationsConceptual and theoretical models of formative assessment in higher education

Organizers:

• Giovanni Fulantelli – National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Educational Technology, Italy
• Davide Taibi – National Research Council of Italy, Institute for Educational Technology, Italy
• Rete Nazionale per il contrasto ai discorsi e ai fenomeni d’odio

Aim and Scopes:
The increasing use of AI, generative systems, digital platforms, and data-driven technologies is reshaping communication, participation, and learning processes in Higher Education. At the same time, digital environments continue to amplify hate speech, discriminatory narratives, disinformation, and forms of online hostility that raise important ethical, educational, and societal challenges.
This Special Track aims to explore how technologies, methodologies, and practices can be leveraged within Higher Education to prevent and counter hate speech, foster digital literacy, strengthen participation and democratic citizenship, and promote critically aware, inclusive, and respectful learning environments.
Particular attention will be devoted to contributions that consider not only innovative pedagogical approaches and technological solutions, but also ethical and legal frameworks, human rights-based perspectives, and multilevel interventions involving universities, civil society organisations, institutions, media actors, and local communities.
The track is aligned with HELMeTO’s mission of advancing research on online learning methodologies and learning technologies, while addressing urgent social challenges through multidisciplinary dialogue.

We welcome contributions that examine the intersection of:

• Ethical and legal frameworks concerning the use and application of AI and digital platforms in educational contexts
• Online and blended learning methodologies
• Media, information and data literacy
• Digital civic education and democratic participation
• Anti-hate strategies, counter-narratives and human rights-based education
• Learning technologies, analytics and AI-supported interventions
• Inclusive pedagogies and safe digital learning environments within Higher Education contexts through multidisciplinary approaches and in dialogue and cooperation with relevant stakeholders such as public institutions, elected bodies, media organisations, NGOs, civil society coalitions, local authorities, and other actors highlighted by the Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)16 of the Council of Europe.

Potential topics of Interest:

Online Pedagogy and Educational Practices

• Teaching strategies for preventing hate speech in online and blended higher education
• Human rights education and digital citizenship in university contexts
• Inclusive pedagogies for diverse student populations
• Critical media literacy and information literacy in Higher Education
• Faculty development for managing harmful online discourse in learning environments

Learning Technologies and AI

• AI-based systems for detecting and analysing hate speech and harmful discourse in educational settings
• NLP, learning analytics and data mining for monitoring toxic interactions in digital learning communities
• Ethical use of generative AI in combating hate speech and disinformation
• Design of educational technologies and interactive platforms promoting inclusion, empathy, awareness and respectful participation
• Dashboard and data-driven approaches for early identification of risks

Research, Policy and Multi-stakeholder Collaboration

• Counter-narratives and alternative narratives in educational contexts
• University partnerships with NGOs, civil society, and institutions
• Policy frameworks and governance models for safer digital campuses
• Evaluation of interventions against hate speech in Higher Education
• Comparative and international perspectives on online hate and education
• Legal and ethical frameworks for the use of AI, NLP and digital tools in educational contexts, including implications of the AI Act

Organizer:

• Pierpaolo Limone – Pegaso University
• Giusi Antonia Toto – University of Foggia.
• Luigi Traetta – University of Foggia.
• Viviana Vinci – University of Foggia

Aim and Scopes:
Press Start to Research! invites researchers, scholars, and practitioners to investigate the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and gamification as complementary approaches for fostering social inclusion in educational, social, and community-based contexts.
The rapid integration of AI technologies and game-based strategies is profoundly transforming learning environments, participation processes, and access to educational and social opportunities. Gamification has demonstrated its capacity to enhance engagement, motivation, and active participation, while AI offers new possibilities for personalization, adaptive learning, and accessibility. At the same time, these innovations raise critical issues related to ethics, equity, algorithmic bias, and the risk of reinforcing existing forms of exclusion.
This track aims to encourage theoretical, empirical, and design-based research that critically examines how AI-driven and gamified systems can contribute to inclusive practices and socially responsible innovation. Particular attention is given to contexts characterized by vulnerability and diversity, including disability and special educational needs, migration and multicultural settings, gender and social inequalities, and digital marginalization. Interdisciplinary contributions are especially encouraged, drawing from fields such as education, learning sciences, psychology, sociology, human–computer interaction, game studies, and critical AI research.

Potential Topics of Interest:

• AI-enhanced gamification for inclusive education and social participation
• Gamification and game-based learning for learners with disabilities or special educational needs
• Inclusive and ethical design of AI-driven gamified systems
• AI and gamification for the development of emotional, social, and relational competencies
• Serious games and simulations addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion
• AI-based adaptive games in formal and informal learning contexts
• Critical perspectives on algorithmic bias, accessibility, and inclusivity
• Design frameworks, case studies, and evaluation models for inclusive gamified environments.

Organizer:

• Nadia Carlomagno – Suor Orsola Benincasa University
• Ada Manfreda – Pegaso University
• Salvatore Colazzo – Mercatorum University

Aim and Scopes:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its digital ecosystems are profoundly reconfiguring the teaching-learning process, challenging current educational models and their epistemological foundations.
In the face of the increasing dematerialization of training processes, there remains a pedagogical urgency to recover the embodied, situated, and relational dimensions of cognition, premises that are still too far removed from classroom practices. The pervasiveness of AI and the alarming data regarding its use, particularly among younger generations, point to the risk of a drift toward an algorithmic “Self-world”: isolated and devoid of real alterity. This is accompanied by the danger of an emotional delegation to the machine, which is capable of offering a reassuring but illusory “simulated empathy” that risks atrophying authentic relational capacities. As Gallese suggests, we are witnessing the birth of a new Self, a digital Self, that immerses us in a new mode of experience where our sensorimotor and affective practices are reconfigured by algorithmic mediation.
There is an emerging urgency to recover and protect socio-emotional and affective skills, which are indispensable prerequisites for preventing affective delegation to machines and ensuring the authenticity of educational bonds. It is necessary to strongly reclaim this primacy of the human to protect the agency of both students and teachers, ensuring that Artificial Intelligence remains a useful extension of our potential rather than a substitute for our irreplaceable presence.
This Special Track aims to explore the convergence between the arts, 4E cognitive science (Embodied, Embedded, Extended, Enactive), and digital technologies, with a specific focus on teaching methodologies for higher education, placing the development of socio-emotional and affective skills at the center.
The proposed session invites reflection on the arts as creative pedagogical devices, capable of offering new perspectives on the use of AI in education and acting as irreplaceable gyms for empathy, intersubjective attunement, the engagement with alterity, and the construction of divergent thinking. The goal is to investigate how AI and digital technologies can function as active mediators in learning and act as cognitive scaffolding. The ultimate objective is to promote a New Digital Humanism that restores the central role of the body-in-action, emotional intelligence, and the development of socio-emotional skills as inalienable foundations of knowledge, safeguarding the authenticity of the educational bond even in algorithmically mediated environments.

Potential Topics of Interest:

• Art as a pedagogical device and educational approach even in digital environments: the use of visual arts, performance, music, and creative writing in educational processes.
• Performativity and embodiment in learning: theatrical, cinematic, and choreographic approaches to enhance presence and participation, including in remote settings.
• Aesthetic and narrative practices that foster engagement, critical thinking, and emotional connection in digital learning.
• Collaborative and participatory artistic processes that promote relational learning communities and online inclusion.
• Digital platforms as spaces for creative learning, including virtual ateliers, interactive installations, and multimedia environments.
• Case studies and design-based research on the integration of artistic languages in e-learning.
• Multidisciplinary approaches connecting art, pedagogy, philosophy, cognitive science, technology, design, and sociology to foster educational innovation.

Organisers:

• Leonardo Menegola – Università Telematica eCampus, Italy
• Paola Cortiana – Università Telematica eCampus, Italy
• Francesca Berti – Free University of Bolzano

Aim and Scopes:

This Special Track investigates the pedagogical role of creative, artistic-performative, ludic, and generative languages—here referred to as “expressive mediators”—as educational tools in higher education, with particular attention to online, blended, and hybrid learning environments. It posits that the educational relationship in digitally mediated higher education extends beyond connectivity alone, calling instead for mediators that engage embodied and sensory experience, creative expression, and symbolic imagination.
Current innovation in digital higher education is largely shaped by what may be called platform pedagogy (Menegola, 2025), a pedagogical culture predominantly oriented towards platform management, content delivery, learning analytics, and data-driven optimisation. Yet little attention has been devoted to the role of aesthetic, embodied, symbolic, ludic, and multimodal dimensions in university teaching and learning.
Recent research highlights the significant potential of activating such mediators in online environments (Robin, 2016; Bryant, 2023; Sousanis, 2015; Scolari, 2013; Meyerhofer-Parra & González-Martínez, 2023; Tau, Kloetzer & Henein, 2024; Lauricella & Edmunds, 2023; Whitton, 2018). Practices such as digital storytelling, performative approaches, graphic narrative, transmedia writing, playful learning, and music-making demonstrate their capacity to enhance meaning-making, reflectivity, presence, inclusion, and relational quality. Although these creative and expressive languages are inherently aligned with the principles of Universal Design for Learning (CAST, 2018) and are increasingly recognised as inclusion-friendly (Koch & Thompson, 2017; Halverson, 2021; Cortiana & Menegola, 2026), they remain rarely integrated in any systematic way into digital learning design.
The track aims to foster reflection on creative, performative and embodied languages as educational mediators within digital, online or hybrid environments at multiple levels, such as didactic (supporting comprehension, reflection, transfer and assessment); relational (sustaining presence, trust, collaboration and community-building); inclusive (broadening accessibility, multimodal participation and learner agency); and generative (opening new spaces of co-creation through artistic, ludic and AI-mediated processes). The key concept is that of mediators, understood not as mere enrichments or generic engagement strategies, but as methodological and relational devices within teaching and learning. In other words, the track examines creative, performative, ludic, and generative languages as educational mediators for teaching, learning, relationship-building, and inclusion. It addresses hybrid and transitional settings where presence and embodied participation are at stake, framing generativity beyond AI as a broader horizon of improvisation, co-creation, symbolic elaboration, play, and multimodal production.
The present perspective builds upon several approaches, including: mediazione didattica (Damiano, 2013; Menegola & Nobis, 2025), enactive pedagogy (Rossi, 2011), media education in the post-medial condition (Rivoltella, 2019, 2020; Cortiana, 2022), multimodal literacy (Kress, 2010; Cortiana, 2017), transmedia literacy (Scolari, 2013; Cortiana & Ostini, 2023), multiliteracies (New London Group, 1996), arts-based cognition (Eisner, 2002), participatory culture (Jenkins, 2006), and ludic/playful pedagogy (Lauricella & Edmunds, 2023; Berti, 2023; Berti & Seitz, 2025; Menegola & Berti, 2026).

The track advances the hypothesis that innovation in online higher education should be driven not only by technological development, but also by expressive dimensions. It welcomes interdisciplinary contributions —from pedagogy, inclusive education, educational technology, arts-based education, teacher education, instructional design, media education, performance studies, digital humanities, communication studies, psychology of learning, and design-based research— focusing on the use in higher education of podcasting, video-based narrative, digital music production, graphic narrative and comics, storyboarding, multimodal and transmedia creative writing, interactive fiction, game-based and playful learning designs, immersive environments, and generative AI tools.
At its core, the track examines the evolving status of these mediators in the context of increasing digitalisation. The pedagogical significance of such expressive forms — including neurocognitive embodiment, psychosensory activation, non-verbal communication, analogic-symbolic processing, play, and the direct experience of sound, gesture, and matter — appears closely intertwined with the very aspects that are less easily captured through digital translation. Rather than constituting a limitation, this tension may be understood as an epistemological indication that dimensions less readily digitalisable could play a crucial role in formative processes.
The track therefore explores how online and hybrid higher education might integrate and reconfigure — without neutralising — expressive, ludic, corporeal, and symbolic dimensions that reveal their pedagogical value precisely through their partial resistance to full digital translation. These issues speak to a broader challenge for contemporary higher education: how to design and enact teaching and learning across physical and digital settings in ways that support inclusion, strengthen educational relationships, and enhance pedagogical quality.

Potential topics of interest:

• Embodiment, sensory engagement and bodily participation in digitally mediated and hybrid learning environments
• Music, sound, voice and listening as pedagogical mediators
• Storytelling, narrative, creative writing, graphic narrative, comics and storyboarding for meaning-making, reflection and identity construction
• Improvisation, performative pedagogy, play, playfulness and ludic approaches
• Multimodal, transmedia and arts-based instructional design
• Digital tools and platforms for creative and ludic mediation (podcasting, video storytelling, digital music production, interactive visual environments, interactive fiction, game-based learning)
• Generative AI and human-AI co-creativity as mediational tools
• Inclusion, accessibility, personalisation, community-building and Universal Design for Learning through creative, performative and ludic approaches
• Symbolic, aesthetic, ritual and experiential dimensions of learning
• Embodied cognition, corporeality and sensory experience as protective and generative factors in digital learning
• Post-medial condition, media education and transmedia literacy as frames for creative pedagogy
• Faculty development for creative, expressive, ludic and multimodal digital pedagogy
• Case studies, design-based research and critical perspectives on artistic-performative and ludic mediation in higher education.

Organisers:

• Elena Dell’Aquila – Pegaso University
• Michela Ponticorvo – University of Naples Federico II
• Raffaele Di Fuccio – Pegaso Unversity

Aim and Scope:

This Special Track aims to explore the design, implementation, and evaluation of innovative learning environments in which embodied interaction, physical artefacts, serious games, and artificial intelligence are combined to support teaching and learning across formal, non-formal, and informal contexts.
The track is grounded in the view that learning is a cognitive, bodily, material, and socially situated process. From this perspective, tangible tools, movement-based activities, educational robotics, serious games, and hybrid physical-digital environments can foster both domain-specific knowledge and transversal competences, such as collaboration, problem-solving, self-regulation, communication, and socio-relational skills.
Within these environments, artificial intelligence is not considered as a separate technological layer, but to enhance embodied and game-based learning through adaptivity, personalization, and responsiveness. By interpreting learners’ actions, interactions, language, and behavioural patterns, intelligent systems can support real-time feedback, adaptive simulations, learner modelling, and personalized learning pathways, making embodied learning environments more dynamic, meaningful, and educationally effective.
The Special Track therefore welcomes theoretical, methodological, design-oriented, and empirical contributions addressing how embodied, material, and game-based approaches can be integrated with intelligent and adaptive technologies to create innovative learning experiences. It particularly encourages contributions that bridge pedagogy, learning sciences, human-computer interaction, AI in education, learning analytics, serious games, educational robotics, and design-based educational research.
Overall, the track aims to provide a multidisciplinary forum for researchers and practitioners interested in the future of learning environments that are embodied, interactive, adaptive, and educationally grounded.

Potential topics of interest:

• Embodied cognition and embodied learning in educational contexts
• Tangible, material, and hybrid learning environments
• Educational robotics and material interaction
• Developmental robotics for learning, interaction, and education
• Exergames and movement-based learning
• Serious games for education and training
• Adaptive learning environments and AI-driven educational interaction
• Virtual simulations for soft-skills development
• On-device AI and privacy-preserving intelligent systems for education
• Generative AI and language models for educational applications
• Learner modelling and real-time feedback systems
• Multimodal learning analytics in embodied and game-based settings
• Human-computer interaction for education
• Socio-emotional learning and conflict management training
• Teacher education and professional development through simulations
• Inclusive and accessible educational technologies
• Design and validation of innovative learning environments

Organisers:

• Claudio Melacarne – University of Siena
• Luca Agostinetto – University of Padova

Aim and Scope:

The post-digital era does not aim to limit or transcend technology, but rather to normalise it: technology is no longer a distinct object of interest separate from life, but part of an ecosystem (Orlikowski, 2010), a practice (De Vaujany, Gherardi, Silva, 2024), and a network of relationships and events (Fenwick, 2012). Examining how, within the post-digital ecosystem, participatory technologies are reshaping the educational and organisational processes of higher education highlights both the potential for expanding student agency and the critical issues associated with the increasing cognitive delegation to technological systems.
In this regard, it is also important to recall that technology is never neutral; from a human perspective, its use (and its intrinsic functioning) can generate problems or open up possibilities. The starting point is that technology—now an integral part of everyday practices—is not external to the educational experience, but a socio-material device that co-produces forms of knowledge, relationships, and modes of participation.
In the post-digital era, in which digital technologies have become a natural and pervasive component of daily life, participatory technologies play a crucial role in transforming educational and social processes. They bring to light aspects of great relevance for student agency, while also raising critical issues related to the delegation of engagement in learning processes to technological systems. Participatory technologies thus contribute significantly to the transformation of educational and social processes, highlighting both opportunities for agency and challenges linked to the delegation of commitment to digital systems in learning.
In this sense, Higher Education delineates multiple pathways, designs on-the-ground support and guidance for students’ study programmes, and opens new scenarios for collaboration, research, and development with a wide range of stakeholders—profit, non-profit, for-benefit organisations, as well as third-mission entities—provided it is able to mobilise the best available resources, both human and technological, to co-construct integrated strategies for dissemination and outreach across regions and contexts, aimed at sustainable and inclusive human development.
While it is true that the distinction between the digital and the physical is dissolving, creating a hybrid space in which participatory technologies act as catalysts for engagement and new forms of collaboration, it is equally true that collaboration and participation draw on forms of embodied knowledge that do not dissolve within the digital–non-digital synthesis. Within this scenario, we intend to explore, in particular:
a) the emerging theoretical connections between pedagogical studies and participatory technologies, with particular attention to contributions that interpret technology as a practice, a socio-material network, and a non-neutral element in learning processes;
b) the impact of participatory technologies on the design and management of higher education programmes, considering:
• transformations in engagement and collaboration between students and lecturers;
• tensions between agency, automation, and delegation to digital systems;
• implications for constructing learning environments that integrate bodily, relational, and symbolic dimensions.

De Vaujany, F. X., Gherardi, S., & Silva, P. (2024). Organization studies and posthumanism. Routledge.
Fenwick, T. (2012). Matterings of knowing and doing:sociomaterial approaches to understanding practice in P. Hager, A. Lee, A. Reich (eds.). Practice, learning and change: practicetheory perspectives on professional learning, p. 67-83. Netherlands, Springer
Orlikowski, W. J. (2010). The sociomateriality of organisational life: considering technology in management research. Cambridge journal of economics, n. 34(1), p. 125-141.

Potential topics of interest:

At least three questions may arise in relation to this scenario.

• In research, how should we study educational practices when they incorporate technologies as integral elements of learning?
• In higher education, how can we reformulate objectives so as to avoid falling into either instrumentalism or criticism for its own sake?
• In higher education teaching practices, how, when, and to what extent should we functionally integrate technological and digital opportunities in order to expand the potential of pedagogical action and support?

Organisers:

• Mariella Farella, CNR – Institute for Educational Technology,
• Marco Arrigo CNR Institute for Educational Technology
• Giuseppe Chiazzese CNR Institute for Educational Technology
• Davide Taibi CNR Institute for Educational Technology
• Gianluca Merlo CNR Institute for Educational Technology
• Giovanni Fulantelli CNR Institute for Educational Technology

Aim and Scope:

This Special Track aims to investigate the evolving role of Extended Reality (XR) in higher education, with particular attention to the ways in which Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR) can support richer, more engaging, and more effective teaching and learning experiences. It seeks to move beyond a purely technological view of immersive media and instead frame XR as a pedagogical space in which learners can explore, interact, simulate, create, and reflect in ways that are difficult to achieve through conventional digital tools. A central focus of the track is the design of immersive learning environments that are pedagogically meaningful, inclusive, and adaptable to different disciplinary contexts, ensuring equal access and participation for all students regardless of their abilities. We are especially interested in contributions that address how XR can be used to foster active learning, experiential understanding, problem solving, collaborative inquiry, and situated knowledge construction in higher education. The track welcomes studies that explore how immersive environments can support both formal teaching activities and informal or self-directed learning experiences. The track also highlights the growing potential of Artificial Intelligence, and especially Generative AI, to transform XR-based education. Of particular interest are approaches in which educators, instructional designers, and learners can use natural language prompts to generate immersive content, animate characters, create interactive scenarios, or adapt virtual environments to specific learning goals. This includes AI-supported authoring workflows that reduce technical barriers and enable faster, more flexible, and more personalized creation of educational experiences within XR systems. Another key objective of the Special Track is to examine how XR and AI can support assessment and feedback in higher education. Contributions may address the measurement of learning outcomes, engagement, usability, cognitive load, and skill development, as well as the use of learning analytics, intelligent tutoring, and adaptive feedback mechanisms embedded in immersive environments. We are also interested in methodological approaches that can capture the complexity of learning processes in XR, including mixed-method studies, design-based research, experimental evaluations, and classroom-based implementations. Overall, this Special Track aims to create a multidisciplinary forum for researchers, educators, developers, and practitioners who are exploring how XR, enhanced by AI, can contribute to more meaningful, scalable, and future-oriented educational practices in higher education. By bringing together conceptual, empirical, and design-oriented contributions, the track seeks to advance both theoretical understanding and practical innovation in immersive learning.

Potential topics of interest:

• Design and development of XR learning environments for higher education, including AR/VR/MR for experiential, situated, and simulation‐based learning.
• Active learning, problem solving, collaborative inquiry, and immersive assessment of learning outcomes, engagement, and cognitive load.
• Inclusive and accessible XR environments, aligned with Universal Design for Learning.
• Generative AI in XR: text‐to‐scene, text‐to‐avatar, text‐to‐animation, and natural language prompts for generating and animating characters and virtual scenarios.
• AI‐enhanced immersive learning, including intelligent tutors, virtual agents, and adaptive, personalized XR learning pathways.
• Ethical, legal, and privacy issues in XR and Generative AI educational applications, as well as case studies and design patterns of XR–AI integration in higher education.

Organisers:

• Valentina Grion – Università Pegaso
• Anna Dipace – UniPegaso
• Beatrice Doria – UniPegaso
• Marilena Di Padova – UniPegaso
• Maria Clara Dicataldo – UniPegaso

Aim and Scope:

In recent years, video-recorded teaching has assumed an increasingly central role in higher education. In Italy in particular, its expansion has been strongly supported by the development of online universities, where asynchronous video lectures often constitute a structural mode of delivery. The possibility of self-paced access, flexibility in study timing, and compatibility with work and personal commitments has helped broaden access to higher education for an increasingly heterogeneous student population. At the same time, many traditional universities have launched projects involving asynchronous video teaching integrated with face-to-face instruction (Pierluigi, Linacero Martin, De Santis, Bellini, & Minerva, 2025), recognizing its educational potential.
This scenario makes it increasingly urgent to reflect on the pedagogical quality of video-recorded teaching. Although a substantial body of research has examined the effectiveness of video technologies and principles of multimedia instructional design — showing promising, though not always consistent, results (Lin & Yu, 2023; Mayer, Fiorella, & Stull, 2020) — video lectures are still frequently regarded as merely a digital transposition of traditional lectures. However, studies on the video lecture format highlight how the shift to video fundamentally transforms the educational experience, requiring specific and deliberate design choices (Crook & Schofield, 2017). Providing truly effective learning experiences therefore requires more than a focus on the technical or production aspects of videos. Targeted research is needed that considers asynchronous video-recorded teaching as an autonomous pedagogical practice, with its own epistemological, relational, and experiential characteristics. Recent reviews also emphasize the complexity of the variables involved — audiovisual features, interactivity, student activity, instructional design, and AI-supported tools — underscoring the need for integrated approaches to the design of video-based learning (Navarrete et al., 2025) Alongside these established strands of research, relatively underexplored dimensions are emerging, such as embodiment, emotions, sense of presence, and well-being in video-mediated learning experiences (Wu & Yu, 2022). Initial evidence suggests that asynchronous viewing may involve discontinuous attentive participation and a potential “disembodiment” of the educational experience (Macrine & Fugate, 2021), highlighting the need for pedagogical design capable of supporting cognitive, affective, and embodied engagement in video-mediated learning.

Potential topics of interest:

The track invites contributions addressing both established themes:
— instructional design, learning effectiveness, engagement, accessibility, interactivity, and AI integration
— emerging perspectives related to the lived experience of video-based teaching.

In particular:
How does video-recorded teaching reconfigure the relationship between body, cognition, and emotions?
Which design choices foster active and reflective participation, avoiding passive or disembodied forms of engagement?
And how can educational research contribute to defining qualitative models for genuinely formative asynchronous video teaching?
The track welcomes theoretical, empirical, and design-oriented contributions that bring educational research, media pedagogy, the learning sciences, and emerging perspectives on AI in education into dialogue, with the aim of developing a more integrated pedagogical framework for video-recorded teaching.

Organisers:

• Malavasi Pierluigi, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore
• Righettini Cristian, Università degli Studi eCampus
• Zane Elisa, Università degli Studi eCampus

Aim and Scope:

The Special Track on the Pedagogy of Artificial Intelligence (Pedagogy of AI) aims to explore the transformative role of artificial intelligence in higher education in depth, given that it is a key context in which knowledge, skills, and forms of citizenship are being redefined.
Against the backdrop of a theoretical and methodological debate on how AI is reshaping educational practices and curricular frameworks in university learning, the Special Track encourages critical analysis of the relationship between AI and the role of academic leadership in fostering inclusive and wellbeing-oriented learning communities.
In particular:

• In the age of AI, how are the roles of academic leaders changing with regard to administrators, lecturers, tutors and students?
• How can academic leadership steer innovative, AI-enabled learning models such as adaptive learning, co-creation, and learning analytics whilst maximising their impact on educational innovation?
• How can leadership practices direct AI towards the collective well-being and cohesion of academic communities?
• What guidelines can support academic leadership in combining governance, ethics and professional development when adopting AI responsibly?

Potential topics of interest:

• Changing leadership roles: redefining decision-making and training roles; distributed and participatory leadership; governance skills for managers and coordinators.
• Innovation in learning: adaptive systems; intelligent tutors; designing hybrid learning pathways and micro-credentialing; generative AI for content co-creation.
• Community well-being: civic digital literacy; practices for digital wellbeing; strategies for inclusion and the mitigation of psychosocial risks.
• Teacher training and pedagogical leadership: professional development pathways for AI-aware skills; reflective practices and mentoring.
• Ethics, social justice and policy: models of ethical governance; transparency, accountability and regulation in academic institutions.
• Assessment and feedback: AI-enhanced formative assessment; automated feedback and assessment of soft skills.
• Collaborations and local impact: university-community partnerships for projects aimed at the common good; case studies of social impact.

Organisers:

• Montone Antonella – University of Bari Aldo Moro
• Albano Giovannina – University of Salerno
• Fiorentino Michele – University of Bari Aldo Moro

Aim and Scope:

In the current socio-cultural context, the use of technology, and particularly Artificial Intelligence (AI), is increasingly reshaping the educational landscape. University students are progressively interacting with digital environments, such as AI-based platforms, intelligent tutoring systems, and automated feedback tools. This evolution calls for a rethinking of traditional approaches to mathematics teaching, encouraging the design of hybrid learning environments that effectively integrate AI-driven and classical educational resources.

Within this framework, DIGiMATH, a working group of the Unione Matematica Italiana, is committed to investigating how digital technologies can support both face-to-face and online mathematics education at university level. Two main assumptions guide this line of research: (1) technological resources, when coherently integrated into teaching design, can enhance learning processes by providing scalable and adaptive feedback, and (2) technology, and AI in particular, should be considered not only as a tool, but as an enabler of new competences and educational scenarios, expanding what is pedagogically conceivable and practically achievable.

Recent research initiatives (e.g., the PRIN 2022 project “Artificial Intelligence & Feedback for Effective Learning – AI&F”) highlight how AI-based feedback systems, grounded in machine learning techniques, can support teachers in delivering timely and meaningful feedback, even in large classes. These approaches contribute to more interactive, inclusive, and responsive learning environments, fostering student engagement and supporting deeper mathematical understanding.

At the same time, the integration of AI in mathematics education remains an emerging field, requiring both theoretical reflection and empirical investigation. Particular attention is needed to the design of didactical strategies that meaningfully combine digital and traditional resources, ensuring alignment with educational goals and disciplinary specificities.

Potential topics of interest:
The proposed Special Track aims to bring together researchers in mathematics education and university teachers to discuss ongoing research, theoretical perspectives, and documented practices related to the integration of AI and digital technologies in higher mathematics education.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Digital Mathematics Education
• E-learning in Mathematics Teaching
• AI-based tools for feedback and assessment in mathematics
• Integration of AI in mathematics teaching and learning
• Synergy between concrete and digital resources in mathematics education
• Design of hybrid and AI-augmented learning environments
• Data-informed teaching practices in mathematics education

Organisers:

• Andrea Tinterri – Pegaso Online University, Italy
• Massimiliano Andreoletti – Università Cattolica degli Studi, Italy

Aim and Scope:

This track welcomes contributions from researchers and practitioners on topics related to game- and play- based learning in tertiary education, including playful learning, learning by game design, gamification strategies, and use of digital and analogue games. These strategies have been recognized as powerful environments for engaging and effective learning, however their implementation in higher education contexts is still episodic.
This track aims to highlight the state of the art of practice and research on the educational use of play, including:

• case studies and experiences of gameful learning in higher education contexts
• technological innovation in designing, implementing and assessing gameful learning
• gameful learning in digital and hybrid learning environments
• use of AI for instructional design, personalization, evaluation of gameful learning
• use of gameful strategies for training, including faculty development, service and pre-service teacher professional development, and corporate training, media, technology, and AI education
• use of gameful strategies to support student learning, including tutoring, counseling and onboarding
• gameful strategies for inclusion, special needs and personalization strategies
• use of game and play for curriculum development
• gameful learning for vocational training
• therapeutic use of gameful strategies, including rehabilitation
• gameful strategies for physical and mental well-being, health and sport education, and training

The call also explores the use of playful and game-based strategies in non-academic contexts, including use in contexts of marginalization, economical and cultural disadvantage, active ageing, and promotion of well-being and correct lifestyle in the adult population.

Potential topics of interest:

This call is open to multiple research traditions and approaches, including, but not limited to, empirical research, design-based research, mixed methods studies, action research, theoretical or conceptual papers, and practitioner reflections.
The call aims at bridging existing gaps in research between pedagogical theory, instructional design, implementation challenges and practitioner, applied research, promoting an evidence-informed approach to the use of play and games in educational settings. For academics, it creates opportunities to experiment and reflect on practice-grounded research.
For this reason, it welcomes contributions from different fields, including:

• pedagogy and educational psychology
• cultural and sociological studies
• game studies
• instructional design
• game design
• computer science / AI in education
• inclusion and disability
• adult education
• teacher education
• faculty development
• health education / rehabilitation

Organiser:

• Fabio Sorrentino – University of Cagliari

Aim and Scope:

European University Alliances are reshaping higher education through new forms of cross-border collaboration, digital learning, joint teaching, and international student engagement. Within this evolving landscape, virtual exchange and blended mobility are becoming increasingly relevant as pedagogical and organizational models capable of widening participation, fostering intercultural dialogue, and supporting innovative learning experiences beyond traditional physical mobility.
This Special Track aims to explore how higher education institutions design, implement, evaluate, and sustain international learning opportunities that combine online collaboration, blended formats, short-term mobility, and digitally supported transnational teaching. The track welcomes contributions that examine these developments from pedagogical, technological, organizational, evaluative, and policy-related perspectives.
Particular attention will be given to how European University Alliances and similar inter-university ecosystems are experimenting with new educational formats, such as collaborative online international learning, blended intensive programmes, short transnational courses, virtual exchange initiatives, and joint learning pathways. The track is also interested in the ways these models influence student engagement, teaching practices, assessment, recognition of learning, inclusion, and institutional innovation.
The Special Track seeks to gather empirical studies, design-based research, theoretical contributions, policy reflections, and case studies that investigate the opportunities and challenges of digitally supported international higher education. It also aims to promote dialogue between researchers and practitioners working on transnational learning design, mobility innovation, and the future of internationalization in higher education.

Potential topics of interest:
The Special Track welcomes contributions on topics including, but not limited to:

• European University Alliances as ecosystems for educational innovation
• Virtual exchange and Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)
• Blended mobility models in higher education
• Blended Intensive Programmes (BIPs) and short international learning opportunities
• Pedagogical design for transnational and multi-institutional courses
• Student engagement, participation, and sense of belonging in international online learning environments
• Intercultural dialogue and collaborative knowledge-building in digitally mediated settings
• Multilingualism and multicultural learning design
• Assessment and feedback in blended and transnational learning pathways
• Recognition of learning, ECTS, certificates, badges, and micro-credentials
• Quality assurance and evaluation of alliance-based and cross-border programmes
• Student support services in virtual and blended international experiences
• Faculty development for alliance-based teaching and transnational course design
• Digital platforms and learning environments for multi-university collaboration
• The role of AI and digital tools in supporting virtual exchange and blended mobility
• Governance, sustainability, and institutional challenges in cross-border educational initiatives

Organiser:

• Prof. Gaetano Raiola – Pegaso Telematic University
• Prof. Francesca D’Elia – University of Salerno

Aim and Scope:

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into the field of physical exercise, kinesiology and sport is transforming not only professional practices but, crucially, the ways in which teaching, learning and assessment are designed and implemented in higher education. AI‑based tools for biomechanical movement analysis, physiological monitoring, personalized training, injury prevention, and motor rehabilitation are reshaping the competencies required in kinesiology, sport sciences, and related academic programs, while simultaneously opening new opportunities for innovative instructional design, digital pedagogy and technology-enhanced learning.

This Special Track explores the dual role of AI:

1. as a disciplinary content, representing emerging knowledge and skills that students and future professionals must acquire;
2. as an educational methodology, capable of innovating university teaching through data‑driven learning, virtual simulations, AI-supported laboratory activities and online or blended instructional models.

The objective is to foster dialogue among researchers, educators, and kinesiology professionals to support the effective integration of AI into higher education curricula, with a specific focus on pedagogical innovation, digital competence development, and the redesign of teaching and learning processes.

Building on emerging applications in kinesiology, such as wearable devices, predictive models, virtual coaching systems, and computer‑vision‑based movement analysis, the track highlights how these technologies can be embedded into university programs to promote problem‑solving, evidence‑based practice, and hands‑on learning. Ultimately, the track aims to contribute to the development of innovative educational models that prepare students and professionals for the digital transformation of sport and exercise sciences.

The track is explicitly situated within the domain of higher education, examining how AI‑driven kinesiology can reshape university teaching, learning processes, and professional training pathways. Particular attention will be devoted to curriculum innovation, digital skill development, AI‑supported laboratory design, internship supervision through predictive tools, and AI‑enhanced academic assessment.

Contributions presenting teaching experiences, university case studies, course redesigns, online or blended modules, or laboratory‑based experimentation using AI are particularly encouraged, with the aim of demonstrating how digital innovation can enhance the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in higher education.

In addition, the track will address the pedagogical implications of generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs), which represent transformative tools for higher education when implemented within robust pedagogical frameworks. These perspectives reinforce the need for pedagogy-informed integration strategies that ensure GenAI supports, rather than replaces, the embodied and experiential nature of sport and movement education.

Potential topics of interest:
The Special Track welcomes contributions on topics including, but not limited to:

AI for Teaching and Learning in Sport, Kinesiology and Exercise Sciences

• Integration of AI tools into kinesiology curricula
• AI‑supported laboratory activities and practical training
• University internships oriented toward professional use of digital technologies
• AI‑based assessment of motor competencies in higher education
• Virtual simulations, immersive environments, and digital coaching for experiential learning
• Faculty development and training on AI applications in sport sciences
• Pedagogical frameworks for the responsible use of generative AI and LLMs in Physical Exercise, Kinesiology and Sport
• Strategies to balance AI‑assisted learning with embodied and kinesthetic experiences

Biomechanical and Movement Analysis

• Biomechanical assessment of human movement
• Human Pose Estimation
• Markerless motion capture
• Postural analysis
• Functional movement screening
• Computer vision for sport technique evaluation
• Educational applications of biomechanical assessment in university laboratories

Personalization of Exercise Programs

• AI‑driven individualized training design
• Adaptive training systems
• Smart fitness technologies
• Monitoring of training load progression
• Use of AI platforms for practical activities and project‑based learning
• Gen AI for feedback generation, reflection support, and student self‑regulation

Injury Prevention

• Predictive models of musculoskeletal injury risk
• Fatigue monitoring
• Personalized preventive strategies
• Return‑to‑play support
• Educational applications of predictive models in professional training programs

Virtual Coaching and Motivational Support

• Chatbots for physical activity promotion
• Digital coaching systems
• Motivation and adherence to exercise programs
• Integration of virtual coaching into university modules on motor intervention design
• Gen AI for designing motivational strategies and digital behavior‑change interventions