WI2023 – Track: Digital Education & Learning

Track description

The track welcomes research about “Digital Education”, which discusses the influence of digitalization from a companies perspective and from the perspective of educational institutions such as universities. This involves both the influence of digital tools on the design of learning processes such as blended learning solutions, flipped classroom, SPOCs or MOOCs. In addition, this track invites for studies discussing competencies and skills that learners need in the digital age in order to be successful in the labor market and welcomes research that discusses how these competencies and skills can be systematically supported by technology. This involves a critical representation of the opportunities offered by digitization in supporting individuals to learn (digital) competencies, and adapting business processes and business models. Additionally, new risks arise. Risks include a loss of data and competencies e.g. connected to employees that are leaving a company after a long time. Companies must design and manage digital workplaces in such a way that employees can train their competencies. At the same time, organizations need to develop the necessary skills to use their employees’ knowledge effectively. At the same time, educational institutions must actively adapt teaching-learning formats to identify new concepts and methods to support learner competencies.

Against the backdrop of the increasing importance of digitization, this track also welcomes research with disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), virtual and augmented realities, etc. Among studies that use a design science approach, we welcome work using qualitative as well as quantitative or experimental approaches.

Track Topics

Topics include but are not limited to:  

  • Individual, digital competencies (e.g., privacy literacy, data competencies, media literacy).
  • Approaches to support of digital competencies in educational institutions as well as organizations
  • New approaches for designing teaching concepts in the age of digitalization
  • Open educational resources (e.g., effective integration and quality assurance)
  • AI-based systems in (higher) education as well as for learning at the workplace 
  • Serious gaming and gamification to support digital learning
  • Digital workspaces and knowledge management
  • Development of hybrid intelligence between humans and AI-based systems
  • Nudging for learning in the (digital) workplace
  • Tutoring systems/educational agents in the workplace
  • Digital approaches to support learning processes, for example, scaffolding

Track Chairs

Jan Marco Leimeister

Universität St. Gallen

Jan Marco Leimeister is Full Professor and Director at the Institute of Information Systems, University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. He is furthermore Full Professor and Director of the Research Center for Information System Design (ITeG) at the University of Kassel, Germany. His research covers Digital Business, Digital Transformation, Service Engineering and Service Management, Crowdsourcing, Digital Work, Collaboration Engineering and IT Innovation Management. He is member of the committees of several high-ranking IS journals, such as associate editor of the European Journal of Information Systems, senior editor of the Journal of Information Technology, member of the editorial board of the Journal of Management Information Systems, and member of the department editorial board and section editor of the Journal Business & Information Systems Engineering.

Sofia Schöbel

Universität Osnabrück

Sofia Schöbel is an Assistant Professor in information systems at the University of Osnabrück. She has obtained her PhD about gamification in digital learning from the University of Kassel. Her research focuses on persuasive system design, designing smart personal assistants, digital transformation of services and data science. Her research has been published in different outlets such as the European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS), Communications of the AIS or in leading information systems conferences such as ICIS or ECIS.

Andreas Janson

Universität St. Gallen

Andreas Janson is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Information Management (IWI-HSG) at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. He obtained his PhD from the University of Kassel, Germany, focusing on understanding and design of digital learning processes. His research focuses on service design, smart personal assistants, decision-making in digital environments, and digital learning. In the field of digital learning, Andreas Janson researches in particular approaches to support learning processes, for example scaffolding through AI-based systems. His research has been published in leading information systems and management journals such as the Journal of the Association for Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, and Academy of Management Learning & Education.

Niels Pinkwart

HU Berlin und DFKI

Niels Pinkwart studied Computer Science and Mathematics in a teacher education program at the University of Duisburg. Here, he also completed his PhD studies in 2005 with a dissertation on collaborative modeling systems in education. After a post-doctoral researcher position at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, he accepted offers for Assistant Professor and Associate Professor positions at Clausthal University of Technology. In 2013, he moved to Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin where he heads the research group “Computer Science Education / Computer Science and Society”. His research interests are at the intersection of digitalization, education and societal/organizational change. In addition to his activities at HU Berlin, Prof. Pinkwart acts as Scientific Director of the Educational Technology Lab at DFKI Berlin and as Principal Investigator of the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society (German Internet Institute). Within the German Computer Science Association, Prof. Pinkwart is currently member of the steering committee of the section on educational technologies.


Associate Editors

  • Roman Rietsche, Universität St. Gallen
  • Sebastian Hobert, Universität Göttingen
  • Christian Koldewey, Universität Paderborn
  • Thomas Grisold, Universität Liechtenstein
  • Mateusz Dolata, Universität Zürich
  • Michael Breitner, Universität Hannover
  • Bastian Kordyaka, Universität Siegen
  • Dirk Ifenthaler, Universität Mannheim
  • Edona Elshan, Universität St. Gallen 
  • Thiemo Wambsgans – EPFL Lausanne
  • Ernestine Dickhaut, Universität Kassel