The EC-TEL Doctoral Consortium is part of the EC-TEL since its beginning in 2005 and is part of the doctoral program of the European Association of Technology Enhanced Learning (EA-TEL). Besides the Doctoral Consortium, this program includes the JTEL Summer School. Together, these two events have been shaping and enriching the experiences of many young researchers on their PhD journey, leading to a community that addresses the transdisciplinary challenges of our field. This volume contains papers presented at the Doctoral Consortium of the Seventeenth European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL 2022) held on September 12, 2022, in Toulouse, France. There were 12 proposals submitted and reviewed by at least two doctoral consortium program committee members and one doctoral candidate (peer). All 12 proposals were found eligible to be presented at the Doctoral Consortium event and were accepted to be published as full papers in the Doctoral Consortium proceedings. The papers in this volume completed the full reflection cycle that is characteristic of the EC-TEL Doctoral Consortium. The EC-TEL Doctoral Consortium is designed as a training event for PhD candidates that seeks to improve the quality of their research. Junior research students are offered a comfortable networking-oriented space to present their theses advances, discuss their research plans with peers and more experienced researchers and further improve their writing and presentation skills. Besides an emphasis on gathering constructive feedback, the Doctoral Consortium provides a platform to explore and reflect on issues regarding methodology, research-related topics, supervision and career-related aspirations. This process starts with expressing the own research project and identifying the limitations and challenges of the present stage. The initial submissions were reviewed by the program committee. To strengthen the learning experience, every doctoral candidate had to review one other submission. The submission provides the foundation for the presentations at the Doctoral Consortium. The day was structured into four thematic sessions, each session consisting of presentations from three candidates followed by breakout groups in which each candidate received detailed feedback. Participants also had the opportunity to present their work as a poster at the main conference, which creates a unique opportunity to engage in discussions with the wider research community attending the conference. The PhD candidates received timely and relevant feedback, which needed to be addressed when preparing for the proceedings. All papers included in these proceedings have been reworked to address the comments of the reviewers and the participants of the event. The submissions to this year's doctoral consortium show the continued relevance for PhD candidates to get qualitative feedback on their projects beyond the level of research papers. Receiving submissions from countries across and beyond Europe, the EC-TEL Doctoral Consortium shows its international relevance and potential impact. The variety of topics with both technological and educational focus represented at the doctoral consortium once again highlights the highly multidisciplinary nature of the TEL field. This is complemented by EATEL's activities for building the doctoral community including the series of webinars organized by the DETEL EU project.
We would like to express our gratitude to all senior researchers involved in the reviewing process. Especially, we would like to thank them for attending the Doctoral Consortium and for their valuable comments during the event. Finally, we are grateful to the conference organisers for supporting this event and for arranging the logistical and administrative side of this Doctoral Consortium. We wish all PhD candidates a rewarding and productive continuation of their PhD journey.
Daniele Di Mitri
Jan Schneider Zacharoula Papamitsiou Mikhail Fominykh