Special Session Guidelines

The 2024 conference will offer special, peer-reviewed workshops and panels during the technical sessions. Special sessions are creative, non-traditional, interactive ways to engage engineering and computing education professionals at the frontiers of education. These sessions are approximately ~80 minutes long and should be of value to FIE Conference attendees, enhance the experience and knowledge of the session participants, and help advance the frontiers of engineering and computing education. The Technical Program Committee (TPC) may ask facilitators/authors to modify their submission to Pre-conference Workshops based on the availability of special session slots, the peer-reviewed results, or the fit with the conference’s program.

Approval Procedure

To be approved to offer a special session, facilitators/authors will need to 1) submit a special session proposal abstract (800-1000 words) via the conference submission website and 2) if the abstract is approved, submit a paper (4-6 pages) that provides sufficient detail to give attendees a sense of what to expect during the session and motivate them to attend.

The special session proposal abstract will be reviewed to determine if it is an appropriate fit for the FIE conference. If the proposal passes the first review, the facilitators/authors will be invited to submit a full paper draft that conforms to the required IEEE format for the conference. This full paper will undergo a more thorough, second round of peer review. Following the second round of peer-review, facilitators/authors will be notified of acceptance/rejection and any final requested edits before final paper submission. Please see the conference website for a list of relevant deadlines.

Expected Content

Both the special session proposal abstracts (800-1000 words) and the full papers (4-6 pages) must include each of the elements listed below. An approximate word count for each section of a proposal abstract is provided and can be scaled for the full paper, if accepted.

Goals of the Special Session: List of goals and how these goals align with the goals of FIE (approximately 100 words)
Anticipated Audience: A description of the anticipated audience and and why they would be interested in the session (approximately 100 words)
Topics/Subjects: A description of the special session, including the topics/subjects/content of the session in the context of the relevant literature (approximately 200-300 words)
Justification: A justification for why the proposed session is novel and/or thought-provoking (approximately 100 words)
Agenda: An explanation of the interaction expected during the session and a session agenda that includes details and approximate time allotted for each activity, up to 80 minutes total (approximately 150 words)
Expected Outcomes: A description of the expected outcomes, and future work because of this session (approximately 50 words)
Qualification: Brief biographies describing the expertise of the facilitators/speakers/panelists/organizers (approximately 100 words)

Additional Information

All individuals involved in organizing and presenting during a special session are expected to register for the conference. Additionally, because special sessions are partly evaluated based on the expertise of the facilitators, special session submissions should be prepared for single-blind review (i.e., the authors and affiliations should be identified in the submission).

Papers should adhere to the required IEEE format (https://www.ieee.org/conferences/publishing/templates.html) for the conference. Templates are available on the conference website.