Pedro Isaías (pedro.isaias@uab.pt) is an associate professor with habilitation at Universidade Aberta (Portuguese Open University) in Lisbon, Portugal. Pedro is also an adjunct associate professor at the Information Systems & Technology Management School of The University of New South Wales (UNSW - Sydney), Australia. Previously he was an associate professor at The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. At Universidade Aberta, he is currently responsible for several courses in the Information Systems areas. At Universidade Aberta, Pedro was director of the master degree program in Management / MBA and also director of the master degree program in Electronic Commerce and Internet for 10 years. He is co-founder and president of IADIS - International Association for Development of the Information Society, a scientific non-profit association. He holds a PhD in Information Management (in the specialty of information and decision systems) from the New University of Lisbon. Author of several books, book chapters, papers and research reports, all in the information systems area, he has headed several conferences and workshops within the mentioned area. He has also been responsible for the scientific coordination of several EU funded research projects. He is also member of the editorial board of several journals and program committee member of several conferences and workshops. Currently he conducts research activity related to MIS in general, and more specifically Learning Technologies, Data Analytics, Business Intelligence, Digital Transformation, e-Business and WWW related areas. He has more than 170 journal articles, book chapters and books to his credit and has received over 3811 citations resulting in an h-index of 31 (Google Scholar, June 2024). Demetrios G. Sampson (sampson@unipi.gr) is a Professor of Digital Systems for Learning and Education, Director of the MSc Program on Digital Learning, and Director of the Research Laboratory DiLearn at the Department of Digital Systems, University of Piraeus, Greece. He has been a Professor and Director of Research at the School of Education, Curtin University in Australia (2015-2017) and a Visiting Professor in 8 Universities in 4 continents. He has been engaged in teaching and research in the field of Learning Technologies and Digital Education since 1996. For his research in this field, he is included in the list of the World’s Top 2% Scientists in 2022 and 2023 in their fields according to the latest Stanford ranking based on Scopus data. He is the co-author of 312 books (2), journal articles (73), book chapters (57), and conference papers (180), and the editor of 100+ books (21), special issues in academic journals (30), and international conference proceedings (49), with more than 9200 citations (h-index: 44). He has received 10 Best Paper Awards in International Conferences on Learning Technologies. He has been a Keynote/Invited Speaker at 100+ International/National Conferences. He has been director, principal investigator and/or research consultant in 70 Research and Innovation projects He has supervised 180 honors and postgraduate students to successful completion. He has also developed the first Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) on the use of Educational Data Analytics by School Teachers ("Analytics for the Classroom Teacher"), offered by the edX platform which has attracted more than 30.000 participants from 180 countries around the world since October 2016. He served as Editor-in-Chief of one of the first open-access journals in educational technology, the Educational Technology & Society Journal (2003-2018). He has also served or serves as a Member of the Steering Committee and/or Advisory and/or Editorial Board of 30 International/National Journals, in various leadership roles in 85 International Conferences, and at the Program Committee of 700 International/National Conferences. He is the recipient of the IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Service Award (July 2012) and named a Golden Core Member of the IEEE Computer Society in recognition of his contribution to the field of Learning Technologies. He is also the recipient of the Golden Nikola Tesla Chain Award of the International Society for Engineering Pedagogy (IGIP) for "International outstanding achievements in the field of Engineering Pedagogy" (September 2018). Dirk Ifenthaler (dirk@ifenthaler.info; www.ifenthaler.info) is the Department Chair of Economic and Business Education as well as Professor of Learning, Design and Technology at the University of Mannheim, Germany and UNESCO Co-Chair on Data Science in Higher Education Learning and Teaching at Curtin University, Australia. His previous roles include Professor and Inaugural Director at the Centre for Research in Digital Learning at Deakin University, Australia, Manager of Applied Research and Learning Analytics at Open Universities, Australia, and Professor for Applied Teaching and Learning Research at the University of Potsdam, Germany. He was a 2012 Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education, at the University of Oklahoma, USA. Dirk’s research focuses on the intersection of cognitive psychology, educational technology, data analytics, and organisational learning. His research outcomes include numerous co-authored books, book series, book chapters, journal articles, and international conference papers, as well as successful grant funding in Australia, Germany, and USA – see Dirk’s website for a full list of scholarly outcomes at www.ifenthaler.info. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the Springer journal Technology, Knowledge and Learning (www.springer.com/10758). He received the 2016 and 2024 Outstanding International Research Collaboration Award from AERA (American Educational Research Association), the 2015 and 2021 Presidential Award from AECT (Association for Educational Communications and Technology), and the 2012 Outstanding Journal Article Award from AECT, as well as the 2006 Outstanding Dissertation Award by the University of Freiburg, Germany. He published more than 300 journal articles, book chapters and books and has received over 11,700 citations resulting in an h-index of 50 (Google Scholar, June 2024).
