Educators SymposiumMODELS 2026

About

Recent advances in artificial intelligence, particularly large language models (LLMs) and generative AI tools, are beginning to influence how students learn modeling and how educators design curricula. These technologies can assist in generating models, explaining modeling concepts, or providing feedback on modeling exercises, but they also introduce new pedagogical questions. While AI-assisted tools may support learning and productivity, they may also create confusion about authorship, learning outcomes, and the balance between conceptual understanding and tool-supported automation. Understanding how AI can responsibly support modeling education is therefore becoming an important topic for the community.

The 22nd Educators Symposium at MODELS 2026 provides educators, researchers, and practitioners with a forum to discuss educational issues relating to modeling and modeling technologies, and share their experiences in the field.

Topics

• How to engage students in modeling?
• How to integrate modeling across the curriculum, from introduction to programming to senior project and beyond?
• How to enrich the student and instructor experience concerning tools?
• What are the differences between tools for industrial and teaching purposes?
• How to relate or mix theory and practice when teaching modeling?
• What are effective learning and teaching mechanisms for distance and online learning?
• How to teach modeling in blended, virtual, or massive open online courses?
• Is teaching modeling using a collaborative approach feasible?
• How can AI-assisted tools support learning and assessment in modeling courses?
• How should educators address the use of generative AI and LLMs by students when creating models?
• What new pedagogical challenges arise from AI-assisted model generation?

We also invite submissions related to these topics:

• Analysis of teaching methods, use of tools, or games for modeling in the classroom
• Evolution of teaching modeling, and the use of tools in the classroom
• Incorporating a practitioner viewpoint in modeling education
• Learning from the number of available models (e.g., UML models) to teach modeling
• Modeling best practices for beginners
• Teaching global or open-source software engineering modeling
• Teaching model-driven engineering and model management
• Teaching verification and validation through models
• The relation between modeling research and modeling education
• The synergy between informal models and formal models in teaching
• Tool support for an assisted evaluation of modeling labs or assessments
• Tool support for the teaching of modeling
• Use of case studies or explicative examples to teach modeling
• Use of generative AI and large language models to support modeling education
• AI-assisted model generation and model refinement
• Using LLMs for feedback, tutoring, or explanation of modeling concepts
• Empirical studies on how students use AI tools in modeling courses
• Integrating AI-assisted modeling tools into modeling curricula
• Ethical and pedagogical implications of AI use in modeling education

Important Dates

All submission dates are at 23:59 AoE (Anywhere on Earth)

• Paper Submission: July 10, 2026
• Author notification: July 31, 2026
• Camera Ready Due: August 14, 2026

Submission deadlines are hard, i.e., there will be no submission deadline extensions.

Accepted Full Papers

Submission Guidelines

Papers must present original content. Previously published papers, accepted papers, or papers under review for other venues are not eligible for submission to the Educators Symposium 2026.

• Full Papers are expected to contribute research and experience reports, and must be no longer than 10 pages (including figures, tables, and references).
• Extended Abstracts are expected to present position statements addressing the symposium topics. These papers aim to stimulate discussion of teaching modeling at universities and in industry and must not exceed 5 pages (including figures, tables, and references).

Submissions must adhere to the ACM formatting instructions, available for both LaTeX and Word users. LaTeX users must use the provided acmart.cls and ACM-Reference-Format.bst without modification, enable the conference format in the preamble of the document (i.e., \documentclass[sigconf,review]{acmart}), and use the ACM reference format for the bibliography (i.e., \bibliographystyle{ACM-Reference-Format}). The review option adds line numbers, thereby allowing referees to refer to specific lines in their comments.

By submitting to the MODELS Educators Symposium, authors acknowledge that they are aware of and agree to be bound by the ACM Policy and Procedures on Plagiarism. In particular, papers submitted to MODELS 2026 must not have been published elsewhere and must not be under review or submitted for review elsewhere while under consideration for MODELS 2026.

By submitting your article to an ACM Publication, you are hereby acknowledging that you and your co-authors are subject to all ACM Publications Policies, including ACM’s new Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects. Alleged violations of this policy or any ACM Publications Policy will be investigated by ACM and may result in a full retraction of your paper, in addition to other potential penalties, as per ACM Publications Policy.

Please ensure that you and your co-authors obtain an ORCID ID, so you can complete the publishing process for your accepted paper. ACM has been involved with ORCID from the start, and we are committed to collecting ORCID IDs from all of our published authors. We are committed to improving author discoverability, ensuring proper attribution, and contributing to ongoing community efforts to normalize names; your ORCID ID will help with these efforts.

All papers must be submitted electronically in PDF format via Easychair.

Publication

Papers will be reviewed by at least three members of the program committee. We will follow a single-blind reviewing process. The paper selection process will be based on the novelty of the ideas or solutions, the impact of modeling on software development education, and relevance to the symposium topics.

ACM will publish all accepted submissions in the MODELS Companion. Papers are accepted conditional on one author registering for the symposium at the MODELS 2026 conference by the early registration deadline and presenting the paper at the symposium.

Important update on ACMs new open access publishing model for 2026 ACM Conferences!

Starting January 1, 2026, ACM has fully transitioned to Open Access. All ACM publications, including those from ACM-sponsored conferences, will be 100% Open Access. (see https://conf.researchr.org/track/models-2026/models-2026-research-papers#Foundations-Track)

Note for this track: Extended abstracts will be covered by a specific agreement that will not require the payment of any publication fee.