The EATEL summer school is a week-long intensive training event for PhD candidates working in the field of Technology-Enhanced Learning. The summer school is hosted in a different European country every year, but open for participants from all countries.

The EATEL summer school is a non-profit event. The registration fee covers accommodation, meals, social program, and printed materials.

The EATEL summer school does not have a strict separation between instructions and participants. Usually, out of 100 participants, around 50 are co-authoring sessions.

The programme of activities offered at the summer school changes annually, reacting to evaluation results of the previous edition, while also implementing new and experimental ideas. Nevertheless, over the years, a stable common framework has emerged, which covers six distinct session types. The programme of the summer school is compiled combining sessions selected from submissions to an open call for instructors with ‘standard’ sessions from the framework, added by the organisers. 

All thematic workshops are proposed via the call for instructors, whereas, typically, all keynotes and informal sessions are added by the organisers. Methodological, soft-skills, and career workshops are mixed-initiative. Some workshops come through via the open call, some are added by the organisers. PhD candidates co-design the programme, submitting workshops, often collaboratively with supervisors or peers.