Research

I create methods and tools for research translation in computing education, helping promising advances in research reach learners and educators everywhere. My specialty is translating findings and prototypes from CER into classroom-ready prototypes for adult technical education.

Computing Education Research as a Translational Transdiscipline + video

The field of Computing Education Research (CER) produces important insights into learning and notable interventions, yet due to the research/practice divide these do not have the desired impact on learners or practitioners. Even within CER, Computing Education (CE) learning theories have limited influence on learning designs due to the theory/design divide, which is unfortunate given that the goal of CER is to impact learners and broaden access to computation.

There is a lack of an overarching model defining CER as a unified field and providing a framework for discussion. While there is discussion around many of the core activities and practices in CER, we have yet to come across a holistic characterisation. We introduce a model of Translational Computing Education Research (TCER) that helps to understand and discuss CER as a field, bridge the divides and provide internal structure, while also making the field more approachable for interdisciplinary and non-academic collaborators. In our TCER model, theory and design are equally important but weighted differently depending on an activity’s position along the research/practice continuum.

In addition to the future exploration and exploitation of the presented TCER model, we propose further characterising CER as a field, applying the TCER model to understand past and contemporary CER, applying the model to address current challenges in CER, imagining what the field can become, as well as exploring the potential for translational research programmes to maximise the broader impact of computing education research.

Codeschool in a Box: A Low-barrier Approach to Packaging Programming Curricula

The tech industry is a fast-growing field, with many companies facing issues in finding skilled workers to fill their open vacancies. At the same time, many people have limited access to the quality education necessary to enter this job market. To address this issue, various small and often volunteer-run non-profit organisations have emerged to up-skill capable learners. However, these organisations face tight constraints and many challenges while trying to design and deliver high-quality education to their learners. In this position paper, we discuss some of these challenges and present a preliminary version of a curriculum packager addressing some of these issues. Our proposed solution, inspired by first-hand experience in these organisations as well as computing education research (CER), is based on a combination of micromaterials, study lenses and a companion mobile application. While our solution is designed for the specific context of small organisations providing vocational ICT training, it can also be applied to the broader domain of learning environments facing similar constraints.

Explorotron: an IDE Extension for Guided and Independent Code Exploration and Learning + video

We introduce the Explorotron Visual Studio Code extension for guided and independent code exploration and learning. Explorotron is a continuation of earlier work carried out to explore how we can enable small organisations with limited resources to provide pedagogically sound learning experiences in programming. We situate Explorotron in the field of Computing Education Research (CER) and envision it to initiate a discussion around different topics, including how to balance the optimisation between the researcher-student-teacher trifecta that is inherent in CER, how to ethically and responsibly use large language models (LLMs) in the independent learning and exploration by students, and how to define better learning sessions over coding content that students obtained on their own. We further reflect on the question raised by Begel and Ko whether technology should structure learning for learners or whether learners should be taught how to structure their own independent learning outside of the classroom.

Sessions and Panels at the Migration Summit ‘23

And, my notes

Automated Questionnaires About Students’ JavaScript Programs: Towards Gauging Novice Programming Processes + qlcjs libarary.

By Teemu, inspired by Study Lenses