About me
Hello! I am a PhD candidate at Carnegie Mellon University in the
Human-Computer Interaction Institute. My advisors are
Vincent Aleven
and Christopher Jones, and my committee
members are
Sara Kiesler and
Randall
Hill, Director of the Institute for Creative Technologies at the
University of Southern California.
I investigate how interactive environments can support deep
learning in the domain of cultural knowledge, and the role that games play
in education. Previously, my work focused on how scaffolding
online viewing of cultural film clips can increase the productiveness of
online discussion. My recent work has shifted from observing behaviors in film to virtual environments
that let students behave in culturally appropriate ways. Specifically,
I investigate how to increase social motivation to help students learn
more deeply from virtual characters in an educational game.
Before beginning my Ph.D., I worked as a research programmer on the
Geometry Explanation Tutor for the Pittsburgh Advanced Cognitive Tutor
Center. Prior to this, I received a B.S. at Carnegie Mellon
with University Honors, with majors in Computer Science, Spanish, and
Human-Computer Interaction.