Talks

---

Reflecting on my Thesis
Autoethnography, Academic Research, Higher Education
University of Maryland, 2023
Slides
Autoethnography through analysis of photos, documents, and emails to capture the experience of performing research, and writing a thesis. Developing teaching, reading, and writing skills necessary for an academic career are my motivation for pursuing a thesis option over industry capstone. I share resources and practices that contributed to the completion of the thesis such as latex templates, book recommendations, library workshops, project management techniques, and wellness habits. Time management, imposter syndrome, and aligning committee expectations are challenges with the thesis process. Despite the required work and associated challenges, I ‘enjoyed the ride’ by participating in campus life.

---

“I Feel Like I’m Teaching in a Gladiator Ring”: Barriers and Benefits of Live Coding
Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Science Education, Programming Environments
University of Maryland, April 2023
Human-Computer Interaction Lab Symposium, May 2023
Aarhus University Center for Computational Thinking and Design, September 2023
Slides
Live coding for teaching—synchronously writing software in front of students—can be an effective method for engaging students and instilling practical programming skills. However, not all settings are conducive to live coding and not all instructors are successful in this challenging task. We present results from an interview study involving university instructors, teaching assistants, and students identifying both barriers and benefits of live coding. An equipped physical room, a positive classroom community with psychological safety, and opportunities for teacher development are practical considerations for live coding. We use our findings to derive guidelines for how to design tools to support effective live coding: (1) supporting multiple mechanisms for student engagement, (2) directing attention, (3) implementing real-time collaborative spaces, (4) highlighting errors, and (5) peeking into student editors.

---

Novice Helper: Eclipse Integrated Development Environment Plugin to Support Novice Programmers
Novice Programmers, Error Message Comprehension, Eclipse IDE Plugin
McGill University, November 2017
Slides
Novice Helper, an Eclipse Integrated Development Environment (IDE) Plugin aims to teach young students about computer science and programming by translating Java’s compiler error messages into age appropriate debugging advice embedded with computer science concepts. Unlike other programming comprehension tools targeted towards children that abstract a programming language into drag and drop blocks, Novice Helper does not intend to alter the Java programming language. Instead, Novice Helper works inside the Eclipse IDE and interacts with the Eclipse Problems View. Novice Helper is intended to be used in conjunction with a set of educational exercises that introduce a beginner to variables, types, loops, scope and control flow.