Faculty Directory
Eleanor O'Rourke

Associate Professor of Computer Science

Associate Professor of Education and Social Policy

Contact

2233 Tech Drive
Mudd Room 3523
Evanston, IL 60208-3109

Email Eleanor O'Rourke

Website

Eleanor O'Rourke's website

Departments

Computer Science

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Education

Ph.D. Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

M.S. Computer Science & Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

B.S. Computer Science and Spanish, Colby College, Waterville, ME


Research Interests

My research sits at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction, Artificial Intelligence, and the Learning Sciences. My interests in this area are broad, but I am particularly excited about designing, building, and studying learning environments that help students develop motivation and effective practices in computer science. Some of my recent projects include: (1) studying how students beliefs and expectations about programming shape their motivation and learning strategies, (2) building AI models to automatically detect moments when students may feel badly about their programming ability as they write code, and (3) designing learner-centered inspection tools to help novice web developers learn from authentic professional websites. I take a deeply interdisciplinary approach in my research, collecting data from a variety of sources (e.g., interviews, observations, surveys, interaction logs, sensors) and applying mixed methods (e.g., design-based research, grounded theory, lab studies, formal experiments) to better understand students and design innovative learning environments. This work is funded by the National Science Foundation and Google.


Selected Publications

  • Li, Yinmiao; Chen, Melissa; Hunt, Ayse; Zhang, Haoqi; O'Rourke, Eleanor, Exploring the Interplay of Metacognition, Affect, and Behaviors in an Introductory Computer Science Course for Non-Majors, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc (2024).
  • Chen, Melissa; Li, Yinmiao; O'Rourke, Eleanor, Understanding the Reasoning behind Students' Self-Assessments of Ability in Introductory Computer Science Courses, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc (2024).
  • Gorson, Jamie; Cunningham, Kathryn; Worsley, Marcelo; O'Rourke, Eleanor, Using Electrodermal Activity Measurements to Understand Student Emotions While Programming, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc (2022).
  • Kwik, Harrison; Zhang, Haoqi; O'rourke, Eleanor, How Do Students Seek Help and How Do TAs Respond? Investigating Help-Seeking Strategies in CS1 Office Hours, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc (2022).
  • Cunningham, Kathryn; Qiao, Yike; Feng, Alex; O'Rourke, Eleanor, Bringing "high-level" Down to Earth, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc (2022).
  • Gorson, Jamie; O'Rourke, Eleanor Mary, How do students talk about intelligence? An Investigation of Motivation, Self-efficacy, and Mindsets in Computer Science, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc:21-29 (2019).
  • Shi, Joshua; Shah, Armaan; Hedman, Garrett; O'Rourke, Eleanor Mary, Pyrus, Association for Computing Machinery (2019).
  • O'Rourke, Eleanor Mary; Butler, Eric; Díaz Tolentino, Armando; Popović, Zoran, Automatic generation of problems and explanations for an intelligent algebra tutor, Springer Verlag:383-395 (2019).