Briana Morrison

About

I am a computer science education researcher and professor. My goal is to make learning programming more accessible to all. My current research interest is in if, when, and how we can apply educational psychology principles like worked examples, subgoal labels, modality, and cognitive load to the computing discipline, specifically in learning how to program.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Machine Learning
• Mathematics education
• Programming language
• Artificial Intelligence
• Psychology
• Data science
• Medical education
• Knowledge management
• Software engineering

Selected publications

• Parsons Problems and Beyond

  2022 · 50 citations

  Programming is a complex task that requires the development of many skills including knowledge of syntax, problem decomposition, algorithm development, and debugging. Code-writing activities are commonly used to help students develop these skills, but the difficulty of writing code from a blank page can overwhelm many novices. Parsons problems offer a simpler alternative to writing code by providing scrambled code blocks that must be placed in the correct order to solve a problem. In the 16 year…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Evidence for Teaching Practices that Broaden Participation for Women in Computing

  2021 · 40 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Computing has, for many years, been one of the least demographically diverse STEM fields, particularly in terms of women's participation [12, 36]. The last decade has seen a proliferation of research exploring new teaching techniques and their effect on the retention of students who have historically been excluded from computing. This research suggests interventions and practices that can affect the inclusiveness of the computer science classroom and potentially improve learning outcomes for all…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Piecing Together the Next 15 Years of Computing Education Research Workshop Report

  Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2 · 2022-02-23 · 4 citations

  article

  The session will present an overview of findings of a recently funded NSF workshop that set out to examine the pressing issues for computing education research for the next 15 years. Based on dialogs for scholars working in this area, the workshop participants developed a series of themes and topics that they felt should become the focus of computing education research efforts for the next 15 years. Main themes that emerged and will be discussed in this session include: diversity, equity, inclus…

  PublisherDOI

• Planning a Multi-institutional and Multi-national Study of the Effectiveness of Parsons Problems

  2022-07-07 · 3 citations

  article

  Programming is a complex task that requires the development of many skills including knowledge of syntax, problem decomposition, algorithm development, and debugging. Code-writing activities are commonly used to help students develop these skills, but the difficulty of writing code from a blank page can overwhelm many novices. Parsons problems offer a simpler alternative to writing code by providing scrambled code blocks that must be placed in the correct order to solve a problem. The extensive…

  PublisherDOI

• K-12 Computing Education and Education Research Resources

  Proceedings of the 53rd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V. 2 · 2022-02-23 · 3 citations

  article

  In this special session, we present tools and resources created from educational theory to make teaching and scholarship easier and more effective. Included in these resources are CS Teachers Association, CSforAll, CS Teaching Tips, CT Pathways Toolkit, EngageCSEdu, CS Assessments Hub, Cybersecurity, and CS Ed Research Resource Center. These tools/resources provide assistance at the district and school level (administrators, curriculum designers), classroom level (teachers), and researcher/evalu…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Developing and Assessing Subgoal Labels for Imperative Programming to Improve Student Learning Outcomes

  NSF · $267k · 2017–2021

Frequent coauthors

• Lauren E. Margulieux

  Georgia State University

  15 shared

• Adrienne Decker

  University at Buffalo, State University of New York

  13 shared

• Mark Guzdial

  Michigan United

  13 shared

• Brad Richards

  Yale University

  9 shared

• Barbara Ericson

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  8 shared

• Carol Zander

  University of Washington Bothell

  8 shared

• Laurie Murphy

  James Cook University

  7 shared

• Kate Sanders

  7 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Computer Science

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  2008

• M.S., Computer Science

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  2003

• B.S., Computer Science

  University of California, Santa Barbara

  2001

Awards & honors

• University of Nebraska Omaha Alumni IS&T Outstanding Teachin…
• Georgia Tech College of Computing Dissertation Award 2018
• Foley Scholars Finalist 2015
• ICER Chairs’ Best Paper Award 2015
• SPSU Outstanding Faculty Award 2002 & 2007

Similar researchers at University of Virginia

• Kevin Skadronh-63
• David Evansh-61
• Qizhe Caih-57