Iris Howley, PhD
Designing & evaluating complex software systems
with a user-centered learning science approach
Designing & evaluating complex software systems
with a user-centered learning science approach
With over a decade of experience managing young software teams, my approach leverages a wide foundation of experiences in human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, and the learning sciences. I apply evidence-based principles from user experience research and learning science to design and evaluate complex software systems enabling user success. Aligning desired user and system outcomes with evaluation metrics from the beginning ensures that the implementation of complex artificial intelligence systems achieves those outcomes.
Years ago I spoke with a data mining engineer in edtech who evaluated success of the system on minutes of video users experienced. This engineer was measuring student learning by proxy via video consumption as a measure of time-on-task, which is known within the learning science research to correlate with student learning. However, time-on-task is not the only, nor the largest factor impacting the engineer's goals of increased student learning. When user understanding is important, aligning one's end goals with assessment and evaluation from both user experience research and the learning sciences is critical.
My research combines human-computer interaction methodologies with an awareness of education research theory. To inform the design of educational technology for learners and instructors I perform user studies to understand human behavior and learning processes in digital learning environments, develop technologies to empower users in their knowledge construction, and evaluate systems by analyzing human behavioral responses and learning with these new approaches.
I am a computer scientist doing research at the overlap of human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, and the learning sciences. My focus is on enabling users to overcome obstacles to effective decision-making and participation through the design of technologies. At the moment, I am researching the design and deployment of interactive explainables for users of algorithmic systems in educational contexts with the support of an NSF grant.
It's an exciting time to be a computer scientist, making it an exciting time to spread the wealth of approaches, applications, and problem domains of the field to the future generations of computer scientists. I am driven by a goal of inclusivity in the classroom which is reflected in my project-based learning and evidence-based teaching philosophy, more of which is described in my page on Guided Inquiry Learning Worksheets.
Courses I teach:
