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Benjamin Xie he/they

Postdoctoral Scholar

University of Washington Information School

I design for data equity.

I am a postdoc at the University of Washington Information School, advised by Prof. Amy J. Ko in the Code & Cognition Lab. My research interest is in designing interactive tools that support equity in computing education by contextualizing data about students with data from students.

During my PhD, I was a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow and also a research intern at non-profit Code.org. I was an MIT EECS-Google Research and Innovation Scholar during my time as a student at MIT researching with Prof. Hal Abelson and MIT App Inventor.

For more information, see about me, projects, or CV.

Interests

  • Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
  • Computing Education
  • Critical Data Studies
  • Artificial Intelligence in Education
  • Psychometrics

Education

  • PhD in Information Science, 2021

    University of Washington

  • MEng in Computer Science, 2016

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • BS in Computer Science, 2015

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology

News

Feb 2022: Paper published to CSCW 2022 / PACMHCI!

Journal article titled ‘Surfacing Equity Issues in Large Computing Courses with Peer-Ranked, Demographically-Labeled Student Feedback’ published to PACMHCI and will be presented at CSCW 2022! see paper

Nov 2021: Defended my dissertation! 🎓

I successfully defended my dissertation on ‘Stakeholders’ Interpretations of Data for Equitable Computing Education.’ more info

Jul 2021: Presented at UW DUB Seminar

I presented my work on curriculum designers’ interpretations of test bias data at the UW DUB seminar on HCI and design. see recording

May 2021: Awarded Husky 100

Awarded to 100 students across UW’s three campuses who make the most of their time. see announcement

Projects

Modeling thoughts processes to provide more equitable practice writing code

Using keystroke logging to provide metacognitive intreventions for novice programmers.

StudentAmp: Contextualized student feedback to amplify minoritized voices in computing courses

StudentAmp contextualized student feedback so teaching teams of large, remote computing courses could interpret it more equitably.

Improving equity of Code.org's CS Discoveries curriculum

Investigating how Code.org CS Discoveries curriculum serves different sub-populations to improve the equity of learning experiences and outcomes.

Codeitz: An adaptive learning experience that lets learners decide

Designing for learner agency in self-directed online learning experiences

Improving computer science education w/ explicit instruction

Providing explicit instrutions to make introductory programming more approachable.

Recent Papers

Surfacing Equity Issues in Large Computing Courses with Peer-Ranked, Demographically-Labeled Student Feedback

Developed and evaluated StudentAmp, a tool that contextualized student feedback to enable teaching teams to perspective take for more equitable interpretation of student feedback data.
PDF DOI supplementary info

Stakeholders' Interpretations of Data for Equitable Computing Education

Interactions with data that consider prior knowledge, perceptions of power relationships, and cultural competency can enable computing education stakeholders to connect their interpretations of data with their domain expertise in service of equity-oriented goals.
PDF Slides summary (2 pgs) extended abstract (10 pgs)

Interpretations and Uses of Data for Equity in Computing Education

My submission and poster for the ICER 2021 Doctoral Consortium provided an overview of the three main projects of my dissertation. Combined, these projects are design explorations of how stakeholders (students, teachers, curriculum designers) can interpret and use data to support equity-oriented goals.
PDF Poster

Domain Experts' Interpretations of Assessment Bias in a Scaled, Online Computer Science Curriculum

Explored a new use of Differential Item Functioning (DIF) where domain experts (Code.org curriculum designers) interpreted data on potential test bias by gender and race.
PDF DOI supplementary info

How data can support equity in computing education

Describing techniques I used in my dissertation to use data to support equity in computing education.
PDF DOI
See all publications

Recent Posts

Hire me as a postdoc or research scientist!

I’m seeking postdoc opportunities related to data equity & education!
Last updated on Sep 15, 2021 5 min read postdoc search

Job Calls for Research in CS & STEM Edu, HCI

Sharing a spreadsheet of job calls related to computing edu, STEM edu, HCI & edu research
Last updated on Sep 17, 2021 1 min read postdoc search

Contact

My preferred medium of communication is Slack direct message. I’m active on the following Slack organizations:

If you’re not part of those Slack organizations, please reach out to me by email or on Twitter.

My lab is in Mary Gates Hall (MGH) 015. I’m working remotely. Catch you on Zoom!