Puffin Lab
Designing engaging, scalable educational tools at the intersection of HCI and computing education.
What
Puffin Lab (participation, understanding, feedback, and interaction for novices) studies how to design engaging, scalable educational tools for computing, especially for novice learners.
Why
Computing education faces a dual challenge: keeping learners engaged while ensuring they develop deep understanding. Our work addresses this by designing tools grounded in learning science and validated through rigorous evaluation.
Approach
We combine qualitative lab studies with large-scale classroom and field studies. We draw on learning theories from computing education and human-centered design methods from HCI.
Research Themes
Our work focuses on these interconnected research areas.
AI-Supported Learning
Research and development in this area.
Feedback & Assessment
Research and development in this area.
Scaffolding & Practice
Research and development in this area.
Participatory Design with Educators
Research and development in this area.
Featured Projects
Current research projects at the intersection of HCI and computing education.
CodeTailor
LLM-powered personalized Parsons puzzles that adapt to each learner's needs, providing engaging support while learning programming.
Learn more →SQL Puzzles
Evaluating micro Parsons problems with different feedback types as practice for novices learning database querying.
Learn more →AI-Supported Programming Learning Tools
Understanding learner and instructor needs in AI-supported programming environments to inform design of adaptive features and control mechanisms.
Learn more →Recent Updates
Latest news and updates from the lab.
- Recruiting PhD students for Fall 2026
- Paper accepted to AIED 2025
- Puffin Lab launches at University of Maine
Recent Updates
Latest news and updates from the lab.
Research
- Recruiting PhD students for Fall 2026
- Paper accepted to AIED 2025
Social
- Puffin Lab launches at University of Maine