Professor
School of Education

Learning Technologies, Research-Practice Partnerships, Human-Computer Interaction, Educational Technology, Data Use and Analytics

ahnjune.com/

My core research interest is understanding how technology and information can enhance the way we learn and deliver education. I do this work in a few ways:

(1) I’m interested in enduring questions about broadening participation and creating more equitable learning pathways for learners in STEM fields. For example, how can new technologies and learning environments (games, social media etc.) be designed to capture the interest and engagement of more learners? And how can education systems and communities stitch together experiences to help young people identify more deeply with a domain (e.g., science)?

(2) I develop research-practice partnerships (RPPs) with schools, teachers, and community-based organizations to ground the above research questions in projects that solve real problems of practice for partners, and also design rich contexts to develop scholarly knowledge.

I utilize my expertise in design methodologies to co-develop new learning technologies, environments, and socio-technical systems to promote equitable opportunities for learners. My collaborators and I then utilize a variety of methodologies, ranging from qualitative case studies to quantitative modeling of data, to understand the efficacy and impact of our designs.

My work sometimes touches on design (creating the technology and learning environments), understanding learners, and the broader societal contexts (e.g. social inequalities, education institutions) within which learning happens with technology.

For a comprehensive list of papers, please visit my website or view my CV.

Sample publications:

Ahn, J., Campos, F., Nguyen, H., Hays, M., & Morrison, J. (2021). Co-designing for privacy, transparency, and trust in k-12 learning analytics. Proceedings of the 11th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference – LAK21. New York, NY: ACM Press.

Ahn, J., Campos, F., Hays, M., & DiGiacomo, D. (2019). Designing in context: Reaching beyond usability in learning analytics dashboard design. Journal of Learning Analytics, 6(2), 70-85.

Ahn, J., Clegg, T., Yip, J., Bonsignore, E., Pauw, D., Cabrera, L., Hernly, K., Pitt, C., Mills, K., Salazar, A., Griffing, D., Rick, J., & Marr, R. (2018). Science Everywhere: Designing public, tangible displays to connect youth learning across settings. In Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems – CHI 2018. New York, NY: ACM.

Ahn, J., & McEachin, A. (2017). Student enrollment patterns and achievement in Ohio’s online charter schools. Educational Researcher, 46(1), 44-57.

Ahn, J., Clegg, T., Yip, J., Bonsignore, E., Pauw, D., & Gubbels, M. (2016). Seeing the unseen learner: Designing and using social media to recognize children’s science dispositions in action. Learning, Media, and Technology, 41(2), 252-282.

Ahn, J., Beck, A., Rice, J., & Foster, M. (2016). Exploring issues of implementation, equity, and student achievement with educational software in the DC Public Schools. AERA Open, 2(4), 1-10.

Ahn, J., Webster, S., & Butler, B. S. (2015). Open education in the wild: The dynamics of course production in the peer 2 peer university. Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2015).

Ahn, J. (2012). Teenagers’ experiences with social network sites: Relationships to bridging and bonding social capital. The Information Society, 28(2), 99-109.

Subramaniam, M. M., Ahn, J., Fleischmann, K. R., & Druin, A. (2012). Re-imagining the role of school libraries in stem education: Creating hybrid spaces for exploration. The Library Quarterly, 82(2), 161-182.

Researcher-Practitioner Partnership: Designing Crowdsourced Mentorship to Support Low-Income High School Students’ College Enrollment. 2018-2020. Amount: $396,817. Funder: Institute of Education Sciences

Here to Here: Partnerships to Develop Pathways to Prosperity for Youth in the South Bronx. 2017-2020. Amount: $1,200,000. Funder: Dimon Family Foundation

Digital Learning Challenge – Partnership and Community Development for Informal Learning Opportunities. 2017-2018. Amount: $332,931. Funder: Susan Crown Exchange

CS-EDU Visions: Building Multi-Level Alignment in Local CS4All Implementation for Sustainability. 2017-2019. Amount: $299,823. Funder: National Science Foundation

Collaborative Research: Improving the Implementation of Rigorous Instructional Materials in Middle Grades Mathematics: Developing a System of Practical Measures and Routines. 2016-2021. Amount: $5,000,000. (part of collaborative grant with University of Washington, Vanderbilt, and UC Riverside). Funder: National Science Foundation

Researcher-Practitioner Partnership: Blended Learning at Scale – Implementation and Analysis of Student Achievement in District of Columbia Public Schools. 2015-2017. Amount: $400,000. Funder: Institute of Education Sciences

DIP: ScienceKit for ScienceEverywhere – A Seamless Scientizing Ecosystem for Raising Scientifically-Minded Children. 2014-2018. Amount: $1,350,000. Funder: National Science Foundation

Collaborative Research: Advancing Informal STEM Learning through Scientific Alternate Reality Games. 2013-2016. Amount: $1,520,832.(part of collaborative grant with Brigham Young University) Funder: National Science Foundation

RAPID: Understanding and Designing Community Dynamics in a Massively Open Online Course Platform, the Peer 2 Peer University. 2012-2014. Amount: $178,000. Funder: National Science Foundation

Developing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Identities through Participation in Science-Infused Media and Virtual Peer Networks. 2011-2014. Amount: $550,000. Funder: National Science Foundation

Orange County Educational Advancement Network: Facilitating a Network of RPPs at County Scale to Better Support Housing Insecure and Foster Youth. 2020-2022. Amount: $400,000. Funder: Spencer Foundation

Fraction Ball: Embodied Fraction and Decimal Learning. 2020-2023. Amount: $1,250,000. New Schools Venture Fund.

Playful Learning Landscapes: Promoting Informal STEM Learning in Public Spaces. 2020-2024. Amount: $2,574,937. Funder: National Science Foundation.

Evaluation and Practical Measures for Research-Practice Partnership Networks: The Equitable Futures Network for Youth Occupational Identity. 2020-2023. Amount: $500,000. Funder: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Career Pathways for Research in Learning and Education, Analytics and Data Science (CP-LEADS). 2021-2026. Amount: $1,560,000. Funder: Institute of Education Sciences.

A Southern California Regional RPP Network for the Comparative Study of Research Use in Anti-Racist Partnerships. 2021-2024. Amount: $600,000. Funder: William T. Grant Foundation.

Co-designing Technology with Latinx Families to Promote Playful Learning in the City. 2021-2024. Amount: $662,778. Funder: Heising-Simons Foundation.

Director, Design & Partnership Lab. UCI School of Education.

Director, Orange County Educational Advancement Network (OCEAN), UCI School of Education

Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6455

Last updated
01/17/2023