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Department of Computer Science

Computing Education Research

Computing education research investigates how people learn and teach computing, from computational thinking and introductory programming to advanced digital topics and skills. It brings together education, technology, and human-centered design to improve learning, broaden participation, and support teaching in a rapidly changing world.
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Computing education research focuses on how people study and learn computing, and how studying and learning can be supported by designing and implementing new pedagogical practices and educational software or hardware tools. Moreover, the field explores how computing can be taught more effectively, accessibly, and equitably. These include questions, such as how students learn programming, problem solving, and computational thinking; which factors impact their motivation and attitudes to studying computing; how teachers can best support learning; and how courses, tools, and learning environments can be designed to help a wide range of learners succeed. The field draws on methods from education, computing sciences, psychology, sociology, and learning analytics to better understand learning processes and improve educational practice.

Researchers in this area study topics such as programming pedagogy, feedback and assessment, online and large-scale learning, student engagement, and the use of artificial intelligence and digital tools in teaching and learning. Moreover, as computing becomes increasingly important across different societies and cultures, computing education research also addresses broader challenges such as inclusion and diversity. The goal is to help more people learn computing, while ensuring that learning is meaningful, responsible, and relevant in a world where computing is part of everyday life.

Research Groups

Latest publications

Paul Denny, Kaitlin Riegel, Andrew Luxton-Reilly, Juho Leinonen, James Prather, Stephen MacNeil 2026 ACE 2026 - Proceedings of the 28th Australasian Computing Education Conference

Ruth Dimes, Charl de Villiers, Paul Denny, Juho Leinonen 2026 Business Strategy and the Environment

Nickolas Falkner, Leo Leppänen, Juho Leinonen 2026 ITiCSE 2026 - Proceedings of the 31st ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1

Arto Hellas, Andrew Petersen 2026 SIGCSE TS 2026 - Proceedings of the 57th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education V.1

Panu Korpela, Lauri Malmi 2026 Computers and Education Open

Charlie Koutcheme, Juho Leinonen, Arto Hellas 2026 Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on Educational Data Mining

Viraj Kumar, Paul Denny, Juho Leinonen, James Prather, Stephen MacNeil 2026 ACE 2026 - Proceedings of the 28th Australasian Computing Education Conference

Tsvetomila Mihaylova, Jing Fan, Bita Akram, Narges Norouzi, Peter Brusilovsky, Juho Leinonen, Arto Hellas 2026 2026 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)

Tsvetomila Mihaylova, Evanfiya Logacheva, Arto Hellas, Jing Fan, Francisco Castro, Bita Akram, Narges Norouzi, Peter Brusilovsky, Juho Leinonen 2026 Proceedings of the 21st Workshop on Innovative Use of NLP for Building Educational Applications (BEA 2026)

Rose Niousha, Samantha Boatright Smith, Bita Akram, Peter Brusilovsky, Arto Hellas, Juho Leinonen, John DeNero, Narges Norouzi 2026 Artificial Intelligence in Education - 27th International Conference, AIED 2026, Proceedings
More information on our research in the Aalto research portal.
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