What do I do?

I am a programming teacher and a computing education researcher.

Computing education research (CER) is research on how people learn computing and how we might improve that learning. It is a branch of discipline-based education research. No, that doesn’t involve raps across the knuckles.

My original background is in computer science, but for many years already, my work has been multidisciplinary. I draw on theories of learning and educational psychology as I teach and as I research the teaching and learning of programming.

In my spare time, I enjoy pinches of salt, calling kettles black, and writing footnotes.

Research

My research interests within CER include: the learning and teaching of introductory programming (especially at the university level), learners’ understandings of programming concepts, cognitive approaches to CER, program visualization, phenomenography, and learning environments and tools.

I am part of the Learning + Technology research group. For a list of my publications, please see this page.

To students: If you might be interested in doing a B.Sc. or M.Sc. thesis or even a doctoral degree related to computing education or the psychology of programming, feel free to drop me an email and we can discuss.

Social media (not work-related; only in Finnish)

Joskus sanoittelen lauluja tai kirjoittelen jotain tyhmää: https://twitter.com/lauluompelimo

Selected projects

• an introductory programming course, which is also available to students outside of Aalto
• Associate Editor for the journal Computer Science Education
• working towards better teaching at Aalto as a member of SCITEC
• a number of development initiatives in the context of Aalto Online Learning (A!OLE)
• co-teaching CS-E4210 Learning Technologies and CS-C2120 Ohjelmointistudio 2
• my 2012 doctoral thesis: Visual Program Simulation in Introductory Programming Education