publications

2025

1. CSCW

   Designing For Microaggressions

   Lu Sun, Yutong Chen, Binghong Li, and 2 more authors

   CSCW 2025, Oct 2025

   Abs PDF

   Microaggressions are subtle, everyday comments or actions that communicate discrimination towards historically marginalized groups. While these can be small experiences, they can cause measurable harm. Researchers have investigated how to reduce the negative experiences that result. But there have only been limited investigations into how to support those efforts with technology. To address this, we conduct a series of fifteen participatory design workshops aimed at designing to reduce the occurrence of and negative impacts from microaggressions. The workshops included 47 participants drawn from communities frequently targeted by microaggressions, with groups formed around gender, race/ethnicity, and disability & accessibility. Our study findings identified four primary themes in designing effective interventions for microaggressions: proactive measures, reward and accountability frameworks, community support mechanisms, and long-term educational resources. Through axial coding, we observed that different groups respond uniquely to these intervention approaches, with distinct preferences for timing, intervention style, and accountability. We identify challenges participants face when intervening around microaggressions and suggest directions for future solutions.

2024

1. SIGCSE

   Challenges and Approaches to Teaching CS1 in Prison

   Emma Hogan, Ruoxuan Li, Adalbert Gerald Soosai Raj, and 2 more authors

   SIGCSE 2024, Mar 2024

   Abs PDF

   Efforts to bring incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals into the field of computing stand to improve equitable access to both computing jobs, and consequently the benefits of our tools and innovations through the inclusion of more diverse perspectives. This report describes the design and execution of a college level introductory computing course conducted with 26 students currently incarcerated at a prison in the United States in Fall 2022. We discuss the ways that the prison environment and the student body differ from traditional college computing classes, and how this impacted the design and execution of the course. We found that despite significant environmental barriers to learning to program, such as not having access to a code interpreter, there were unique affordances of the student population, including maturity and community, that could be leveraged in the course design and policies. We conclude with many lessons learned for the purpose of improving future offerings of computing courses in prisons.

2023

1. SIGCSE

   CS0 vs. CS1: Understanding Fears and Confidence amongst Non-majors in Introductory CS Courses

   Ruoxuan* Li, Emma* Hogan, and Adalbert Gerald Soosai Raj

   SIGCSE 2023, Mar 2023

   Abs PDF

   Previous research has been devoted to improving the experience of non-majors in introductory CS courses. In this study, we compare the experiences of non-majors in two different introductory CS courses, specifically with respect to fears about taking the course and change in confidence levels. CS0 is a computing course intentionally designed for non-majors, and CS1 is a more traditional introductory computing course. Both of these courses were composed primarily of non-majors and were taught by the same instructor. Survey data was collected from 124 students enrolled in CS0, and 502 students enrolled in CS1. Through qualitative analysis, we found that the fears of non-major students entering both of these introductory CS courses fell into one or more of nine distinct categories (e.g., Coding, Perceiving STEM as Difficult, Managing Workload). Additionally, using students’ confidence levels at the beginning and end of the courses, we found that students in CS0 had a greater increase in confidence level than those in CS1. Finally, we explored connections between students’ fears and how their confidence changed by the end of the course. We found that students across both courses with fears related to coding, lack of preparation, and being left behind had the highest average increase in confidence levels.