Learning Scientist | Educational Technologist
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor
︎: xrzhu@illinois.edu
︎: Google Scholar
Xinran Zhu
I’m an assistant professor in Learning Design & Leadership and Instructional Design, Technology, & Organization at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign College of Education. I earned my Ph.D. in Learning Sciences and Technologies from the University of Pennsylvania.
My research interests lie at the intersection of learning technologies, learning sciences, learning analytics, and human-computer interaction. Grounded in research-practice partnerships, I develop pedagogical designs, technological innovations, and empirical understandings of learning in authentic settings. My recent work involves designing web applications to support computer-supported collaborative learning, conducting computational research to derive actionable insights for educational practice, and investigating the potential of AI tools in augmenting human knowledge creation.
I am recruiting one PhD student starting Fall 2025. If you are interested, please email me your CV and a brief statement of interest.
Professional Experiences:
- Assistant Professor | College of Education, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
- Research Fellow | Penn Wonder Lab, University of Pennsylvania
- Teaching Assistant | Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania
- Instructional Designer | College of Design, University of Minnesota
- Graduate Instructor | College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota
Recent Updates:
- I will attend ISLS 2024 in Buffalo in this June, presenting a symposium: Bridging Social Annotation Practice with Perspectives from the Learning Sciences and CSCL [︎preprint]. Check out our website at: https://social-annotation-ed.pubpub.org/isls24-symposium.
- I will attend AERA 2024 in Philadelphia in this April.
- I will attend CSCW 2023 in Minneapolis in this October. [︎preprint]
- I will attend ISLS 2023 in Montreal this summer [︎preprint]
When I have no idea about my data and/or writing, I do:
- Road trips
- Amateur filmmaking
- Photography