Dr Jake Renzella | UNSW Research

My Expertise

Computer Science Education, Educational Technology, Learning Analytics, AI in Education

Keywords

computer science education

formative teaching and learning

artificial intelligence

higher education

student learning in higher education

learning analytics

Fields of Research (FoR)

Artificial intelligence, Computing education, Education systems, Education assessment and evaluation, Learning analytics, Stochastic analysis and modelling

Biography

I am a Senior Lecturer and Co-Head of the Computing and Education research group in the School of Computer Science Engineering at UNSW. My research is at the intersection of novel software and artificial intelligence-based systems applications and world-class computing education. AI Education systems should genuinely enhance student engagement and improve learning experiences in computing education. My work has been published in premier conferences and journals such as the International Conference on Software Engineering. More importantly, it is embedded in open-source education projects such as SplashKit, and notably, Formatif, used at several Australian and New Zealand universities with over 230,000 students.

I also work in higher education's academic integrity, focusing on student-friendly approaches to retaining integrity. I am an:

Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Early Career Academic member of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education
Early Career Academic of the UNSW Engineering Faculty Board

Previously, I was a Research Fellow at the Applied Artificial Intelligence Institute (A²I²) in Defence, working on stochastic system modelling and insight generation, and has many years of experience teaching a wide range of computing courses at various universities in Australia.

My Grants

Google Award for Inclusion Research Program - $100,000
UNSW EFFECT Grant - $15,000
UNSW EF Grant - $30,000
Google CS4HS 2018 Grant, Deakin University - $15,000
Google CS4HS 2017 Grant, Swinburne University of Technology - $15,000
Google CS4HS 2016 Grant, Swinburne University of Technology - $10,000

My Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy (Computer Science)
Bachelor of Information Technology (Honours)
Bachelor of Science (Computer Science)

My Awards

Australian Financial Review Teaching and Learning Excellence Award, 2024
UNSW Engineering Faculty Education Award, 2023
UNSW Teaching Excellence Award, 2022

My Research Activities

Renzella, J., Cain, A., & Schneider, J.G. (2021). Real Talk: Illuminating Online Student Understanding with Authentic Discussion Tools. In Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (pp. 886–892).
Renzella, J., & Cain, A. (2020). Enriching programming student feedback with audio comments. In 2020 IEEE/ACM 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training (ICSE-SEET) (pp. 173–183).
Renzella, J., Tubino, L., Cain, A., & Schneider, J.G. (2021). Enhancing Online Education with Intelligent Discussion Tools. COVID-19 and Education: Learning and Teaching in a Pandemic-Constrained Environment, 97.
Renzella, J., & Cain, A. (2017). Supporting better formative feedback in task-oriented portfolio assessment. In 2017 IEEE 6th International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE) (pp. 360–367).
Renzella, J., Cain, A., & Schneider, J.G. (2020). An intelligent tool for combatting contract cheating behaviour by facilitating scalable student-tutor discussions. In Proceedings of the ACM/IEEE 42nd International Conference on Software Engineering: Companion Proceedings (pp. 298–299).
Meyers, J., Cain, A., Renzella, J., & Cummaudo, A. (2018). A Proposal for Integrating Gamification into Task-Oriented Portfolio Assessment. In 2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE) (pp. 1022–1027).
Renzella, J., Cummaudo, A., Cain, A., Grundy, J., & Meyers, J. (2018). SplashKit: A development framework for motivating and engaging students in introductory programming. In 2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE) (pp. 40–47).