Jessica Vandenberg
Bio
Jessica Vandenberg is a Research Scientist in the Center for Educational Informatics within the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University. Dr. Vandenberg earned her Ph.D. from North Carolina State University in Teacher Education and Learning Sciences, with a concentration in Educational Psychology. Her dissertation focused on the design, validation, and application of an upper elementary computer science attitudes survey.
Prior to her doctoral studies, Dr. Vandenberg worked as a classroom teacher for eleven years in public schools in North Carolina and New Jersey. During her doctoral program, she worked as a College of Education Research Fellow at the William & Ida Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at North Carolina State University. For over three years, she served as the lead education graduate student on a National Science Foundation-supported multidisciplinary project that sought to foster collaboration and programming skills in upper elementary students by developing a digital learning environment that uses virtual learning companions.
Dr. Vandenberg was a member of the 2021 Computing Innovations Fellow cohort. That project sought to create story-centric plugged and unplugged activities to support upper elementary student learning of artificial intelligence concepts as well as develop a set of self-report and multiple-choice instruments for assessing student attitudes and understanding around AI.
Dr. Vandenberg’s research focuses on computer science and computational thinking integration in upper elementary classrooms, supporting elementary and middle school students’ work with artificial intelligence, and survey design.
Education
Ph.D. Teacher Education and Learning Sciences NC State University 2021
M.A.T. Elementary Education Montclair State University 2005
B.A. History Pennsylvania State University 2000
Publications
- AI Meets Storytime: Co-Designing Unplugged K–2 ELA-Aligned AI Lessons with Teachers , (2026)
- Co-Designing Unplugged Learning Activities with K-2 Teachers for Early AI Literacy Education , Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (2026)
- Co-Designing Unplugged Learning Activities with K-2 Teachers for Early AI Literacy Education , Underline Science Inc. (2026)
- Emotions in Action: How Students’ Regulatory Responses Shape Learning , (2026)
- From Embeddings to Chatbots: Playful NLP Activities for Middle School AI Literacy , Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (2026)
- From Embeddings to Chatbots: Playful NLP Activities for Middle School AI Literacy , Underline Science Inc. (2026)
- Toward Equitable Collaboration in Elementary CS Education: Teacher Perspectives on Programming Models , (2026)
- Better to Be Confused or Frustrated Than Bored: Analyzing Affect Dynamics Across Player Archetypes , Communications in computer and information science (2025)
- Building Capacity for K-12 AI Education: A Non-Computer Science Teacher’s Experience , Proceedings. (2025)
- Shaping AI Interest in Rural Middle Schools with Unplugged Learning: Gender Differences and Teacher Insights , Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (2025)
Grants
With the rapidly growing recognition of the role that computer science is playing in every aspect of society, enrollments in introductory computer science courses are increasing at an unprecedented pace. As a result of this phenomenal growth, departments of computer science are seeing extraordinary demand for introductory computer science courses. The accelerating growth in enrollments poses significant challenges for introductory programming instructors, who must teach increasingly larger classes while providing effective, engaging learning experiences for students. The overarching objective of this project is to develop an introductory programming teaching support environment, INSIGHT, that will enable instructors to readily understand their students��� progress through introductory computer science coding activities. INSIGHT will fundamentally change classroom dynamics by supporting both students and instructors.