General Information

I entered the Department of Computer Science at North Carolina State University as a PhD student in the Fall of 2006. The previous Spring I graduated from Lafayette College, a small liberal arts and engineering school in eastern Pennsylvania. At Lafayette, I primarily studied Computer Science and Mathematics. I also competed for the Lafayette Men's Track and Field Team during my time on College Hill.

I joined the IntelliMedia Group in the Spring of 2007, and worked as a graduate research assistant for several years under the direction of James Lester. This work primarily focused on computational models of interactive narrative and intelligent tutoring systems for educational games. During the Summer of 2007, I worked as a research intern for Mark Riedl at the Institute for Creative Technologies in Marina del Rey, CA. Together, we worked on developing a story authoring support tool called ReQUEST. During Summer 2011, I held an internship in the SAS Institute's Education Practice in Cary, NC. The internship focused on research and development of mobile educational apps.

I am passionate about video games and technology, and I am deeply interested in their potential for enhancing education. Along these lines, I regularly teach a weekend course on Design and Programming for Video Games in the Duke TIP program, which is a lot of fun.

I am also interested in efforts to broaden participation in computing. I have spent several years mentoring undergraduate computer science students as a member of the Raleigh STARS Academic Alliance (Students & Technology in Academia, Research & Service). I urge any interested NCSU computer science students to consider joining.

Education

Ph.D. Computer Science (expected 2012)
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

M.S. Computer Science (2010)
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

B.S. Computer Science (2006)
Lafayette College, Easton, PA

Honors

Best Paper Award - AIIDE 2011
Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award 2008
Best Paper Award - INTETAIN 2008
NCSU Graduate Dean's Fellowship, 2006-2008
Lafayette College Trustee Scholar, 2002-2006
Member: Phi Kappa Phi, Upsilon Pi Epsilon, Pi Mu Epsilon

Research

My research interests are artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction for intelligent game-based learning environments. Much of my work focuses on narrative-centered learning environments, which combine the motivational characteristics of narratives and commercial games, as well as the adaptive pedagogical support of intelligent tutoring systems, to foster effective and engaging learning experiences.

Specifically, my current work explores two key issues in intelligent game-based learning. First, it investigates computational models for enhancing student learning and engagement in interactive narrative-centered learning environments. Second, it aims to develop an empirical account of student learning and engagement during narrative-centered learning experiences.

Book Chapters

James Lester, Jonathan Rowe, and Bradford Mott. Narrative-Centered Learning Environments: A Story-Centric Approach to Educational Games. To appear in Mouza, C. and Lavigne, N. (Eds.), Emerging Technologies for the Classroom: A Learning Sciences Perspective, Springer.

James Lester, Bradford Mott, Jennifer Robison, Jonathan Rowe, and Lucy Shores. Supporting Self-Regulated Learning In Narrative-Centered Learning Environments. To appear in Azevedo, R. and Aleven, V. (Eds.), International Handbook of Metacognition and Learning Technologies, Springer.

Jonathan Rowe, Bradford Mott, and James Lester. Narrative-Centered Learning Environments. In Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning, Seel, N. (Ed.), Springer US, pp. 2423-2426, 2012.

Journal Articles

Jonathan Rowe, Lucy Shores, Bradford Mott and James Lester. Integrating Learning, Problem Solving, and Engagement in Narrative-Centered Learning Environments. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 21(1-2), 115-133, 2011. [pdf]

Hiller Spires, Jonathan Rowe, Bradford Mott, and James Lester. Problem Solving and Game-based Learning: Effects of Middle Grade Students' Hypothesis Testing Strategies on Science Learning Outcomes. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 44(4), 453-472, 2011.

Rebecca Andersen, Alexandru Balan, Jonathan Rowe and Lorenzo Traldi. A Note on Independent Disjoint Analysis of Network Reliability. Applied Mathematical and Computational Sciences, 1(1), 61-66, 2010.

Conference Papers

Eunyoung Ha, Jonathan Rowe, Bradford Mott and James Lester. Goal Recognition with Markov Logic Networks for Player-Adaptive Games. To appear in Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-12), Toronto, Canada, 2012. [pdf]

Jennifer Sabourin, Jonathan Rowe, Bradford Mott and James Lester. Exploring Inquiry-Based Problem-Solving Strategies in Game-Based Learning Environments. To appear in Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS-12), Crete, Greece, 2012. [pdf]

Eunyoung Ha, Jonathan Rowe, Bradford Mott and James Lester. Goal Recognition with Markov Logic Networks for Player-Adaptive Games. In Proceedings of the Seventh Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference (AIIDE-11), Palo Alto, California, pp. 32-39, 2011. [pdf] (Best Paper Award)

Sujith Gowda, Jonathan Rowe, Ryan Baker, Min Chi and Ken Koedinger. Improving Models of Slipping, Guessing, and Moment-by-Moment Learning with Estimates of Skill Difficulty. In Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM-11), Eindhoven, the Netherlands, pp. 199-208, 2011. [pdf]

Lucy Shores, Jonathan Rowe and James Lester. Early Prediction of Cognitive Tool Use in Narrative-Centered Learning Environments. In Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED-11), Auckland, New Zealand, pp. 320-327, 2011. [pdf]

Jennifer Sabourin, Jonathan Rowe, Bradford Mott and James Lester. When Off-Task is On-Task: The Affective Role of Off-Task Behavior in Narrative-Centered Learning Environments. In Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED-11), Auckland, New Zealand, pp. 534-536, 2011. [pdf]

Jonathan Rowe and James Lester. Modeling User Knowledge with Dynamic Bayesian Networks in Interactive Narrative Environments. In Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE-10), Palo Alto, California, pp. 57-62, 2010. [pdf]

Jonathan Rowe, Lucy Shores, Bradford Mott, and James Lester. Individual Differences in Gameplay and Learning: A Narrative-Centered Learning Perspective. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Foundations of Digital Games (FDG-10), Monterey, California, pp. 171-178, 2010. [pdf]

Jonathan Rowe, Lucy Shores, Bradford Mott, and James Lester. Integrating Learning and Engagement in Narrative-Centered Learning Environments. In Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS-10), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, pp. 166-177, 2010. [pdf] (Nominated for Best Paper Award)

Jennifer Robison, Jonathan Rowe, Scott McQuiggan, and James Lester. Predicting User Psychological Characteristics from Interactions with Empathetic Virtual Agents. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA-09), Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp. 330-336, 2009. [pdf]

Jonathan Rowe, Scott McQuiggan, Jennifer Robison, and James Lester. Off-Task Behavior in Narrative Centered Learning Environments. In Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED-09), Brighton, UK, pp. 99-106, 2009. [pdf]

Jonathan Rowe, Eunyoung Ha, James Lester. Archetype-Driven Character Dialogue Generation for Interactive Narrative. In Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVA-2008), Tokyo, Japan, pp. 45-58, 2008. [pdf]

Scott McQuiggan, Julius Goth, Eunyoung Ha, Jonathan Rowe, and James Lester. Student Note-Taking in Narrative-Centered Learning Environments: Individual Differences and Learning Outcomes. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS-08), Montreal, Canada, pp. 510-519, 2008. [pdf]

Scott McQuiggan, Jonathan Rowe, Sunyoung Lee, and James Lester. Story-Based Learning: The Impact of Narrative on Learning Experiences and Outcomes. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS-08), Montreal, Canada, pp. 530-539, 2008. [pdf]

Scott McQuiggan, Jonathan Rowe, and James Lester. The Effects of Empathetic Virtual Characters on Presence in Narrative-Centered Learning Environments. In Proceedings of the 2008 SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI-08), Florence, Italy, pp. 1511-1520, 2008. [pdf]

Mark O. Riedl, Jonathan P. Rowe, and David K. Elson. Toward Intelligent Support of Authoring Machinima Media Content: Story and Visualization. In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment (INTETAIN-08), Playa del Carmen, Cancun Mexico, 2008. [pdf] (Best Paper Award)

Symposium and Workshop Papers

Jonathan Rowe, Lucy Shores, Bradford Mott, and James Lester. A Framework for Narrative Adaptation in Interactive Story-Based Learning Environments. In Proceedings of the FDG'10 Workshop on Intelligent Narrative Technologies III, Monterey, California, 2010. [pdf]

Julius Goth, Alok Baikadi, Eun Young Ha, Jonathan Rowe, Bradford Mott, and James Lester. Exploring Individual Differences in Student Writing with a Narrative Composition Support Environment. In Proceedings of the First NAACL HLT Workshop on Computational Linguistics & Writing (CL&W), Los Angeles, California, pp. 56-64, 2010. [pdf]

Lucy Shores, Jennifer Robison, Jonathan Rowe, Kristin Hoffmann, James Lester. Narrative-Centered Learning Environments: A Self-Regulated Learning Perspective. In Working Notes of the 2009 AAAI Fall Symposium on Cognitive and Metacognitive Educational Systems, Arlington, Virginia, pp. 87-92, 2009. [pdf]

Jonathan Rowe, Bradford Mott, Scott McQuiggan, Jennifer Robison, Sunyoung Lee, and James Lester. Crystal Island: A Narrative-Centered Learning Environment for Eighth Grade Microbiology. In Proceedings of the AIED'09 Workshop on Intelligent Educational Games, Brighton, UK, pp. 11-20, 2009. [pdf]

Jonathan Rowe, Scott McQuiggan, Jennifer Robison, Derrick Marcey, and James Lester. StoryEval: An Empirical Evaluation Framework for Narrative Generation. In Working Notes of the 2009 AAAI Spring Symposium on Intelligent Narrative Technologies II, Stanford University, pp. 103-110, 2009. [pdf]

Jonathan Rowe, Scott McQuiggan, and James Lester. Narrative Presence in Intelligent Learning Environments. In Working Notes of the 2007 AAAI Fall Symposium on Intelligent Narrative Technologies, Arlington, Virginia, 2007. [pdf]

Jonathan Rowe, Scott McQuiggan, Bradford Mott, and James Lester. Motivation in Narrative-Centered Learning Environments. In Proceedings of the AIED'07 Workshop on Narrative Learning Environments, Marina del Rey, California, 2007. [pdf]

Projects

Crystal Island - Lost Investigation: An intelligent game-based learning environment for 8th grade literacy education.

Crystal Island - Outbreak: An intelligent game-based learning environment for 8th grade science education. [Link]

Crystal Island - Uncharted Discovery: An intelligent game-based learning environment for 5th grade science education. [Link]

The Narrative Theatre: An intelligent creativity-enhancement environment for 6th grade writing education. [Link]

Affect-Informed Learning Environments: Computational models of affect recognition and affect expression in game-based learning environments. [Link]