Welcome to my professional website! After probably way too long, I finally sat down and made one.

My name is Megan Englert, and I am a third-year PhD student in the Information Science department at CU Boulder, where I'm advised by the incredible Dr. Lecia Barker. I graduated from the University of Delaware in 2023 with an Honors Bachelor of Science with Distinction in Computer Science and an Honors Bachelor of Arts in Art History. For my honors senior thesis, I worked with Dr. Austin Cory Bart to overhaul the undergraduate teaching assistant hiring process and develop new curriculum for training and managing those TAs. I presented my thesis work at the ACM Undergraduate Student Research Competition held at SIGCSE 2023, where I earned first place!

More recently, my research has turned toward grading policies and the framing strategies used to present those policies. Some studies (e.g., Smith & Smith 2009) have shown that what is essential the same policy when framed in different ways can influence students' perceptions of fairness and motivation in their classes. This is particularly relevant to introductory computing and programming courses, where novice students most need self-efficacy as they close the prior experience gap. Decisions such as whether late work should be accepted or if attendance is mandatory are frequently chosen based on instructor belief instead of empirical evidence, and I think this area has a strong potential for research. I recently presented an overview of my dissertation plan during the Doctoral Consortium at ITiCSE 2025, where I gained lots of insight on how I want to proceed with this project.