Prof Katrina Falkner
Pro Vice Chancellor, Learning and Teaching
Office of the DVC - Academic
Academic
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.
Professor Katrina Falkner is a Computer Science academic and education leader based in Australia. In 2026, she was appointed Pro Vice-Chancellor, Learning and Teaching at Adelaide University — formed through the merger of the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia.
Professor Falkner joined the School of Computer Science at the University of Adelaide in 2000. From 2009, she took on formal leadership roles including Director of Teaching and Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching), where she developed training programs for sessional staff, early intervention support for at-risk students, and a mentoring network for women in engineering and computer science.
Her responsibilities grew over time to include Head of the School of Computer Science, then Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences, and later Executive Dean of the Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology. She also served as Chair of the University’s Transforming Culture Initiative, which established the University’s Integrity Unit and focused on workforce engagement, diversity, and values-based leadership.
As founder of the Computer Science Education Research Group (CSER), Professor Falkner led a $7.2 million Commonwealth-funded program to develop digital technologies education for Australian teachers, with a focus on supporting women, low-SES students, and Indigenous Australians. This work later expanded to include Mathematics MOOCs in partnership with Education Services Australia. She has attracted over $26 million in government and industry funding across her career.
Her broader contributions include serving as President of the Australian Council of Deans of ICT (2018–2020), Chair of the ACM Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education — Australasia (2016–2018), and member of the inaugural Australian Computer Society Education Board. She has worked with partners including Google, Telstra Foundation, NICTA, and the Department of Education and Training.
Professor Falkner’s contributions have been recognised through a number of national and international awards, including the EdTechSA Leader of the Year (2015), the ISTE ‘Making IT Happen’ Award, the ACS ICT Higher Education Educator of the Year, the ACCE/ACS National Leader of the Year (2016), the CORE John Hughes Distinguished Service Award (2017), and inclusion in The Australian‘s 2021 top 100 Innovators list. In 2022, she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering (FTSE) — a distinction reflecting sustained contribution to Australia’s technological and scientific community.
In her current role at Adelaide University, Professor Falkner is helping to shape the curriculum and teaching culture of a new institution from its earliest days — an opportunity to put into practice a career’s worth of thinking about what good education looks like at scale.
Computer Science Education Research Group
My education research interests range from understanding how we can better teach fundamental computer science and computational thinking skills, to how we can apply computer science to better improve learning and learning environments. I am the leader of the Computer Science Education Research Group (CSER) based in the School of Computer Science. The CSER group aims to promote research and scholarship both within the field of Computer Science Education and more broadly in the Higher Education sector. The goal of CSER is to understand how we can improve the teaching and learning of computing, and how contemporary issues in higher education, such as the use of new technologies can impact upon the teaching and learning environment.
We lead the CSER Digital Technologies Education Program, where we support Australian teachers in developing skill and confidence in the new Digital Technologies learning area and Mathematics, as well as undertaking research into how we scaffold and understand the development of Computational Thinking skills in K-6.
We also explore how we can use Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning and Information Retrieval techniques to better support learning, and to better understand how learning occurs within digital learning environments. We explore the development of learning models within digital contexts that support good practice pedagogy, and community-based learning environments.
Current Research Staff
- Dr Rebecca Vivian, Senior Research Fellow
- Dr Thushari Atapattu, Research Fellow
We are currently seeking PhD student applications for students passionate about Computer Science Education Research. If you are interested, please review these example project descriptions for further details:
- Project: Analysis of Unstructured Social Media Data to Identify Cyber-bullying Attempts
- Project: Understanding learner behaviour in visual programming environments
- Project: A touch-sensitive programming experience for children
- Project: Connect to create: Multi-user, collaborative visual programming environment
- Project: Detecting Computational Thinking with smart sensor analytics
Distributed and Intelligent Technologies Group
My discipline research is in the areas of Software Architecture and Distributed Systems, leading the Modelling and Analysis program within the Defence and Intelligent Technologies Group (2011-2021). Within this project we explored techniques for developing accurate performance models for distributed software systems so that we can better understand the Space, Weight and Power (SWaP) constraints of systems operating within constrained environments, including defence environments such as combat management systems, but also other constrained environments such as seen within drone platforms. This work has benefit well outside of the defence space, as can be seen by our recent collaboration with the Ecology and Environmental Science area within the University to explore how we can better create drone environments to support conservation efforts across a range of physical environmental conditions.
In strong collaboration with colleagues based at Australia' Defence Science and Technology Group, we led the development of the MEDEA modelling environment, which supports performance modelling of software systems in early stages of design and development, including the integration of existing software components, and supporting a range of representative hardware platforms, including FPGA, GPU, VM and Cloud-based environments. After a successful 10 years of collaboration, and supporting 3 postdocs, 14 software developers, and many honours, PHD and summer students, we closed our lab in April 2021. More information on our work can be found in our GitHub repository, and in my publications.
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 - ongoing | Pro Vice Chancellor Learning and Teaching & Curriculum Domain Lead | Adelaide University |
| 2022 - 2024 | Executive Dean, Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology | University of Adelaide |
| 2021 - 2022 | Interim Executive Dean, Faculty of Sciences | University of Adelaide |
| 2020 - 2022 | Executive Dean, Faculty of ECMS | University of Adelaide |
| 2019 - 2020 | Interim Executive Dean, Faculty of ECMS | University of Adelaide |
| 2018 - 2019 | Deputy Dean (Students) | University of Adelaide |
| 2017 - ongoing | Professor | University of Adelaide |
| 2014 - 2017 | Head of School | University of Adelaide |
| 2013 - 2016 | Associate Professor | University of Adelaide |
| 2009 - 2012 | Senior Lecturer | University of Adelaide |
| 2009 - 2011 | Associate Dean (Learning and Teaching) | University of Adelaide |
| 2003 - 2008 | Lecturer | University of Adelaide |
| 2000 - 2003 | Postdoctoral Research Fellow | University of Adelaide |
| Date | Type | Title | Institution Name | Country | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Fellowship | Fellow, Australian Academy of Technological Science and Engineering | ATSE | Australia | - |
| 2017 | Award | John Hughes Distinguished Service Award | CORE | Australia | - |
| 2016 | Award | National Leader of the Year | Australian Council for Computers in Education (ACCE) and Australian Computer Society (ACS) | Australia | - |
| 2015 | Award | 2015 Gold Award Winner for ACS ICT Higher Education Educator of the Year | Australian Computer Society | Australia | - |
| 2015 | Award | 2015 EdtechSA/ISTE Making it Happen Award | - | - | - |
| 2015 | Award | EdTEchSA Leader of the Year Award | - | - | - |
| 2012 | Award | Endeavour Executive Award | - | - | - |
| 2008 | Achievement | Australian Learning and Teaching Council Citation | - | - | - |
| 2008 | Teaching Award | Stephen Cole the Elder Award for Excellence in Teaching | - | - | - |
| 2007 | Teaching Award | ECMS Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching | - | - | - |
| 2007 | Teaching Award | Executive Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching | - | - | - |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Falkner, K., Vivian, R., & Bell, T. (2024). Computational Thinking Curricula in Australia and New Zealand. In H. Abelson, & S. -C. Kong (Eds.), Computational Thinking Curricula in K-12 (pp. 85-120). The MIT Press. DOI |
| 2020 | Vivian, R., Grover, S., & Falkner, K. (2020). Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, and Beliefs: Learning Goals for Introductory Programming. In S. Grover (Ed.), Computer Science in K-12 An A-To-Z Handbook on Teaching Programming. United States: Edfinity. |
| 2019 | Falkner, K., & Sheard, A. V. (2019). Pedagogic Approaches from Systemic Issues. In S. A. Fincher, & A. V. Robins (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research (pp. 445-480). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. DOI |
| 2019 | Fincher, S., Kolikant, Y., & Falkner, K. E. (2019). Teacher Learning and Professional Development. In S. Fincher, & A. Robins (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research (pp. 727-748). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. DOI Scopus4 |
| 2019 | Falkner, K. E., & Sheard, J. (2019). Pedagogic Approaches. In S. Fincher, & A. Robins (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research (pp. 445-480). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. DOI Scopus24 |
| 2019 | Lewis, C. M., Shah, N., & Falkner, K. E. (2019). Equity and Diversity. In S. Fincher, & A. Robins (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research (pp. 481-510). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. DOI Scopus29 |
| 2019 | Vahrenhold, J., Cutts, Q., & Falkner, K. (2019). Schools (K-12). In S. Fincher, & A. Robins (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Computing Education Research (pp. 547-583). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. DOI Scopus11 |
| 2014 | Chiprianov, V., Falkner, K., Szabo, C., & Puddy, G. (2014). Architectural Support for Model-Driven Performance Prediction of Distributed Real-Time Embedded Systems of Systems. In Lecture Notes in Computer Science (pp. 357-364). Springer International Publishing. DOI |
| 2014 | Falkner, K., Chiprianov, V., Falkner, N., Szabo, C., & Puddy, G. (2014). A model-driven engineering method for DRE defence systems performance analysis and prediction. In A. Bagnato, L. Indrusiak, I. Quadri, & M. Rossi (Eds.), Handbook of research on embedded systems design (1 ed., pp. 301-326). United States: IGI Global. DOI Scopus3 |
| 2012 | Falkner, K. (2012). Embedding communication skills in the study of the discipline. In A. Patil, H. Eijkman, & E. Bhattacharyya (Eds.), New media communication skills for engineers and IT professionals: trans-national and trans-cultural demands (pp. 94-114). IGI Global. DOI |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Ng, D., Vivian, R., & Falkner, K. (2018). Advising Students on Careers of the Future: A Report on the Careers Development Landscape in Australia. The University of Adelaide. |
| 2017 | Vivian, R., Lozanovski, C., & Falkner, K. (2017). Literature review: Supporting teachers to assess F–10 Digital Technologies. |
| 2017 | Vivian, R., & Falkner, K. (2017). Building Australian Teacher Capacity in Teaching Digital Technologies. |
| 2015 | Falkner, K., & Vivian, R. (2015). Coding Across the Curriculum: Resource Review (A157082). Australian Government : Department of Education and Training. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Athukoralage, D., Atapattu, T., Thilakaratne, M., & Falkner, K. (2024). LT4SG@SMM4H24: Tweets Classification for Digital Epidemiology of Childhood Health Outcomes Using Pre-Trained Language Models. |
Grants and Industry Research ContractsProvision of National Lending Library and Digital Resources. Services Contract. Department of Education. R. Vivian, K. Falkner and S. Barber. ($1,165, 896) (2023-2025) AI and Cyber Security Support. Google Australia and New Zealand. R. Vivian, K. Falkner and S. Barber. ($225,055) (2023-2025) Mathematics Massive Open Online Courses and Mathematics Hub. Education Services Australia and University of Adelaide (R. Vivian, K. Falkner and L. Mitchell) ($9,500,000) (2020-2024) Artificial Intelligence Resources. K. Falkner, R. Vivian, T. Atapattu and E. Palmer, Department of Education and Training ($605,000) (2019-2023) CyberSecurity Education Resources. K. Falkner, AustCyber (with industry partners Google Australian/New Zealand and CSIRO) ($313,387) (2020-2021) SEM Environment Employment Integration. K. Falkner and B. Phillips, DST Group Research Contract ($1,218,573) (2019-2021) ICT Forecast and Analysis, and Exploration of Automatic Code Deployment to Computing Hardware Types. K. Falkner and B. Phillips, DST Group Research Contract ($902,852) (2017-2020) For the Expanded Rollout and Support of the University of Adelaide Digital Technology MOOCS – Closing the Digital Divide for Disadvantaged Students, Department of Education and Training. K. Falkner, R. Vivian, N. Falkner and C. Szabo ($7,200,000) (2016-2020) Artificial Intelligence Education Models. K. Falkner, R. Vivian and T. Atapattu, Google Research Contract ($83,749) (2019) Review of the first Australia FRC program, K. Falkner and R. Vivian, Google Research Contract ($50,941) (2018-2019) SEM Environment: Deployment Platform and Instrumentation Research. K. Falkner and C. Szabo, DST Group Research Contract ($1,033,014) (2017-2019) Assessment and OS-Level Mitigation of Timing Channels. Y.Yarom and K. Falkner, Data61 CRP Research Agreement ($682,684) (2016-2019) Airborne spatial tracking for saving endangered species. D. Ranasinghe, L. P. Koh, K. Falkner, B. Ostendorf, G. Puddy, ARC Linkage Project ($181,194) (2016-2018) Assessment for the F-10 Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies, Education Services Australia (ESA) Research Contract. R. Vivian & K. Falkner. ($141,616) (2016-2018). Understanding Australia’s Teaching Culture with Respect to Gender Diversity, C. Szabo, K. Falkner, A. Szorenyi and D. Michell, Google Australia, $26,764 (2017) Understanding the relationship between social community formation and progression within MOOC environments, K. Falkner, R. Vivian and T. Atapattu, Research Contract, Google Australia, $37,687 (2017) KVM Literature Review. K. Falkner, DST Group Research Contract ($60,000) (2017) Delivery of a Fully Operational SEM Environment. K. Falkner and C. Szabo, DST Group Research Contract ($150,000) (2016-2017) Submarine Combat System Large Scale Computing Infrastructure Performance and Interoperability Insight. K. Falkner and C. Szabo, DST Group Research Contract ($150,000) (2016-2017) Computing Infrastructure Performance and Interoperability Research (Generic Vehicle Architecture Integration). K. Falkner and C. Szabo, DST Group Research Contract ($110,000) (2016) Expanding Teacher Professional Development – Beyond the CSER MOOC, Google Research Contract. K. Falkner, R. Vivian. ($95,101) (2016) Assessment and OS-Level Mitigation of Timing Channels. Y.Yarom and K. Falkner, NICTA CRP Research Agreement ($132,378) (2015-2016) Automated Analysis of MOOC Discussion Content to Support Personalised Learning, K. Falkner, Google MOOC Focused Research Awards. ($50,000 US) (2015-2016) Pathways to Computer Science: Enabling Equity and Diversity. K. Falkner, C. Szabo, A.Szorenyi and D. Michell, Google Research Contract ($55,000) (2015-2016)
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I have a strong interest in Computer Science Education Research, mainly in the areas of collaborative and active pedagogy, and the use of technology to support online learning, including MOOCs, online collaboration environments and technology-assisted education. You can read more about my work in this area at the Computer Science Education Research Group (CSER) site.
I led a five-year curriculum redevelopment program in the School of Computer Science, incorporating best-practice and innovative pedagogy designed to support equity and increase engagement. As part of this, I led the development of The University of Adelaide’s first Computer Science MOOC: Think Create Code, launched in 2015 on edX, attracting over 25,000 students from 177 countries. Built upon contextualised and collaborative pedagogy as a strategy for increasing diversity, the first cohort for this course attracted 34.4% female participation, significantly higher than participation rates seen in traditional learning environments.
CSER leads the development of the CSER Digital Technologies MOOCs, free online courses, designed to support Australian teachers with implementing the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies and more recently in Mathematics. These courses are free and open to all Australian teachers, and will help connect you with a community of interested educators.
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Program | Degree Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 - 2025 | Co-Supervisor | Improving MOOCs Through the Development of Automated Tools for Learner Modelling | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Abhilash Sridhara |
| 2018 - 2022 | Principal Supervisor | Investigating Students’ Learning through Learner roles and Linguistic Expressions in Massive Open Online Courses | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Lavendini Sivaneasharajah |
| 2017 - 2021 | Principal Supervisor | In Search of a Common Thread: Enhancing the LBD Workflow with a view to its Widespread Applicability | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Dr Menasha Thilakaratne |
| 2017 - 2020 | Principal Supervisor | Codification Pedagogy for Introductory Procedural Programming Courses | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Rita Alicia Garcia |
| 2015 - 2017 | Principal Supervisor | Towards Technologies for Promoting Nutritional Health in Older People with Dementia Living in their Own Home | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Dr Asangi Jayatilaka |
| 2015 - 2021 | Principal Supervisor | Enterprise Security Architecture - Mythology or Methodology? | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Ms Michelle Rey Graham |
| 2014 - 2017 | Co-Supervisor | Adaptive Anomalous Behavior Identification in Large-Scale Distributed Systems | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Javier Alvarez |
| 2014 - 2019 | Principal Supervisor | Detecting Students At-Risk Using Learning Analytics | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Ayman Saleh S Albassam |
| 2012 - 2018 | Principal Supervisor | Semantic Component Selection Based on Non-Functional Requirements | Master of Science in Mathematical and Computer Sciences | Master | Part Time | Mr Amir Kanan Kashefi |
| 2011 - 2015 | Principal Supervisor | A computational model for task-adapted knowledge organisation: improving learning through concept maps extracted from lecture slides | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Dr Thushari Atapattu |
| 2011 - 2022 | Principal Supervisor | Deployment Optimisation Insights for Evolving Software Systems within a Constrained Computing Environment | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Mr Gavin Stanley Puddy |
| 2010 - 2014 | Principal Supervisor | Engineering Security Methodologies for Distributed Systems | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Anton Uzunov |
| 2003 - 2014 | Co-Supervisor | Software-Based Reference Protection for Component Isolation | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | APrf Yuval Yarom |
| 2003 - 2008 | Co-Supervisor | Surf: An Abstract Model of Distributed Garbage Collection | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr William Brodie-Tyrrell |
| Date | Role | Board name | Institution name | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 - 2022 | Board Member | SATAC Board | South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centre | Australia |
| 2019 - 2024 | Council | St Ann's College Council | St Ann's College | Australia |
| 2018 - ongoing | Board Member | ADSEI Board | Australian Data Science Education Institute | Australia |
| 2015 - 2017 | Board Member | ACS ICT Educators Board | Australian Computer Society | Australia |
| 2006 - 2011 | Co-Founder | Higher Education Research Group of Adelaide | University of Adelaide | Australia |
| Date | Role | Membership | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 - 2020 | President | Australian Council of Deans of ICT | Australia |
| 2015 - ongoing | Member | ACDICT Executive Committee | - |
| Date | Role | Editorial Board Name | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 - ongoing | Associate Editor | ACM Transactions on Computing Education | - | - |
| 2014 - ongoing | Associate Editor | IEEE Transactions on Education | - | - |
| Date | Office Name | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 - ongoing | Chair, ACM SIGCSE - Australasia | ACM Special Interest Group in Computer Science Education - Australasia | - |