About

Anthony Botelho, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of Educational Technology in the School of Teaching and Learning at the University of Florida. Dr. Botelho is an expert in developing and deploying technology to study student learning across educational contexts. His research combines theory, methodologies, and application across fields including education, cognitive psychology, artificial intelligence, and computer science. Toward this, Dr. Botelho has leveraged quantitative methodologies including learning analytics, machine learning, and natural language processing to study cognitive, behavioral, and affective constructs of learning in online and classroom settings. Dr. Botelho also engages in interdisciplinary collaboration with educators and researchers across disciplines to design, develop, and refine human-in-the-loop systems and methodologies to advance instructional practices and our understanding of how students learn.

Research Interests

Assessment and Evaluation, Behavior, Causal Inference, Cognition, Collaboration and Teaming, Design and Development of Educational Technology Interventions, Dropout Prevention, Educational / Instructional Design, Emerging Technologies, Emotion, Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Design and Analysis, Language, Learning Culture and Technology, Longitudinal Data Analysis, Mathematical Modeling, Mathematics Education, Mixed Methods, Motivation, Multilevel Model, Quantitative Research, Stealth Assessment, Theoretical Perspectives

Education

• Ph.D. in Learning Science and Technologies, 2019Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• M.S. in Computer Science, 2015Worcester Polytechnic Institute
• B.A. in Interactive Media and Game Development, 2013Becker College

Professional Appointments

• Assistant Professor, Educational Technology, School of Teaching and Learning, University of Florida, 2021 - Present
• Research Scientist, Learning Science and Technologies Program, Department of Computer Science, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 2019 - 2021

Activities and Honors

• Nomination for Best Paper Award, International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge, 2021
• Nomination for Best Paper Award, International Conference on Computers in Education, 2018
• Best Student Paper Award, International Conference on Educational Data Mining, 2018

Selected Grants

Selected Publications

• Botelho, A. F. & Heffernan, N. T. (2019). Crowdsourcing Feedback to Support Teachers and Students. In Sinatra, A.M., Graesser, A.C., Hu, X., Brawner, K., and Rus, V. (Eds.). Design Recommendations for Intelligent Tutoring Systems: Volume 7 - Self-Improving Systems. Orlando, FL: U.S. Army Research Laboratory. Pages 101-108. ISBN 978-0-9977257-7-3
• Erickson, J., Botelho, A. F., McAteer, S., Varatharaj, A., & Heffernan, N. T. (2020, March). The Automated Grading of Student Open Responses in Mathematics. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge, 615-624. ACM.
• Botelho, A. F., Varatharaj, A., Patikorn, T., Doherty, D., Adjei, S. A., Beck, J. E. (2019). Developing Early Detectors of Student Attrition and Wheel Spinning Using Deep Learning. Journal of IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies. Volume 12(2), pp. 158-170. doi: 10.1109/TLT.2019.2912162
• Botelho, A. F., Varatharaj, A., VanInwegen, E., & Heffernan, N. T. (2019, March). Refusing to Try: Characterizing Early Stopout on Student Assignments. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge, 391-400. ACM.
• Botelho, A. F., Baker, R. S., Ocumpaugh, J., & Heffernan, N. T. (2018, July). Studying Affect Dynamics and Chronometry Using Sensor-Free Detectors. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Educational Data Mining, 157-166.
• Sales, A., Botelho, A. F., Patikorn, T., & Heffernan, N. T. (2018, July). Using Big Data to Sharpen Design-Based Inference in A/B Tests. In Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Educational Data Mining, 479-485.
• Botelho, A. F., Baker, R. S., & Heffernan, N. T. (2017, June). Improving Sensor-Free Affect Detection Using Deep Learning. In Proceedings of the 18th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education, 40-51. Springer, Cham.

Selected Links

• https://abotelho.com
• https://www.abotelho.com/publications