Tasfia Mashiat, Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Computer Science, attended the 2026 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.

She found this conference unique because although the majority of attendees are teachers, they're all from different disciplines. It's a very mutual interaction which we don't always get the chance of doing.

How did you feel when you received the acceptance in the scholarly teaching program?

It was very exciting for me because I have been to computer science conferences but not to a conference which is devoted to teaching undergrad students. I always wanted to be a part of that community and see how I can improve my teaching skills abilities and how I can learn if there are new technologies or even techniques that educators use in their teaching. So, I was really intrigued to kind of see the acceptance from this Scholarly Teaching Program. And it's not just the conference, it's also these discussions, monthly discussions we usually had before the conference.

And we'll have another one after the conference as well, where we discussed about our confusions, about the creative ways we can develop our teaching. I felt those were very valuable for me as well. I didn't have that much idea about what will happen during the course of the training. But I looked forward to the conference, so it was a very pleasant acceptance for me.

What do you hope to gain from the program?

I have seen how, teaching or education is kind of practiced in the CS department or CS oriented education. But I also wanted to explore how teaching is kind of pursued in other discipline as well. With Gen AI and AI technology is highly influencing in how we teach and how students perceive to this sort of technologies in their lives, I wanted to learn how we can deal with that. I want to learn what are the new policies that can be adopted in my teaching or in general the Computer Science teaching so that we can maybe get motivated from and can kind of shape our lessons plan as well to kind of tackle this huge surge of AI influenced.

What was the conference like and what was your favorite part and why?

The conference was very huge, the venue was also nice as it was in the downtown LA. They had multiple sessions like round table and poster session, paper presentation, invited talks. What I liked most the round table session where the authors presented their paper but you could also have a very intimate conversation with the author so that you can understand their methodology,  drawbacks, and thinking process. But I also like the paper sessions too, because I felt like the sessions, especially the ones I joined, are focused on CS and how the applications of computer science can kind of transform the whole education sector. So there were pretty much different aspects that were quite interesting to me. And from my research perspective, it's important to think ethically about computer science education and education in general in the presence of AI. I felt that conversation was very intriguing for me.

So did you have time to go around Los Angeles? Any spots you'd recommend checking out?

Yes, I've been to some places like the beach or the pier called Santa Monica, which is close so we went there and then in general like Los Angeles downtown. It was in the downtown so there were activities to do cool going for food I think I went twice in the Santa Monica area.

If they have time, you should definitely go to Universal Studios. I've been there before, so I didn't go this time, but that's definitely a place to go. And then, the beaches are nice.

Do you have any advice for those interested in AERA?

This conference is perfect for you if you're curious about education in computer science, education as a whole, or generally how you can kind of improve your teaching technique and if you're student you would like to know these topics. Although it's mostly for educators, if you're interested in education like you want to do research in education it's a very interesting conference to attend to. I think it's a must for educators because you have exposure to people from different universities around the world. If you are curious about technologies and how technologies can improve influence and kind of interpret education in general, it's a very good conference to attend.