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Dr. Michael P. O'Brien

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Biography

Dr. Michael P. O'Brien is a lecturer in Information Management in the Department of Management & Marketing at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick. He teaches on undergraduate and postgraduate modules in the area of Information and Knowledge Management. Michael is Course Director for the MA in Business Management programme. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Limerick and both an honours BSc degree in Information Systems and an MSc degree in Computer Science (by research & thesis). His research interests include inter alia, data analytics, cognitive and educational psychology, software comprehension strategies, empirical studies of programmers and software evolution. His award-winning research has been published at international conferences, workshops & seminars in this domain. Michael, a past winner of the prestigious 'AGB Dwyer Memorial Award for Excellence in Education' is a Member of the Irish Learning Technology Association, the Psychology of Programming Interest Group and the Computer Science Education Research Network.

Research Interests

* Data Analytics
* Cognitive and Educational Psychology
* Software Evolution
* Software Comprehension Strategies
* Empirical Studies of Programmers
* Technical Communication
* Instructional Design

Current Projects:


* Learning Analytics (Ongoing since 2016): Working on a project to examine Google analytics for YouTube instructional videos (collaborators: Dr. John Walsh & Dr. Darina Slattery).

* Engagement Analytics (Ongoing): Received seed funding in 2017 from the Kemmy Business School to examine Sakai engagement analytics with a view to detecting at-risk students (collaborators: Dr. John Walsh & Dr. Darina Slattery).

* Flipped Classrooms (2017-Present): Collaborating on a project to explore the benefits of the flipped classroom for improving the learning experiences of international students. This project also received seed funding from the Kemmy Business School (collaborators: Dr. John Walsh & Dr. Darina Slattery).

Professional Activities

Committee

  • MA in International Entrepreneurship Management Course Board,
  • MA in Business Management Course Board,
  • KBS Postgraduate Forum,
  • The Student Journey & Student Engagement working group,

Association

  • Member, Institution of Analysts & Programmers
  • Member, Irish Learning Technology Association
  • Member, Psychology of Programming Interest Group
  • Fellow, Irish Guild of Organists & Choristers

Other

  • Dr. Michael P. O'Brien is President and Co-founder of Limerick Choral Festival. Limerick Choral Festival (in association with the Irish World Academy at the University of Limerick) aims to promote the development of choral music with special emphasis on the realm of sacred music in the city, wider region and throughout the country. The event takes places annually over the first weekend of March attracting over 50 choirs to the city.

Research Collaborators

  • Prof. Vaclav Rajlich - Wayne State University -USA

Publications

Conference Publication

2020

19th European Conference on E-Learning
O'Brien, M.P., Walsh, J.N., Costin, Y.
DOI: 10.34190/EEL.20.078

2019

42nd Annual Conference of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Keane, C., Costin, Y., Hynes, B., O'Brien, M.P.

2019

42nd Annual Conference of the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Costin, Y., O'Brien, M.P., Hynes, B.

2018

17th European Conference on e-Learning
O'Brien, M., Slattery, D., & Hyland, P.

2016

12th Annual SIG Cognitive Research Workshop
O'Brien, M. P., Buckley J.

2015

Beyond the Horizon: Policy, Practice and Possibilities EdTech Conference
Walsh J.N & O'Brien M.P.

2008

3rd Annual Conference on Student Retention
Twomey, T. and O'Brien, M. P.

2007

1st Symposium on Research & Writing Practices
Farrell, V. and O'Brien, M. P.

2005

13TH INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON PROGRAM COMPREHENSION, PROCEEDINGS
OBrien, MP; Buckley, J

2005

ICSM 2005: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 21ST IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SOFTWARE MAINTENANCE
OBrien, MP; Buckley, J; Exton, C

2002

10th International Software Quality Management Conference
O'Brien, M. P.

2001

9th International Workshop on Program Comprehension
O'Brien, M. P. and Buckley, J.
DOI: 10.1109/WPC.2001.921715

2001

1st INSERC Conference on Software Ergonomics
O'Brien, M. P.

Other Publication

2008

Teaching for Diverse Learning Styles: Active Learning Strategies to Use in the Classroom
O'Brien, M. P.

2007

Empirically Evolving a Model of the Information-Seeking Behaviour of Industrial Programmers
O'Brien, M. P.

2006

Empirically Refining a Model of Programmers' Information-Seeking Behaviour during Software Maintenance
Buckley, J., O'Brien, M. P. and Power, N.
Proceedings of the 18th Annual Psychology of Programming Interest Group Workshop

2003

Software Comprehension – A Review & Research Direction
O'Brien, M. P.
Technical Report UL-CSIS-03-3

2001

An Open-Source Analysis Schema for Identifying Software Comprehension Processes
O'Brien, M. P., Shaft, T. M. and Buckley, J.
Proceedings of the 13th Annual Psychology of Programming Interest Group Workshop

2001

Identifying Software Comprehension Processes
O'Brien, M. P. and Buckley, J.
The Irish Scientist Year Book

2000

Pilot Study Refinement of a Software Comprehension Based Experiment
O'Brien, M. P. and Buckley, J.
Proceedings of the 5th Science & Computing Research Colloquium

2000

Software Comprehension of Familiar Systems
O'Brien, M. P.
The Irish Scientist Yearbook (Millennium Edition)

Peer Reviewed Journal

2019

Developing Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Entrepreneurial Competences through Business Simulation Games
Costin, Y., O'Brien, M.P., Hynes, B.
Journal of Enterprising Culture DOI: 10.1142/S0218495819500171

2014

Information Seeking & Documentation as Communication: A Software Engineering Perspective
O'Brien, M. P.
Communication and Language at Work - Bridging Theory and Practice

2004

Expectation-based, inference-based, and bottom-up software comprehension
O'Brien, MP; Buckley, J; Shaft, TM
Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice DOI: 10.1002/smr.307