Biography
Emma is a Assistant Professor in the Trinity College Dublin School of Computer Science and Statistics. Her research interests include the areas of learning analytics, mathematics/statistics education in higher education, aiding student support services through the use of data analytics and student mental health research.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Howard, E., White, A., & Wyse, J., Contextualizing the research problem: improving cluster analysis insights into student learning, International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 0, (0), 2026, p1-23
Alejandra Martínez Monés Caitlin Mills Jelena Jovanovic Xavier Ochoa(ed.), 15th International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge (LAK25), Demo of ouladFormat: an R package for loading and formatting the Open University Learning Analytics Dataset, Dublin, 3-7 March, ACM, 2025, 290 p
Meehan, M., & Howard, E., The university mathematics lecture: to record, or not to record, that is the question, Mathematics Education Research Journal, 36, 2024, p285-310
Howard, E., Farahani, Z. T., Rashleigh, C., & Dooley, B., Developing a national database for higher education student counselling services: the importance of collaborations, Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, 41, (2), 2024, p247-253
de la Hoz-Ruiz, Antonio and Howard, Emma and Hijón-Neira, Raquel, The Enhancement of Statistical Literacy: A Cross-Institutional Study Using Data Analysis and Text Mining to Identify Statistical Issues in the Transition to University Education, Information, 15, (9), 2024
McCormack, D. & Howard, E., Exploring Students' use of Generative AI tools, Science and Maths Education (SMEC) Conference, Dublin, Ireland, 13-14th June, edited by Twohill, A., Naughton, Y., & O'Neill, N. , 2024, pp55-56
Mullen, C., Howard, E., & Cronin, A., A scoping literature review of the impact and evaluation of mathematics and statistics support in higher education, Educational Studies in Mathematics, 2024
Howard, E., & Khakhar, R., Students' Perceptions of, and Engagement with, Student Support Services, Student Affairs Ireland (SAI) Summer Seminar 2024, Limerick, Ireland, 18th June, 2024
Farahani, Z. T., Howard, E., Rashleigh, C., & Dooley, B., Data collection and outcome measurement in student counseling services in Irish Higher Education Institutions: Counselors' views on challenges and facilitators, Psychological Services, 2023
Howard, E., Mullen, C., & Cronin, A., A scoping systematic review of mathematics and statistics support evaluation literature: Lessons learnt, Proceedings of the Ninth Conference on Research in Mathematics Education in Ireland (MEI9), Dublin, Ireland, 2023
Mahon, C., Hamburger, D., Webb, J.B., Yager, Z., Howard, E., Booth, A., & Fitzgerald, A., Protocol of a cluster randomised trial of BodyKind: a school-based body image programme for adolescents, BMC Public Health, 23, (2246), 2023
Epidemiology of mental health difficulties in young people in, editor(s)E., Hennessy, C., Heary, & M., Michail , Understanding Youth Mental Health: Perspectives from Theory and Practice, McGraw-Hill Education (UK), 2022, [Howard, E., & Dooley, B.]
Mahon, C., Howard, E., O'Reilly, A., Dooley, B., & Fitzgerald, A., A cluster analysis of health behaviours and their relationship to mental health difficulties, life satisfaction and functioning in adolescents, Preventive Medicine, 164, 2022
Howard, E., & Cronin, A., Improving service use through prediction modelling: a case study of a mathematics support centre, IMA Journal of Management Mathematics, 33, (3), 2021, p369-380
Students' in-class and out-of-class mathematical practices in, editor(s)Durand-Guerrier, V., Hochmuth, R., Nardi, E., & Winsløw, C. , Research and Development in University Mathematics Education, Routledge, 2021, [Rasmussen, C., Fredriksen, H., Howard, E., Pepin, B., & Rämö, J.]
Howard, E., Meehan, M., & Cox, T., An exploration of the impact that continuous, summative assessment has on how university mathematics students spend their study time, Proceedings of the Eighth Conference on Research in Mathematics Education in Ireland (MEI 8), DCU, Dublin, 14/10/2021-16/10/202, edited by M. Kingston & P. Grimes , 2021, pp212-219
Howard, E., Meehan, M., & Parnell, A., Escalating interventions to improve behaviour and performance in an undergraduate statistics module, Seventh Conference on research in Mathematics Education in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland, 2019
Howard, E., Meehan, M., & Parnell, A., Quantifying participation in, and the effectiveness of, remediating assessment in a university mathematics module, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44, (1), 2019, p97-110
Howard, E., Meehan, M., & Parnell, A., An exploration of the relationship between continuous assessment and resource use in a service mathematics module, Eleventh Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education, Utrecht University, 2019
Meehan, M., Howard, E., & Ní Shúilleabháin, A., Students' sense of belonging to mathematics in the secondary-tertiary transition, PME42 the 42nd annual meeting of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, Umea, Sweden, 2018
Copeland, C., Howard, E., Meehan, M., & Parnell, A., Engaging with feedback: How do students remediate errors on their weekly quiz, INDRUM 2018, University of Agder, 2018
Howard, E., Meehan, M., & Parnell, A., Contrasting prediction methods for early warning systems at undergraduate level, The Internet and Higher Education, 37, 2018, p66-75
Howard, E., Meehan, M., & Parnell, A., Investigating student withdrawal rates using survival random forests, Proceedings of the 37th Conference on Applied Statistics in Ireland, Westmeath, Ireland, 15-17th of May, edited by Kelly, G. , 2017, pp77-78
Howard, E., Meehan, M., & Parnell, A., Live lectures or online videos: students' resource choices in a first-year university mathematics module, International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 49, (4), 2017, p530-553
Howard, E., Meehan, M., & Parnell, A., Identifying the reasons behind students' engagement patterns, CERME10, 2017
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Howard, E., ouladFormat R package: Preparing the Open University Learning Analytics Dataset for analysis, 2025
Emma Howard, 'ouladFormat', ouladFormat: Loads and Formats the Open University Learning Analytics Dataset for Data Analysis, 1.1.2, CRAN, 2024, -
Howard, E., Student success: Exploring evidence-based academic, emotional, and social supports seminar report, 2022
Armstrong-Astley, R., Flynn, F., Dooley, B., Fox, T., Battle, B., Byrne, D., Chambers, K., Connolly, A., Cunniffe, S., Howard, E., Kirwin, S., Maguire, T., McNamara, R., O'Connor, T., O'Reilly, E., Rashleigh, C., Sheaf, G., Sita, G., Surdey, J., Tayer Farahani, Z., Weiner, R., & Ó Mathúna, C., How counselling and peer-led services can optimise student success: An integrated approach to student mental health and wellbeing in higher education, Trinity College Dublin, June, 2022
Meehan, M., & Howard, E., Report on undergraduate mathematics students' perceptions of the affordances and constraints of the online environment for learning, 2020
Research Expertise
Recognition
Representations
Editorial Board Member for Teaching Mathematics and Its Applications: An International Journal of the IMA (TEAMAT)
Awards and Honours
Nominated for a Teaching and Learning Award in the College of Science in University College Dublin
Memberships
Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society (RSS)
Member of the Irish Statistical Association (ISA)