Erica Kleinman

Assistant Research Professor at Northeastern University

Publications

2026:

  • Troiano, G., Cassidy, M., Kleinman, E., Puttick, G., Harteveld, C., (2026 June) “Are You OK, Dr. Scratch?” Bridging the Gap Between Automated Computational Thinking Metrics and Classroom Realities. In Proceedings of the 25th Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference (pp. 619 – 638) (https://doi.org/10.1145/3064663.3064667)
  • McGivney, E., Olarinde, O., Kleinman, E., (2026, June). “How Are You Solving That?”: Improving Learning in Virtual Reality With a Reflective AI Agent. In General Proceedings of the 6th Annual Meeting of the International Society of the Learning Sciences 2026 (pp. 195-198) (https://2026.isls.org/proceedings/)
  • Trotter, M., Gredin, V., Kleinman, E., Wadenholt, G., & Svensson, J. (2026). Decision-Making and Strategic Thinking in Esports. In The Psychology of Esports Performance (pp. 75-95). Routledge. (Book Chapter)
  • Kleinman, E., Kim, S., Kim, S,. Lee, H., Kim, J., Kang, D., Park, S., Harteveld, C., Lee, B. (2026, May) “Do I really need this?”: Illuminating Challenges in Integrating Computational Training Tools in Esports Coaching. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3772318.3791065)
  • Yang, D., Kleinman, E., & Harteveld, C. (2026, April). Bridging Pedagogy and Play: Introducing a Language Mapping Interface for Human-AI Co-Creation in Educational Game Design. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-6). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3772363.3798862)

2025:

  • Kleinman, E., Jahani, R., McGivney, E., Kosa, M., Cooper, S., Harteveld, C. (2025, May). From Locked Rooms to Open Minds: Escape Room Best Practices to Enhance Reflection in Extended Reality Learning Environments. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3706598.3713811)
  • Lee, H., Kleinman, E., Kim, N., Park, S., Harteveld, C., Lee, B. (2025, May). Crafting Champions: An Observation Study of Esports Coaching Processes. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3706598.3713141)
  • Yang, D., Kleinman, E., Harteveld, C., GPT for Games: An Updated Scoping Review (2020-2024). IEEE Transactions on Games. (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=10974629)
  • Issak, A., Narayan, U., Srinivasan, R., Kleinman, E., & Harteveld, C. (2025, June). Kaleidoscope Gallery: Exploring Ethics and Generative AI Through Art. In Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Creativity and Cognition (pp. 949-963). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3698061.3726929)
  • Olarinde, O., McGivney, E., Kleinman, E., Shyne, F., Facey, K., Cooper, S., & Harteveld, C. (2025). Reflecting in-Action: Improving Learning in Extended Reality with AI-empowered Reflection. Connected Learning Summit, Cambridge, MA. (Non-Archival)
  • Shyne, F., Agashe, S., Jahani, R., Facey, K., Kleinman, E., Cooper, S., Harteveld, C., & McGivney, E. (2025). Multi-Modal Escape Room for Reflective Learning. Foundations of Digital Games, Vienna, Austria. (Non-Archival)

2024:

  • Erica Kleinman, Jason Xu, Johannes Pfau, and Magy Seif El-Nasr. 2024. “Trust the Process”: An Exploratory Study of Process Visualizations for Self-Reflection in League of Legends. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 8, CHI PLAY, Article 346 (October 2024), 28 pages. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3677111)
  • Harteveld, C., Javvaji, N., Mohaddesi, O., Kleinman, E., Daniels, K., Jackson, D., & Troiano, G. M. (2024, July). RePresent: Enabling Access to Justice for Pro Se Litigants via Co-Authored Serious Games. In Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp. 3225-3242). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3643834.3661632)
  • Kleinman, E., Habibi, R., Powell, G. B., Reeves, B., Prather, J., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2024, May). “Backseat Gaming” A Study of Co-Regulated Learning within a Collegiate Male Esports Community. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-14). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3613904.3642249)
  • Maram, S. S., Kleinman, E., Villareale, J., Zhu, J., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2024, May). ” Ah! I see”-Facilitating Process Reflection in Gameplay through a Novel Spatio-Temporal Visualization System. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-19). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3613904.3642484)
  • Pfau, J., Charan, M., Kleinman, E., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2024, May). Damage Optimization in Video Games: A Player-Driven Co-Creative Approach. In Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-16). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3613904.3642643)
  • Yang, D., Kleinman, E., Troiano, G. M., Tochilnikova, E., & Harteveld, C. (2024, May). Snake Story: Exploring Game Mechanics for Mixed-Initiative Co-creative Storytelling Games. In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (pp. 1-11). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3649921.3649996)
  • Yang, D., Kleinman, E., & Harteveld, C. (2024, August). GPT for games: A scoping review (2020-2023). In 2024 IEEE Conference on Games (CoG) (pp. 1-8). IEEE. (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=10645548)
  • Erica Kleinman and Casper Harteveld. 2024. The Untapped Potential of Escape Rooms as Gamified Research Environments. In Companion Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY Companion ’24), October 14–17, 2024, Tampere, Finland. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3665463.3678865)
  • Ebrahimi, A., Cox, J., Kleinman, E., & De Schutter, B. (2024, May). Hidden Heroes: A thematic analysis of a game jam designed around authentic stories. In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games (pp. 1-4). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3649921.3656981)

2023:

  • Kleinman, E., Villareale, J., Shergadwala, M. N., Teng, Z., Bryant, A., Zhu, J., & El-Nasr, M. S. (2023, April). ” What else can I do?” Examining the Impact of Community Data on Adaptation and Quality of Reflection in an Educational Game. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-12). (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3544548.3580664)
  • Kleinman, E., Lynn, S., Loyall, B., Seif El-Nasr, M., (2023). Towards a Human-in-the-Loop System for Authoring Game AI using Behavior Languages, In The First Workshop on Human-AI Interaction through Play, Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3582437.3587179)

2022:

  • Kleinman, E., Habibi, R., Yao, Y., Gayle, C., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2022). “A Time and Phase for Everything”-Towards A Self Regulated Learning Perspective on Computational Support for Esports. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 6(CHI PLAY), 1-27. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3549481)
  • Kleinman, E., Shergadwala, M., Teng, Z., Villareale, J., Baryant, A., Zhu, J., Seif El-Nasr, M. (2022). Analyzing Students’ Problem-Solving Sequences: A Human-in-the-loop Approach. Journal of Learning Analytics. (https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10351840)
  • Kleinman, E., Villareale, J., Shergadwala, M., Teng, Z., Bryant, A., Zhu, J., Seif El-Nasr, M. (2022). Towards an Understanding of how Players Make Meaning from Post-Play Process Visualizations. ICEC 2022. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-20212-4_4)
  • Kleinman, E., Shergadwala, M., Seif El-Nasr, M. (2022). Kills, Deaths, and (Computational) Assists: Identifying Opportunities for Computational Support in Esport Learning. 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3491102.3517654)

2021:

  • Kleinman E, Gayle C, and Seif El-Nasr M (2021) “Because I’m Bad at the Game!” A Microanalytic Study of Self-Regulated Learning in League of Legends. Front. Psychol. 12:780234. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.780234 (https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.780234/full)
  • Kleinman, E., Preetham, N., Teng, Z., Bryant, A., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2021). ” What Happened Here!?” A Taxonomy for User Interaction with Spatio-Temporal Game Data Visualization. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 5(CHI PLAY), 1-27. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3474687)
  • Partlan, N., Kleinman, E., Howe, J., Ahmad, S., Marsella, S., and Seif El-Nasr, M. (2021). Design-Driven Requirements for Computationally Co-Creative Game AI Design Tools. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3472538.3472573)
  • Kleinman, E., Chojnacki, S., and Seif El-Nasr, M. (2021). The Gangs All Here: How People Used Games to cope with COVID19 Quarantine. CHI 2021. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3411764.3445072)
  • Carstensdottir, E., Kleinman, E., Williams, R., and Seif El-Nasr, M. (2021). “Naked and on fire”:Examining Player Agency Experiences in Narrative-Focused Gameplay. CHI 2021. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3411764.3445540)
  • Kleinman, E., Seif El-Nasr, M.. (2021). Using Data to “Git Gud”: A Push for a Player-Centric Approach to the Use of Data in Esports, In EHPHCI: Esports and High Performance HCI Workshop, 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (Non-Archival)
  • NON-AUTHOR CONTRIBUTOR: Seif El-Nasr, M., Nguyen, T., Canossa, A., Drachen, D. (2021). Sequence Analysis of Game Data. In Game Data Science (pp. 266-305). Oxford University Press. (Book)

2020:

  • Kleinman, E., Ahmad, S., Teng, Z., Bryant, A., Nguyen, T. H. D., Harteveld, C., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2020). “And then they Died”: Using Action Sequences for Data-Driven, Context-Aware Gameplay Analysis. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3402942.3402962)
  • Seif El-Nasr, M., Kleinman, E. (2020). Data-Driven Game Development: Ethical Considerations. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3402942.3402964)
  • Jemmali, C., Kleinman, E., Bunian, S.,Almeda, M.V., Rowe, E., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2020). MAADS: Mixed-Methods Approach for the Analysis of Debugging Sequences of Beginner Programmers. Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3328778.3366824)
  • Almeda, M.V., Kleinman, E., Jemmali, C., Ithier, C., Rowe, E., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2020). Labeling Debugging in May’s Journey Gameplay. Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3328778.3372624)
  • Kleinman, E., Seif El-Nasr, M. (2020). Interactive Visualization For Strategy Acquisition In Esports Spectatorship. SEEGames Workshop, 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. (Non-Archival)

2019:

  • Kleinman, E., Carstensdottir, E., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2019). A Model for Analyzing Diegesis in Digital Narrative Games. International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-33894-7_2)
  • Kleinman, E., Karo, K., & Zhu, J. (2019). From Immersion to Metagaming: Understanding Rewind Mechanics in Interactive Storytelling. Entertainment Computing. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875952117301167)
  • Ahmad, S., Bryant, A., Kleinman, E., Teng, Z., Nguyen, T. H. D., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2019) Modeling Individual and Team Behavior through Spatio-Temporal Analysis. Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3311350.3347188)
  • Carstensdottir, E., Kleinman, E., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2019) Player Interaction in Narrative Games: Structure and Narrative Progression Mechanics. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3337722.3337730)
  • Harteveld, C., Kleinman, E., Rizzo, P., Schouten, D., Nguyen, T.H., Liberty, S., Kimbrough, W., Fombelle, P., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2019) Teamwork and Adaptation in Games (TAG): A Survey to Gauge Teamwork. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3337722.3337731)
  • Jemmali, C., Kleinman, E., Bunian, S., Almeda, M. V., Rowe, E., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2019) Using Game Design Mechanics as Metaphors to Enhance Learning of Introductory Programming Concepts. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3337722.3341825)
  • Partlan, N., Carstensdottir, E., Kleinman, E., Snodgrass, S., Harteveld, C.,Smith, G., Matuk, C., Sutherland, S. C., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2019) Evaluation of a Graph-Based Representation for Interactive Narrative. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3337722.3341858)

2018:

  • Kleinman, E., Carstensdottir, E., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2018) Going Forward by Going Back: Re-defining Rewind Mechanics in Narrative Games. Foundations of Digital Games. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3235765.3235773)
  • Partlan, N., Carstensdottir, E., Snodgrass, S., Kleinman, E., Smith, G., Harteveld, C., & Seif El-Nasr, M. (2018) Exploratory Automated Analysis of Structural Features of Interactive Narrative. Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment Conference. (https://ojs.aaai.org/index.php/AIIDE/article/view/13019)

2017:

  • Carstensdottir, E., Kleinman, E., Seif El-Nasr, M. (2017) Towards an Interaction Model for Interactive Narratives. International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-71027-3_24)

2016:

  • Kleinman E., Fox V., Zhu J. (2016) Rough Draft: Towards a Framework for Metagaming Mechanics of Rewinding in Interactive Storytelling. International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling. (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-48279-8_32)

2015:

  • Baranoski, J., Kleinman, E., Wang, Z., Tucker, M., Ahnert, J., Schell, J., Doshi, R., Rank, S., & Zhu, J. (2015) Matsya: A Cultural Game of Flow and Balance. Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play. (https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/2793107.2810272)

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