Research
My work is applied: building systems, putting them in the hands of learners and communities, and studying what happens. Undergraduate students are co-authors on much of it.
AI-mediated collaborative learning
Large language models make it possible for students to produce correct answers and working code while barely engaging with the reasoning those answers are meant to show. I call this cognitive bypass. My current research asks how learning environments can use AI to strengthen student reasoning and peer discussion rather than replace them.
With Bo Kim and colleagues, I develop coLearn-AI, a platform for small-group guided inquiry modeled on POGIL. Students take defined roles and work through structured activities. AI feedback follows the instructor's own guidance and asks students to accept or revise their answers rather than giving them the solution. The platform keeps an epistemic trace, a record of responses, code, feedback and revisions, which supports both teaching and research. Work has focused on introductory programming and automated assessment, and it now extends to other disciplines, including health professions education with colleagues at Karolinska Institutet.
Community-engaged learning in computing
For more than 25 years I have built service-learning projects into computing education. Students work on real systems for real communities, often abroad, and learn that technical decisions depend on local constraints, relationships and long-term support. My early work in Papua New Guinea and later projects in Belize are described in a 2001 article in the Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges and a 2012 book chapter with D. Karl on lessons from 25 years of these projects.
Local nonprofit partners
Much of this work takes place close to Kenyon. Teams of students work directly with local nonprofits and community organizations to understand their needs, then design, build and hand over social technology systems that support the organizations' work. Partners have included:
- Habitat for Humanity
- The Gund Gallery
- The Kenyon Farm
- The Kokosing Arts Alliance
and many others. For students, these projects are often their first experience building software for clients whose needs and resources differ from their own.
Solar power and computing labs in Belize
In rural Belize, many schools have unreliable electricity or none at all, so they cannot run computing labs. I lead student teams that design and build solar power systems for these schools and set up computers that run on them. The projects combine engineering, computing and community partnership, and they raise questions about sustainable energy and educational access in a changing climate. I presented this work in 2023 at the International Conference on Climate Change (Vancouver) and the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences (Oxford).
Low-cost managed Wi-Fi and networking
Commercial managed Wi-Fi is too expensive for many schools, rural communities and humanitarian settings. With student researchers I have developed an open-source, cloud-managed Wi-Fi system that runs on very low-cost access points and cellular uplinks. The project includes a cloud controller and a web portal, and it is portable enough to deploy quickly for displaced populations. I presented the work at the Global Studies Conference in Kraków in 2024.
Earlier and other work
My doctoral research at The Ohio State University was in computational linguistics: guiding a head-driven phrase structure grammar parser with socio-pragmatic knowledge. I have also supervised student projects on expert systems for architectural planning and building codes, a workbench for error-correcting codes (with N. Aydin), visualization of Laakso spaces, and applied software systems.
Publications and presentations
2026
- Skon, J. P. (2026). AI-Mediated Collaborative Cognition: Designing Systems That Preserve Reasoning in the Age of LLMs. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 42(2), 17–25.
- Kim, B., & Skon, J. (2026). AI-Enhanced Guided-Inquiry Platform for Collaborative Learning in Introductory Programming. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 41(8), 206–219.
- Kim, B., & Skon, J. (2026). Automated Assessment using AI-Enhanced Guided-Inquiry Learning Platform. Proceedings of the 2026 ASEE Northeast Section Conference.
- Skon, J. P. (2026). Designing AI-Constrained Collaborative Activities for Computing Education Using coLearn-AI. Three-hour workshop, CCSC Midwest, September 2026.
2025
- Idowu, G., Deka, C., Skon, J., & Aydin, N. N. (2025). POGIL-ITS: An Intelligent Tutoring System for Guided Group Learning.
2024
- Skon, J. (2024). Portable/Mobile Ultra Low Cost Managed WiFi for Displaced Populations: Open Source Cloud Managed Cellular Based WiFi. Seventeenth Global Studies Conference, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland.
- Manigandan, A., & Skon, J. (2024). Web Portal for an Open-Source Managed Wi-Fi Solution.
2023
- Skon, J. (2023). Solar Power for Schools: A Student Project Abroad to Build Systems in Rural Belize. Eighteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom.
- Skon, J. (2023). School Solar Power in Belize: Students Building Solar Power Systems in Schools in Central America. Fifteenth International Conference on Climate Change: Impacts & Responses, University of British Columbia, Robson Square, Vancouver, Canada.
- Polak, M., Beshentseva, I., & Skon, J. (2023). Cloud Controller and Web Portal for an Open-Source Managed Wi-Fi Solution.
2022
- Lu, Y., Skon, J., & Aydin, N. (2022). Building a Workbench for Implementing and Testing Error-Correcting Codes.
2019
- Susser, I., & Skon, J. (2019). Food Order Management and UI Interface Creation.
2018
- Pennington, P., Skon, J., & Snipes, M. (2018). Laakso Space Coloring and Visualization.
2017
- Schutz, J., & Skon, J. (2017). Designing an AI to Determine Building Codes.
- Weinberg, B., & Skon, J. P. (2017). Architectural Planning: An Expert System Proof of Concept.
2012
- Skon, J., & Karl, D. (2012). From Kudjip to Succotz: The Successes, Lessons, Joys, and Surprises from 25 Years of Service-Learning Projects. In Service-Learning in the Computer and Information Sciences: Practical Applications in Engineering Education (pp. 473–492). Wiley.
2001
- Skon, J. (2001). Computing in Papua New Guinea: Lessons from Service Learning. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 17(1), 31–38.
1997
- Skon, J. P. (1997). Guiding a Head-Driven Phrase Structure Parser for Natural Language Using Socio-Pragmatic Knowledge. Doctoral dissertation, The Ohio State University.