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Katie Salen Tekinbaş

Katie Salen Tekinbaş

•Professor, Informatics Department
•Vice Chair for Graduate Affairs, School of Information and Computer Science
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Biography

Katie Salen Tekinbaş, M.F.A., is Professor and Vice Chair for Graduate Affairs in the Department of Informatics at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. She earned a Master of Fine Arts from Rhode Island School of Design and an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Bank Street College of Education. Her research focuses on game design, learning, and the development of online communities that support youth wellbeing, with particular attention to how digital play environments can foster social connection and positive development.

Salen Tekinbaş co-founded Connected Camps, a non-profit organization that has served more than 25,000 youth through interest-driven online learning programs. She previously served as Founding Executive Director of the Institute of Play, where she led the design of Quest to Learn, a public school in New York City built around game-based learning principles. Her work has been supported by the MacArthur Foundation, Gates Foundation, National Science Foundation, and other funders, with research grants totaling over $20 million. She co-authored "Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals" with Eric Zimmerman, a foundational text in game design education that has been translated into five languages.

Salen Tekinbaş is a member of the Connected Learning Research Network and serves on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Learning and Media and Eludamos Journal. She has published extensively on topics including game design, youth online communities, and connected learning, with work appearing in journals such as ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction and the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction. Her research on designing safe and supportive online play spaces for youth has informed policy discussions and industry practices around digital wellbeing and community governance.

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Education

  • L.H.D., Bank Street College of Education, 2011
  • M.F.A., Rhode Island School of Design, 1992
  • B.F.A., University of Texas at Austin, 1990
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Distinctions

  • Games for Change Vanguard Award for significant contributions to the field, 2018
  • Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters, Bank Street College of Education, 2011
  • Finalist, Fast Company's Innovation By Design Awards, for ExperienceCraft, 2023
  • Beacon of Innovation Award, Connected Learning Summit, 2023
  • Higher Education Videogame Alliance Fellow, 2017
  • Higher Education Videogame Alliance awardee in the category Building the Field, 2016
  • Game-based Learning Luminary, Filament Games, 2019
  • YOUMedia Champion, 2019
  • Hot Topics Edtech 100, featuring the 100 most influential leaders in Edtech, 2015
  • RISD Alumni Award, Rhode Island School of Design, 2011
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Areas of Expertise

  • Game-Based Learning Environments
  • Youth Online Community Governance
  • Connected Learning Networks
  • Digital Play Spaces
  • Peer Support Platform Design
  • Grief And Wellbeing Interventions
  • Esports Educational Ecosystems

Recent Publications

  • Katie Salen Tekinbas, Thomas Grace, Krithika Jagannath, Ian Larson, “Designing Care(full) Online Play Communities For Youth” (opens in new tab), Youth Well-Being in a Technology-Rich World, MIT Press, 2026.
  • Salen Tekinbaş, K., Fields, D. A., “Peer Power: Innovations in Virtual Peer Networks for Youth”, Play Story Press, 2025. Presented at 2025 Connected Learning Summit.
  • Thomas Grace D, Christie Abel, Katie Salen Tekinbaş, “Learning Curiosity through Play: Exploring the Role of Games and Interactive Design in Museums” (opens in new tab), Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings, 2025. Presented at 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
  • K. Salen Tekinbaş, D. Fields, “Connecting with Peers Online: Designing Peer Support Environments For Youth From Military and Veteran Caregiving Homes”, Elizabeth Dole Foundation, 2025.
  • K. Salen Tekinbaş, T. Grace, A. Adame, “Positive Online Communities Project: Supporting and Incentivizing Positive Behavior”, Twitch, 2024.
  • Thomas D. Grace, Christie Abel, Katie Salen, “Child-Centered Design in the Digital World: Investigating the Implications of the Age-Appropriate Design Code for Interactive Digital Media”, 2023. Presented at Interaction Design and Children Conference.
  • The Jed Foundation, “Can the Metaverse Be Good for Youth Mental Health? Recommendations for a safer metaverse”, The Jed Foundation, 2023.
  • Katie Salen Tekinbaş, Madison E. Taylor, Andre Adame, Stephen M. Schueller, F. Ria Khan, “Youth, Mental Health, and the Metaverse: Reviewing the Literature”, Connected Learning Alliance, 2023.
  • Jagannath, K., Salen, K., “Beyond Just Rules: Server Rules for Shaping Positive Experiences in an Online Play Community for Youth”, 2022. Presented at CHIPlay.
  • Grace, T., Larson, I., Salen Tekinbas, K., “Policies of Misconduct: A Content Analysis of Codes of Conduct for Online Multiplayer Games”, 2022. Presented at CHIPlay.
  • K. Salen Tekinbaş, I. Larson, T. Grace, “From Stranger to Friend: Designing for Positive Social Dynamics in Games”, Electronic Arts, 2022.
  • Du, Y., Grace, T.D., Jagannath, K., Salen-Tekinbas, K., “Connected Play in Virtual Worlds: Communication and Control Mechanisms in Virtual Worlds for Children and Adolescents” (opens in new tab), Multimodal Technologies and Interaction, vol. 5, no. 5, pp. 27, 2021.
  • Salen Tekinbaş, K., Jagannath, K., Lyngs, U., Slovák, P., “Designing for Youth-Centered Moderation and Community Governance in Minecraft”, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 1-41, 2021.
  • Kalinowski, R., Xu, Y., Salen Tekinbaş, K., “The Ecological Context of Preschool-Aged Children's Selection of Media Content”, 2021. Presented at CHI 2021.
  • Mizuko Ito, Richard Arum, Dalton Conley, Kris Gutiérrez, Ben Kirshner, Sonia Livingstone, Vera Michalchik, William Penuel, Kylie Peppler, Nichole Pinkard, Jean Rhodes, Katie Salen Tekinbaş, Juliet Schor, Julian Sefton-Green, S. Craig Watkins, “The Connected Learning Research Network: Reflections on a Decade of Engaged Scholarship” (opens in new tab), Connected Learning Alliance, 2020.
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Most Cited Publications

  • Salen, K., “Afraid to roam: The unlevel playing field of Pokémon Go” (opens in new tab), Mobile Media and Communication, vol. 5, pp. 34-47, 2016.
  • Du, Y., Salen, K., “Bridging the gap in mobile interaction design for children with disabilities: Perspectives from a pediatric speech-language pathologist” (opens in new tab), International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, vol. 23-24, 2019.
  • K. Salen Tekinbaş, “Raising Good Gamers: Envisioning an Agenda for Diversity, Inclusion, and Fair Play”, Connected Learning Alliance, 2020.
  • M. Ito, Richard Arum, Dalton Conley, Kris Gutiérrez, Ben Kirshner, Sonia Livingstone, Vera Michalchik, William Penuel, Kylie Peppler, Nichole Pinkard, Jean Rhodes, Katie Salen Tekinbaş, Juliet Schor, Julian Sefton-Green, S. Craig Watkins, “The Connected Learning Research Network: Reflections on a Decade of Engaged Scholarship”, Connected Learning Alliance, 2020.
  • Ito, M., Martin, C., Rafalow, M., Salen Tekinbaş, K., Wortman, A., Cody Pfister, R., “Online Affinity Networks as Contexts for Connected Learning”, The Cambridge Handbook of Motivation and Learning, Cambridge University Press, pp. 291-311, 2019.
  • Salen, K., “Designing a Place Called School”, She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 51-64, 2017.
  • K. Salen, “Game-like Learning: Leveraging the Qualities of Game Design and Play”, Postsecondary Play: The Role of Games and Social Media in Higher Education, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014.
  • M. Ito, K. Gutierrez, S. Livingstone, B. Penuel, J. Rhodes, K. Salen, J. Schor, J. Sefton-Green, S. C. Watkins, “Connected Learning: An Agenda for Research and Design”, Digital Media and Learning Research Hub, 2013.
  • Salen, K., Torres, R., Shapiro, A., Rufo-Tepper, R., Wolozin, L., “Quest to Learn: Growing the School for Digital Kids”, MIT Press, 2010.
  • Katie Salen, Eric Zimmerman, “Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals”, MIT Press, 2003.
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Contact Information

Website: https://www.katiesalen.me

Email: ksalen@uci.edu

Address: 5056 Bren Hall, Irvine, CA 92697-3440

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This profile was created with the help of AI.

Last updated on 6/25/2026.