MCN 2026

Kirsten Butcher is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Utah. Dr. Butcher's research examines how interactive educational technologies and multimedia materials can support effective learning, with particular attention to the cognitive processes employed by learners and the outcomes that they achieve. Her program of research is deeply invested in understanding how high-level comprehension processes can be promoted by interactive features in online learning systems, with resulting benefits to learners’ depth of understanding and breadth of knowledge application. She applies principles of user experience design to the development and evaluation of learning systems, with a focus on creating learner-centered digital experiences that are useful and usable.