Her research lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction and education with a focus on developing playful data-driven systems to support learning in diverse classroom and online environments. Some of O'Rourke's recent projects have included the design of incentive structures to promote growth mindset behaviors in educational games and studying the use of personalized learning systems for the classroom that visualize student data in real-time to support teachers. Her interventions have been used by over 100,000 students online, adopted by companies, and integrated into classrooms.