Tue 8 Aug 2023 13:50 - 14:15 - Large Language Models

Over the past year, AI code generation and explanation tools such as ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot have gained significant attention from computing educators. Both researchers and practitioners have discovered that these tools can generate solutions to introductory programming assignments and explain the contents of code. Given their current capabilities and likely advances in the coming years, how do university instructors plan to adapt their courses to ensure that students still learn well? To gather a diverse sample of perspectives, we interviewed 20 introductory programming instructors (9 women + 11 men) across 9 countries (Australia, Botswana, Canada, Chile, China, Rwanda, Spain, Switzerland, United States) spanning all 6 populated continents. We found that, in the short-term, many planned to take immediate measures to discourage cheating. Then opinions diverged about how to work with these AI tools longer-term, with one side wanting to ban them and continue teaching programming fundamentals, while the other side wanted to integrate them into courses to prepare students for future jobs. To our knowledge, this is the first empirical study to gather instructor perspectives about how they plan to adapt to AI coding tools that more students will likely have access to in the future. Our study findings capture a rare snapshot in time as computing instructors are starting to form their opinions about this growing phenomenon but have not converged to definitive solutions yet.

Tue 8 Aug

Displayed time zone: Central Time (US & Canada) change

13:00 - 14:15
Large Language ModelsResearch Papers

Session Chair: James Prather

13:00
25m
Talk
Thrilled by Your Progress! Large Language Models (GPT-4) No Longer Struggle to Pass Assessments in Higher Education Programming Courses
Research Papers
Jaromir Savelka Carnegie Mellon University, Arav Agarwal Carnegie Mellon University, Marshall An Carnegie Mellon University, Christopher Bogart Carnegie Mellon University, Majd Sakr Carnegie Mellon University
13:25
25m
Talk
Exploring the Responses of Large Language Models to Beginner Programmers’ Help Requests
Research Papers
Arto Hellas Aalto University, Juho Leinonen The University of Auckland, Sami Sarsa Aalto University, Charles Koutcheme Aalto University, Lilja Kujanpää Aalto University, Juha Sorva Aalto University
13:50
25m
Talk
From "Ban It Till We Understand It" to "Resistance is Futile": How University Programming Instructors Plan to Adapt as More Students Use AI Code Generation and Explanation Tools such as ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot
Research Papers
Sam Lau University of California at San Diego, Philip Guo University of California at San Diego