Felix Chopra, Department of Economics

Abstract

AI as a learning aide in introductory programming classes

A key challenge in introductory programming classes is that it is difficult to provide individual feedback and support for programming issues in a timely way during exercise sessions. Can we use AI tools such as ChatGPT to improve students’ learning experience? For example, AI can help debug code, interpret error messages, and answer basic programming questions. In the summer of 2023, we introduced ChatGPT as a learning aide in an intensive three-week programming class. At the beginning and the end of the course, we survey students. First, student adoption of AI tools increases substantially. Students report to mainly use ChatGPT for debugging. Second, students’ perceptions of AI become more polarized: Both very positive and very negative views about the usefulness of AI increase during the course. Qualitative evidence suggests that this is in part driven by students’ ability to write effective prompts. Finally, anecdotal evidence from the teaching assistants suggests that students use AI for basic questions and approach the teaching assistants with more advanced questions compared to previous years. In addition, the number of student questions decreased. This suggests that AI tools have the potential to improve students’ learning experiences.