Anticipating User Needs: Insights from Design Fiction on Conversational Agents for Computational Thinking

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Penney, Jacob, Pimentel, João Felipe, Steinmacher, Igor, Gerosa, Marco A.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
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author Penney, Jacob
Pimentel, João Felipe
Steinmacher, Igor
Gerosa, Marco A.
author_facet Penney, Jacob
Pimentel, João Felipe
Steinmacher, Igor
Gerosa, Marco A.
contents Computational thinking, and by extension, computer programming, is notoriously challenging to learn. Conversational agents and generative artificial intelligence (genAI) have the potential to facilitate this learning process by offering personalized guidance, interactive learning experiences, and code generation. However, current genAI-based chatbots focus on professional developers and may not adequately consider educational needs. Involving educators in conceiving educational tools is critical for ensuring usefulness and usability. We enlisted nine instructors to engage in design fiction sessions in which we elicited abilities such a conversational agent supported by genAI should display. Participants envisioned a conversational agent that guides students stepwise through exercises, tuning its method of guidance with an awareness of the educational background, skills and deficits, and learning preferences. The insights obtained in this paper can guide future implementations of tutoring conversational agents oriented toward teaching computational thinking and computer programming.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_06887
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Anticipating User Needs: Insights from Design Fiction on Conversational Agents for Computational Thinking
Penney, Jacob
Pimentel, João Felipe
Steinmacher, Igor
Gerosa, Marco A.
Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
Computational thinking, and by extension, computer programming, is notoriously challenging to learn. Conversational agents and generative artificial intelligence (genAI) have the potential to facilitate this learning process by offering personalized guidance, interactive learning experiences, and code generation. However, current genAI-based chatbots focus on professional developers and may not adequately consider educational needs. Involving educators in conceiving educational tools is critical for ensuring usefulness and usability. We enlisted nine instructors to engage in design fiction sessions in which we elicited abilities such a conversational agent supported by genAI should display. Participants envisioned a conversational agent that guides students stepwise through exercises, tuning its method of guidance with an awareness of the educational background, skills and deficits, and learning preferences. The insights obtained in this paper can guide future implementations of tutoring conversational agents oriented toward teaching computational thinking and computer programming.
title Anticipating User Needs: Insights from Design Fiction on Conversational Agents for Computational Thinking
topic Human-Computer Interaction
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.06887