Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chen, Liangliang, Qin, Zhihao, Guo, Yiming, Rohde, Jacqueline, Zhang, Ying
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.06390
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866915331822321664
author Chen, Liangliang
Qin, Zhihao
Guo, Yiming
Rohde, Jacqueline
Zhang, Ying
author_facet Chen, Liangliang
Qin, Zhihao
Guo, Yiming
Rohde, Jacqueline
Zhang, Ying
contents Large language models (LLMs) have the potential to revolutionize various fields, including code development, robotics, finance, and education, due to their extensive prior knowledge and rapid advancements. This paper investigates how LLMs can be leveraged in engineering education. Specifically, we benchmark the capabilities of different LLMs, including GPT-3.5 Turbo, GPT-4o, and Llama 3 70B, in assessing homework for an undergraduate-level circuit analysis course. We have developed a novel dataset consisting of official reference solutions and real student solutions to problems from various topics in circuit analysis. To overcome the limitations of image recognition in current state-of-the-art LLMs, the solutions in the dataset are converted to LaTeX format. Using this dataset, a prompt template is designed to test five metrics of student solutions: completeness, method, final answer, arithmetic error, and units. The results show that GPT-4o and Llama 3 70B perform significantly better than GPT-3.5 Turbo across all five metrics, with GPT-4o and Llama 3 70B each having distinct advantages in different evaluation aspects. Additionally, we present insights into the limitations of current LLMs in several aspects of circuit analysis. Given the paramount importance of ensuring reliability in LLM-generated homework assessment to avoid misleading students, our results establish benchmarks and offer valuable insights for the development of a reliable, personalized tutor for circuit analysis -- a focus of our future work. Furthermore, the proposed evaluation methods can be generalized to a broader range of courses for engineering education in the future.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_06390
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Benchmarking Large Language Models on Homework Assessment in Circuit Analysis
Chen, Liangliang
Qin, Zhihao
Guo, Yiming
Rohde, Jacqueline
Zhang, Ying
Computers and Society
Artificial Intelligence
Large language models (LLMs) have the potential to revolutionize various fields, including code development, robotics, finance, and education, due to their extensive prior knowledge and rapid advancements. This paper investigates how LLMs can be leveraged in engineering education. Specifically, we benchmark the capabilities of different LLMs, including GPT-3.5 Turbo, GPT-4o, and Llama 3 70B, in assessing homework for an undergraduate-level circuit analysis course. We have developed a novel dataset consisting of official reference solutions and real student solutions to problems from various topics in circuit analysis. To overcome the limitations of image recognition in current state-of-the-art LLMs, the solutions in the dataset are converted to LaTeX format. Using this dataset, a prompt template is designed to test five metrics of student solutions: completeness, method, final answer, arithmetic error, and units. The results show that GPT-4o and Llama 3 70B perform significantly better than GPT-3.5 Turbo across all five metrics, with GPT-4o and Llama 3 70B each having distinct advantages in different evaluation aspects. Additionally, we present insights into the limitations of current LLMs in several aspects of circuit analysis. Given the paramount importance of ensuring reliability in LLM-generated homework assessment to avoid misleading students, our results establish benchmarks and offer valuable insights for the development of a reliable, personalized tutor for circuit analysis -- a focus of our future work. Furthermore, the proposed evaluation methods can be generalized to a broader range of courses for engineering education in the future.
title Benchmarking Large Language Models on Homework Assessment in Circuit Analysis
topic Computers and Society
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.06390