Aim/Purpose: This paper is part of a multi-case study that aims to test whether generative AI makes an effective coding assistant. Particularly, this work evaluates the ability of two AI chatbots (ChatGPT and Bing Chat) to generate concise computer code, considers ethical issues related to generative AI, and offers suggestions for how to improve…

This study explores student perceptions of learning to code by evaluating AI-generated Python code. In an experimental exercise given to students in an introductory Python course at a business university, students wrote their own solutions to a Python program and then compared their solutions with AI-generated code. They evaluated both solutions…

Data Analytics has emerged as an essential skill for business students, and several tools are available to support their learning in this area. Due to the students' lack of programming skills and the perceived complexity of R, many business analytics courses employ no-code analytical software like IBM SPSS Modeler. Nonetheless, generative…

Project-based learning (PBL) is a learning technology praised for its ability to grow domain-specific and domain-general skills and related knowledge and attitudes. However, consistently designing effective PBL experiences is challenging, primarily due to the lack of instructor support and guidance for designing PBL experiences aligned with…

We present an educational unit to teach computational modeling, a vital part of chemical engineering curricula, through the lens of synthetic biology. Lectures, code, and homework questions provide conceptual and practical introductions to each computational method involved in the model development process, along with perspectives on how methods…

Computer science students often evaluate the behavior of the code they write by running it on specific inputs and studying the outputs, and then apply their comprehension to a more general understanding of the code. While this is a good starting point in the student's career, successful graduates must be able to reason analytically about the code…

Improving code while preserving its functionality is a common task in the hi-tech industry. Yet students have difficulties improving an algorithm's run-time complexity by an order of magnitude. The paper focuses on assessing students' abilities in this area. We designed a Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) taxonomy, using software…

There are many grey areas in the interpretation of academic integrity in the course on Introduction to Programming, commonly known as CS1. Copying, for example, is a method of learning, a method of cheating and a reuse method in professional practice. Many institutions in India publish the code in the lab course manual. The students are expected…

This paper describes changes, precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, to a capstone MIS class using Microsoft ASP.NET MVC for team development with live-clients. The advent of the pandemic required that the entire development effort of the class immediately transition from a largely in-class development effort with local SQL Server and Web Server…

Software engineers are tasked with writing functionally correct code of high quality. Maintainability is a crucial code quality attribute that determines the ease of analyzing, modifying, reusing, and testing a software component. This quality attribute significantly affects the software's lifetime cost, contributing to developer productivity and…

Concurrency is a complex to learn topic that is becoming more and more relevant, such that many undergraduate Computer Science curricula are introducing it in introductory programming courses. This paper investigates the combined use of Sonic Pi and Team-Based Learning to mitigate the difficulties in early exposure to concurrency. Sonic Pi, a…

This research paper explores the integration of ChatGPT as a tool for interactive learning of numerical methods in a differential equations (DEs) course. DE course is crucial for engineering students to model real-world phenomena. However, many DE courses focus only on analytical solutions and neglect important numerical solutions. To overcome…

In the wake of the so-called fourth industrial revolution, computer programming has become a foundational competency across engineering disciplines. Yet engineering students often resist the notion that computer programming is a skill relevant to their future profession. Here are presented two activities aimed at supporting the early development…

Automatically identifying struggling students learning to program can assist teachers in providing timely and focused help. This work presents a new deep-learning language model for predicting "bug-fix-time", the expected duration between when a software bug occurs and the time it will be fixed by the student. Such information can guide…

Learning to program has long been known to be a difficult task, requiring a student to develop both fluency in the syntax and grammar of a formal programming language and learn the problem-solving approaches and techniques of computational thinking. The successful teaching strategies of the past have involved maintaining small teacher-student…