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\usepackage{tabularx} \usepackage{tabularx}
\usepackage{booktabs} \usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{csquotes} \usepackage{csquotes}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{xcolor} \usepackage{xcolor}
\newcommand\todo[1]{\textcolor{red}{#1}} \newcommand\todo[1]{\textcolor{red}{#1}}
@ -25,16 +26,17 @@
linkcolor=blue, linkcolor=blue,
filecolor=magenta, filecolor=magenta,
urlcolor=blue, urlcolor=blue,
pdftitle={Overleaf Example}, pdftitle={PhD Interview},
pdfpagemode=FullScreen, pdfpagemode=FullScreen,
} }
% Referencing % Referencing
\bibliographystyle{IEEEtran} \bibliographystyle{IEEEtran}
\title{PhD Interview Presentation} \title{Can the use of a virtual avatar and scaffolding with AI agents improve
first-stage programming students' debugging ability?}
%\subtitle{aa} %\subtitle{aa}
%\date{Week 1} \date{23rd of April 2026}
\author{Warwick New} \author{Warwick New}
\begin{document} \begin{document}
@ -44,22 +46,40 @@
\begin{frame} \begin{frame}
\frametitle{What is the problem space?} \frametitle{What is the problem space?}
Students self perceptions about their programming ability largely affects Novices tend to struggle with programming fundamentals, finding the basics
several factors in deciding to continue learning to program \cite{lewis2011}. quite difficult to learn, and so introductory courses tend to have poor rates
of retention.
\newline
Students self perceptions about their programming ability affects student
retention and increases the rate of students that drop out \cite{lewis2011} in
their first stage.
\newline \newline
A particular point of frustration for novice programmers is attempting to A particular point of frustration for novice programmers is attempting to
debug without thinking of the problem critically \cite[p.~23]{vickers2008}. debug without thinking of the problem critically \cite[p.~23]{vickers2008}.
\newline \newline
Recent literature has identified this as a problem space that generative AI Previous interventions in this space have shown promise such as Gidget
can attempt to help resolve. Renzella et al's work \cite{renzella2025} \cite{Lee2014} that has used personification of compilers to great effect and
demonstrates that there are aspects of learning that traditionally could only Metacodenition \cite{Pechorina2023} which helps the student create a mental
be fulfilled by an instructor outside highly controlled learning model about actions to take when a bug appears.
environments (like Gidget \cite{Lee2014}) that can be partially automated with \newline
generative AI. And therefore can be made more available to students outside
time tabled sessions. Recent literature has begun exploring the use of LLMs but out of the box,
%in this case reducing the cognitive load \cite{sweller1988} of reading and understanding compiler messages by providing more human-readable descriptions of compiler errors. found them in most cases to be worse than the alternatives.
\cite{Pechorina2023}. Though recent literature has found that there is a
benefit to providing code explanation outside business hours
\cite{Renzella2025}.
%Recent literature has identified this as a problem space that AI
%can attempt to help resolve. Renzella et al's work \cite{renzella2025}
%demonstrates that there are aspects of learning that traditionally could only
%be fulfilled by an instructor outside highly controlled learning
%environments (like Gidget \cite{Lee2014}) that can be partially automated with
%generative AI. And therefore can be made more available to students outside
%timetabled sessions.
%%in this case reducing the cognitive load \cite{sweller1988} of reading and understanding compiler messages by providing more human-readable descriptions of compiler errors.
\end{frame} \end{frame}
%\begin{frame} %\begin{frame}
@ -90,22 +110,29 @@
\begin{frame} \begin{frame}
\frametitle{What is the Gap} \frametitle{What is the Gap}
Use of generative AI to learn how to debug isn't new in research. But there {\footnotesize
are some lessons learned from educational programming interventions applied in Two practices in helping students learn to debug have shown great promise when
tools that could be made more accessible outside of sessions and scaled to a it comes to improving self-efficacy and lowering programming anxiety. I
wider range of programming environments that we could apply, which has the believe that we could use recent advances in AI to augment aspects of these
potential to improve self-efficacy within the student base. Including: interventions.
\begin{itemize} \begin{itemize}
\item Personification of programming tools as fallible and encouraging, as \item Personification of programming tools as fallible and encouraging, is
presented by Lee et al \cite{Lee2011}, is shown to have a positive impact shown to have a positive impact on learning motivation and success as
on learning motivation and success. shown in Gidget \cite{Lee2011}.
\item Scaffolding what steps to take when you encounter a bug and \item Scaffolding what steps to take when encountering a bug, improves
encouraging the student to think through them one step at a time, improves self-efficacy by lowering cognitive load as demonstrated Metacodenition
self-efficacy and productivity as demonstrated in Pechorina et al's work \cite{Pechorina2023}.
on Metacodenition \cite{Pechorina2023}.
\end{itemize} \end{itemize}
Both of these works are restriceted to very specific environments limiting %Both of these works are restriceted to very specific environments limiting their application on real world coding projects.
their application on real world coding projects. \begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.45\textwidth]{progprac}
\caption{Figure 2 provided by Scott et al. \cite{Scott2014}}
\label{fig:question}
\end{figure}
This figure shows how programming self-concept influences programming anxiety
and increasing time on task, retaining more computing students.
}
\end{frame} \end{frame}
%\begin{frame} %\begin{frame}
@ -182,10 +209,14 @@
cognitive load \cite{Sweller1988}. cognitive load \cite{Sweller1988}.
\newline \newline
This will be done by walking a student through any issues a This will be done by walking a student through any issues a real programming
real programming environment can throw at them with the use of an AI agent environment can throw at them with the use of a conversational AI agent based
based avatar, which will break down the process of solving debugging issues in avatar, which will break down the process of solving debugging issues in their
their own real world programming environment. own real world programming environment.
The key feature of the agent being that it has been created with pedagogic
strategy in mind, namely scaffolding and personality to see if AI can help
fill these gaps when structured effectively.
\end{frame} \end{frame}
\begin{frame} \begin{frame}
@ -207,8 +238,8 @@
that has then since gained access to the artefact in a longitudinal study that has then since gained access to the artefact in a longitudinal study
\cite[p.~224]{Coe2025}. \cite[p.~224]{Coe2025}.
\begin{itemize} \begin{itemize}
\item Cohort A -- Pre-intervention Cohort \item Year 1 -- Pre-intervention Cohort
\item Cohort B -- intervention Cohort \item Year 2 -- intervention Cohort
\end{itemize} \end{itemize}
\end{frame} \end{frame}