\documentclass[aspectratio=169]{beamer} \usepackage{tabularx} \usepackage{booktabs} \usepackage{csquotes} \usepackage{xcolor} \newcommand\todo[1]{\textcolor{red}{#1}} % section frame \AtBeginSection[]{ \begin{frame} \vfill \centering \begin{beamercolorbox}[sep=8pt,center,shadow=true,rounded=true]{title} \usebeamerfont{title}\insertsectionhead\par% \end{beamercolorbox} \vfill \end{frame} } % URL coloring \hypersetup { colorlinks=true, linkcolor=blue, filecolor=magenta, urlcolor=blue, pdftitle={Overleaf Example}, pdfpagemode=FullScreen, } % Referencing \bibliographystyle{IEEEtran} \title{PhD Interview Presentation} %\subtitle{aa} %\date{Week 1} \author{Warwick New} \begin{document} \maketitle \begin{frame} \frametitle{Points to cover} {\tiny \begin{itemize} \item 1. Why have you chosen to undertake doctoral research at Falmouth University, and how does its research environment align with your aspirations? \item 2. What is the central question, problem, or hypothesis driving your research, and how does it connect to Falmouth’s research strengths? \item 3. What do you hope to uncover, challenge, or contribute through your research? \item 4. Which prior work – whether theoretical, creative, or methodological -- do you consider significant in shaping your research area? \item 5. What key challenges do you anticipate in your research, and how do you plan to address them? \item 6. What previous work in your chosen or related field are you particularly proud of, and how does it inform your research direction? \item 7. What research methods do you propose to use (e.g. qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods), and why are they suited to your project? \item 8. What ethical considerations are relevant to your research, particularly in relation to Falmouth’s emphasis on creative and critical inquiry? \item 9. Which disciplinary field(s) does your research engage with, and how will your project contribute to existing knowledge within these areas? \item 10. What technical skills (e.g. research methods, software, languages) will you need to develop to support your research? \item 11. If your project is practice-based, how does your creative or professional practice inform and shape your enquiry? \end{itemize} } \end{frame} \section{What is the problem I'm trying to solve?} \begin{frame} \frametitle{What is the problem space?} Students self perceptions about their programming ability largely affects several factors in deciding to continue learning to program \cite{lewis2011}. \newline A particular point of frustration for novice programmers is attempting to debug without thinking of the problem critically \cite[p.~23]{vickers2008}. \newline Recent literature has identified this as a problem space that generative 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 time tabled 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} %\begin{frame} % \frametitle{What is the gap I've identified} % \todo{Cite and Professionalise this slide} % \begin{itemize} % \item Much research into debugging education for students more recently is % focused on generative AI models and some new paradigms that come from that % \todo{\cite{}}. This is to be expected with a whole new paradigm in % education in this area. % \item Before this focus however much research into the area of first stage % computer science debbugging was focused on teaching debugging in closed % controlled environments \todo{\cite{}}, This allowed for experimentation % with making fixing coding problems more accessible, in terms of compiler % error messages and scaffolding of the processes a student might take when % they ran into a problem. % \item I think that we can take these classical educational tools and use % them combined with more recent generative AI computing education % technologies to. % \begin{enumerate} % \item Remove the need for locked down highly controlled debugging % environments. % \item Improve the human element to debugging messages and tools with how % much more human the AI can appear to be to students. % \end{enumerate} % \end{itemize} %\end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{What is the Gap} Use of generative AI to learn how to debug isn't new in research. But there are some lessons learned from educational programming interventions applied in tools that could be made more accessible outside of sessions and scaled to a wider range of programming environments that we could apply, which has the potential to improve self-efficacy within the student base. Including: \begin{itemize} \item Personification of programming tools as fallible and encouraging, as presented by Lee et al \cite{Lee2011}, is shown to have a positive impact on learning motivation and success. \item Scaffolding what steps to take when you encounter a bug and encouraging the student to think through them one step at a time, improves self-efficacy and productivity as demonstrated in Pechorina et al's work on Metacodenition \cite{Pechorina2023}. \end{itemize} Both of these works are restriceted to very specific environments limiting their application on real world coding projects. \end{frame} %\begin{frame} % \frametitle{The fields this gap interacts with} % \begin{itemize} % \item Computer science education % \begin{itemize} % \item Specifically focusing on first stage debugging. % \end{itemize} % \item Psychology % \begin{itemize} % \item Student Self-efficacy. \todo{cite} % \item Students engagement. (Time Spent working on programming tasks) % \todo{Define engagement} % \end{itemize} % \item Artificial Intelligence % \begin{itemize} % \item Scaffolding of Generative AI queries to fit a more traditionally % productive learning environment in a wide range of situations. % \item Encourage personal reflection and action when attempting to solve % an issue. % \end{itemize} % \end{itemize} %\end{frame} \section{How I plan to address this space} \begin{frame} \frametitle{How am I addressing the gap} \todo{Talk about Gidget and offer scaffolding tools, then talk about how we can create a tool to aid intervention} I plan to create an intervention wherein I give students access to an AI tool that takes elements from previous interventions that align with the principles of improving self-efficacy in students, and combine it with more recent breakthroughs in LLM based technologies to allow the intervention to be used in a wider variety of programming environments and contexts. I then plan to evaluate its impact on self-efficacy and potentially other outcomes. \todo{Figure out what those outcomes are.} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{The Intervention} \todo{Talk about methodology and the type of intervention that's taking place. Why this method over other methods etc} This artefact attempts to replicate the channels of self-efficacy improvement that one on one support from an instructor, by targeting these factors in Bandura's theory \todo{cite}: \begin{itemize} \item Mastery experiences (Experiencing more success in coding tasks). \item Verbal encouragement. \item Guided support. \end{itemize} \todo{Check the previous itemisation isn't mistaken} The agent will use techniques such as personification \todo{cite gidget} and an AI models ability to translate errors into more accessible descriptions replicate an instructors ability to help a student understand knowledge they may be missing in terms of the language of a compiler. The model will also focus on guiding the student towards the solution in a structured manner such as in \todo{cite structured debugging intervention paper}. The goal with this artefact is to as closely as possible replicate the experience and self-efficacy improvements that come with 1 on 1 tuition \todo{cite}, so that these benefits can be scaled up. And help seeking behaviours be made more available. \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{Key influences in this field and area of research.} \todo{Talk about the psychology and mikes previous paper bandura. gidget and some scaffolding intervention if it's not all covered in the previous slide} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{What is the variable. What does better look like} \todo{what research methods will analyse this} \todo{Students drop out less, produce higher quality code? What do other interventionist studies look at?} \todo{There are a few outcomes we can try to measure. We can use likart style surveys and attempt pre-post intervention comparisons} The study plans to measure changes in the students self-efficacy and their self perception of their coding ability before and after intervention. The study falls into an educational intervention style methodology for which the best style of study in regard to bias is usually random assignment \todo{cite research methods and methodologies in education}. However, due to the ethical concerns of depriving only part of a cohort of a tool that may be beneficial to them without an alternative equally powerful tool as an alternative, a longitudinal year of entry based cohort study could be used as an alternative, albeit with a higher potential for bias.\todo{cite research methods and methodologies in education different page} \end{frame} \section{Challenges and ethical considerations} \begin{frame} \frametitle{Key challenges in the study} \todo{Talk about the time to develop the software and more about the study structure and issues with pedagogical research in general} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{main ethical concerns} \begin{itemize} \item \todo{This research should be limited to adults as gen ai and children = bad.} \item \todo{Making the AI friendlier and having it say something outside my control} \item \todo{Mention potential for bias in the current data collection} \todo{Ethical AI models should be a requirement} \end{itemize} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{Key challenges in this area} \begin{itemize} \item \todo{First stage programming generally has a high drop out rate because overcoming programming problems can be distressing without a degree of self-efficacy.} \item \todo{Having a guide help students learn through the process one on one is a time intensive process for staff and fairly cost inefficient in terms of time spent with educators.} \item \todo{This tool is also an attempt to scale the amount of human support a student can receive, outside the classroom} \end{itemize} \end{frame} \section{Me, My Skills, And why I want to study at Falmouth University} % 1 4 9? 10? \begin{frame} \frametitle{Who am I?: Relevant Job Experience} \begin{itemize} \item Senior Technician at Falmouth Universities Games Academy, specialising in Computing. \begin{itemize} \item Previously I was an Associate Lecturer and an e-Learning Developer \end{itemize} \item I have worked on streaming interactive 3D Architectural Visualisation experiences with \href{https://www.amutri.com/}{Amutri Ltd} \cite{AmutriLtd2025}. \item And I have worked with live audio streaming for podcasts in a former startup called Ramble that attempted to live stream podcasts and call in radio shows. \end{itemize} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{Who am I?: Relevant Research} I have been contributed to the following papers with academic staff from Falmouth University previously: \begin{itemize} \item Student Perspectives on the Purpose of Peer Evaluation During Group Game Development Projects \cite{Mitchell2021} \item An Exploratory Analysis of Student Experiences with Peer Evaluation in Group Game Development Projects \cite{Mitchell2022} \end{itemize} \end{frame} \begin{frame} \frametitle{Why I want to study here} \begin{itemize} \item I already work here delivering content to the students and feel that the computing departments research goals and my work already align really well. \item The research area I'm applying to perform research within is the work I am already performing at this institution. \item It will be a good reason to continue to develop new software keeping up with novel techniques which can also influence my teaching. \end{itemize} \end{frame} \begin{frame}[allowframebreaks] \frametitle{References} {\tiny \bibliography{references.bib} } \end{frame} \end{document}