Computer science is a field that continues to grow at pace. As more young minds apply their thinking – and careers – to the field, the socio-technical environment is rapidly changing too.  This makes the need for cutting-edge computer science and programming education platforms an essential technology in its own right.

Dr Jake Renzella, Dr Sasha Vassar, Dr Andrew Taylor and Dr Hammond Pearce from UNSW Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) are providing this platform – developing a guidance-focused model for introductory programming.

Taking C-programming from A to B

One of the fundamentals of computer science is the long-established, frequently-used yet especially complex 'C' programming language.

“C is notoriously difficult to learn and teach. Over the years, many institutions have moved away from teaching it as the first programming language because of its complexity. However, it is the best introduction to the fundamentals of programming, which is why UNSW – along with other leading universities such as Harvard and NYU – continues to teach it as a first-year subject,” says Dr Renzella.

Dr Andrew Taylor took a standard C compiler – a tool that takes a programmer’s source code and turns it into a format the computer can execute – and customised it to provide feedback that students can easily understand. By simplifying common beginner programming errors, the team’s ‘Debugging C Compiler (DCC)’ makes the C programming language more accessible to novices.

Since its introduction to the UNSW, the DCC has been used an estimated 50 million times. Dr Vassar said the tool had increased error detection by up to 65% since it was deployed in 2017, and had significantly improved students’ understanding of core programming concepts.

Bringing LLM into the program

In 2023, the DCC was enhanced further when the team integrated OpenAI’s large language models (or LLM), enabling it to generate bespoke error explanations specific to the student. The end result? DDC-help, an evolution of the initial 2017 model.

Unlike other AI chatbots, this model is trained to never explicitly give the answer, but to guide students to finding the right answer themselves when no human help is available. This is then supported by human help from teachers. Teachers can also see when students are relying on the tool too frequently, so that they can make sure it’s not taking away from their learning.

“Essentially, we are taking an open-source large language model similar to that which powers AI chatbots, and training it through a process known as fine-tuning to behave more like a tutor rather than providing solutions to questions. We’re using a proprietary dataset to influence how the model responds,” says Dr Renzella.

Over the past 12 months, this new-and-improved DCC has provided students with educationally-sound, AI-generated help almost 450,000 times.

An award-winning innovation

The team recently won the Teaching and Learning Excellence category at the 2024 AFR Higher Education Awards, for their innovative and scalable computing curriculum. 

“The Computer Science & Engineering team’s creative and intelligent solutions to educate growing numbers of students to help meet the nation’s need for more workers in this space – without compromising on quality teaching – are outstanding”, says Professor Verity Firth, UNSW Vice-President, Societal Impact, Equity and Engagement.

The team also received a Google Award for Inclusion Research of AU$100,000 to continue their work, which supports academic research that addresses the needs of historically marginalized groups globally.

While the current focus is on introductory programming at UNSW, the team envisions the model to be implemented university-wide, or even globally, in the future – to help prepare the next generation of computer scientists and engineers.

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