ChatGPT for Programming

How can we leverage AI to support authentic learning while also mitigating potential harm to learning?  This is a national conversation happening across higher education, and the applications vary across disciplines. When it comes to programming, there is a lot of potential for supporting student learning-​- ​helping students understand why their code might be incorrect, interpreting and providing documentation on lines of code, and improving student code by making it more complex or more streamlined depending on the goal​ — just to name a few examples.​ ​L​ive virtual ​1:1 ​support​ via ChatGPT and other similar tools​ is ​now ​available 24-7 and ​accessible to all students, regardless of their financial means​.​ In this modern age of AI, how can we best leverage these new and emerging tools to support all students (in particular, those who may need extra help)? How do we coach students on how to interact with AI responsibly and in a way that deepens their learning (and does not undermine it)?

Presenters

William Stein, CEO of SageMath and CoCalc.com will present on CoCalc’s AI tool and data collected on how students engage with that tool.  Sharmila Venugopal, Assistant Adjunct Professor for Integrative Biology and Physiology will the Life Sciences Core will share her experiences piloting activities that ask students to engage with ChatGPT to compare and contrast their debugging skills with the AI generated responses.

Session facilitated by:  Jess Gregg, Senior Associate Director for the Center for Education Innovation and Learning in the Sciences (CEILS). Contact Jess at jessgregg@ceils.ucla.edu with any questions.

Location: Zoom (Register for Zoom link)