WIP: Both sides now: examining the faculty side of a student code critiquer from a human factors perspective

Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

7-29-2025

Department

Department of Computer Science; Department of Psychology and Human Factors

Abstract

This Work-in-Progress (WIP) paper explores the experiences of a graduate student during their Ph.D. Research Practicum. Working as an Adjunct Instructor at an R2 University, the student has deployed an AI-supported code critiquing tool, [anonymized], within first-year engineering (FYE) courses and a psychology course. In addition to assessing its impact on a different student body, the graduate student is concurrently conducting a Human Factors analysis to assess faculty needs and challenges in integrating AI-driven critiquer systems in a different engineering culture from the home R2 University. The code critiquer application first built for Java and then debuted in MAT- LAB [1] has grown significantly since its introduction to the First-Year Engineering Experience (FYEE) community, as a work-in-progress poster in 2023. Since then, the code critiquer has been implemented in two additional programming languages, Python and C, and deployed during three additional semesters at the student’s home institution. It is now being piloted in two courses at the R2 University as part of a practicum to satisfy the requirements of their Ph.D. The ”typical user” was considered to be a student of a programming course when applying a first iteration of Design Thinking (DT) for enhancing the code critiquer’s user experience (UX). Since then, it has been realized there is a second typical user: the instructor of said course. In fact, there is no true faculty interface as of right now. This Work-In-Progress aims to document and extend the Empathy, Define, and Ideate stages of DT. This is specifically for the purpose of improving autonomy, functionality, and overall user-experience for programming instructors.

Publication Title

ASEE American Society For Engineering Education

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