Event — Conference: Coding, creativity, and confidence in the AI-Era
Join us on 19 June, 1-5pm in the RD Suite Room, ARC at the University of Glasgow for a conference on AI and its potential impact on coding education.
Refreshments and tea/coffee will be provided. Any level of teaching, coding, and AI experience welcome! We love diverse perspectives.
Sign up here: https://uofg.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9mES58VB4oVs418
Discussions will be centred around talks presented by interdisciplinary speakers and our own research project studying the impact of generative AI, specifically ChatGPT, on students’ coding creativity and confidence (see abstract at the bottom).
Draft Schedule
| Time | Item |
|---|---|
| 13:00 | Welcome |
| 13:05 | Presentation by the Coding, creativity, and confidence in the Generative AI era research team |
| 13:30 | Group discussion |
| 14:00 | Break |
| 14:20 | Maria Kallia (School of Computing Science): To Be, or to Be Otherwise? Silicon Souls in Search of Dasein and Authentic Human Engagement in the Age of Generative AI |
| 14:45 | Sam Skipsey (School of Physics & Astronomy): Coding assistants and LLM explainers: trends in student behaviour in a 2nd year Physics coding course |
| 15:10 | Break |
| 15:30 | Yunhyong Kim (School of Humanities): Reading, Writing, and Presenting Code in the Arts and Humanities |
| 15:55 | Craig Alexander and Jenn Gaskell (School of Mathematics & Statistics): Education Strategies in the AI-era for Statistics and Data Analytics |
| 16:30 | Group discussion |
| 17:00 | End |
Who are we
We are an interdisciplinary team of researchers from across the School of Computing Science, Education, Geographical and Earth Sciences, Physics & Astronomy, and Mathematics & Statistics at the University of Glasgow studying the impact of generative AI, specifically ChatGPT, on students’ coding creativity and confidence. If you are interested to know more, we are attaching the abstract for the Crucible-grant funded research we have been working on this year.
Catherine Reid, Giuseppe Callea, Ryo Yanagida, Sarah Falkowski, Tiffany Vlaar, Anna Sollazzo, Lewis Dean, Sebastian Mutz
Any questions/comments? Please feel free to contact us at: ccc-ai@glasgow.ac.uk
Abstract
Coding, creativity and confidence in the Generative Artificial Intelligence era Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is gradually becoming integrated into everyday life, and often positioned as a support in writing and coding (Mahajan, 2024; Snodgrass, 2024). However, tools such as ChatGPT may pose new challenges to students’ learning process for solving coding problems in early coding education, with the potential for over-reliance and lack of independence and creativity. We propose an intervention to enable critical and well informed interactions with generative AI without loss of problem-solving expertise, avoid the blind use of these tools, and promote the joy of learning.
The project will explore current students’ understanding of AI in Geographical & Earth Sciences, Physics and Astronomy, and Mathematics & Statistics, and investigate how new pedagogies can support their learning. This project will make novel use of qualitative methods to understand students’ relationship to coding and AI. Data will be collected through student interviews and student code outputs, with both sets of data coded and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2021). We will interview students before and after their coding and AI intervention, to explore whether their understandings and attitudes have changed. We will also collect examples of student codes produced using AI and produced independently, and thematically analyse the code, exploring student understandings of programming through the programs they create. The project will produce an intervention to develop students’ skills in using AI and their confidence in early programming education.
This event is supported by a University of Glasgow Crucible grant to study the impact of generative AI, specifically ChatGPT, on students’ coding creativity and confidence across a range of different disciplines.