CSC15: Programming Concepts and Method

Improving student outcomes, Exam prep, Peer Learning

Reflection on Instructional Change:

The practice that I implemented in this course was AI generated content: Discussion and Reflection. I was looking for ways to improve student performance in mid term exams. I found that students who perform better in the mid terms tend to stay more engaged and also tend to stay in the class and do better in the final exam. I usually give students a practice mid term that I create. I ask them to solve the paper before coming for the review class and I go over solutions to this paper with them in class. I do see that some students who attend this review do feel more confident. However, I also realized that students often did not take the time or the responsibility of working on the paper before hand. Further, there is an expectation that the actual exam will be identical or very similar to the single practice exam. Even though the syllabus for the exam provides the topics and materials to be tested, slight change in the number of questions, the wording, addition of a slightly different problem threw students off. Here is where using GenAI was very helpful. I asked students to create a free account on ChatGPT and upload the syllabus to create a variety of practice mid terms. They were expected to prompt for varying intensity levels, suitable mix of multiple choice, true /false, fix the error in the code, what is the output, create code for a given problem etc, They were supposed to submit their Chat GPT generated review paper in a graded student discussion board and engage in a peer activity to solve these posted questions.

I found that this activity yielded improved results. Firstly it was graded, so there was an incentive and motivation for students to get additional credit right before the exams. Secondly, it moved some of the responsibility for creating their own questions for exam preparation. This in itself to me was an essential review and learning of the topics. It also shifted the responsibility away from me as the sole provider of the review. Then communicating with peers and solving problems together created a sense of community and purpose which actively increased student engagement. Giving them more ownership made them more active participants in their on success and to quote them "we felt like an instructor, creating exams", "We were able to share and solve a greater variety of problems". "We definitely felt better prepared". I found that this practice improved student attendance and student performance in the exam

There was more than on activity that I found useful. The "Define AI in simpler terms" helped demystify the terminology. Another very useful item that I found and appreciated very much was the AI policies in the sample syllabi. I was able to modify the syllabus for more than one of my classes and introspect about how I was going to upgrade the pedagogy and the assignments. Gen AI is ubiquitous, the question is how can we make use of it to improve the craft. In the observe and analyze, one of the presenters who was a nursing instructor showed how using images of the cranium helped to analyze the pressure inside. This would help better calibrate medication. I thought this was just fascinating and game changing.

Evidence of Instructional Change

Evidence of Instructional Change
Example 1	Example 2	Example 3
Exam prep with ChatGPT	Get credit for shared problem solving for exam practice using GenAI	Very useful course! Learned a lot.

Practice and Reflect Teaching and Learning with AI:

This FLC has been a game changer for me. Firstly the design of the course is very user friendly. There is focus on just the topics that are relevant for a beginning AI instructor like me and the content and intensity has been well thought out. Starting with removing fear of AI as yet another unknown teaching tool was a great experience. The introduction to AI terminology helped to identify some of the important vocabulary and understand the meaning helped me provide context in my own class. Secondly, the resources and the ability to practice new tools with peers was a great warm up. Reading about how AI is used in so many ways in so many disciplines was an eye opener.

Some of the practices that fundamentally changed the way I view my course is the update to the syllabus. For me the syllabus drives the conversation between my students, myself and what and how they learn. Working on the syllabus using the lens of AI forced me to change the way I dialogue with my students, and with the core assignments, rubrics and outcomes for the course. So it generated a lot of deep thinking and deep work.

Of course not everything can be changed at one time, so this semester my focus was on how to close equity gaps, improve student retention, engagement and success. I created a graded discussion where students were asked to post practice questions for the upcoming exam, Its not easy to design questions and ChatGPT was a great tool that acted as both an intelligent assistant that could work on customizing a variety of questions tailored for my course and also generate a whole exam paper with suggested grades and rubrics.

Course Syllabus

Faculty Bio

Faculty Bio
Faculty Picture	Faculty Professional Background
	Abida Mukarram: Lecturer in Computer Science. PhD (UK) in Distributed Computing Professor of Computer Science, Folsom Lake College

Funding Source
	This work was supported by: US Department of Education P031S230256 and P031C210012 *Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the US Department of Education.