Adapting Programming Education for Engineering Students
- Focus on application, not expertise! Programming is taught as a means to solve engineering problems and automate processes. Engineering students are not necessarily pursuing careers as professional programmers, so their assignments will differ significantly.
The Role of Automated Grading in Enhanced Feedback
- Automatic grading tools can transform how assignments are managed. With instant feedback on syntax, logic, and specific structural requirements, students can iteratively improve submissions.
- Allowing unlimited resubmissions up to a deadline gives students low-stakes opportunities to learn from mistakes and refine their skills.
Integrating AI into your curriculum
- Prompt engineering as a skill - recognizing that students will use AI tools regardless of restrictions, teach them how to create effective prompts. This ensures that students use AI intelligently to support problem-solving.
- Less detailed, open-ended assignments encourage students to leverage their engineering background, research skills, and AI tools to devise solutions.
Overcoming challenges
- To prevent the misuse of AI, such as direct copying, consider giving students handwritten components or offline work for certain tasks.
- Simple, entry-level coding assignments may no longer be effective. Assignments need to evolve to incorporate real-world complexity that AI cannot easily replicate without deeper understanding.
What does the future hold?
- Like the evolution from slide rules to calculators, AI is seen as a natural progression in engineering tools. The goal is to train students to integrate AI into their workflow effectively, much like they would with any other tool.
- Assignments will prioritize solving the problem, understanding AI-generated code, and explaining it, which mirrors real-world engineering scenarios where understanding and modifying existing systems are critical.
Prof. Brady's approach underscores the importance of adapting educational methods to prepare students for a rapidly changing technological landscape. By incorporating AI thoughtfully and focusing on practical problem-solving, he aims to produce graduates who are well-equipped for the challenges of modern engineering roles.
CodeGrade's AI Assistant
This approach comes to life with CodeGrade’s new AI Assistant, designed to enhance student learning and educator oversight. With the flexibility to configure multiple AI assistants for a single assignment, you can define specific roles and system prompts to guide their functionality.
Students can engage directly with these assistants in the editor or the submission overview, ensuring seamless integration into their workflow. From an educator’s perspective, you gain invaluable insights by viewing the full history of student interactions with the assistant. This transparency not only supports better monitoring but also enables you to refine prompts and adjust the assistant’s configuration for optimal results.
Our AI Assistant runs securely on Claude at AWS, adhering to strict data processing policies with no university-level adjustments needed. It’s easy to implement, fully customizable, and gives you the power to support your students while maintaining control over how assistance is provided. With these tools, prompt engineering becomes not just theoretical—but a practical, transformative element in your teaching.
To watch the full webinar on how CodeGrade’s AI Assistant works, click here.
Do you have creative uses of AI in your assignments? Reach out to us at hello@codegrade.com!
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