Year: 2025
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Generative AI (genAI) tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Copilot) have become ubiquitous in software engineering (SE). As SE educators, it behooves us to understand the consequences of genAI usage among SE students and to create a holistic view of where these tools can be successfully used. Through 16 reflective interviews with SE students, we explored their academic experiences of using genAI tools to complement SE learning and implementations. We uncover the contexts where these tools are helpful and where they pose challenges, along with examining why these challenges arise and how they impact students. We validated our findings through member checking and triangulation with instructors. Our findings provide practical considerations of where and why genAI should (not) be used in the context of supporting SE students.
Authors: Rudrajit Choudhuri, Ambareesh Ramakrishnan, Amreeta Chatterjee, Bianca Trinkenreich, Igor Steinmacher, Marco Gerosa, Anita Sarma
Institutions: Oregon State University, Northern Arizona University
Language: English
Subfield: Information Systems
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
Funder: National Science Foundation
Awards: Collaborative Research: Learning Software Engineering by Contributing to Real Projects With Chatbot Assistance, A Learning Environment for an Open-Source Contribution Model, Scaffolding Computational Thinking in Introductory Computer Science through a Conversational Agent, Collaborative Research: Learning Software Engineering by Contributing to Real Projects With Chatbot Assistance, Scaffolding Computational Thinking in Introductory Computer Science through a Conversational Agent
OpenAlex ID: W4411233807