Unlocking Potential with Generative AI Instruction: Investigating Mid-level Software Development Student Perceptions, Behavior, and AdoptionMSI
Generative AI tools are rapidly evolving and impacting many domains, including programming. Computer Science (CS) instructors are rapidly addressing student access to these tools. While some advocate to ban the tools entirely, others suggest embracing them so that students develop the skills for utilizing the tools safely and responsibly. The CS Education research community is investigating how to integrate the tools into computing courses, and evaluating how these interventions impact student learning outcomes and perceptions of programming. Current studies show positive indications for student outcomes, as well as cautions. However, we do not have a complete picture of the impacts of instructing students on how to use generative AI in CS classes, particularly in Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs). Thus, we studied the impact of incorporating instruction on industry-standard generative AI tools into a mid-level Software Development course with students from 16 MSIs. In this paper, we identified that 89% of students used generative AI tools prior to the course without any formal instruction. We found that after formal instruction, students most frequently used generative AI tools for explaining concepts and learning new things. Additionally, we found that students generally reported positive viewpoints on their ability to learn to program and learn problem-solving skills while using generative AI tools. Finally, we found that students reported to understand their code when they work with generative AI tools, are critical about the outputs that generative AI tools provide and do further checks to ensure accuracy.