JeremyMar 5
@krismicinski did some experiments with codex today, looks like it can generate many grad level PL theory solutions in Lean.
Show threadColin GordonMar 5

@jeremysiek @krismicinski I'm moving all of my classes to required code walks. Has the nice side effect of the fact that once you convince your students that the code walk grade doesn't suffer when you find a bug during it, it often turns into a design discussion and talking about debugging strategies. I think the students also feel like their hard work is more appreciated after they actually get to chat with faculty about it.

Has worked wonderfully in undergrad compilers and grad distributed systems.

Hard to scale past 40 students though

Show threadLindsey KuperMar 5
@csgordon @jeremysiek @krismicinski Yeah, I tried to do this in my PL course with ~150 students, and it was a massive logistical headache and left me and all the course staff exhausted. I would love to do it, but it's not feasible with the enrollments we have.
Show threadColin Gordon
@lindsey @jeremysiek @krismicinski yeah... our first-year courses (~400 students) are trying a lightweight version of this with 10 minute chats, with random samples of students each week. so I think each student meets twice a term. It seems to be going well, but it's still a stretch even with an additional faculty member volunteering to help with these(!). The deeper material in later courses definitely needs more than 10 minutes.
Mar 5 at 11:32amWeb
Show threadJan de Muijnck-HughesMar 5

@csgordon @lindsey @jeremysiek @krismicinski I know it doesn’t help much, but I ask my students to produce a short report along side the technical submission.

The idea being you can eyeball the differences between written report and code submission. Identify where more interrogation isrequired. I know genai could produce these reports but every little helps.

Submission canaries, for want of a better phrase.

Show threadColin GordonMar 5
@jfdm @lindsey @jeremysiek @krismicinski I've long had students do a form of this with their assignments, but the generated reports got "good" enough a year and a half or so ago that I spent more time waffling on whether something crosses the line plus basically arguing politely with offended students than I would just meeting with everyone. (I'm sure this balance point varies depending how exactly you set things up with the report, but I couldn't figure out a more effective setup.) Meeting with everyone has ended up more equal for students, less frustrating for me, and more positive (i.e., non-adversarial) for students. The tipping point also depends on enrollment.
Show threadJan de Muijnck-HughesMar 5

@csgordon @lindsey @jeremysiek @krismicinski There are two routes I have considered:

1. learn how to write more open book take home assignments;
2. get students to do programming coursework in the lab in exam conditions

Either way, we are doomed.

Show threadStefan MarrMar 5
@jfdm @csgordon @lindsey @jeremysiek @krismicinski at least you could sell 2. as "practice for coding interviews", assuming that's still a thing when they graduate... 🙈
Show threadShriram KrishnamurthiMar 5

@jfdm @csgordon @lindsey @jeremysiek @[email protected]
"we are doomed" is an incredibly disappointing take. You should have come to my "GenAI and CS Ed" talk (-:.

If our only value-add was "my course was gated behind a needlessly difficult thing", that doesn't say much for the value of our courses.

Show threadJan de Muijnck-HughesMar 5

@shriramk @csgordon @lindsey @jeremysiek @krismicinski right so to be clear on these things, the doom part is because the actions require not so trivial changes in how we do things. Within UK academia we are under lots of pressures, with not a lot of time, and not the same power and influence as 'full chairs' do in the states.

More so,

1. open book assignments do not exclude the use of GenAI, they can embrace it, and you can guard against or incorporate its use. Such assignments, in my experience are harder to design, and require training on how to do well.

2. Exam conditions are also important as we want students to not rely on GenAI, and to ensure they have the fundamentals down.

The argument with GenAI is must be how our forefathers thought about pocket calculators...and their forefathers thought about slide rules, and so on.

Show threadShriram KrishnamurthiMar 5

@jfdm @csgordon @lindsey @jeremysiek @[email protected]
Yes, it requires a fair bit of work to re-jig things.

I can't speak for UK academia. But I view it as my job to figure out how to upgrade courses for my students.

I don't know what power you think "full chairs" have in the US. You may be mistaking us for German Lehrstuhl's. We aren't! US "assistant professors" are not "assistants" to any "professors", for instance. I may wish I had some; I don't. <-;

Show threadLaurence TrattMar 6
@shriramk @jfdm @csgordon @lindsey @jeremysiek @[email protected] A challenge -- which I think we're seeing from many people in this thread! -- is that in recent years we (speaking broadly) have magnified Certification as an outcome relative Education _and_ conflated the two together in ours and, often, students' minds. New technology might have undermined how we do Certification right now; perhaps that will also encourage us to change how we do Education?
Show threadShriram KrishnamurthiMar 6
@ltratt @jfdm @csgordon @lindsey @jeremysiek @[email protected]
Can't come soon enough, IMO!
Show threadJonathan SchusterMar 6
@shriramk @ltratt @jfdm @csgordon @lindsey @jeremysiek @krismicinski Have folks here seen Titus Winters' recent SIGCSE keynote on this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fyjf3gFjUk)? Any opinions? It's still on my to-watch list, but having briefly been Titus' colleague I know he's usually worth listening to.
SIGCSE TS 2026 - Saturday Keynote: "CS and SE Education, post-AI" by Titus Winters (Adobe)

YouTube
Show threadShriram KrishnamurthiMar 6
@jschuster @ltratt @jfdm @csgordon @lindsey @jeremysiek @[email protected]
I haven't. I prefer figuring things out for myself, rather than through keynotes. (-: