Enhancing Programming eTextbooks with ChatGPT Generated Counterfactual-Thinking-Inspired Questions

TL;DR

This paper proposes enhancing digital programming textbooks by integrating ChatGPT-generated counterfactual questions to promote critical thinking and improve student engagement and understanding.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach of using GPT to generate counterfactual questions, enriching programming textbooks with interactive content to boost comprehension.

Findings

Generated questions increase student engagement

Counterfactual questions improve understanding of programming concepts

Method demonstrates potential for interactive digital textbooks

Abstract

Digital textbooks have become an integral part of everyday learning tasks. In this work, we consider the use of digital textbooks for programming classes. Generally, students struggle with utilizing textbooks on programming to the maximum, with a possible reason being that the example programs provided as illustration of concepts in these textbooks don't offer sufficient interactivity for students, and thereby not sufficiently motivating to explore or understand these programming examples better. In our work, we explore the idea of enhancing the navigability of intelligent textbooks with the use of ``counterfactual'' questions, to make students think critically about these programs and enhance possible program comprehension. Inspired from previous works on nudging students on counter factual thinking, we present the possibility to enhance digital textbooks with questions generated using GPT.