Scaling CS1 Support with Compiler-Integrated Conversational AI
Jake Renzella, Alexandra Vassar, Lorenzo Lee Solano, Andrew Taylor

TL;DR
This paper presents DCC Sidekick, an AI-powered debugging assistant integrated into a C/C++ compiler, which significantly supports large-scale CS1 courses by providing accessible, context-aware error explanations based on extensive usage data.
Contribution
The paper introduces DCC Sidekick, a novel compiler-integrated conversational AI tool that enhances debugging support and demonstrates scalable adoption in large CS1 courses.
Findings
Over 50% of interactions occurred outside business hours.
959 students engaged in 11,222 sessions over seven weeks.
17,982 error explanations provided, showing high adoption.
Abstract
This paper introduces DCC Sidekick, a web-based conversational AI tool that enhances an existing LLM-powered C/C++ compiler by generating educational programming error explanations. The tool seamlessly combines code display, compile- and run-time error messages, and stack frame read-outs alongside an AI interface, leveraging compiler error context for improved explanations. We analyse usage data from a large Australian CS1 course, where 959 students engaged in 11,222 DCC Sidekick sessions, resulting in 17,982 error explanations over seven weeks. Notably, over 50% of interactions occurred outside business hours, underscoring the tool's value as an always-available resource. Our findings reveal strong adoption of AI-assisted debugging tools, demonstrating their scalability in supporting extensive CS1 courses. We provide implementation insights and recommendations for educators seeking to…
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
Taxonomy
TopicsNatural Language Processing Techniques · Topic Modeling · Speech and dialogue systems
