From Automation to Cognition: Redefining the Roles of Educators and Generative AI in Computing Education

TL;DR

This paper discusses integrating Generative AI into computing education by redesigning assignments and redefining educator roles to foster critical thinking and effective AI use, based on practical experiences and proposing future research directions.

Contribution

It introduces practical strategies for incorporating GenAI into CS education and redefines educator roles to enhance learning processes and assessment methods.

Findings

Redesigned take-home assignments to include GenAI use.

Emphasized metacognitive skills like critical thinking.

Proposed practical methods for implementation in classrooms.

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) offers numerous opportunities to revolutionise teaching and learning in Computing Education (CE). However, educators have expressed concerns that students may over-rely on GenAI and use these tools to generate solutions without engaging in the learning process. While substantial research has explored GenAI use in CE, and many Computer Science (CS) educators have expressed their opinions and suggestions on the subject, there remains little consensus on implementing curricula and assessment changes. In this paper, we describe our experiences with using GenAI in CS-focused educational settings and the changes we have implemented accordingly in our teaching in recent years since the popularisation of GenAI. From our experiences, we propose two primary actions for the CE community: 1) redesign take-home assignments to incorporate GenAI use and assess students on their process of using GenAI to solve a task rather than simply on the final product; 2) redefine the role of educators to emphasise metacognitive aspects of learning, such as critical thinking and self-evaluation. This paper presents and discusses these stances and outlines several practical methods to implement these strategies in CS classrooms. Then, we advocate for more research addressing the concrete impacts of GenAI on CE, especially those evaluating the validity and effectiveness of new teaching practices.