Bridging Instead of Replacing Online Coding Communities with AI through Community-Enriched Chatbot Designs

TL;DR

This paper introduces Community-Enriched AI, a chatbot design that integrates social learning features from online coding communities to enhance user engagement and trust in AI-assisted coding tasks.

Contribution

It presents a novel paradigm that embeds social learning dynamics into LLM-based chatbots by utilizing community-generated content from platforms like Kaggle.

Findings

Community-Enriched AI increases user trust.

It encourages greater engagement with online communities.

It effectively supports learners in solving data science tasks.

Abstract

LLM-based chatbots like ChatGPT have become popular tools for assisting with coding tasks. However, they often produce isolated responses and lack mechanisms for social learning or contextual grounding. In contrast, online coding communities like Kaggle offer socially mediated learning environments that foster critical thinking, engagement, and a sense of belonging. Yet, growing reliance on LLMs risks diminishing participation in these communities and weakening their collaborative value. To address this, we propose Community-Enriched AI, a design paradigm that embeds social learning dynamics into LLM-based chatbots by surfacing user-generated content and social design feature from online coding communities. Using this paradigm, we implemented a RAG-based AI chatbot leveraging resources from Kaggle to validate our design. Across two empirical studies involving 28 and 12 data science learners, respectively, we found that Community-Enriched AI significantly enhances user trust, encourages engagement with community, and effectively supports learners in solving data science tasks. We conclude by discussing design implications for AI assistance systems that bridge -- rather than replace -- online coding communities.