Towards More Empathic Programming Environments: An Experimental Empathic AI-Enhanced IDE

TL;DR

This study introduces Ceci, an empathic AI-enhanced IDE aimed at supporting novice programmers emotionally and educationally, and compares it with standard tools to evaluate its effectiveness.

Contribution

It presents a novel empathic IDE design and provides initial experimental evidence on its impact on novice programmers' perceived helpfulness and workload.

Findings

Ceci users reported significantly greater perceived helpfulness in error correction.

No significant difference in perceived effectiveness, learning, or workload between Ceci and control groups.

The study offers a foundational framework for future research on empathic programming environments.

Abstract

As generative AI becomes integral to software development, the risk of over-reliance and diminished critical thinking grows. This study introduces "Ceci," our Caring Empathic C IDE designed to support novice programmers by prioritizing learning and emotional support over direct code generation. The researchers conducted a comparative pilot study between Ceci and VSCode + ChatGPT [9, 40]. Participants completed a coding task and were evaluated using the NASA-TLX workload assessment and a post-test usability survey. Although the sample size was small (n = 11), results show that there is no significant difference in perceived effectiveness, learning and workload between the Experimental Ceci group and the Control group, though Ceci users reported significantly greater perceived helpfulness in error correction (p = 0.0220). These findings suggest that empathic responses may not be sufficient on their own to enhance the learner's outcomes, perceptions, or reduce workload. Overall, this study provides a foundational framework for future research. Such research should explore larger sample sizes, diverse programming tasks, and additional empathic features to better understand the potential of empathic programming environments in supporting novice programmers; they must also ensure that the empathic features are well-integrated in the user interface.