Viraj Kumar, Visiting Professor, KIAC
– June 10–11 and June 17–18, 2023
Viraj Kumar (Visiting Professor, KIAC) conducted an NPTEL (National Programme of Technology Enhanced Learning) workshop on ‘Leveraging Generative AI for Teaching Programming Courses’. The ten-hour workshop was conducted online on two consecutive weekends: June 10–11 and June 17–18, 2023.
The workshop targeted both current faculty from computing domains across a range of higher education programmes (including BTech/BE/BCA/MCA/MTech/ME, and BCA/MCA) as well as prospective faculty (including Master’s students, PhD scholars, and even some undergraduate students who were keen to pursue an academic career). About 50% of the 200 workshop registrants were current faculty, including 40 faculty from Karnataka who were sponsored by the Board of IT Education Standards (BITES).
The participants were introduced to several generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies for programming and provided with a variety of hands-on exercises so that they could (a) understand how students can use these technologies to solve traditional programming problems trivially, and (b) understand how to design new types of assessments (and associated pedagogical strategies) to help students develop key competencies despite access to these powerful tools.
The participants found the material challenging; however, several reported that the workshop served its key purpose: getting them to think about how to leverage generative AI technologies in their own classrooms.