Researchers have introduced Iris, a chatbot designed to provide tailored assistance to informatics students with programming tasks. A recent study has validated the effectiveness of Iris in enhancing students’ comprehension of programming concepts, positioning it as a valuable complement to human tutors.
How does a chatbot like Iris support students during lectures and with their assignments? Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have created Iris to offer computer science students individualized help with programming tasks, proving its success in enhancing programming understanding and serving as a beneficial supplement to traditional tutors.
Large lecture halls with over 1000 students are a common occurrence in introductory informatics classes. To address the unique needs of each student in such settings, Professor Stephan Krusche and his team have been developing the Artemis learning platform since 2016. Unlike typical learning platforms, Artemis not only delivers assignments but also provides instant feedback to students, pinpointing mistakes and areas of incomplete comprehension.
Chatbot Iris: an Effective Tutor
Introduced in October last year, Iris is an addition to the TUM Centre for Educational Technologies’ platform, powered by OpenAI’s GPT large language model. Iris is designed to assist students with their assignments based on their specific requirements. Operating as an “excellent tutor,” the chatbot offers subtle hints or guiding questions instead of direct solutions, encouraging independent thinking among students. Iris focuses on addressing questions directly related to the learning material to enhance the learning process.
“To assess Iris’s effectiveness, we surveyed over 200 students from three introductory informatics classes,” explains doctoral candidate Patrick Bassner from the Software Engineering department. “The aim was to determine how students perceive the support provided by Iris, their comfort level in seeking help from a chatbot versus a human tutor, and their trust in Iris.”
Iris Enhances Learning and Encourages Student Independence
The survey results indicate that students consider Iris a valuable support system, although a significant portion of respondents still prefer human tutors. Students appreciate Iris’s ability to understand queries and feel secure and at ease when interacting with it. Iris assures students of privacy and non-judgmental assistance, particularly beneficial in large classes where students may hesitate to ask questions publicly. While Iris is widely utilized for exam preparation, students also express confidence in tackling exams independently without relying on the chatbot’s support.
“The integration of Iris into Artemis has demonstrated the significant role AI-based tutors can play in university education,” notes Professor Stephan Krusche. “These personalized supports enhance learning outcomes and foster students’ self-sufficiency.”
The researchers intend to refine Iris further and explore its application across other academic disciplines.
