Recommended Practices for Instructors
Based on our experiences, we have collected a few recommendations for integrating CodeHelp into a class effectively.
Using Contexts
Before you make CodeHelp available to your students, you should define one or more contexts. We have a separate page about Using Contexts.
Initial Introduction
When first introducing CodeHelp to students, motivate its use by sharing some of the benefits students will see, as relevant to your course. Explain carefully its strengths and limitations in the context of your course: what it will likely be able to help with, and where may it produce incorrect responses.
Provide guidance on how to ask for help most effectively. CodeHelp works most effectively when it is given as much relevant context as possible. This includes providing the relevant portions of one’s code, identifying and copying the important information from error messages, and providing enough information for the issue to be identified. These are the same skills one needs to effectively communicate issues to instructors or peers. Providing good and bad examples or taking a moment to roleplay a few situations may help here. In particular, it is probably worth showing students which parts of the error messages in the language you’re using are most important (e.g., the error type, detailed description, and quoted/highlighted line on which it occurred).
Demonstrate CodeHelp with a few issues similar to those you expect your students to encounter. (The Get Help link in the navigation bar brings you to the same interface students use.) Model how to provide sufficient information and communicate clearly.
During Use
Throughout the course, while students are using CodeHelp, it is helpful to view the students’ queries regularly. In this way, you can gain insight into where they are struggling at each point in the term. Additionally, you might identify students whose usage is not effective (e.g., repeatedly submitting ineffective queries or demonstrating overreliance), and reach out to them directly to provide guidance or a nudge.
Instructors and TAs should sample CodeHelp’s responses in each section of the course to spot and mitigate issues. For example, if CodeHelp suggests a technique, function, or concept that does not fit the design of your course, you can add that to the avoid set in the the relevant context to produce more appropriate responses to similar queries in the future.