Conversational Generative AI (convo-genAI) is revolutionizing Software Engineering (SE) as engineers and academics embrace this technology in their work. However, there is a gap in understanding the current potential and pitfalls of this technology, specifically in supporting students in SE tasks. In this work, we evaluate through a between-subjects study (N=22) the effectiveness of ChatGPT, a convo-genAI platform, in assisting students in SE tasks. Our study did not find statistical differences in participants' productivity or self-efficacy when using ChatGPT as compared to traditional resources, but we found significantly increased frustration levels. Our study also revealed 5 distinct faults arising from violations of Human-AI interaction guidelines, which led to 7 different (negative) consequences on participants.
@article{arxiv.2312.11719,
title = {How Far Are We? The Triumphs and Trials of Generative AI in Learning Software Engineering},
author = {Rudrajit Choudhuri and Dylan Liu and Igor Steinmacher and Marco Gerosa and Anita Sarma},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2312.11719},
year = {2024}
}