Pyo, a Chatbot Assistant for Introductory Programming Students

Abstract

As a result of the technological advancements in our society, the number of students enrolling in Computer Science and related courses continues to rise. Programming is regarded as a difficult subject to learn, and as the size of classes and the number of students enrolled in online courses continues to increase, providing individualized support to determine where the difficulties of a student lie may appear impossible, resulting in frustration, lack of motivation, and an increase in dropout rates. Chatbots can mitigate this problem as it can provide simultaneous support to multiple students 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and by allowing introverted students to express questions more comfortably. This paper proposes the implementation of a chatbot denominated Pyo aiming to provide assistance to novice programmers. It was evaluated how students enrolled in an online introductory programming course interacted with Pyo in order to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of the chatbot’s features. The results indicate that Pyo facilitates student learning; however, more straightforward explanations of its functionalities were requested.