An Intelligent Tutoring System for API Misuse Correction by Instant Quality Feedback

Rui Zhao, Harvey P. Siy, Chulwoo Pack, Leen-Kiat Soh, Myoungkyu Song

Abstract: Computer science students have difficulty understanding correct usages of an Application Programming Interface (API) and programming violations that cause compilation or runtime errors. Despite high-quality documentation for programming, the students typically need an instructor's feedback when their programs cause bugs, crashes, and vulnerabilities. This paper presents a pedagogical approach that is based on an Intelligent Tutoring System called I <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">NT</inf> Tu <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">ToR</inf> . Briefly, I <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">NT</inf> T <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">UTOR</inf> provides novice students with instant feedback to fix their programming issues or vulnerabilities. We have implemented our approach as a plug-in application in the Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for an interactive educational environment. In our proposed evaluation, we plan to perform empirical studies with CS students to assess how effectively I <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">NT</inf> T <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">UTOR</inf> improves their ability to identify and fix potential bugs or vulnerabilities in the cryptography-related programming assignments.