Ujjwal Singhal | Searcharxiv

arXiv2024

TAMIGO: Empowering Teaching Assistants using LLM-assisted viva and code assessment in an Advanced Computing Class

Large Language Models (LLMs) have significantly transformed the educational landscape, offering new tools for students, instructors, and teaching assistants. This paper investigates the application of LLMs in assisting teaching assistants (TAs) with viva and code assessments in an advanced computing class on distributed systems in an Indian University. We develop TAMIGO, an LLM-based system for TAs to evaluate programming assignments. For viva assessment, the TAs generated questions using TAMIGO and circulated these questions to the students for answering. The TAs then used TAMIGO to generate feedback on student answers. For code assessment, the TAs selected specific code blocks from student code submissions and fed it to TAMIGO to generate feedback for these code blocks. The TAMIGO-generated feedback for student answers and code blocks was used by the TAs for further evaluation. We evaluate the quality of LLM-generated viva questions, model answers, feedback on viva answers, and feedback on student code submissions. Our results indicate that LLMs are highly effective at generating viva questions when provided with sufficient context and background information. However, the results for LLM-generated feedback on viva answers were mixed; instances of hallucination occasionally reduced the accuracy of feedback. Despite this, the feedback was consistent, constructive, comprehensive, balanced, and did not overwhelm the TAs. Similarly, for code submissions, the LLM-generated feedback was constructive, comprehensive and balanced, though there was room for improvement in aligning the feedback with the instructor-provided rubric for code evaluation. Our findings contribute to understanding the benefits and limitations of integrating LLMs into educational settings.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2024

Comuniqa : Exploring Large Language Models for improving speaking skills

In this paper, we investigate the potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) to improve English speaking skills. This is particularly relevant in countries like India, where English is crucial for academic, professional, and personal communication but remains a non-native language for many. Traditional methods for enhancing speaking skills often rely on human experts, which can be limited in terms of scalability, accessibility, and affordability. Recent advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) offer promising solutions to overcome these limitations. We propose Comuniqa, a novel LLM-based system designed to enhance English speaking skills. We adopt a human-centric evaluation approach, comparing Comuniqa with the feedback and instructions provided by human experts. In our evaluation, we divide the participants in three groups: those who use LLM-based system for improving speaking skills, those guided by human experts for the same task and those who utilize both the LLM-based system as well as the human experts. Using surveys, interviews, and actual study sessions, we provide a detailed perspective on the effectiveness of different learning modalities. Our preliminary findings suggest that while LLM-based systems have commendable accuracy, they lack human-level cognitive capabilities, both in terms of accuracy and empathy. Nevertheless, Comuniqa represents a significant step towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education by providing a valuable learning tool for individuals who may not have access to human experts for improving their speaking skills.

cs.HC↗