CodeX: helping students with ASD in programming through a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) integrated with an LLM

• Vitor Norton State University of Amazonas http://orcid.org/0009-0008-8914-2887
• Fabrizio Honda State University of Amazonas https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8174-1002
• Marcela Pessoa State University of Amazonas https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3064-5585
• Fernanda Pires State University of Amazonas https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8180-9850

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/cbie_estendido.2024.244218

Abstract

Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) face numerous challenges during their academic careers. Particularly in computer science courses, they also face the difficulties that are typical of programming subjects: content complexity, error identification, logical reasoning, etc. Aiming to overcome this scenario, this paper presents ``CodeX'', a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) to assist students with ASD in learning programming content. The environment is integrated with a Large Language Model (LLM), has a tutor specialized in programming to generate personalized feedback and includes several other resources to assist students with ASD. The test version of the environment was applied to the target audience, whose results were positive, mainly regarding the tutor, and made it possible to identify points of improvement that will be incorporated in the later version.

Keywords: Autism Spectrum Disorder, challenges, programming, virtual learning environment, large language model, expert tutor

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