5 ms·

Yes, definitely the case. Just imagine a class with 100 students, each with a system that has its own quirks (OS, browser, and a mix of versions, etc). We built

• charcircuit 3mo ago
  In my experience you can just tell AI to install it and it will figure out all of those quirks on its own.
  • belmarca 3mo ago
    We started this project before LLMs were popularized :) And surprisingly enough, experience says a lot of students would get stuck anyway.
• fn-mote 3mo ago
  I hate to second the grandparent, but perhaps the install process is the most difficult part for the instructor because it is at a stage where the instructor feels 90% responsible for the outcomes. A criticism like “I didn’t understand recursive functions” is a student problem. A criticism like “the instructions to install the environment never worked” is much more clearly a problem of the instructions. Even if, as you said, there are subtleties. I will maintain that the only way the install process is actually the most difficult part for the student is if they are already a competent programmer. Which seems unlikely for a class like this.
  • belmarca 3mo ago
    OK, sure the concepts might be harder than setting up an environment. But setting things up is, by experience, a very real, very annoying and time-consuming blocker. We have students come in with tablets and it "just works"!