SBIR Phase I: An automated tutoring software that teaches K-12 students coding through integration with popular video games

这个SBIR第一阶段项目将导致开发一个智能自动化辅导系统，用于向K-12学生教授编码。在美国，数百万6-14岁的学生有兴趣学习如何修改(“修改”)流行的视频游戏，但缺乏必要的技能：编程。编码是一门非常有价值的STEM课程，但目前并不是美国学校的核心课程。由于美国在计算机领域没有培养出足够多的熟练工人，美国工人每年将填补56,000个工作岗位空缺。这个项目旨在让数百万学生在未来5年内接触到编码，使他们可以使用修改。为了规模化地教授数百万学生，该项目将开发一个复杂的自动化辅导系统，该系统将智能地指导学生完成编码教育，在学生遇到错误时检测并帮助他们，并为学生提供近乎无穷无尽的谜题和教育内容。该项目计划解决计算机科学教育领域中持续存在的问题。通过该项目开发的自动化辅导系统将为其他STEM学科的自动化辅导系统奠定基础。该项目的主要技术创新是基于浏览器的IDE，用于编写代码并在视频游戏运行环境中执行。这种天生游戏化的编码环境为计算机科学教育打开了新的大门。围绕着这个编码环境，一个自动化的辅导系统正在建设中。这个项目旨在解决计算机科学教育中的几个问题。这些问题包括：(1)识别学生何时不理解编码概念并引导学生理解的隐形评估系统，(2)对新手友好的错误检测和报告系统，其将学生引导到他们的代码中错误起源的部分，(3)为新手程序员提供的类似自动堆栈溢出的资源，其在新手遇到错误时建议可能的解决方案，(4)随机谜题生成器，其为不同技能水平创建几乎无穷无尽的编码教育内容，(5)游戏从视觉编程语言到句法复杂编程语言的游戏的教程和谜题，以及(6)允许教师将软件集成到课堂中的教师工具和API。通过解决计算机科学教育中的这些问题，本项目旨在制作一个有效的、可扩展的编码教育工具。

This SBIR Phase I project would result in the development of an intelligent automated tutoring system for teaching coding to K-12 students. Millions of 6-14 year old students in the U.S. have an interest in learning how to mod ("modify") popular video games, but lack the necessary skillset: coding. Coding is a highly valuable STEM subject, but is not currently a core subject in U.S. schools. Because the U.S. is not producing enough skilled workers in computing fields, there will be 56,000 jobs that go unfilled by U.S. workers every year. This project aims to expose millions of students to coding in the next 5 years by making modding accessible to them. In order to teach millions of students at scale, this project will develop a complex automated tutoring system which intelligently guides students through their coding education, detects and helps students when they run into errors, and provides students with a near-endless supply of puzzles and educational content. This project plans to tackle ongoing problems in the field of computer science education. The automated tutoring system developed through this project will be a foundation for automated tutoring systems that teach other STEM subjects.The main technical innovation of this project is a browser-based IDE for writing code and executing it within the runtime environment of video games. This inherently gamified coding environment opens new doors in computer science education. Around this coding environment, an automated tutoring system is being built. This project aims to tackle several problems in computer science education. These problems include: (1) a stealth assessment system that identifies when a student does not understand a coding concept and that guides the student towards understanding, (2) a novice-friendly error detection and reporting system that points students to the part of their code where the error originated, (3) an automated Stack Overflow-like resource for novice programmers that suggests possible solutions when the novice encounters an error, (4) a random puzzle generator that creates a near-endless supply of coding educational content for different skill levels, (5) tutorials and puzzles that gamify the transition from a visual programming language to a syntactically complex programming language, and (6) teacher tools and APIs that allow teachers to integrate the software into their classrooms. By solving these problems in computer science education, this project aims to make an effective coding education tool that scales.