Students predominantly recommended future students use office hours and formal course staff, with LLMs positioned as a supplement¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · qualitative r2–r3 · q2
Currency · newest study 2026 · checked against its sources 2026-10-18 (automated, 2 of 2 entries) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? In the Week 13 advice-to-future-students reflections, students predominantly recommended office hours and commented on how helpful the TAs were, while recommending LLMs for assistance tasks like test cases or documentation. → Margaret Ellis 2026 q2 i? Students recommended starting assignments early, trying problems on their own first, and seeking help in order to understand the material rather than just get answers. → Margaret Ellis 2026 (2)

Evidence¶

Margaret Ellis 2026¶

Margaret Ellis, Nikitha Donekal Chandrashekar, Sehrish Basir Nizamani, Mohammed Farghally, Jake O'Brien, and Naren Ramakrishnan. (2026). Demystify, Use, Reflect, Assess (DURA): An Experience Report on LLM Integration in CS2. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.30908 doi:10.48550/arxiv.2606.30908

q2 · i? · qualitative · r2

Qualitative coding of Week 13 advice responses using 35 codes for recommendations for future help-seeking. Students also cautioned LLM use, e.g., to avoid AI doing large parts of the work. No effect size printed.

"Similar to Penney's findings [27], students predominantly recommended that future students use office hours and they commented on how helpful the TAs were."

Margaret Ellis 2026 (2)¶

Margaret Ellis, Nikitha Donekal Chandrashekar, Sehrish Basir Nizamani, Mohammed Farghally, Jake O'Brien, and Naren Ramakrishnan. (2026). Demystify, Use, Reflect, Assess (DURA): An Experience Report on LLM Integration in CS2. arXiv. https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.30908

q2 · i? · qualitative · r3

Same Week 13 advice analysis: students also explicitly recommended trying problems on their own first or reviewing course materials, and said the main reason to seek assistance is to understand the material. Descriptive; no effect size.

"There was a noticeable trend to recommend starting assignments early in order to be able to get help and not be overwhelmed."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Office hours attendance and Piazza posting declined over prior semesters and rose in Fall 2025 when LLMs and retakes were allowed — related
• Students' LLM use in CS2 fell into three themes: understanding, assisting code writing, and writing code, with only a few using LLMs to write code — related
• Student reflections identify speed and scaffolding as the dominant theme, with verification burden, overreliance worries, and prompt precision also prevalent — related