Porpoise: An LLM-Based Sandbox for Novices to Practice Writing Purpose Statements

Software developers have long emphasized the need for clear textual descriptions of programs, through documentation and comments. Similarly, curricula often expect students to write purpose statements that articulate in prose what program components are expected to do. Unfortunately, it is difficult to motivate students to do this and to evaluate student work at scale.

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Publication Details

Published
2025-10-09
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1145/3758317.3759683
Primary Topic
Teaching and Learning Programming
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Porpoise: An LLM-Based Sandbox for Novices to Practice Writing Purpose Statements

Jan Vahrenhold, Shriram Krishnamurthi, Thore Thießen
Teaching and Learning Programming
article

Porpoise: An LLM-Based Sandbox for Novices to Practice Writing Purpose Statements

Jan Vahrenhold, Shriram Krishnamurthi, Thore Thießen
article en

Abstract

Software developers have long emphasized the need for clear textual descriptions of programs, through documentation and comments. Similarly, curricula often expect students to write purpose statements that articulate in prose what program components are expected to do. Unfortunately, it is difficult to motivate students to do this and to evaluate student work at scale.

University of Münster (DE), Brown University (US)
National Science Foundation
Openalex Percentile: Top 69%
Teaching and Learning Programming
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