This program is tentative and subject to change.

Fri 20 Feb 2026 16:40 - 17:00 at Meeting Room 100 - Natural Language, Code, and Usability

Decomposition and abstraction (DA) is an essential component of computational thinking, yet it is not always emphasized in introductory programming courses. In addition, as generative AI further reduces the focus on syntax and increases the importance of higher-level code reasoning, there is renewed opportunity to teach DA explicitly. In this paper, we introduce a framework for systematically assessing the complexity of code structuring tasks, where students must identify and separate meaningful abstractions within existing, unstructured code. The framework defines three dimensions of task complexity, each with multiple levels: repetition, code pattern, and data dependency. To support practical use, we provide example tasks mapped to these levels and offer an interactive tool for generating and exploring DA problems. The framework is designed to support the development of educational tasks that build students’ skills with DA in the procedural paradigm.

This program is tentative and subject to change.

Fri 20 Feb

Displayed time zone: Central Time (US & Canada) change

15:40 - 17:00
Natural Language, Code, and Usability Papers at Meeting Room 100
15:40
20m
Talk
Describing Functionality in Natural Language May Improve Decomposition Behaviors
Papers
Matthew Burns Utah State University, Wesley Edwards Utah State University, John Edwards Utah State University
16:00
20m
Talk
HeuristicBuilder: An Interactive Multimodal Approach to Teaching Usability Heuristics
Papers
Wajdi Aljedaani Saud Data & Artifical Intelligent Authority, Marcelo Medeiros Eler University of São Paulo, Parthasarathy PD BITS Pilani KK Birla Goa Campus, Will Witherspoon University of North Texas, Andrew Pamer University of North Texas
16:20
20m
Talk
You Don't Need a Data Center to Explain in Plain English! Comparing Open-Source and Propriety LLMs for EiPE Grading
Papers
Eddy Jiang University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Max Fowler University of Illinois
16:40
20m
Talk
Systematically Thinking about the Complexity of Code Structuring Exercises at Introductory Level
Papers
Georgiana Haldeman Colgate University, Peter Ohmann College of St. Benedict / St. John's University, Paul Denny The University of Auckland