BoilerSketch：面向CS1/早期CS2的TA监督、以图表为核心的生成式AI结构化图表实践
BoilerSketch: A TA-Supervised, Diagram-First GenAI Practice for Structured Diagrams in CS1/Early CS2
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中文总结 AI 辅助
BoilerSketch是面向CS1/早期CS2的TA监督式生成式AI实践，通过双面板交互模型生成结构化Mermaid图表，经21名教学人员评估，三分之二认为其对概念理解和支持任务有中等以上帮助，为入门计算课程提供了实用AI支持方案。
中文摘要 AI 辅助
本文是一篇创新性实践完整论文，介绍了BoilerSketch——一种面向CS1和早期CS2支持场景、由助教（TA）监督、以图表为核心的生成式AI实践及平板界面，用于提供结构化视觉解释。大型入门计算课程在实验课和答疑时段常面临支持瓶颈，因为许多学生问题用图表而非额外文本作答效果最佳，但多数AI辅导工具仍以文本为核心，且难以生成准确、符合教学需求的视觉内容。BoilerSketch通过双面板交互模型解决这一缺口，该模型将聊天功能与支持学生绘图的触控笔白板结合，同时采用提示策略约束模型生成结构化、可渲染的Mermaid图表，而非自由格式图像。为维护学术诚信，该系统被限定于概念解释范畴：禁止可执行代码和代码级调试，且采用人在回路的工作流，助教仍为负责任的监督者，可监控会话并在回答需修正、深入探究或升级至实时帮助时介入。我们报告了一项为期45分钟的专家评估，参与对象为来自某大型编程课程的21名教学人员，他们使用BoilerSketch处理代表性问题并完成使用后调查。三分之二的参与者认为该系统对概念理解至少有中等帮助，对典型支持任务至少有中等用处。教学人员发现其在常规基于图表的解释中价值最大，同时指出了图表深度和对更高级主题适用性的局限。我们最后总结了在入门计算课程中采用受监督、以图表为核心的生成式AI支持的实用指南，强调范围与升级规则、作为政策护栏的提示以及可靠的结构化图表渲染。
英文摘要
This innovative practice full paper presents BoilerSketch, a TA-supervised, diagram-first GenAI practice and tablet interface for providing structured visual explanations in CS1 and early CS2 support settings. Large early computing courses routinely face a support bottleneck during labs and office hours because many student questions are best answered with a diagram rather than additional text, yet most AI tutoring tools remain text-forward and unreliable at producing accurate, pedagogically useful visuals. BoilerSketch addresses this gap through a dual-pane interaction model that combines chat with a pen-enabled whiteboard for student sketches and a prompting strategy that constrains the model to generate structured, renderable Mermaid diagrams rather than free-form images. To preserve academic integrity, the system is intentionally scoped to conceptual explanation: it forbids executable code and code-level debugging and uses a human-in-the-loop workflow in which teaching assistants remain accountable supervisors who can monitor sessions and intervene when responses require correction, deeper probing, or escalation to live help. We report a 45-minute expert evaluation with 21 instructional staff from a large programming course who used BoilerSketch on representative questions and completed a post-use survey. Two-thirds rated the system at least moderately helpful for conceptual understanding and at least moderately useful for typical support tasks. Staff saw the strongest value in routine diagram-based explanations and noted limits in diagram depth and applicability to more advanced topics. We conclude with practical guidance for adopting supervised, diagram-first GenAI support in early computing courses, emphasizing scope-and-escalation rules, prompt-as-policy guardrails, and reliable structured diagram rendering.
