THESE FINDINGS ARE AN IMPORTANT PROOF POINT THAT AI, WHEN THOUGHTFULLY DESIGNED AND EMBEDDED IN THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE, CAN DRIVE REAL IMPROVEMENTS IN OUTCOMES. guide students with Socratic-style hints, plainlanguage explanations of error messages and task summaries that help demystify assignment briefs. Usage was highest in beginner and intermediate courses, with error explanation accounting for over half of all interactions.
INDUSTRY // Edu. tech
AI assistance doubles completion rates and drives up grades by 15 %
New research reveals that an AIpowered learning assistant can have a dramatic impact on student success in tech skills education. In one of the largest studies of its kind, courses that integrated an AI assistant saw a 15 % increase in median grade and a x2 uplift to the number of completed courses compared to those without.
The study, which analysed engagement and performance data from over 1,800 learners in online computer science courses, points to the growing role of AI in helping students overcome barriers to successful learning outcomes and build confidence in complex subjects like programming.
Among the assistant types,‘ Explain this error’ was by far the most widely used, accounting for 56 % of all interactions. This module provides students with plainlanguage explanations of compiler or runtime errors – a common pain point in early-stage programming education. It was followed by the hint generation module( 27 %), which offers Socratic-style prompts to help guide problem-solving and the assignment summarisation tool( 17 %), which simplifies complex task instructions.
“ These findings are an important proof point that AI, when thoughtfully designed and embedded in the learning experience, can drive real improvements in outcomes,” said Philip Snalune, CEO and Co-founder of Codio.“ What’ s exciting is not just the statistical uplift, but what it tells us about the potential for AI to support more impactful and scalable tech skills education.”
The research focused on Codio Coach, a specialised AI assistant built on Anthropic’ s Claude large language model( LLM) and tailored for computer science learners. Rather than giving answers, Coach is designed to
THESE FINDINGS ARE AN IMPORTANT PROOF POINT THAT AI, WHEN THOUGHTFULLY DESIGNED AND EMBEDDED IN THE LEARNING EXPERIENCE, CAN DRIVE REAL IMPROVEMENTS IN OUTCOMES. guide students with Socratic-style hints, plainlanguage explanations of error messages and task summaries that help demystify assignment briefs. Usage was highest in beginner and intermediate courses, with error explanation accounting for over half of all interactions.
The findings also highlight an evolution in how Generative AI is being applied in education beyond content generation, bringing context-aware support to improve learner comprehension and reduce frustration without compromising academic integrity.
Codio Coach was first launched in April 2024 and has since been adopted by institutions and training providers across both higher education and the workforce upskilling sector. The study data was drawn from Codio-hosted online courses between January 2023 and December 2024 and analysed performance differences across 60 courses before and after Coach’ s introduction. p
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