一句话：通过76名一年级学生的探索性研究，揭示LLM课程助手InnSpill.ai在项目式软件工程中的六种跨界角色与使用模式。
LLM正快速进入教育场景，但其在项目式软件工程课程中的角色仍缺乏理解，已有讨论多聚焦代码正确性与学术诚信。本文报告一项探索性研究，以基于LLM的课程助手InnSpill.ai为对象，覆盖76名一年级学生组成的15个团队，收集团队报告、每周使用投票与导师观察，并采用主题分析考察交互模式、感知价值与局限。研究发现，学生在项目前中期使用最密集，主要用于概念澄清、文档结构化和轻量代码生成；分析识别出六种跨界角色，从技术支持到课程解读。学生重视助手的可访问性与形成性指导，但也面临团队层面采纳不均、过度依赖以及缺少对话记忆等挑战。研究建议将LLM工具有意识地嵌入反思与迭代式项目工作流，以提供即时支持并降低认知门槛。
Large Language Models (LLMs) are rapidly entering educational settings, yet their role in project-based software engineering (SE) courses remains insufficiently understood. Most discourse centers on code correctness or academic integrity, with limited attention to how LLMs support learning across project phases. This paper investigates how an LLM-based course assistant, InnSpill.ai, shaped students’ learning experiences. We report on an exploratory study involving 76 first-year students organized into 15 teams, drawing on team reports, weekly usage polls, and supervisor observations. Using thematic analysis, we examine interaction patterns, perceived value, and limitations of the tool. We found that students engaged most intensively with InnSpill during early and mid-project phases, primarily for conceptual clarification, documentation structuring, and lightweight code generation. The analysis identifies six boundary-spanning roles enacted by the assistant, ranging from technical support to course interpretation. While students valued the assistant’s accessibility and formative guidance, challenges included uneven adoption at the team level, tendencies toward overreliance, and the absence of conversational memory. The findings suggest that when deliberately embedded into reflective and iterative project workflows, LLM tools can enhance formative learning by providing just-in-time support and reducing cognitive barriers. Future work should examine collaborative prompting practices and multimodal extensions to better align LLM affordances with team-based SE learning.
@inproceedings{paperbot11958,
title = {The Boundary-Spanning Assistant: Understanding the Role and Usage patterns of LLMs in Project-Based Software Engineering},
author = {Anh Nguyen-Duc and Kai-Kristian Kemell and Aparna Chirumamilla},
booktitle = {ICSE},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1145/3786580.3786970}
}