Code Comprehension with AI Tools — Bachelor Study (Devs & CS students, 18+, anywhere)

Hi everyone!

I'm Daniel, a CS student at FH Technikum Wien, and I'm running the study for my bachelor's thesis. I'm comparing how well developers understand code when they use GitHub Copilot Chat versus a small didactic VS Code extension I built (Socratic-style questions instead of direct answers).

What you'd do (~30 minutes total, all from home):

• 5 min – Pre-Survey (Google Forms)

• 5 min – clone 1 or 2 small repos in VS Code

• ~10 min – read 12 short Python snippets and talk to the tool

• 10 min – Post-Survey

Requirements:

• VS Code + Git

• Either GitHub Copilot OR Node.js 18+ (Group B – I'll send you a test API key)

• Basic Python reading skills

No recording, only your name (which will be pseudonymized for the Study) to your answers. You'd really help me finish my thesis — and you'll see two AI coding tools side by side, which is interesting in itself.

If you're in, send me a quick DM — I'll reply with your group assignment, GitHub repo, the participant guide and the survey links.

Thanks a ton! 🙏