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Where a Coding-Help Request Goes

Run the Where a Coding-Help Request Goes MicroSim fullscreen

About This MicroSim

A student saying "it doesn't work" can mean three different things, and the three agents in this chapter answer three different questions:

  • Something is broken -- debugging help suggests where the bug might be, and pointedly does not fix it.
  • Something is not understood -- the tutor asks a guiding question back instead of stating the answer.
  • Something is ready for a second look -- the code review assistant flags style issues before a peer review, so human review time goes to substance.

The structural point is what happens after all three. Every branch converges on Mentor Present and Available, and then on the student doing the actual work. No branch lets an agent work with a student unsupervised, and no branch ends with the agent producing the finished answer.

That last constraint is the one worth defending in a session. An agent that hands over a working fix has technically solved the problem and pedagogically wasted it.

How to Use

  • Hover a step to preview it; click to pin the details.
  • The three branch labels describe the student's actual need, not the tool.
  • Note that all three paths pass through the mentor node before reaching the student.

Lesson Plan

Bloom level: Analyze (L4) -- differentiate

Learning objective: Given a student's coding question, the learner differentiates which of the three coding-help agents applies and identifies the mentor's role in that path.

Before the sim (5 min). Collect three real questions students asked last session. Most will be phrased identically -- "it doesn't work" -- which is why the routing question exists.

With the sim (10 min). Walk each branch and, for each, ask what the agent is forbidden from doing. Debugging help does not fix; the tutor does not answer; the review assistant does not rewrite.

After the sim (15 min). Route the three real questions from the warm-up and script what the mentor says while each agent is being used.

Check for understanding. Ask: "A student's code runs but is a mess, and they want to know if it is any good. Which agent, and what is the mentor doing?" Code review assistant, with the mentor ready to step in if a flag does not land.

Embedding This MicroSim

Paste this into any page of the book, adjusting the relative path to docs/sims/ for the page's depth:

<iframe src="../../sims/coding-help-agent-handoff/main.html" width="100%" height="762" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Specification

The full specification below is extracted from Chapter 33: AI-Customized Curriculum and Rolling Out New Agents.

Type: workflow
**sim-id:** coding-help-agent-handoff<br/>
**Library:** Mermaid<br/>
**Status:** Specified
**Template:** https://github.com/dmccreary/modeling-healthcare-data/tree/main/docs/sims/explainable-ai-recommendation-workflow

Purpose: Trace how a student's coding question routes to debugging help, a tutor, or a code review assistant, and show that a mentor stays present at every branch rather than any one agent working with a student unsupervised.

Bloom Taxonomy: Analyze (L4)
Bloom Taxonomy Verb: differentiate

Learning objective: Given a student's coding question, the learner differentiates which of the three coding-help agents applies and identifies the mentor's role in that path.

Steps (flowchart with a decision diamond):
1. Start: "Student Has a Coding Question" -- click reveals "Something isn't working, isn't understood, or is ready for a second look."
2. Decision: "What Kind of Help Is Needed?" -- click reveals "Routes to one of three coding-help agents based on the actual need."
3a. Branch to "AI Assisted Debugging Help" -- click reveals "Suggests where a bug might be, never fixes the code directly."
3b. Branch to "AI Tutor For Students" -- click reveals "Asks a guiding question back rather than stating the answer."
3c. Branch to "AI Code Review Assistant" -- click reveals "Flags style-level issues before a peer code review session begins."
4. All three branches converge on "Mentor Present and Available" -- click reveals "A mentor stays in the room for all three, ready to step in if the hint, suggestion, or flag isn't landing."
5. End: "Student Does the Actual Fixing, Answering, or Revising" -- click reveals "The agent points; the student -- not the agent -- does the work that builds the skill."

Interactivity requirement (satisfied): every node has a Mermaid `click` directive tied to an infobox showing its revealed text.

Color coding: Gray for start/end states, purple for the decision diamond, three distinct accent colors for the three coding-help branches, green for the converged mentor-present step.

Implementation: Mermaid flowchart (`graph TD`) rendered in main.html with `click NodeId call showInfo("NodeId")` directives for every node, opening a side-panel infobox.

References