Pull Requests From The Classroom: Co-Developing Curriculum And Code

Dennis Zyska, Ilia Kuznetsov, Florian Müller, Iryna Gurevych

MuC 2025

Proceedings of Mensch Und Computer 2025 - MuC '25

TL;DR

What we did: We conducted a case study on the co-development of curriculum and a custom-built peer feedback system for a university course on scientific writing.

What we found: We found that while the co-development process improved alignment between software functionality and pedagogical goals, it also revealed usability challenges and infrastructure-related frustrations.

Takeaway: Our research emphasizes the need for closer collaboration between educators and developers to create educational technologies that effectively support teaching and learning processes.

Abstract

Educational technologies often misalign with instructors’ pedagogical goals, forcing adaptations that compromise teaching efficacy. In this paper, we present a case study on the co-development of curriculum and technology in the context of a university course on scientific writing. Specifically, we examine how a custom-built peer feedback system was iteratively developed alongside the course to support annotation, feedback exchange, and revision. Results show that while co-development fostered stronger alignment between software features and course goals, it also exposed usability limitations and infrastructure-related frustrations, emphasizing the need for closer coordination between teaching and technical teams.