AssessME VIBE — Student Guide

What is AssessME VIBE?

AssessME VIBE is your integrated learning environment for programming courses. It lives entirely inside VS Code and consists of two extensions that work together:

These two tools are designed to do one thing well: let you focus entirely on learning, while the system takes care of demonstrating that the work is genuinely yours.

Why it matters — the evidence behind the design

Research published by Anthropic in January 2026 ran a controlled experiment on how students use AI while learning to code. The results were striking:

• Students who used AI to generate code and accept it scored 39% on comprehension tests afterwards.

• Students who used AI to ask conceptual questions and code themselves scored 86% — and finished the task just as fast.

• Students who used no AI at all scored 67% — higher than most AI-assisted groups.

The conclusion is not that AI is bad. It is that how you use AI determines whether you learn. Speed without understanding is a trap: you produce code you cannot explain, debug, or build on.

AssessME VIBE is engineered around this finding. The AI Assistant levels are structured to keep you in the high-engagement modes. FLOW records the evidence that you actually built your understanding — keystroke by keystroke, session by session.

How the two extensions work together

You write code  →  FLOW records the process  →  Instructor sees the journey
       ↕
AI Assistant responds at your level  →  FLOW logs the AI event + what you did after

When you ask the AI something and then immediately start typing, FLOW captures that. When you paste generated code without touching it, FLOW captures that too. Your instructor does not need to trust your word — the process speaks for itself.

This is what makes AssessME VIBE different from a plagiarism detector. It does not ask "did you copy this?" It shows how the code was built, one change at a time.

Getting started in four steps

1 — Install both extensions

In VS Code, open the Extensions panel (Ctrl+Shift+X / Cmd+Shift+X) and install:

• AssessME FLOW

• AssessME AI Assistant

Restart VS Code if prompted.

2 — Log in with GitHub

Both extensions use the same GitHub login. You will only need to authenticate once. Click the AssessME AI icon in the sidebar and follow the prompts.

3 — Activate FLOW at the start of every session

Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P) and run:

AssessME FLOW: Activate in Current Folder

A green status indicator confirms FLOW is recording. Do this before you write a single line — the log starts from activation.

4 — Work naturally

Code as you normally would. Ask the AI when you are stuck. The two extensions handle everything in the background.

The AI levels at a glance

Your instructor sets the AI level for each assignment. The level reflects what you are expected to learn on your own.

Lower levels are not punishments. They are the conditions under which the research shows students learn the most. See the AI Assistant Guide for the full breakdown of what each level permits and why.

Your tick budget

Every AI request costs a small number of ticks — a simple credit system that encourages thoughtful use. Your instructor loads your account with ticks at the start of the course and can top up as needed.

The budget is designed so that a student who asks specific, meaningful questions will never run out. It is not designed to restrict learning — it is designed to discourage asking the AI to do work that you should be doing yourself.

Your balance is always visible at the top of the AI panel.

What gets recorded and why

FLOW records:

• When you start and stop coding sessions

• How your code changes over time (diffs, not every keystroke)

• When you run or debug your program and what happened

• When you used the AI Assistant and what level was active

• Milestones you mark deliberately

FLOW does not record:

• Every individual keystroke

• Files outside your project workspace

• Anything on your system other than the assignment code

Everything is encrypted with AES-256-GCM. Only your instructor — with the decryption key — can read the logs. Your data is not shared with any third party.

Academic integrity — the honest version

AssessME VIBE does not assume you are trying to cheat. It assumes you are a student navigating a world where AI is everywhere and the rules are genuinely unclear.

The system helps by making the answer simple: use AI to understand, not to produce. Ask it why your code fails, not to fix it for you. Ask it what async programming means, not to write the async function. The AI levels guide you toward the modes that the research shows produce real learning.

Your instructor can see your AI usage — which model, which level, when, and relative to your code changes. This is not surveillance. It is the evidence that protects you when your work is genuine and flags it when it is not.

Quick reference

Do

• Activate FLOW at the start of every session

• Ask the AI conceptual questions ("why does this fail?") before asking for solutions

• Mark milestones when you complete something meaningful

• Use cheaper models for simple questions and save budget for hard problems

• Keep the .assessme/ folder in your workspace — your instructor needs it

Do not

• Start coding before activating FLOW

• Paste AI-generated code without reading and understanding it

• Switch to a different workspace to use a higher AI level than assigned

• Delete your .assessme/ logs before submitting

Read the detailed guides

• 📘 AssessME FLOW Guide — What gets tracked, how to use milestones, privacy details

• 🤖 AssessME AI Assistant Guide — AI levels explained with examples, tick budget, @file mentions, best practices