MAIC-UI: Making Interactive Courseware with Generative UI

Abstract

Creating interactive STEM courseware traditionally requires HTML/CSS/JavaScript expertise, leaving barriers for educators. While generative AI can produce HTML codes, existing tools generate static presentations rather than interactive simulations, struggle with long documents, and lack pedagogical accuracy mechanisms. Furthermore, full regeneration for modifications requires 200--600 seconds, disrupting creative flow. We present MAIC-UI, a zero-code authoring system that enables educators to create and rapidly edit interactive courseware from textbooks, PPTs, and PDFs. MAIC-UI employs: (1) structured knowledge analysis with multi-modal understanding to ensure pedagogical rigor; (2) a two-stage generate-verify-optimize pipeline separating content alignment from visual refinement; and (3) Click-to-Locate editing with Unified Diff-based incremental generation achieving sub-10-second iteration cycles. A controlled lab study with 40 participants shows MAIC-UI reduces editing iterations (4.9 vs. 7.0) and significantly improves learnability and controllability compared to direct Text-to-HTML generation. A three-month classroom deployment with 53 high school students demonstrates that MAIC-UI fosters learning agency and reduces outcome disparities -- the pilot class achieved 9.21-point gains in STEM subjects compared to -2.32 points in control classes. Our code is available at https://github.com/THU-MAIC/MAIC-UI.