A small and secure submission system for UNIX systems

Abstract

Often the only choices available for submitting assignments are paper, diskette, or e-mail. Yet each of these media has major shortcomings. This paper delineates these shortcomings, reviews previous attempts at creating useful assignment submission systems, and describes a new submission system, named turnin. This UNIX-based submission system is attractive because it is small, simple, easy to maintain, and intuitive to use. One of the major problems addressed by the design of turnin is support for submission of files across multiple NFS mounted file systems. Other features include the ability to enforce due dates, keep files in secure locations, keep accurate time stamps for individual submissions, and provide feedback to students about the status of their individual submissions.