Scaffolding students' learning using test my code

Abstract

As programming is the basis of many CS courses, meaningful activities in supporting students on their journey towards being better programmers is a matter of utmost importance.Programming is not only about learning simple syntax constructs and their applications, but about honing practical problem-solving skills in meaningful contexts. In this article, we describe our current work on an automated assessment system called Test My Code (TMC), which is one of the feedback and support mechanisms that we use in our programming courses. TMC is an assessment service that (1) enables building of scaffolding into programming exercises;(2) retrieves and updates tasks into the students' programming environment as students work on them, and (3) causes no additional overhead to students' programming process. Instructors benefit from TMC as it can be used to perform code reviews, and collect and send feedback even on fully on-line courses.

Increasing Adoption of Smart Learning Content for Computer Science Education

“…• Automatic assessment tools (e.g., BOSS, CourseMarker, Web-CAT, and Test My Code [32,45,24,89]) that manage and grade student programming assignments submissions.…”

“…Test My Code [89] is a service that is used to both assess students' work and to scaffold students as they are working on programming assignments. The service contains backend services that are used to provide scoreboard details, create courses, create embeddable questionnaires, monitor students' progress, create code reviews, and store snapshot data from the students progress.…”

MOOC as semester-long entrance exam

“…In our earlier XA-based courses [11], the feedback has been provided by human advisors (teachers). In the MOOC, the participants program in an industry-standard programming environment that contains a plugin, which provides help for the students (for additional details, see [18]). …”

Are Automated Assessment Tools Helpful in Programming Courses?

“…Most AATs accept and run student-provided source code, but some assess code tracing, promote good style techniques, or encourage a test-driven approach. In our review of existing literature, we found data relevant to our research questions for these tools: Aari, 1 Athene, 2 Autograder, 3 AutoLep, 4 Automatic Marker, 5 BlueFix, 6 BOSS, 7 CAP, 8 Ceilidh, 9 COALA, 10 CodeWrite, 11 CourseMarker, 12 Curator, 13 JUG, 14 Mooshak, 15 PGSE, 16 Retina, 17 Style++, 18 Submit, 19 Test My Code, 20 TRAKLA, 21 TRAKLA2, 22 Trillium, 23 and Web-CAT. 24 We recognize that published research exists on many comparable tools, but we did not readily find data that addressed our questions.…”

“…20 In times they would have normally been grading, instructors were available to help students and complete various work-related responsibilities. Additionally, since teaching assistants no longer had to assist with grading, TAs could gain more experience tutoring students who needed assistance.…”