Contributions to the evolution of an automatic assessment environment for programming assignments

• Grant number: 14/18913-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2014
• End date: October 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Computer Science - Computing Methodologies and Techniques
• Principal Investigator: Ellen Francine Barbosa
• Grantee: Vítor Rodrigues Tonon
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação (ICMC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07375-0 - CeMEAI - Center for Mathematical Sciences Applied to Industry, AP.CEPID

Abstract

The assessment of programming assignments is time consumming and requires a lot of effort from instructors. In order to minimize such effort, initiatives have been proposed to automate the assessment of such assignments. In this context, PROGTEST is a tool to support the assessment of programming assignments, automatically evaluating both the quality of students' programs and the quality of students' tests. Experiments have been conducted by using PROGTEST in introductory programming courses. The results pointed out that the use of PROGTEST is beneficial for teaching and learning of both programming and software testing. However, improvements to PROGTEST are still necessary for its effective adoption in real learning scenarios. Motivated by this context, this project aims at evolving PROGTEST in order to mitigate its limitations. The main aspects that should be addressed include the improvement of the user's interface and the implementation of new features, particularly related to security and performance. Also, we also intend to investigate mechanisms to integrate PROGTEST to learning management systems (LMSs). The idea is working in the development of supporting mechanisms to facilitate the access and use of PROGTEST through these systems.