Adaptive structure metrics for automated feedback provision in Java programming

Paaßen B, Mokbel B, Hammer B. Adaptive structure metrics for automated feedback provision in Java programming. In: Verleysen M, ed. Proceedings of the ESANN, 23rd European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligence and Machine Learning. 2015: 307-312.Today's learning supporting systems for programming mostly rely on pre-coded feedback provision, such that their applicability is restricted to modelled tasks. In this contribution, we investigate the suitability of machine learning techniques to automate this process by means of a presentationm of similar solution strategies from a set of stored examples. To this end we apply structure metric learning methods in local and global alignment which can be used to compare Java programs. We demonstrate that automatically adapted metrics better identify the underlying programming strategy as compared to their default counterparts in a benchmark example from programming

Adaptive structure metrics for automated feedback provision in intelligent tutoring systems

Paaßen B, Mokbel B, Hammer B. Adaptive structure metrics for automated feedback provision in intelligent tutoring systems. Neurocomputing. 2016;192(SI):3-13.Typical intelligent tutoring systems rely on detailed domain-knowledge which is hard to obtain and difficult to encode. As a data-driven alternative to explicit domain-knowledge, one can present learners with feedback based on similar existing solutions from a set of stored examples. At the heart of such a data-driven approach is the notion of similarity. We present a general-purpose framework to construct structure metrics on sequential data and to adapt those metrics using machine learning techniques. We demonstrate that metric adaptation improves the classification of wrong versus correct learner attempts in a simulated data set from sports training, and the classification of the underlying learner strategy in a real Java programming dataset

Effects of Automated Interventions in Programming Assignments: Evidence from a Field Experiment

A typical problem in MOOCs is the missing opportunity for course conductors to individually support students in overcoming their problems and misconceptions. This paper presents the results of automatically intervening on struggling students during programming exercises and offering peer feedback and tailored bonus exercises. To improve learning success, we do not want to abolish instructionally desired trial and error but reduce extensive struggle and demotivation. Therefore, we developed adaptive automatic just-in-time interventions to encourage students to ask for help if they require considerably more than average working time to solve an exercise. Additionally, we offered students bonus exercises tailored for their individual weaknesses. The approach was evaluated within a live course with over 5,000 active students via a survey and metrics gathered alongside. Results show that we can increase the call outs for help by up to 66% and lower the dwelling time until issuing action. Learnings from the experiments can further be used to pinpoint course material to be improved and tailor content to be audience specific.Comment: 10 page

Microservice Transition and its Granularity Problem: A Systematic Mapping Study

Microservices have gained wide recognition and acceptance in software industries as an emerging architectural style for autonomic, scalable, and more reliable computing. The transition to microservices has been highly motivated by the need for better alignment of technical design decisions with improving value potentials of architectures. Despite microservices' popularity, research still lacks disciplined understanding of transition and consensus on the principles and activities underlying "micro-ing" architectures. In this paper, we report on a systematic mapping study that consolidates various views, approaches and activities that commonly assist in the transition to microservices. The study aims to provide a better understanding of the transition; it also contributes a working definition of the transition and technical activities underlying it. We term the transition and technical activities leading to microservice architectures as microservitization. We then shed light on a fundamental problem of microservitization: microservice granularity and reasoning about its adaptation as first-class entities. This study reviews state-of-the-art and -practice related to reasoning about microservice granularity; it reviews modelling approaches, aspects considered, guidelines and processes used to reason about microservice granularity. This study identifies opportunities for future research and development related to reasoning about microservice granularity.Comment: 36 pages including references, 6 figures, and 3 table

Introductory programming: a systematic literature review

As computing becomes a mainstream discipline embedded in the school curriculum and acts as an enabler for an increasing range of academic disciplines in higher education, the literature on introductory programming is growing. Although there have been several reviews that focus on specific aspects of introductory programming, there has been no broad overview of the literature exploring recent trends across the breadth of introductory programming. This paper is the report of an ITiCSE working group that conducted a systematic review in order to gain an overview of the introductory programming literature. Partitioning the literature into papers addressing the student, teaching, the curriculum, and assessment, we explore trends, highlight advances in knowledge over the past 15 years, and indicate possible directions for future research

Report from GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394: Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World

This report documents the program and the outcomes of GI-Dagstuhl Seminar 16394 "Software Performance Engineering in the DevOps World". The seminar addressed the problem of performance-aware DevOps. Both, DevOps and performance engineering have been growing trends over the past one to two years, in no small part due to the rise in importance of identifying performance anomalies in the operations (Ops) of cloud and big data systems and feeding these back to the development (Dev). However, so far, the research community has treated software engineering, performance engineering, and cloud computing mostly as individual research areas. We aimed to identify cross-community collaboration, and to set the path for long-lasting collaborations towards performance-aware DevOps. The main goal of the seminar was to bring together young researchers (PhD students in a later stage of their PhD, as well as PostDocs or Junior Professors) in the areas of (i) software engineering, (ii) performance engineering, and (iii) cloud computing and big data to present their current research projects, to exchange experience and expertise, to discuss research challenges, and to develop ideas for future collaborations

Comparison of approaches for developing self-adaptive systems

The engineering of software systems enables developers to create very powerful, complex and highly customized software systems by utilizing newest technical capabilities. However, these systems often are error-prone, inflexible, non-reusable and expensive to maintain. Self-adaptation attends to these challenges, offering new ways to automate the adjustment of a system's structure and state. For that reason, many software development approaches specifically consider self-adaptability, leading to a high diversity of methodologies with different characteristics and areas of application. This work addresses this issue by presenting a taxonomy for the analysis and comparison of different approaches for developing self-adaptive systems. In addition, different sample approaches are presented, demonstrating how these dimensions can be applied to compare and classify related work