On the Use of Semantic-Based AIG to Automatically Generate Programming Exercises

In introductory programming courses, proficiency is typically achieved through substantial practice in the form of relatively small assignments and quizzes. Unfortunately, creating programming assignments and quizzes is both, time-consuming and error-prone. We use Automatic Item Generation (AIG) in order to address the problem of creating numerous programming exercises that can be used for assignments or quizzes in introductory programming courses. AIG is based on the use of test-item templates with embedded variables and formulas which are resolved by a computer program with actual values to generate test-items. Thus, hundreds or even thousands of test-items can be generated with a single test-item template. We present a semantic-based AIG that uses linked open data (LOD) and automatically generates contextual programming exercises. The approach was incorporated into an existing self-assessment and practice tool for students learning computer programming. The tool has been used in different introductory programming courses to generate a set of practice exercises different for each student, but with the same difficulty and quality

Vielfalt in der einführenden Programmierung kompetent begegnen

Dieser Artikel beschreibt eine didaktische Intervention an einer deutschen Hochschule für angewandte Wissenschaften und leitet aus dieser allgemein anwendbare Konzepte für geschlechtergerechte Lehre ab. Dabei wurde ein einführender Kurs in Programmiertechnik von einer externen wissenschaftlichen Begleitung evaluiert. Besonders ist hierbei die Erhebung von Daten sowohl der Lehrenden als auch der Studierenden und der externen Begleitung selbst in drei unterschiedlichen Verfahren, um aus konvergierenden und abweichenden Ergebnissen konkrete Empfehlungen abzuleiten. Die Empfehlungen sind hierbei auch für nicht-technische Lehrveranstaltungen interessant und schildern einerseits die Erfahrungen mit der externen Beratung, bieten andererseits aber auch Anregungen zur Übertragung des Prinzips auf andere Szenarien in der eigenen Lehre.This article describes a didactic intervention at a German university of applied sciences and derives generally applicable concepts for gender-equitable teaching from the case study. An introductory course in programming technology was evaluated by an external scientific advisor. A special feature of this project is the collection of data from teachers, students and the external advisor herself in three different procedures in order to derive concrete recommendations from converging and deviating results. The recommendations are also of interest for non-technical courses and describe the experiences with external consulting on one hand, but on the other hand also offer suggestions for transferring the principle to other scenarios in one's own teaching