The BOSS system for on-line submission and assessment of computing assignments

Practical computing courses which involve significant amounts of programming continue to suffer from increasing student numbers. This makes their delivery and management more difficult to achieve effectively with the available resources. One solution to this problem is to develop methods for automating the submission and testing of student programs to support the marking effort and to enable the division of marking tasks among several individuals while ensuring consistency and rigour throughout. We have developed such methods in our system, called BOSS, and have successfully deployed different versions of it on several courses over a number of years. Here, we describe the original system and its recent enhancements, and discuss the benefits it has provided us with, both in terms of administration and in improving the learning process

Semi-automatic assessment of basic SQL statements

Learning and assessing the Structured Query Language (SQL) is an important step in developing students' database skills. However, due to the increasing numbers of students learning SQL, assessing and providing detailed feedback to students' work can be time consuming and prone to errors. The main purpose of this research is to reduce or remove as many of the repetitive tasks in any phase of the assessment process of SQL statements as possible to achieve the consistency of marking and feedback on SQL answers.This research examines existing SQL assessment tools and their limitations by testing them on SQL questions, where the results reveal that students must attaint essential skills to be able to formulate basic SQL queries. This is because formulating SQL statements requires practice and effort by students. In addition, the standard steps adopted in many SQL assessment tools were found to be insufficient in successfully assessing our sample of exam scripts. The analysis of the outcomes identified several ways of solving the same query and the categories of errors based on the common student mistakes in SQL statements. Based on this, this research proposes a semi-automated assessment approach as a solution to improve students’ SQL formulation process, ensure the consistency of SQL grading and the feedback generated during the marking process. The semi-automatic marking method utilities both the Case-Based Reasoning (CBR) system and Rule-Based Reasoning (RBR) system methodologies. The approach aims to reduce the workload of marking tasks by reducing or removing as many of the repetitive tasks in any phase of the marking process of SQL statements as possible. It also targets the improvement of feedback dimensions that can be given to students.In addition, the research implemented a prototype of the SQL assessment framework which supports the process of the semi-automated assessment approach. The prototype aims to enhance the SQL formulation process for students and minimise the required human effort for assessing and evaluating SQL statements. Furthermore, it aims to provide timely, individual and detailed feedback to the students. The new prototype tool allows students to formulate SQL statements using the point-and-click approach by using the SQL Formulation Editor (SQL-FE). It also aims to minimise the required human effort for assessing and evaluating SQL statements through the use of the SQL Marking Editor (SQL-ME). To ensure the effectiveness of the SQL-FE tool, the research conducted two studies which compared the newly implemented tool with the paper-based manual method in the first study (pilot study), and with the SQL Management Studio tool in the second study (full experiment). The results provided reasonable evidence that using SQL-FE can have a beneficial effect on formulating SQL statements and improve students’ SQL learning. The results also showed that students were able to solve and formulate the SQL query on time and their performance showed significant improvement. The research also carried out an experiment to examine the viability of the SQL Marking Editor by testing the SQL partial marking, grouping of identical SQL statements, and the resulting marking process after applying the generic marking rules. The experimental results presented demonstrated that the newly implemented editor was able to provide consistent marking and individual feedback for all SQL parts. This means that the main aim of this research has been fulfilled, since the workload of the lecturers has been reduced, and students’ performance in formulating SQL statements has been improved.</div

An evaluation of electronic individual peer assessment in an introductory programming course

[Abstract]: Peer learning is a powerful pedagogical practice delivering improved outcomes over conventional teacher-student interactions while offering marking relief to instructors. Peer review enables learning by requiring students to evaluate the work of others. PRAISE is an on-line peer-review system that facilitates anonymous review and delivers prompt feedback from multiple sources. This study is an evaluation of the use of PRAISE in an introductory programming course. Use of the system is examined and attitudes of novice programmers towards the use of peer review are compared to those of students from other disciplines, raising a number of interesting issues. Recommendations are made to introductory programming instructors who may be considering peer review in assignments

EvalSQL - AUTOMATED ASSESSMENT OF DATABASE QUERIES

In computer science programs, database is a fundamental subject taught through several undergraduate courses. These courses develop theoretical and practical concepts of databases. Building queries is a key aspect of this learning process, and students are assessed through assignments and quizzes. However, grading these assignments can be time-consuming for professors, and students usually receive feedback only after the deadlines have passed. As a result, students may miss the opportunity to improve their work and achieve better grades. To address this issue, it would be beneficial to provide students with immediate feedback on their submissions. EvalSQL is an automated system that allows the evaluation of assignments to provide constructive feedback to students on Canvas after submissions. The feedback is based on the correctness of the query, the state of the database after a query execution, and keyword matching. This would allow them to identify their mistakes and correct them promptly, which can lead to a better learning experience and improved grades. Additionally, professors could benefit from a streamlined evaluation process that allows them to focus on teaching and other tasks

TLAD 2011 Proceedings:9th international workshop on teaching, learning and assesment of databases (TLAD)

This is the ninth in the series of highly successful international workshops on the Teaching, Learning and Assessment of Databases (TLAD 2011), which once again is held as a workshop of BNCOD 2011 - the 28th British National Conference on Databases. TLAD 2011 is held on the 11th July at Manchester University, just before BNCOD, and hopes to be just as successful as its predecessors.The teaching of databases is central to all Computing Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems and Information Technology courses, and this year, the workshop aims to continue the tradition of bringing together both database teachers and researchers, in order to share good learning, teaching and assessment practice and experience, and further the growing community amongst database academics. As well as attracting academics from the UK community, the workshop has also been successful in attracting academics from the wider international community, through serving on the programme committee, and attending and presenting papers.Due to the healthy number of high quality submissions this year, the workshop will present eight peer reviewed papers. Of these, six will be presented as full papers and two as short papers. These papers cover a number of themes, including: the teaching of data mining and data warehousing, databases and the cloud, and novel uses of technology in teaching and assessment. It is expected that these papers will stimulate discussion at the workshop itself and beyond. This year, the focus on providing a forum for discussion is enhanced through a panel discussion on assessment in database modules, with David Nelson (of the University of Sunderland), Al Monger (of Southampton Solent University) and Charles Boisvert (of Sheffield Hallam University) as the expert panel

TLAD 2011 Proceedings:9th international workshop on teaching, learning and assesment of databases (TLAD)

This is the ninth in the series of highly successful international workshops on the Teaching, Learning and Assessment of Databases (TLAD 2011), which once again is held as a workshop of BNCOD 2011 - the 28th British National Conference on Databases. TLAD 2011 is held on the 11th July at Manchester University, just before BNCOD, and hopes to be just as successful as its predecessors.The teaching of databases is central to all Computing Science, Software Engineering, Information Systems and Information Technology courses, and this year, the workshop aims to continue the tradition of bringing together both database teachers and researchers, in order to share good learning, teaching and assessment practice and experience, and further the growing community amongst database academics. As well as attracting academics from the UK community, the workshop has also been successful in attracting academics from the wider international community, through serving on the programme committee, and attending and presenting papers.Due to the healthy number of high quality submissions this year, the workshop will present eight peer reviewed papers. Of these, six will be presented as full papers and two as short papers. These papers cover a number of themes, including: the teaching of data mining and data warehousing, databases and the cloud, and novel uses of technology in teaching and assessment. It is expected that these papers will stimulate discussion at the workshop itself and beyond. This year, the focus on providing a forum for discussion is enhanced through a panel discussion on assessment in database modules, with David Nelson (of the University of Sunderland), Al Monger (of Southampton Solent University) and Charles Boisvert (of Sheffield Hallam University) as the expert panel

ScaffoldSQL: Using Parson’s Problems to Support Database Pedagogy

This paper examines ScaffoldSQL, an interactive tool for helping students learn SQL through a system of interactive scaffolded exercises using Parson’s problems. In the system, students are posed with a problem to solve using SQL. They start by attempting to answer the question using free-form text. If they get the problem wrong, they can use a Parson’s problem interface to simplify the problem. After completing the problem, students are given one of two “secret words,” which allows instructors to track student progress without the need to install anything beyond their typical LMS. The system is designed to help instructors of flipped classrooms identify students who are struggling early, while simultaneously providing immediate feedback for students as they are learning. The system also provides tools for content creation and data gathering for research and development purposes

Computer-based assessment system for e-learning applied to programming education

Tese de Mestrado Integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Faculdade de Engemharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Exploring Feedback and Gamification in a Data Modeling Learning Tool

Data modeling is an essential part of IT studies. Learning how to design and structure a database is important when storing data in a relational database and is common practice in the IT industry. Most students need much practice and tutoring to master the skill of data modeling and database design. When a student is in a learning process, feedback is important. As class sizes grow and teaching is no longer campus based only, providing feedback to each individual student may be difficult. Our study proposes a tool to use when introducing database modeling to students. We have developed a web-based tool named LearnER to teach basic data modeling skills, in a collaborative project between the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN) and Kristiania University College (KUC). The tool has been used in six different courses over a period of four academic years. In LearnER, the student solves modeling assignments with different levels of difficulty. When they are done, or they need help, they receive automated feedback including visual cues. To increase the motivation for solving many assignments, LearnER also includes gamifying elements. Each assignment has a maximum score. When students ask for help, points are deducted from the score. When students manage to solve many assignments with little help, they may end up at a leaderboard. This paper tries to summarize how the students use and experience LearnER. We look to see if the students find the exercises interesting, useful and of reasonable difficulty. Further, we investigate if the automated feedback is valuable, and if the gamifying elements contribute to their learning. As we have made additions and refinements to LearnER over several years, we also compare student responses on surveys and interviews during these years. In addition, we analyze usage data extracted from the application to learn more about student activity. The results are promising. We find that student activity increases in newer versions of LearnER. Most students report that the received feedback helps them to correct mistakes when solving modeling assignments. The gamifying elements are also well received. Based on LearnER usage data, we find and describe typical errors the students do and what types of assignments they prefer to solve.publishedVersio