Improved computer science assignment submission using the concurrent versioning system

This paper presents a novel way of handling electronic student assignment submissions for large computer science courses. While traditional electronic submission systems easily handle students submitting files, these systems do not reflect how software is typically developed in industry. This paper presents how we used the Concurrent Versioning System (CVS) for hundreds of students to develop and submit their software development assignments, and a description of the advantages. Students learn skills that are useful for their future careers, and use a system that makes their assignment development much easier. CVS keeps track of each revision of their program, so students can easily go back to previous versions, and it is impossible to lose their existing work. From the lecturer’s point of view, CVS is a common place for all students to submit their work and to record marking information to give back to the student. CVS uses reliable time stamps so it is possible to track how students develop their code, assisting with plagiarism cases. It is also possible to have large teams of tutors all working on marking simultaneously and to keep track of this effectively. We achieved very positive results over the last two semesters with classes of 200+ internal, external, and offshore students. Students expressed that they gained a benefit from using CVS, and other faculty members in the department have expressed interest in using it as well