Evaluation of a tool for Java structural specification checking

Although a number of tools for evaluating Java code functionality and style exist, little work has been done in a distance learning context on automated marking of Java programs with respect to structural specifications. Such automated checks support human markers in assessing students’ work and evaluating their own marking; online automated marking; students checking code before submitting it for marking; and question setters evaluating the completeness of questions set. This project developed and evaluated a prototype tool that performs an automated check of a Java program’s correctness with respect to a structural specification. Questionnaires and interviews were used to gather feedback on the usefulness of the tool as a marking aid to humans, and on its potential usefulness to students for self-assessment when working on their assignments. Markers were asked to compare the usefulness of structural specification testing as compared to other kinds of support, including syntax error assistance, style checking and functionality testing. Initial results suggest that most markers using the structural specification checking tool found it to be useful, and some reported that it increased their accuracy in marking. Reasons for not using the tool included lack of time and the simplicity of the assignment it was trialled on. Some reservations were expressed about reliance on tools for assessment, both for markers and for students. The need for advice on incorporating tools in marking workflow is suggested

From XML to XML: The why and how of making the biodiversity literature accessible to researchers

We present the ABLE document collection, which consists of a set of annotated volumes of the Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). These follow our work on automating the markup of scanned copies of the biodiversity literature, for the purpose of supporting working taxonomists. We consider an enhanced TEI XML markup language, which is used as an intermediate stage in translating from the initial XML obtained from Optical Character Recognition to the target taXMLit. The intermediate representation allows additional information from external sources such as a taxonomic thesaurus to be incorporated before the final translation into taXMLit

Teaching the Art of Computer Programming at a Distance by Generating Dialogues using Deep Neural Networks

While teaching the art of Computer Programming, students with visual impairments (VI) are disadvantaged, because speech is their preferred modality. Existing accessibility assistants can only read out predefined texts sequentially, word-for-word, sentence-for-sentence, whilst the presentations of programming concepts could be conveyed in a more structured way. Earlier we have shown that deep neural networks such as Tree-Based Convolutional Neural Networks (TBCNN) and Gated Graph Neural Networks (GGNN) can be used to classify algorithms across different programming languages with over 90% accuracy. Furthermore, TBCNN or GGNN have been shown useful for generating natural and conversational dialogues from natural language texts. In this paper, we propose a novel pedagogy called “Programming Assistant”, by creating a personal tutor that can respond to voice commands, which trigger an explanation of programming concepts, hands-free. We generate dialogues using DNNs, which substitute code with the names of algorithms characterising the programs, and we read aloud descriptions of the code. Furthermore, the application of the dialogue generation can be embodied into an Alexa Skill, which turns them into fully natural voices, forming the basis of a smart assistant to handle a large number of formative questions in teaching the Art of Computer Programming at a distance

Evaluation of a tool for Java specification testing

Although a number of tools for evaluating Java code style and black box functionality exist, little work has been done on evaluating Java code with respect to a structural specification, for example, one that specifies the existence of required classes, fields, methods and constructors. The CheckM250 project developed and evaluated the use of a tool to perform an automated check of such a structural specification. Tutors were surveyed on the usefulness of the tool when marking students’ code, and on its potential usefulness for students to use when working on their assignments, in comparison with other resources. Most tutors using the specification checking tool reported it to be useful, and some reported that it increased their accuracy in marking. Reasons for not using the tool included lack of awareness, lack of time, and the simplicity of the assignment it was trialled on

A secondary data analysis of SEAMs responses for programming and non-programming modules by gender

Gender disparity in computer science higher education has been tackled in a number of ways to include structural adjustments to teaching support and teaching contents. Most recently, studies have focused on the use of VLEs to influence gender disparities in university-level computer science courses. Open and distance learning institutions provide printed and online materials mostly as VLEs in the place of lectures in conjunction with computer-based activities, forums, television and radio programmes and student support provision such as face to face tutor sessions, tutor centres etc. The empirical evidence suggests that learning environments that convey gender stereotypes significantly impact on the representation of women in these environments as it impacts on the interest and anticipated success in computer science. The Open University delivers its courses online and blended instruction to include videos, forums, face to face sessions with tutors and tutor centres. A review of related literature about online and blended instruction validated the usefulness and effectiveness of each learning delivery format in relation to learning outcomes and learner satisfaction. The enrolment statistics at The Open University indicates that more males than female are enrolled in the school of computing and communications and fewer women progress on to programming modules. In addition, the current data also suggests that there are no significant differences in the performance by gender for programming modules. However, are there differences in the virtual learner satisfaction by gender? Is there a correlation between virtual learner module satisfaction, teaching, assessment and learning and module content for programming and non-programming modules for both genders? A secondary qualitative data analysis of The Open University student experience on a module survey (SEAMs) data between 2013 and 2016 of programming (M256 & M250) and non-programming modules (T227 & T215) are investigated in this study. A multi-variant review of Module Content and Teaching, Assessment & Learning were compared against Module Satisfaction by gender. The initial findings suggest that the module satisfaction rates are better for non-programing modules in comparison to programing modules for both genders. Furthermore, in most instances of the qualitative analysis, there was a correlation between all three multi-variant factors e.g. a positive linear relationship between module content and teaching, assessment & learning often indicated that the virtual learners were more satisfied with the module. Finally, the initial analysis also indicated that male virtual learners are more satisfied with the programming modules in comparison to the females. Future studies would further investigate the differences in the Module Content and Teaching, Assessment & Learning that could have resulted in the differences in the satisfaction rates by gender in modules

ABLE Software

Software used to automatically create the ABLE corpus (a collection of biodiversity literature comprising TEI XML documents enhanced with taxonomic information) from the OCR text of scanned biodiversity literature

Towards the bibliography of life

This paper discusses how we intend to take forward the vision of a Bibliography of Life in the ViBRANT project. The underlying principle of the Bibliography is to provide taxonomists and others with a freely accessible bibliography covering the whole of life. Such a bibliography has been achieved for specific study areas within taxonomy, but not for "life" as a whole. The creation of such a comprehensive tool has been hindered by various social and technical issues. The social concerns focus on the willingness of users to contribute to the Bibliography. The technical concerns relate to the architecture required to deliver the Bibliography. These issues are discussed in the paper and approaches to addressing them within the ViBRANT project are described, to demonstrate how we can now seriously consider building a Bibliography of Life. We are particularly interested in the potential of the resulting tool to improve the quality of bibliographic references. Through analysing the large number of references in the Bibliography we will be able to add metadata by resolving known issues such as geographical name variations. This should result in a tool that will assist taxonomists in two ways. Firstly, it will be easier for them to discover relevant literature, especially pre-digital literature; and secondly, it will be easier for them to identify the canonical form for a citation. The paper also covers related issues relevant to building the tool in ViBRANT, including implementation and copyright, with suggestions as to how we could address them

ABLE Corpus

A collection of biodiversity literature comprising TEI XML documents enhanced with taxonomic information. The collection consists of a total of 4,504 marked up pages, with about 1.6 million words

Using Spatial Audio in Minimal Attention Interfaces: Towards An Effective Audio GPS Navigation System

This paper builds on previous empirical work (Holland et al, 2002) and discusses the potentialfor spatial audio to be used in minimal attention user interfaces, and in the context of navigationaltasks. Spatial audio in this context is closely related to 3-d audio or virtual audio. The benefits of aspatial audio system for users are highlighted, with particular attention given to in-car systems. In-carsystems have been chosen due to their inherent and heightened need for minimal attention interaction,and for the purposes of illustration. Current in-car navigation technology is critically discussed, withattention to potential issues that the proposed spatial audio system may address. Alternative spatialaudio systems, such as those developed for the visually impaired, are also highlighted and discussedwith reference to the implications of differences (and similarities) to the proposed system. The relativeimportance of psychoacoustics is suggested in terms of guiding the appropriate spatial audio systemdesign. Current issues surrounding spatial audio technology are discussed, and implications for theproposed system are highlighted. Areas of potential investigation are taken from existing research andsuggestions for further work to be undertaken are made