Online Tools to Evaluate Students Programming Assignments

This is certainly true in the life of a computer engineer. Instructors in programming classes regularly advise students to practice becoming better developers.

Students have traditionally been assigned or given book exercises to practice programming. However, unless these tasks are graded, some children never find the motivation to do them.

Too many assignments to evaluate can become time-consuming work for both students and faculty, as well as a grading burden for instructors.

It is also well known that there are several online and electronic resources for practicing programming, but with so many options, students can become overwhelmed.

How to evaluate student’s knowledge of programming principles is a recurrent issue for teachers in computer science and electrical and computer engineering.

After all, a student must develop a program to demonstrate competency thinking through programming principles and implementation, therefore assignments are frequently project-based.

Types of Assessments Designed for the Students

• Baseline assessments: You can use an assessment like this to discover more about your pupils at the start of the school/college year or semester, or while teaching a new subject or topic. Students are not required to know all the information assessed in pre-assessments.
• Formative assessments: These are assessments done throughout a course or period to see if students are learning and how they react to the material/instruction provided. They can be delivered right before a test, for example, so that the exam can be tailored to the students’ present level of understanding.
• Summative evaluations: these are used to assess students’ learning and reactions to what they have learned during a set period, such as the end of a unit, course, semester, or school year. As a teacher, you can use these to figure out how to improve your training for the next period.

Evaluation Workflow

In the literature, several automatic tools for both static and dynamic evaluation of computer programs have been published.

The purpose of this essay is to raise awareness of these difficulties by examining numerous automated techniques for grading programming homeworks.

Because of the large number of tools available, not all of them will be discussed. The article focuses on presenting several evaluation procedures and approaches to provide a starting point for a reader interested in learning more about the subject.

Automatic evaluation tools can be used to assist teachers in grading activities as well as to provide automatic feedback to students. The speed, availability, consistency, and impartiality of evaluation are all common advantages of automation.

Automatic tools, on the other hand, underline the importance of the appropriate pedagogical design of assignment and evaluation situations.

Better interoperability and portability of the tools are required to properly share the information and good evaluation solutions that have previously been developed.

Types of Evaluation Tools

Different evaluation techniques employed by the teacher can be formative or summative and can be used to shape ongoing teachings or to grade once the instruction is finished.

• Formative assessment tools: Quizzes, assignments, and in-class questions and discussions are all examples of formative assessment tools that teachers use to assess and guide their students’ learning. Teachers frequently use the responses in their students’ formative assessment tools to guide their lesson planning and lectures, and this works both ways.
• Summative assessment tools: The final essays and examinations provided at the end of a project, course, semester, unit, program, or school year are a part of the summative evaluation method. These are used by teachers to assess student learning by comparing performance to a standard. These are high-stakes tests having a high point value that accounts for a significant portion of a student’s overall grade. Midterm examinations, term papers, and AP assessments are just a few examples.

A Review of the Assessment Tools Available

There are various online resources for learning and practicing programming. Many of them, like CodingBat, is made up of a series of tasks grouped into categories, but these are more standalone tools for developers in general.

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Other tools are better suited for classrooms since they feature a more user-friendly interface and even allow the instructor to access the students’ completed work. The following are some of these tools:

• CodeCademy: It is a well-known online learning platform for programming languages like Python, JavaScript, Java, Ruby, and HTML. The majority of CodeCademy’s beginner courses are free, while other courses are premium and cost money. The CodeCademy style is more akin to a guided lesson in which the student must accomplish a set of specific assignments as well as other challenges in which the student must fill in missing code. Beginners and those who want to brush up on their skills would benefit from this tool.
• Programmr: coding simulators for a variety of languages. Their classes are free, and students can solve problems in Java, C, C++, Objective C, and Angular JS on their platform. Students may develop, compile, and run projects in several of the most popular programming languages in the browser at Programmr. They offer a variety of courses as well as self-contained challenges with immediate response.
• CodeLab: It is a “web-based interactive programming exercise system for beginner programming classes in Python, Java, C++, C, JavaScript, C#, VB, and SQL,” according to its website. CodeLab was created by a group of professors to reduce attrition and offer students the resources they need to practice and improve their programming skills. Several colleges and universities throughout the world have adopted CodeLab. Students are given a problem to solve in CodeLab, and they enter the code, run it, and the system provides feedback and hints.
• Practice-It: It is a web application created specifically for learning and practicing Java programming. The University of Washington produced this program to assist students in their beginning Java class. Many of the same problems as in the textbook can be found in this online tool, with the added benefit of fast grading and feedback if there are any mistakes.
• Code Step by Step: CodeStepByStep is a new app from the makers of Practice-It. It’s a similar online tool for teaching kids how to program, but it works with a variety of programming languages. University of the District of Columbia students design their courses, exercises, and challenges. Anyone teaching Java, Python, C/C++, JavaScript, or PHP, among other languages, will find this tool quite handy.

There are also some other tools. Computer Science Circle10 and PySchools11 are both focused on Python programming. CloudCoder 12, an open-source exercise system for instructors of introductory programming courses in C/C++, Java, Python.

Ruby can easily assign short exercises to students. If you want to know details about these tools, we are always here to explain everything in detail.

Finally,

Teachers can utilize continuous assessment to see if there are specific aspects of a course that most students struggle with. This results in a dynamic course framework that the teacher may customize to the students requirements and focus on the areas where they struggle the most.

Analytics combined with rubrics can be incredibly effective, especially for big student groups. It provides teachers with the ability to detect where kids are having difficulty and change their instruction accordingly.

Author bio:

Tim Miller is an expert tutor at Assignmenthelp.us. In his free time, he writes for boys’ life and scouting magazines. Also, his work has been featured in publications such as The Boston Globe, Costco Connection, FastCompany, and others.