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TEACHER testers wanted for programming assessment tool

Date

TWO PROJECT leaders have put the call out for teachers of programming interested in trialling a new automated coding assessment tool to get in touch.

Dr Craig Evans and Dr Sam Wilson have developed the platform as part of their Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence (LITE) project to help them more accurately and effectively assess the programming skills of their students and provide better quality feedback.

The software, which is currently under development, could be ready as a beta version – a version made available for testing - during semester one, before its general release

Now the pair are seeking volunteer staff at the University of Leeds to test out the new software.

Dr Evans, of the School of Electronic and Electronic Engineering, said: “

We’ve designed the platform to be flexible and plan to expand it to support multiple programming languages and we'd now love to hear from staff around the University who teach programming who are interested in trialling the platform or expanding to support other languages.

“We expect a beta version to be ready for testing during semester one, ready to be rolled out for use in teaching in semester two.”

READ more about their LITE project.

The project hopes to address a lack of formative feedback in this discipline. And if successful, it is hoped that students will be able to upload their solutions to formative learning exercises and receive feedback in return.

If their solution is incorrect, they can re-attempt the exercise and try again.

In addition, the platform will also be used for formal summative assessment. Academic staff will be able to create assignments and tests which are automatically graded when students submit their work.

Dr Wilson, of the School of Computing, said:

"It will be designed to be configurable so that it can support multiple programming languages and simulation packages.

"The initial plan is to focus support on C/C++ and Python but we are also looking to hear from colleagues from around the University who are interested in support for other languages."

Follow this link to take part in a survey on this automated assessment and feedback.

For more information and to get involved contact: C.A.Evans@leeds.ac.uk or S.S.Wilson@leeds.ac.uk