License: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY 3.0)
When quoting this document, please refer to the following
DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.SLATE.2013.129
URN: urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-40343
URL: http://dagstuhl.sunsite.rwth-aachen.de/volltexte/2013/4034/
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Fonte, Daniela ; Cruz, Daniela da ; Gançarski, Alda Lopes ; Henriques, Pedro Rangel

A Flexible Dynamic System for Automatic Grading of Programming Exercises

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Abstract

The research on programs capable to automatically grade source code
has been a subject of great interest to many researchers. Automatic
Grading Systems (AGS) were born to support programming courses and
gained popularity due to their ability to assess, evaluate, grade
and manage the students' programming exercises, saving teachers from
this manual task.

This paper discusses semantic analysis techniques, and how they can be applied to improve the validation and assessment process of an AGS. We believe that the more flexible is the results assessment, the more precise is the source code grading, and better feedback is provided (improving the students learning process).

In this paper, we introduce a generic model to obtain a more flexible and fair grading process, closer to a manual one. More specifically, an extension of the traditional Dynamic Analysis concept, by performing a comparison of the output produced by a program under assessment with the expected output at a semantic level. To implement our model, we propose a Flexible Dynamic Analyzer, able to perform a semantic-similarity analysis based on our Output Semantic-Similarity Language (OSSL) that, besides specifying the output structure, allows to define how to mark partially correct answers. Our proposal is compliant with the Learning Objects standard.

BibTeX - Entry

@InProceedings{fonte_et_al:OASIcs:2013:4034,
  author =	{Daniela Fonte and Daniela da Cruz and Alda Lopes Gan{\c{c}}arski and Pedro Rangel Henriques},
  title =	{{A Flexible Dynamic System for Automatic Grading of Programming Exercises}},
  booktitle =	{2nd Symposium on Languages, Applications and Technologies},
  pages =	{129--144},
  series =	{OpenAccess Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-939897-52-1},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2013},
  volume =	{29},
  editor =	{Jos{\'e} Paulo Leal and Ricardo Rocha and Alberto Sim{\~o}es},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl--Leibniz-Zentrum fuer Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{http://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2013/4034},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-40343},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.SLATE.2013.129},
  annote =	{Keywords: Automatic Grading Systems, Domain Specific Languages, DSL, Dynamic Analysis}
}

Keywords: Automatic Grading Systems, Domain Specific Languages, DSL, Dynamic Analysis
Collection: 2nd Symposium on Languages, Applications and Technologies
Issue Date: 2013
Date of publication: 05.06.2013

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