3 September 2014: CodeRunner: authentic e-assessment for computer programming

Presenter: Richard Lobb, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Hosted by Dr Mathew Hillier, University of Queensland, Australia starting 07:00AM UST/GMT. Duration 54 Minutes.

This session explored the features of CodeRunner; a Moodle question type in which student submitted program code is automatically evaluated against a range of test criteria and a grade assigned.

In introductory programming courses the question might be as simple as “Write a Python function sqrx that returns its parameter squared” however more advanced exercises can also be handled, such as “Modify the compiler discussed in lectures to handle the following language extensions”. The submission is graded by running a series of tests on the submitted code within a sandbox, comparing the output with the expected output. Students receive immediate feedback and are able to resubmit for a small penalty. It is also possible to process the responses to questions in which the student answer is not program code at all. Instead the question type can be used to accept any text as a response which can then be assessed against a set of test criteria defined by the instructor in the form of program code. Coderunner is used at the University of Canterbury for laboratories, assignments and mid-course tests in several courses and is to be used in a final exam for the first time this year. The talk reported on experiences with CodeRunner in several courses and demonstrated the authoring of questions and the range of different questions that can be asked.

ב-Transforming Assessment.