Ability-training-oriented automated assessment in introductory programming course

Learning to program is a difficult process for novice programmers. AutoLEP, an automated learning and assessment system, was developed by us, to aid novice programmers to obtain programming skills. AutoLEP is ability-training-oriented. It adopts a novel assessment mechanism, which combines static analysis with dynamic testing to analyze student programs. It not only helps students to sufficiently test the programs, but also evaluates whether the programs meet the specification or not. AutoLEP encourages students to find and work through bugs, by providing automatic syntactic and structural checking, and immediate detailed feedback. This can improve students’ learning experience in programming and reduce the workload of the teaching staff. AutoLEP has been used in the C programming course at Harbin Institute of Technology and many other universities since 2004. The feedback on AutoLEP and its incorporation into the introductory programming course has been positive, both by students and teaching staff.

Research highlights
► AutoLEP, an automated learning and assessment system, is ability-training-oriented.
► AutoLEP combines static analysis with dynamic testing to analyze student programs.
► AutoLEP encourages students to work through bugs by providing immediate feedback.
► The incorporation of AutoLEP into introductory programming course has been positive.