Early experiences of computer-aided assessment and administration when teaching computer programming

• Main Authors: Abdullah Mohd Zin, Neil Gutteridge, Eric Foxley, Edmund Burke, Steve Benford
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Association for Learning Technology 1993-12-01
• Series: Research in Learning Technology
• Online Access: http://www.researchinlearningtechnology.net/index.php/rlt/article/view/9481

This paper describes early experiences with the Ceilidh system currently being piloted at over 30 institutions of higher education. Ceilidh is a course-management system for teaching computer programming whose core is an auto-assessment facility. This facility automatically marks students programs from a range of perspectives, and may be used in an iterative manner, enabling students to work towards a target level of attainment. Ceilidh also includes extensive courseadministration and progress-monitoring facilities, as well as support for other forms of assessment including short-answer marking and the collation of essays for later hand-marking. The paper discusses the motivation for developing Ceilidh, outlines its major facilities, then summarizes experiences of developing and actually using it at the coal-face over three years of teaching.