Automatic assessment system for java programs

Abstract

Automatic evaluation and assessment systems have been a growing topic of interest. Studies and research have been done to evaluate the limitations of traditional assessment methods and how the use of technology can overcome these barriers to simplify the learning process of students in universities. In the field of computing, students’ knowledge and programming techniques are typically assessed through their lab sessions and quizzes, as well as assignments. With ever-growing students’ intake every year, it can be challenging and time-consuming for academic staff to access each student’s program individually, leading to excessive workload. This project proposes a system where Java programs can be assessed automatically and accurately, hence significantly reducing the time needed for academic staffs to spend on manually marking such programs. Additionally, the system can also provide immediate feedback to the student in the form of a summarized report, with scores based on how the student fared and a summary of errors, if any. The deployment of this system would be a web-based application with a backend database and server support, as most of the heavy processing should be offloaded to the server. This paper will focus on the implementation and limitation of the current system developed, its functionality and the future improvements that can be done.