Peer-Testing: peer-feedback via testing of programming artifacts
Table of Contents
The teaching of programming in Computer Science courses has an important practical element in which learners are usually expected to implement a piece of software matching a given specification. Teachers give feedback on and evaluate the quality of the program code and the compliance of its behaviour to the given specification. A number of issues arise from assessing programming and providing feedback on such coursework.
- The focus of most students is often on the development side of a coursework, and less on the tasks intended to train the students' evaluation skills.
- Producing quality feedback and evaluating students' programs is a time consuming activity, as a result feedback on programming coursework often comes too late for the students to revisit the code they wrote.
- Students value peer-interaction and group work but there is a need for individual programming coursework to properly assess individual programming skills.
To tackle these issues, we propose Peer-Testing: peer-feedback via testing of programming artifacts. Peer-testing involves learners and allows for more timely feedback and enhances the students' critical analysis of programs.
Peer-Testing Web platform
We have developed and evaluated a Web platform for peer-testing as part of the QAA project Transition from passive learner to critical evaluator through peer-testing of programming artifacts at Heriot-Watt University led by Manuel Maarek, with Léon McGregor (Honours CS student), and with Gudmund Grov, Mohammad Hamdan, Smitha S Kumar, Talal Shaikh, Joe Wells, Hind Zantout (colleagues from Heriot-Watt University's Edinburgh and Dubai campuses).
The source code of the Peer-Testing Web platform is available on GitHub.
Do not hesitate to contact Manuel Maarek if you are interested in this project.
Presentations and publications
Léon McGregor ran a Peer-Testing workshop at the SICSA Education All-hands Event at the University of St Andrews on October 30, 2018.
For our teaching and learning innovation with Peer-Testing, we were awarded a 2017/18 Heriot-Watt University Teaching Excellence Award, the Global Learning and Teaching Award, Highly Commended.
Manuel Maarek presented the development of the Peer-Testing Web platform at the PLATEAU workshop on October 23, 2017 in Vancouver [PLATEAU-2017].
Léon McGregor presented the results of this work and demonstrated the Peer-Testing Web platform at Horizons in STEM Higher Education Conference in June 29-30, 2017 at Heriot-Watt University [STEM-HE-2017]. He received the Professor Annette Cashmore Prize for Best Student Contribution, congratulations Léon! [NewDirections-2017].
Smitha S Kumar gave oral and poster presentations at Innovation Arabia 10 in Dubai in March 2017 [IA10-2017].
- [NewDirections-2017]
-
Gudmund Grov, Mohammad Hamdan, Smitha S. Kumar, Manuel Maarek, Léon
McGregor, Talal A. G. Shaikh, J. B. Wells, and Hind Zantout.
Transition from Passive Learner to Critical Evaluator through
Peer-Testing of Programming Artefacts.
New Directions in the Teaching of Physical Sciences, 12,
November 2017.
[ http ] - [PLATEAU-2017]
-
Manuel Maarek and Léon McGregor.
Development of a web platform for code peer-testing.
In Workshop on Evaluation and Usability of Programming Languages
and Tools (PLATEAU'17), Vancouver, CA, 2017.
[ .pdf ] - [STEM-HE-2017]
-
Gudmund Grov, Mohammad Hamdan, Smitha S. Kumar, Manuel Maarek, Léon McGregor,
Talal A. G. Shaikh, J. B. Wells, and Hind Zantout.
Transition from passive learner to critical evaluator through
peer-testing of programming artifacts.
In Horizons in STEM Higher Education Conference: Making
Connections and Sharing Pedagogy, Edinburgh, UK, 2017.
(presentation and demo).
[ .pdf ] - [IA10-2017]
-
Smitha S. Kumar, Manuel Maarek, and Talal A. G. Shaikh.
Investigating programming feedback to improve student learning
experience in computer science education.
In Innovation Arabia 10 – Smart Learning Conference, Dubai,
UAE, 2017.
(oral and poster presentations).
[ .pdf ]