Towards the use of an automatic assessment system in the teaching of software testing

Both software testing and programming foundations are difficult subjects to be taught. In case of programming, experiences have suggested that the mastering of testing can contribute to enhance the students' skills of comprehension and analysis. So, automatic test-based assessment systems have been developed and adopted in programming courses. Aiming at investigating the adoption of assessment systems also in the teaching of software testing, in this paper we discuss the use of ProgTest - a tool for the submission and automatic evaluation of programming assignments based on testing activities. As most of the automatic assessment systems, ProgTest offers benefits such as immediate feedback, objectivity and consistency of the evaluation, and a substantial time saving in the evaluation of the programming assignments. Additionally, since it performs the assessments based on testing activities, ProgTest also offers benefits for the teaching of software testing. Results from two experiments involving the use of ProgTest in testing courses are presented, providing evidences on the feasibility of its adoption to support the teaching of testing concepts and criteria.