Design and evaluation of automated scoring Java programming assignments

This paper presents a web-based automatic scoring system for Java programming assignments, and reports evaluation results in an actual programming course. The system receives Java application programs submitted by students and returns the test results immediately. The test consists of compiler check, JUnit test, and result test. The result test is very useful for assignments in elementary programming courses, because a typical program is composed of only a main method that reads/writes data from/to the standard input/output devices. The system was used and evaluated in an actual course of our university. We confirmed that the system is very helpful for students to improve their programming skills. Especially, many students noticed and corrected their mistakes by repeating submission of their programs again several times.