VHDL models e-assessment in Moodle environment

This paper deals with the problem of HDL (Hardware Description Language) models e-assessment in the process of determining level of students' knowledge of VHDL (VHSIC Hardware Description Language). The designed method for assessing a programming code takes into account whether student's code can be successfully compiled and whether the simulation output of student's code is the same as the reference code simulation output. It is also important to assess the code content-wise, i.e. whether the code contains some or all the blocks that are specified in the assignment. For this purpose a novel method has been developed and implemented into the existing Moodle module. It is based on blocks recognition algorithm followed by a text similarity algorithm applied on the recognized blocks. The modified Moodle module can now analyze also the code that would not compile successfully and provide a relevant assessment improving thus the previously used e-assessment method.