Reflecting on Simplification of the Creation and Maintenance of Automated Assessments for Programming Tasks

This article introduces and reflects on a new user-friendly system for creating and maintaining automated assessments built on an existing platform, called Lahendus. The central component of the new system is the user interface that is the bridge between teaching staff and automated assessment code. Noteworthily, the user interface relies on Test Specific Language for defining test cases and on a dedicated testing library, called Tiivad. These components allow for both dynamic and static assessments. The system has been used with success in multiple introductory programming courses. The article reflects on the efficiency gains and simplifications made by comparing the new system to the previous one. The biggest gains came from the reduction of complexity and time required for creating automated assessments. The system has been used only a little over three months, but it already showcases substantial time and effort savings. During that period, automated assessments for more than 100 programming tasks were created, and more than 170 hours were saved in the process of creating automated assessments. The results showed that the new system alleviates teaching staff's high workload.