Small Private Online Judge: A New Tool for Empirical Education Research

TL;DR

This paper introduces Small Private Online Judge (SPOJ), a new tool designed for structured data collection and empirical research in education, emphasizing its advantages over MOOJ and its integration with classroom settings.

Contribution

The paper proposes the SPOJ concept, outlining its framework for empirical education research and demonstrating its potential through a case study.

Findings

SPOJ enables structured data acquisition of student behavior.

A standard pattern for SPOJ-based 3A research is established.

The concept of education-intelligence emerges from SPOJ research.

Abstract

This paper puts forward the concept of Small Private Online Judge (SPOJ). Compared with Massive Open Online Judge (MOOJ), SPOJ has advantages in structured data acquisition of students' virtual behavior for its specific function and tight coupling with the classroom. SPOJ-based empirical education research can be conducted within "Acquisition-Analysis-Application" (3A) Framework. The case study of a SPOJ program clarifies the standard pattern of SPOJ-based 3A research and highlights the emergence of education-intelligence concept. The challenges of SPOJ-based empirical education research and implications of SPOJ are also discussed.