A survey on grading format of automated grading tools for programming assignments

TL;DR

This survey reviews automated grading tools for programming assignments, focusing on their evaluation formats to help instructors choose suitable tools and understand grading approaches.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of grading formats used by various automated grading tools, aiding instructors in selecting appropriate assessment methods.

Findings

Different tools support diverse grading formats and test case structures.

Understanding grading formats helps instructors design better programming assessments.

The survey highlights the need for standardized grading approaches in automated tools.

Abstract

The prevalence of online platforms and studies has generated the demand for automated grading tools, and as a result, there are plenty in the market. Such tools are developed to grade coding assignments quickly, accurately, and effortlessly. Since there are varieties of tools available to cater to the diverse options of programming languages and concepts, it is overwhelming for any instructor to decide which one suits one's requirements. There are several surveys studying the tools and giving insights into how they function and what they support. However other than knowing the functionality, it is important for an instructor to know how the assignments are graded and what is the format of the test cases. This is crucial since the instructor has to design the grading format and therefore requires a learning curve. This survey studies and evaluates the automated grading tools based on their evaluation format. This in turn helps a reader in deciding which tool to choose and provides an insight into what are the assessment settings and approaches used in grading the coding assignment in any specific grading tool.