ICLF: An Immersive Code Learning Framework based on Git for Teaching and Evaluating Student Programming Projects

TL;DR

The paper introduces ICLF, a scalable Git-based framework for managing, evaluating, and providing automated feedback on student programming projects in educational settings, including MOOCs.

Contribution

It presents a novel organizational pipeline that enables real-world code collaboration, automated assessment, and project evolution without disrupting student work.

Findings

Effective in MOOC environments over several years

Supports automated feedback and plagiarism detection

Facilitates continuous progress tracking

Abstract

Programming projects are essential in computer science education for bridging theory with practice and introducing students to tools like Git, IDEs, and debuggers. However, designing and evaluating these projects (especially in MOOCs)can be challenging. We propose the Immersive Code Learning Framework (ICLF), a scalable Git-based organizational pipeline for managing and evaluating student programming project. Students begin with an existing code base, a practice that is crucial for mirroring real-world software development. Students then iteratively complete tasks that pass predefined tests. The instructor only manages a hidden parent repository containing solutions, which is used to generate an intermediate public repository with these solutions removed via a templating system. Students are invited collaborators on private forks of this intermediate repository, possibly updated throughout the semester whenever the teacher changes the parent repository. This approach reduces grading platform dependency, supports automated feedback, and allows the project to evolve without disrupting student work. Successfully tested over several years, including in an edX MOOC, this organizational pipeline provides transparent evaluation, plagiarism detection, and continuous progress tracking for each student.