Virtual-classroom: An automated GitHub-tool for student-to-student peer-review of assignments
Abstract
Time: 10:00 - 10:20 Background/Objective: Computer science is currently a key ingredient for all natural sciences, and Universities graduate thousands of candidates annually. However, there is a gap between working routines... [ view full abstract ]
Time: 10:00 - 10:20
Background/Objective: Computer science is currently a key ingredient for all natural sciences, and Universities graduate thousands of candidates annually. However, there is a gap between working routines of successful industry and open-source projects, and how informatics is taught at the Universities. The aim of the open-source virtual-classroom project (https://github.com/hplgit/virtual-classroom) is to integrate version control systems for automated student-to-student peer-review of assignments.
Methods: The virtual-classroom project is an extension of the Classroom platform on GitHub where administrators (teachers) have access to teams (students) repositories. From the virtual-classroom, one team with one repository is automatically created for each student. The students or groups can complete course work directly in the repository. During peer-reviews, virtual-classroom gives the reviewer temporary access to the to-be-reviewed repositories. The feedback is then provided orally if the work has been evaluated within groups, and in written form if reviewed between groups.
Results/discussion: The tool has been used at the University of Oslo in both undergraduate and graduate courses, with up to 250 students per course. The students rapidly grasp how and why to use version control systems, and thus become more professional developers. By reviewing the work of peers, the students quickly learn to how to produce readable code, including naming conventions, commenting, coding style, and structure of the program.
A particular feature of the virtual-classroom is that it enables basic informatics courses to be given to hundreds of students simultaneously, and reduces the load, or eliminates the need for teaching assistants. As all students both receive and give feedback, the result is feedback that is quantitatively and qualitative better; the latter because it is personal. That being said, the feedback may be less precise than what is expected of a more experienced teacher. Conclusion: We have introduced an automated GitHub-tool for student-to-student peer-review of assignments that has shown highly effective in basic informatics education. The tool could be easily expanded or applied to create new workflows tailored to specific courses.
Authors
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Aslak Bergersen
(Simula Research Laboratory)
Topic Area
Education in Computational Science and Engineering
Session
» Scientific Software / Education in CSE (09:00 - Tuesday, 24th October, 12th floor - Stratos)