Board 59: WIP: Lab Container: An environment to manage a student’s time to complete programming labs while providing effective feedback from course staff

Yu Sheng Pan; Aniruddha Redkar; Sowrov Talukder; Parth Sindhu; Hamid S. Timorabadi

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Computers in Education Division (COED) Poster Session
Tagged Division: Computers in Education Division (COED)
Page Count: 17
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--42869
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/42869
Download Count: 207

Paper Authors

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Yu Sheng Pan University of Toronto

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Yu Sheng Pan is a fourth year computer engineering student at University of Toronto who will be pursuing a MBA degree at the Rotman School of Management in fall of 2023.

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Aniruddha Redkar University of Toronto

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I am a fourth-year computer engineering student at the University of Toronto. With my technical skills and creative mindset, I am determined to make a significant impact in the field of technology.

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Sowrov Talukder University of Toronto

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Sowrov Talukder is a Computer Engineering student at the University of Toronto helping to improve programming labs in education.

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Parth Sindhu University of Toronto

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Hamid S. Timorabadi University of Toronto

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Hamid Timorabadi received his B.Sc, M.A.Sc, and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto. He has worked as a project, design, and test engineer as well as a consultant to industry. His research interests include the applicati

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Abstract

In most programming courses, instructors create lab assignments for students by providing some starting code and an automated testing tool. This is sufficient for smaller labs, however, this method often leads to students over-allocating time to complete the assignments. Students tend to study less on non-programming courses and skip more lectures when trying to make coding lab deadlines, causing them to fall behind on those courses. Getting help mid-assignment can reduce a student’s working time, but coding implementations and methods vary greatly from student to student, making it time-consuming for instructors to read and understand the existing code before providing feedback. Furthermore, instructors are often forced to use a student’s autograder mark as the primary metric to assess a student’s conceptual understanding, missing out on key information on how a student approached the assignment, an important element of engineering.

This project introduces a flexible software tool that provides a container for each student to implement their lab, where all necessary tools to complete the programming labs are provided within the container. Example of tools include compilers and libraries, which are configured by the course staff. The purpose of this container is to allow students to access the resources on a regular and incremental basis. Consequently, the lab assignments are completed gradually rather than in one sitting. In addition, this tool enables the course staff to keep track of the students’ works in order to quickly provide feedback to help the students finish their labs in a timely manner. It also provides instructors with information about the students’ work, such as time spent, version history, and contribution from each team member. Lab Container includes support for collaboration, and for ongoing assessment and progress tracking by course staff. The backend of Lab Container is based on a microservice architecture to make it scalable and reliable, and a frontend written in React so that the application is user friendly.

Lab Container is being tested on a group of students in an intermediate programming course. This course consists of one project worked on by a team of three students, where Lab Container would be effective in saving time for the students. There is also a control group where students complete the course without the help of Lab Container. Both groups are surveyed and the results are compared to measure the effectiveness of Lab Container.

Citation
Format

Pan, Y. S., & Redkar, A., & Talukder, S., & Sindhu, P., & Timorabadi, H. S. (2023, June), Board 59: WIP: Lab Container: An environment to manage a student’s time to complete programming labs while providing effective feedback from course staff Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42869

TY - CPAPER
AB - In most programming courses, instructors create lab assignments for students by providing some starting code and an automated testing tool. This is sufficient for smaller labs, however, this method often leads to students over-allocating time to complete the assignments. Students tend to study less on non-programming courses and skip more lectures when trying to make coding lab deadlines, causing them to fall behind on those courses. Getting help mid-assignment can reduce a student’s working time, but coding implementations and methods vary greatly from student to student, making it time-consuming for instructors to read and understand the existing code before providing feedback. Furthermore, instructors are often forced to use a student’s autograder mark as the primary metric to assess a student’s conceptual understanding, missing out on key information on how a student approached the assignment, an important element of engineering.

This project introduces a flexible software tool that provides a container for each student to implement their lab, where all necessary tools to complete the programming labs are provided within the container. Example of tools include compilers and libraries, which are configured by the course staff. The purpose of this container is to allow students to access the resources on a regular and incremental basis. Consequently, the lab assignments are completed gradually rather than in one sitting. In addition, this tool enables the course staff to keep track of the students’ works in order to quickly provide feedback to help the students finish their labs in a timely manner. It also provides instructors with information about the students’ work, such as time spent, version history, and contribution from each team member. Lab Container includes support for collaboration, and for ongoing assessment and progress tracking by course staff. The backend of Lab Container is based on a microservice architecture to make it scalable and reliable, and a frontend written in React so that the application is user friendly.

Lab Container is being tested on a group of students in an intermediate programming course. This course consists of one project worked on by a team of three students, where Lab Container would be effective in saving time for the students. There is also a control group where students complete the course without the help of Lab Container. Both groups are surveyed and the results are compared to measure the effectiveness of Lab Container.

AU - Yu Sheng Pan
AU - Aniruddha Redkar
AU - Sowrov Talukder
AU - Parth Sindhu
AU - Hamid S. Timorabadi
CY - Baltimore , Maryland
DA - 2023/06/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Board 59: WIP: Lab Container: An environment to manage a student’s time to complete programming labs while providing effective feedback from course staff
UR - https://peer.asee.org/42869
DO - 10.18260/1-2--42869
ER -