Title: eALGO: an automated assessment tool of flowchart programs for novices

Authors: Rym Aiouni; Anis Bey; Tahar Bensebaa

Addresses: Ecole Supérieure des Sciences de Gestion-Annaba, Laboratory of Research in Computer Science, University of Badji Mokhtar, Annaba, Algeria ' Ecole Supérieure des Sciences de Gestion-Annaba, Laboratory of Research in Computer Science, University of Badji Mokhtar, Annaba, Algeria ' Department of Computer Science, Laboratory of Research in Computer Science, University of Badji Mokhtar, Annaba, Algeria

Abstract: Programming skills become ever more important and a core competency in 21st century and for its learning students need learning environments where they can practice and receive immediate assessment that help them to progress. In this paper we have developed eALGO, an automated assessment tool of flowchart programs that allows the students to practice algorithms problems. The assessment method used in eALGO is based on graph matching. To validate the method, an experimental study was conducted for investigating the effects of the automated flowchart algorithms scoring system compared to teachers scoring. About 35 flowchart algorithms were selected during a lab session and scored by eALGO system and after that scored by five teachers. Statistical analysis of the results reveals that eALGO tool seems to correlate well with teachers. Furthermore, a strong correlation was noticed between eALGO and the average scores of teachers. Hence, the findings of this study show that using automated assessment of flowcharts algorithms based on graph matching methods can help teachers to alleviate the scoring load, while allowing students learning designing algorithms.

Keywords: computer-based assessment; automated assessment; programming; graph matching; similarity; novice programmers; flowchart; computer science education.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIL.2018.088785

International Journal of Innovation and Learning, 2018 Vol.23 No.1, pp.5 - 18

Received: 23 Jul 2016
Accepted: 04 Feb 2017
Published online: 19 Dec 2017 *

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