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DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.ICPEC.2024.2

A Domain-Specific Language for Dynamic White-Box Evaluation of Java Assignments

Authors: Afonso B. Caniço and André L. Santos

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 122, 5th International Computer Programming Education Conference (ICPEC 2024)

Abstract

Programming exercises involving algorithms typically involve time and spatial constraints. Automated assessments for such implementations are often carried out in a black-box manner or through static analysis of the code, without considering the internal execution properties, which could lead to falsely positive evaluations of students' solutions. We present Witter, a domain-specific language for defining white-box test cases for the Java language. We evaluated programming assignment submissions from a Data Structures and Algorithms course against Witter’s test cases to determine if our approach could offer additional insight regarding incomplete algorithmic behaviour requirements. We found that a significant amount of student solutions fail to meet the desired algorithmic behavior (approx. 21%), despite passing black-box tests. Hence, we conclude that white-box tests are useful to achieve a thorough automated evaluation of this kind of exercises.

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Afonso B. Caniço and André L. Santos. A Domain-Specific Language for Dynamic White-Box Evaluation of Java Assignments. In 5th International Computer Programming Education Conference (ICPEC 2024). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 122, pp. 2:1-2:13, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2024)

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@InProceedings{b.canico_et_al:OASIcs.ICPEC.2024.2,
  author =	{B. Cani\c{c}o, Afonso and Santos, Andr\'{e} L.},
  title =	{{A Domain-Specific Language for Dynamic White-Box Evaluation of Java Assignments}},
  booktitle =	{5th International Computer Programming Education Conference (ICPEC 2024)},
  pages =	{2:1--2:13},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-347-8},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2024},
  volume =	{122},
  editor =	{Santos, Andr\'{e} L. and Pinto-Albuquerque, Maria},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.ICPEC.2024.2},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-209715},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.ICPEC.2024.2},
  annote =	{Keywords: White-box assessment, student assessment, programming education}
}

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A Domain-Specific Language for Dynamic White-Box Evaluation of Java Assignments

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