The current educational system relies heavily on manual grading, posing challenges such as delayed feedback and grading inaccuracies. Automated grading tools (AGTs) offer solutions but come with limitations. To address this, "GRAD-AI" is introduced, an advanced AGT that combines automation with teacher involvement for precise grading,…

We conducted a systematic literature review on automated grading and feedback tools for programming education. We analysed 121 research papers from 2017 to 2021 inclusive and categorised them based on skills assessed, approach, language paradigm, degree of automation, and evaluation techniques. Most papers assess the correctness of assignments in…

This dissertation focuses on strategies and techniques to enhance code comprehension skills among students enrolled in introductory computer science courses (CS1 and CS2). We propose a novel tutoring system, "DeepCodeTutor," designed to improve the code comprehension abilities of novices. DeepCodeTutor employs scaffolded self-explanation…

Background and Context: Auto-graders are praised by novice students learning to program, as they provide them with automatic feedback about their problem-solving process. However, some students often make random changes when they have errors in their code, without engaging in deliberate thinking about the cause of the error. Objective: To…

Data transfer between isolated clusters is imperative for cybersecurity education, research, and testing. Such techniques facilitate hands-on cybersecurity learning in isolated clusters, allow cybersecurity students to practice with various hacking tools, and develop professional cybersecurity technical skills. Educators often use these remote…

When the new programming language Pascal was developed in the 1970's, Walter Gander did not like it because because many features which he appreciated in prior programming languages were missing in Pascal. For example the block structure was gone, there were no dynamical arrays, no functions or procedures were allowed as parameters of a procedure,…

Background: Over the past few decades, the process and methodology of automatic question generation (AQG) have undergone significant transformations. Recent progress in generative natural language models has opened up new potential in the generation of educational content. Objectives: This paper explores the potential of large language models…

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is transforming education, with assessment design emerging as a crucial area of innovation, particularly in computer science (CS) education. Effective assessment is critical for evaluating student competencies and guiding learning processes, yet traditional practices face significant challenges in CS…

Providing consistent, individualized feedback to teachers is essential for improving instruction but can be prohibitively resource-intensive in most educational contexts. We develop M-Powering Teachers, an automated tool based on natural language processing to give teachers feedback on their uptake of student contributions, a high-leverage…

The COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented global health crisis, has not only significantly impacted public health but has also caused substantial disruptions to conventional education systems. In response to these challenges, our institution has undertaken innovative measures within the realm of education. A pivotal aspect of our response involves…

Cheating has been a long-standing issue in university assessments. However, the release of ChatGPT and other free-to-use generative AI tools has provided a new and distinct method for cheating. Students can run many assessment questions through the tool and generate a superficially compelling answer, which may or may not be accurate. We ran a…