Diagram-based CBA using DATsys and CourseMaster

Supporting the assessment of an ever-increasing number of students is an error-prone and resource intensive process. Computer based assessment (CBA) software aids educators by automating aspects of the assessment of student work. Using CBA benefits pedagogically and practically both students and educators. The Learning Technology Group at the University of Nottingham has been actively researching, developing and using software to automatically assess programming coursework for 14 years. Two of the systems developed, Ceilidh and its successor CourseMaster, are being used by an increasing number of academic institutions. Research has resulted in a system for supporting the full lifecycle of free-response CBA that has diagram-based solutions. The system, DATsys, is an authoring environment for developing diagram-based CBA. It has been designed to support the authoring of coursework for most types of diagram notations. Exercises have been developed and tested for circuit diagrams, flowcharts and class diagrams. Future research plans are for authoring exercises in many more diagram notations.