A Comprehensive Discussion of Emerging Automatic Programming Assessment in Learning Management Systems: The VPL Example

Abstract

Programming assessment is an especially costly task to develop in computer programming subjects, which are present in a wide variety of curricula, at all educational levels. This chapter introduces the currently more used approaches to Automatic Programming Assessment Systems (APAS) and their features. Starting with the explanation of these types of systems’ design and the role of the actors involved; the core section focuses on Programming Assessment within Learning Management Systems (LMS); and finally, the adaptation of Unit Testing Frameworks to this ecosystem is shown, illustrated with the example of three different approaches: ProFormA, the Grenoble University Approach and the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Approach.