Development of an E-learning Back-end System for Code Assessment in Elementary Programming Practice

摘要

In this paper, we present an e-learning back-end system which cooperates with a learning management system (LMS). Our back-end system is aimed at fair and effective assessment in a class of elementary programming practice. While most LMSs provide basic functions to support various learning courses, this back-end system complements such conventional LMSs by providing the following specialized functions: syntax check of codes, plagiarism detection, and automated black-box testing. Our specialized back-end system makes a general-purpose LMS more useful for both students and teachers at low cost. The back-end system gets account information about a student from the front-end LMS such as Moodle when a student submits a report. This approach makes the back-end system maintenance-free from user table and enables single sign-on (SSO) for all LMS users. In order to accept simultaneous requests from numerous students and to respond without delay, the system is designed to minimize the amount of file locking and dynamic page generation. The back-end system is used in practical classes, and students of the classes feel no stress on the response time.