Stephen H. Edwards, Manuel A. Pérez-Quiñones, Matthew Phillips, and Johnny RajKumar. Graphing performance on programming assignments to improve student understanding. In Proceedings of the 9th iNEER International Conference on Engineering Education, 2006.

Within computer science education, automated grading systems are used by many institutions. This paper summarizes an investigation into how the data collected by an electronic submission system can be used to aid students and instructors. Rather than simply providing feedback on a single submission, a grading system can give a student summary information about individual improvement over time, as well as where the student stands with respect to his or her peers. We explore graphical presentations—in the form of bar charts, histograms, and line charts—of a student’s personal progress over time, as well as the student’s current performance in relationship to the remainder of the class body. Particular attention is paid to how graphs can help the student understand likely future outcomes on assignments based on current effort expended, and on "calibrating" one’s own understanding of how the rest of the class is performing.