Stephen H. Edwards and William Pugh. Toward a common automated grading platform. Birds-of-a-Feather session at the 37^th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, March 2, 2006.

While there is a long history in our field of “home grown” automated grading systems at various institutions, there is relatively little sharing of tools or techniques among universities. A number of significant obstacles exist to using home grown tools at other institutions, including differences in:

• Authentication mechanisms and integration with campus-specific single-sign-on services.

• Workflow practices in collecting, marking up, and returning assignments.

• Execution platform(s) supported.

• Submission mechanism(s) supported.

• Integration with courseware support tools and software development tools.

• Alternate scoring or feedback approaches.

• Programming languages used by students.

• Architectural modularity and flexibility.

• and more …

The purpose of this BOF is to bring together parties interested in identifying the major roadblocks to fielding a generally-adoptable automated grading platform that is flexible enough for use across a wide variety of institutions. A platform providing a modular, plug-in-based architecture could provide a common base for advancing the interests of many working in this area, as well as a medium for infusing best practices across many institutions. In addition to brainstorming the obstacles, the group will also propose and discuss potential solutions.