CloudScape: Scalable and Personalized Teaching in Cloud Computing

Overview

Is it possible to replace a skilled team of teaching assistants in assessing software projects on mobile application development and cloud computing? The goal of the CloudScape pilot was to answer this question by developing tools for automated assessment of student assignments. The pilot specifically targeted mobile application programming with Android in the context of modern cloud-based services. The outcome of CloudScape is a system that automatically assesses Android assignments by using industry-standard practices in mobile app testing. Students obtain detailed feedback just a few minutes after their submission. The system has been already been used for the Mobile Cloud Computing course (CS-E4100) in Fall 2017. The course had 115 students enrolled and included 4 Android assignments; the system automatically graded a total of 893 submissions. What did the student think about it? “Pretty cool”, “good job!”, and “great!” are among the comments received in the student feedback. The CloudScape pilot demonstrated how automated grading of mobile application programming is effective and scalable; therefore, it can be employed in large-scale courses, including massive online open courses.