Gallery of features¶

This section is a visual index of exercises and services that have been used with A+.

Front page¶

The above image shows an example of the front page of A+ at Aalto University. The front page has two sections. The upper section shows course instances which the logged-in user is currently; enrolled in, teaching or assisting. The lower section shows all ongoing and recently ended courses.

Each course has optional image, name, instance name, course code and teaching schedule. All courses have a green "Aalto" tag to indicate that the course is for Aalto University students. The "Data Structures and Algorithms" -course has also a blue "MOOC" tag to indicate that the course is also a massive open online course. Sections 7.1 Setting up a course on production servers and 7.2 Course settings describe these in detail.

Exercises¶

Point and click¶

A JSVEE exercise is a slideshow of program execution. This particular example is from the Data Structures and Algorithms Y course, which shows how a factorial function in Python is executed.

A JSAV exercise is an visual algorithm simulation exercise. The student manipulates a data structure with given input data according to instructions by pointing and clicking with the mouse. This particular example is about inserting elements to a minimum heap.

After the student has worked with the exercise, they can submit it and receive points automatically. They also can review a model example or reset the exercise with new initial data. These exercises are used on the Data Structures and Algorithms courses (both Y and SCI versions for students of Computer Science minor / major).

Databases¶

A relational algebra exercise on the Databases course. The student constructs a database query in relational algebra, which is then automatically graded.

Python¶

$../_images/python-fractal-graded.png$

A Programming exercise with graphical output. This is a hard exercise from the course Data Structures and Algorithms Y, where the student writes a Python program that draws a bitmap fractal similar to Sierpinski carpet. The picture shows the feedback for the student from the automatic grader. There are Python unit tests which give points, and also visual comparison of the outputs of the student's program and the correct solution.

Section 2 describes how to create Python programming exercises.

Services¶

Lab Queue¶

Lab Queue (Neuvontajono) is a service used during computer exercise sessions, which students use to request help from a teaching assistant at the session.

Essay grading¶

Rubyric is a tool for manual grading using rubrics. The teacher creates a rubric, a grading template with scores and feedback text snippets. Then the students submits their essays and the teacher can grade them efficiently and consistently, possibly with additional remarks. Rubyric also supports group submissions and peer grading.

Plagiarism detection¶

Radar is a submission similarity matcher that helps detect plagiarism in programming exercises. The figure shows a comparison view for two submissions for the same programming exercise.