The level 5 programming course at Ara has been running for several years. The course is a practical one with emphasis on learning by doing.
The code is developed on the desktop but submitted to Moodle for automatic marking using CodeRunner (developed by Dr Richard Lobb at University of Canterbury). A score is generated and returned to the student typically within one second. The course has been used in small (eight learner) and larger (forty learner) classes with up to 120 learners enrolled in multiple classes and running over three campuses in a semester. Students benefit by seeing examples of how their code can be tested and make use of those examples for testing their code on their desktops. They can use their preferred IDE and are encouraged to expand on the examples and generate their own test data within the given specification before submitting their code for marking. Code is automatically marked using test data and test code that address different aspects of the specification and a score returned. Ara has their own JobEngine service which is hosted within the staff-supported lab infrastructure called TechLabs.
The workshop will run in a programming lab where dual screen monitors are available. Attendees are welcome to use their own laptops.
The workshop will cover the following:
• How the testing process works.
• Creating labs.
• Current lab questions will be used as examples.
• While the focus will be on using Python, other languages can be examined.
• Code analysis using Abstract Syntax Tree.
• Conditionals, loops, functions, modules, OO, file and exception handling.
• The testing of language independent web services.
Example labs will be made available in a format that can be imported into Moodle for use by other providers. This is an opportunity for a senior academic at one institution to share his resources in keeping with the spirit of Te Pukenga.