JuezLTI: Automatic assessment of computing exercises using LTI standard Erasmus Project

Project Title

JuezLTI: Automatic assessment of computing exercises using LTI standard

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Partnerships for Digital Education Readiness

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: ICT – new technologies – digital competences; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

In the current context produced by the COVID19 crisis, for which many learnings have been forced to make a prompt transformation to e-learning or blended learning, it is especially important to provide teachers with resources easy to use and implement, and that allow the students to go forward autonomously in their learning, minimizing the use of streaming lectures in favor of the use of specific educational materials for e-learning. It is particularly important for computer science education, since, according to studies by CEDEFOP, INE (Spanish Institute of Statistics) and SEPE (Spanish Employment Service), software development is the second most demanded profession in Europe, being the first in Spain and Portugal, and has an unemployment rate well below of the average and a much higher rate of permanent contracts.

The objective of this project is to create a tool, JuezLTI, that allows the automatic assessment of exercises for which there is currently no tool (e.g. markup languages), as well as another kind of computer exercises (programming and databases). The other innovation that the tool raises is its interoperability with any online learning environment (LMS) such as Moodle, Sakai, Canvas or Blackboard (among many others) thanks to the use of the LTI standard. This, added to the pool of exercises to be developed, will allow it to be used and implemented in a large number of institutions, some of which have shown interest and explicit support for the project.

The consortium that has been formed for the development of this action has agents of all the profiles necessary to successfully achieve its objectives: representatives of higher academic training, specialists in e-learning, an R&D institution with extensive experience in development of tools to support training in computer science, an e-learning software development company, a reference VET center in e-learning for Computers and Communications, and a Provincial Directorate of Education, with more than 2000 schools under its charge.

Two intellectual products will be developed during the project. The first one will be a tool to support computer science teaching, JuezLTI, which will allow the automatic assessment of programming exercises, databases and markup languages, in addition to providing a pool of problems with adaptive training itineraries for the educational levels of VET and University. The IO2 is directly related to the IO1; it is a MOOC to train teachers in the use, implementation and development of the JuezLTI tool. In addition, a training activity will be carried out to share the starting knowledge of the partners in the matter, which are very diverse: e-learning methodologies, development of teaching support software, integration tools in LMS, etc.

The methodology planned for the elaboration of the intellectual products will be SCRUM, which allows an agile and supervisable development, in addition to defining its own quality metrics. On the other hand, a JuezLTI pilot test will be carried out, designed as a statistical study to be executed on experimental and control groups in order to verify the improvement that the use of the tool supposes in the students. The results of this study will be published in specialized academic journals.

It is expected, therefore, that as a result of implementing JuezLTI in programming teachings, the academic performance of students will improve, by proposing self-evaluating tasks and itineraries adapted to each profile. The expected impact goes beyond the scope of the institutions that make up the partnership, since a broad dissemination plan and the facilities that JuezLTI will provide for teaching computer science make it foreseeable that it will be adopted by a good number of organizations. Furthermore, the Apereo Foundation umbrella that explicitly supports this project is an indication of its sustainability.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 187334 Eur

Project Coordinator

CENTRO PUBLICO INTEGRADO DE FORMACION PROFESIONAL CARLOS III & Country: ES

Project Partners

• Entornos de Formación
• KARLSTADS UNIVERSITET
• INESC TEC – INSTITUTO DE ENGENHARIADE SISTEMAS E COMPUTADORES, TECNOLOGIA E CIENCIA
• Bursa Il Milli Egitim Mudurlugu