At the Innogreenlife Innovation Startup Contest 2023, hosted by Ho Chi Minh City's Industrial University, the IUHCoder project, developed by a team of students from the Faculty of Information Technology, clinched the top prize. The project's approach is elegantly straightforward: it digitizes programming learner assessment, efficiently marrying human expertise with technology to facilitate boundless programming education. This initiative carries significant advantages for programming training organizations, making it a crucial digital skill in today's modern society.
The origin of a technology product
Tran Van Nhan, a fourth-year Software Engineering student and the project leader, explained that IUHCoder emerged in response to the pressing needs of both lecturers and students. In the realm of information technology, students spend significant time on self-study and coding practice, with limited interaction in class. This autonomous learning often presents challenges in verifying program correctness and algorithm optimization. On the educators' side, teachers find themselves overwhelmed by the daunting task of grading numerous tests and evaluating each student's abilities fairly. These persistent learning obstacles galvanized the team to devise a platform for digital content and programming assessments.
Team leader Tran Van Nhan is presenting the project at the Innogreenlife Innovation Startup Contest organized IUH. Image source: IUH Information and Communication Center
Apart from the extensive programming knowledge that Information Technology students must acquire, Tran Van Nhan, who has notable achievements like the Third prize in the Student Informatics Olympiad and an ICPC Asian Bronze medal, along with his fellow teammates from the Informatics Olympiad team at the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City, including Phan Chi Trung (Asia Bronze medalist, ICPC International Programming Competition), Thai Thi Hien (Bronze Medalist of Vietnam Student Mathematics Olympiad), Dao Xuan Hoang Tuan (Third Prize in the National ICPC Programming Competition), Tran Quoc Trong (Third Prize in Vietnam Student Informatics Olympiad), had to delve deep into algorithm design and data structures. This learning process primarily relied on self-study, with students dedicating over 70% of their time to independent learning and the remaining 30% guided and mentored by their instructors. This underscores the pressing need for automated assignment grading. Understanding the needs of both learners and educators, Nhan and his team developed IUHCoder with the motto "Built by students for students, and by teachers for teachers."
Project team and instructors at the final at the Innogreenlife Competition.
Digitizing programming competency assessment
Digitalizing Programming Knowledge Training: IUHCoder, led by seasoned programming instructors with extensive teaching and competitive programming coaching experience, extends its services not only to university students but also to high school students. The platform's primary focus is on constructing a content delivery system that spans the entire spectrum of programming knowledge, from foundational concepts to advanced topics. It tailors the content to specific user groups and personalizes it to align with the individual learning objectives of each student.
Additionally, IUHCoder has developed an exercise system designed to support independent coding practice. This system includes associated test datasets for automated code grading. When learners encounter a mathematical problem, they propose their algorithm and implement it in a programming language. They then utilize IUHCoder to assess correctness, optimization, and receive instant feedback from the platform's evaluation engine. By digitizing this content and effectively organizing data storage, IUHCoder lays the groundwork for the development of advanced features in subsequent stages.
Traditionally, assessing learners' abilities involves administering tests and assigning scores based on their performance. However, to enhance the reliability of the assessment process, conducting repeated tests translates into increased workloads. The digitization of programming competency assessment unfolds in several stages: Digitizing goals (Learning Outcomes) and evaluation criteria (Rubrics), followed by building a problem bank (problem to be solved) with test data set of right and wrong and optimal level, these problems in addition to digitizing content must also be attached with their metadata. Tests are generated automatically or semi-automatically from the problem bank according to the required knowledge matrix. Finally, there is the assessment organization, in this step the test participants receive the test from the system (which can include many different problems), they implement it by programs and send it to the server for scoring, in the process they know the instant results true/false or the percentage of requests completed. Digitizing assessment activities not only resolves the issue of automatic grading but also generates valuable data. This data includes test results and behavioral information (submission processes, usage of evaluation tools). It can be analyzed to extract meaningful insights for improvement, thereby enhancing teaching and training practices.
The interface of the IUHCoder platform (screenshot) - Source: Supplied
Sơ khởi chuyển đổi số trong lĩnh vực giáo dục đào tạo và Tác động xã hội
The IUHCoder platform employs technology to revolutionize automated scoring assessment techniques, delivering substantial efficiency gains for learners and educators. Additionally, it facilitates rapid scalability for training organizations and educational institutions.
Furthermore, by operating on an online platform, the project also aims to extend this system to students in remote areas, granting them access to highly skilled educators in major urban centers.
IUHCoder serves as a prime illustration of innovative problem-solving within the student community at the Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City (IUH). It achieves this by blending human creativity, which results in content generation (including problem banks and test datasets), with technological components like automated coding systems. This synergy fosters effective programming education, encouraging learners to continually enhance their skills and creativity by proposing increasingly optimized programs. It also alleviates the manual coding burden on teachers, affording them more time to concentrate on generating novel knowledge.
Reaching Out: An Aspiration
Backed by FPT Smart Cloud, the provider of cloud data storage services, and supported by IUH Informatics Center, which sponsors competition prizes on this platform, IUHCoder has garnered over 1,000 users and conducted more than 60 programming contests for students. The system has efficiently handled and auto-graded nearly 50,000 programming exercises after a year of rigorous testing.
At present, the development team remains dedicated to expanding the project's reach to students, learners, and educational institutions specializing in programming education, thereby building a vibrant user community. Additionally, the team is eager to connect with and extend the network of educators to develop content, share knowledge, and foster limitless collaboration within the programming community.
Project implementation team at the Young Scientist Conference - YSC 2022 organized by IUH - Source: Supplied by author
Before winning the first prize of Innogreenlife 2023, IUHCoder project also won the first prize in the field of Electrical - Electronics - Information Technology of the IUH Young Scientist Conference 2022. In the coming time, the project will continue to be accompanied by IUH Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer to continue developing into a startup enterprise associated with the brand name of Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City.
Nguyen Huu Tinh - Teacher of Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry
