Gitgrade: A scalable platform improving grading experiences

Abstract

We present GitGrade, a system for accepting and automatically grading programming assignments. GitGrade allows instructors to provide coherent and timely feedback to students. GitGrade is similar to other grading platforms in that it accepts student work and allows modifiable grading rubrics. Furthermore, it is fast, extendable, can run auto grading scripts on programs, is free, and has a modern look and feel. GitGrade is built on top of the school's Gitlab instance which is used in many courses as a VC code repository as is done in industry. By integrating with Gitlab, we are able to distribute assignment starter code and specifications very easily. GitGrade has been in development since Autumn 2018, and to date it has been used to grade more than 5000 student repositories between our full-stack Web Development (CSE154) and Interaction Programming (CSE340) courses with positive feedback from graders and students. Feedback from students and course staff has since been actively incorporated to provide a workflow experience for students and instructors that is streamlined and easy to use in any programming course.