Secure on-line submission system

Abstract

As student numbers on computer science courses continue to increase, the corresponding demands placed on teaching staff in terms of assessment grow ever stronger. In particular, the submission and assessment of practical work on large programming courses can present very significant problems. In response to this, we have developed a networked suite of software utilities that allow on-line submission, testing and marking of coursework. It has been developed and used over the course of five years, and has evolved into a mature tool that has greatly reduced the administrative time spent managing the processes of submission and assessment. In this paper, we describe the software and its implementation, and discuss the issues involved in its construction.