Practical programming exams with automated assessment improve student engagement and learning outcomes

Rojec, Žiga (author), Puhan, Janez (author), Fajfar, Iztok (author)

This study investigates the impact of introducing a mandatory practical programming exam on student learning outcomes in introductory programming courses. To facilitate structured coding practice and scalable automated feedback, we developed Programmers’ Interactive Virtual Onboarding (PIVO), a novel Automated Programming Assessment System (APAS). Traditional programming curricula often prioritize theoretical concepts, limiting practical coding opportunities and immediate feedback, resulting in poor skill retention and proficiency. By integrating mandatory practical assessments together with voluntary, self-driven programming tasks through PIVO, we aimed to enhance student engagement, programming proficiency, and overall academic performance. Results show a substantial reduction in failure rates following the introduction of the practical exam, and statistical analyses revealed moderate correlation between students’ voluntary engagement in non-mandatory coding exercises and their performance in both theoretical and practical examinations. These findings indicate an association among engagement in structured, automated practice assessments, algorithmic thinking, and problem-solving capabilities.

• Language: English
• Keywords: programming education, Automated Programming Assessment System (APAS), practical exam, test-driven learning, student engagement, algorithmic thinking
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FE - Faculty of Electrical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: 20 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 15, issue 11, art.1486
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-176632
• UDC: 004.42:378
• ISSN on article: 2227-7102
• DOI: 10.3390/educsci15111486
• COBISS.SI-ID: 260230915
• Publication date in RUL: 05.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Education sciences
• Shortened title: Educ. sci.
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2227-7102
• COBISS.SI-ID: 520257817

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: poučevanje programiranja, Avtomatizirani sistem za preverjanje programiranja (APAS), praktični izpit, testno vodeno učenje, angažiranost študentov, algoritmično razmišljanje

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P2-0246
• Name: ICT4QoL - Informacijsko komunikacijske tehnologije za kakovostno življenje