Seamless Embedding of Programming IDEs into Computer-Based Testing Software

Abstract

Interest in computer-based assessment has increased in recent years, most certainly due to a shift to online learning due to the COVID pandemic. Instructors are creating questiongenerators for Computer Science classes on PrairieLearn (PL), an open-source platform developed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign PrairieLearn. The software generates differentvariants of each question to students through randomization. The challenge up to now has been that automatically graded coding problems in RISC-V or Snap!, some of the significant languages used in undergraduate Computer Science courses at our university, weren't possible to do within the software. Thequestion could be displayed, but then the student would have to load their favorite integrated development environment (IDE), code it up, and thenreturn to PL to upload their solution. This poster discusses our approach to embedding interactive development environments for Venus (RISC-V) and Snap! directly into PrairieLearn, so students never have to leave the browser tab!