Is there a Need for Automated Code Review to be Used in Teaching? : From the perspective of students

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the typical process of the practical part of software development courses at universities and to evaluate whether the current process meets the expectations of students or whether the needs of students would be better met by the benefits of automated code feedback. A semi-automated survey was conducted in German, involving bachelor students from different universities who had attended an introductory programming class within the last 6 semesters. The results clearly show that the students would like to have individual assignments instead of the due to time constraints, usual group exercises as they see more advantages for their learning progress. The use of automated code feedback could not only solve this time problem but would also bring other benefits.