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Ask Slashdot: Should Coding Exams Be Given on Paper?
Slashdot reader Qbertino is pursuing a comp sci degree -- and got a surprise during the last exam: being asked to write code on paper.
Not that I'd expect an IDE -- it's an exam after all -- but being able to use a screen and a keyboard with a very simple editor should be standard at universities these days... I find this patently absurd in 2018...
What do you think and what are your recent experiences with exams at universities? Is this still standard? What's the point besides annoying students? Did I miss something?
A similar question was asked on Slashdot 16 years ago -- but apparently nothing has changed since 2002.
Leave your best answers in the comments. Should coding exams be given on paper?
What do you think and what are your recent experiences with exams at universities? Is this still standard? What's the point besides annoying students? Did I miss something?
A similar question was asked on Slashdot 16 years ago -- but apparently nothing has changed since 2002.
Leave your best answers in the comments. Should coding exams be given on paper?
You are going for a computer science degree. You must be able to express your ideas on paper, a white board, napkin, back of your hand, ....anywhere.
The poster apparently needs to transfer to a code monkey program.
I hear DeGree Mill will take anyone with the $$$$ or student loans.
Not that I'd expect an IDE -- it's an exam after all -- but being able to use a screen and a keyboard with a very simple editor should be standard at universities these days... I find this patently absurd in 2018...
Yes you know better than the university when it comes to evaluating your skills. And I find you patently annoying.
I graduated in early 2000s myself. The finals were all on paper. I had a lot of programming related classes. 3-4 of those 2+ hour tests back to back.
Writing small apps, quick sorts, manipulating data structures, you name it. As much as hundreds or even thousands of lines of code handwritten over the course of a few days, every year. My finger had a mark from the pen. And if you made a mistake, not all professors were ok with just drawing arrows to "insert" code, so there was a lot of starting over too.
The challenge in those exams was not figuring out the solution. It was writing it down. I still have nightmares from it to this day.
I don't know about the author's instructor or course, but there's generally a point to this.
* Can the student write a correct algorithm, bug-free without the crutch of running the code. Running code often leads to writing code by trial-and-error without much thinking.
* Does the student know the language well enough to write code without the suggestions of an IDE?
* Avoid all technology problems. My computer crashed. My battery's dead. I accidentally deleted the file. I have the wrong version installed.
There are a lot of rules to make sure that exams are fair, auditable and so that it requires at least a modicum of effort to cheat. The University is likely set up so that all exams are paper so setting new rules for one or two classes is going to be an uphill fight at the best of times. Specific issues you will need to resolve:
1. How do you prevent people cheating (USB sticks, Bluetooth, getting access to the Internet, etc.)? Who's time is going to be used to set this up and enforce it?
2. What if someone's computer crashes? What happens if they accidentally knock the reset switch (I have seen this happen in a "practical exam" of this sort)? What if they "accidentally" knock the reset switch?
3. How do you support students who use assisstive technology on computers (screen readers, specific high-visibility colour desktop designs, desktops in other languages, etc.)? How do you deal with students who sent skieing in the holiday before the exams and broke both arms (again, I have seen this -- and we sorted it out)?
4. Where do you draw the line on "reasonable" support? Text editor? IDE? IDE with documentation? IDE with documentation including code samples?
Critically : it depends on what you are trying to assess. I've had interviews where they want code written on the whiteboard -- how is this different?
but it's sort of a moot point since a real computer science curriculum is mostly about math and math can be done on paper just fine.
I suppose if we still had programming vocational schools, but between the H1-Bs and the offshoring they're really just scams at this point. You can count the number of jobs available for that kind of code monkey on one hand of a retired shop teacher.
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Hereâ(TM)s how Iâ(TM)ve adjuated my teaching practice for a world with smartphones: 1) All my tests are open book/note. In a world where you can lookup anything anytime, knowledge is no longer a valued commodity. However, using knowledge to solve problems is. So all my questions involve higher level thinking, with students able to use their notes. 2) My tests and exams are all done on computer through Google Classroom (when in a lab setting). So thereâ(TM)s always a keyboard and screen. 3) I have my students write code in their assignments with an IDE, not on tests. Writing code without and IDE has always pissed me off. So, my tests/exams involve things like analyzing code, eg: hereâ(TM)s some code, tell me what it does. Or, hereâ(TM)s some code with problems, what are they and/or how can they be fixed. Or, when would you use a while loop vs a do loop? Or a local variable vs a class variable? I must note that this form of teaching is entirely my own, after spending much time reflecting on how I think teaching and schooling must adjust for a world with instantaneous access to endless information. This is not endorsed by my government (Ontario, Canada) or school board, and even many of my colleagues disagree. However, something has to change in education which still uses methods developped over a century ago for chalk and slate! I do espouse these methods when possible, and continually strive to evolve my teaching for an ever evolving world, but I certainly donâ(TM)t think this is the final answer in education methodology. Any further ideas you have would be welcome! At some point I would like to evolve my tests/exams to be âoeopen Googleâ, but frankly have no idea how that would work. But thatâ(TM)s my thoughts on next steps from where I'm at currently.
I've tried this all ways: on paper, computers allowed for help (use your IDE, why not, but answers on paper), and I have some quizzes that are purely on the computer. There are two issues to consider here:
- First, and most obviously: cheating. As soon as you allow student-owned electronics, you open the door to connectivity. If not WLAN, than via mobile phones or ad hoc networks or even bluetooth. This is very difficult to control, and is the primary reason that my school still officially prohibits electronics during exams.
- Second, if you're going to allow a computer, you had just as well allow an IDE and make it more "real world". The thing is, this makes exams more difficult for all but the best students. People who are not (yet) very good a programming might be able to show a believable (but uncompilable) concept on paper, and get reasonable partial credit. As soon as they have a computer, it is natural to expect a program to run. The poorer students will lose lots of time trying to get their program to actually work, and are therefore more likely to fail such an exam.
For the last point: I'm not sure this is bad. Personally, I think the world needs a lot fewer mediocre and lousy programmers. However, while that would improve overall software quality, it would mean less code written overall and make software even more expensive than it is.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
Years ago, at Georgia State U a couple of us going for MS degrees had to take the C++ programming course.
My classmate had an MS EE and had over decade of C++ programming experience. I had a similar amount.
Both of us tried to get out of having to take it and showed our resumes with our years of experience.
Nope. We HAD to have a class in it from an accredited school.
I sat back, did my assignments and only participated when called upon. My classmate had a tendency to point out the instructors (Ph.D. CS) where he was wrong.
Easiest 'A' I have ever got - but pissed at the money I had to spend for the complete waste of time.
So, yes, sometimes we DO know better.
Good times.
(NOTE: I don't know why an f-ing iPhone can't submit text properly, but here's my response properly formatted.)
Here's how I've adjusted my teaching practice for a world with smartphones:
1) All my tests are open book/note. In a world where you can lookup anything anytime, knowledge is no longer a valued commodity. However, using knowledge to solve problems is. So all my questions involve higher level thinking, with students able to use their notes.
2) My tests and exams are all done on computer through Google Classroom (when in a lab setting). So there's always a keyboard and screen.
3) I have my students write code in their assignments with an IDE, not on tests. Writing code without and IDE has always pissed me off. So, my tests/exams involve things like analyzing code, eg: here's some code, tell me what it does. Or, here's some code with problems, what are they and/or how can they be fixed? Or, when would you use a while loop vs a do loop? Or a local variable vs a class variable?
I must note that this form of teaching is entirely my own, after spending much time reflecting on how I think teaching and schooling must adjust for a world with instantaneous access to endless information.
This is not endorsed by my government (Ontario, Canada) or school board, and even many of my colleagues disagree. However, something has to change in education which still uses methods developed over a century ago for chalk and slate!
I do espouse these methods when possible, and continually strive to evolve my teaching for an ever evolving world, as I certainly don't think this is the final answer in education methodology. Any further ideas you have would be welcome!
At some point I would like to evolve my tests/exams to be "open Google", but frankly have no idea how that would work. However, that's my thoughts on next steps from where I'm at currently.
It all depends, are you testing thinking and code fluency or are you testing for IDE automaticity?
I would suspect that through the programming course, the students have already written several programs using the IDE and turned those on to demonstrate their skills.
The paper exam shows their thinking, familiarity, code fluency, and code grammar and syntax proficiency.
As one who writes code, I still think about it on paper before I type it into the computer, especially when writing algorithms.
Planing on paper really reduces bugs and logic problems because it doesn't require technology. If you just sit down and start coding, it is easy to go down rabbit holes of "why doesn't this work" vs. thinking about the problem.
To me it is similar to writing an outline before writing a paper. You know where you are going and how you plan to get there, Sometimes if I am really pressed for time I will just write comments for the code blocks and use that as my plan, then go and fill in the code blocks.
Alternately, should English exams be given on paper or should students use an IDE like Microsoft Word?
Fine if they want it on paper.
But expect bad pseudocode. Any other expectation is not relevant to the medium!
+----------------- | What is the question!
'97 CS grad. All the exams were on paper. I don't recall being asked to write syntactically correct programs on paper. That's what the programming projects were for. The point of the paper exams was to check if I understood the *concepts*.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
Except for my martial arts exams and my driving license all exams were on paper. ... because we only had 3 or 4 computers in school, and waiting till one was available seemed unplausible ...
And actually when I was young I wrote many programs on paper first
if you can not explain something on paper (I'm not talking full UML 2.x) you likely have not grasped it enough.
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
I have a computer science degree - obtained circa 2001.
None of my exams during the pursuit of my degree used a computer - all exams were done on paper. Demonstrating understanding of data structures, algorithms, complexity analysis and other CS topics is not coding.
Coding is the implementation work of computer science, much like construction is the implementation work of Civil Engineering.
Would you test a Civil Engineering student by asking him/her to build you a bridge?
You are going for a computer science degree. You must be able to express your ideas on paper, a white board, napkin, back of your hand, ....anywhere.
Not only that, but it's a college course run by a professor. The exam format should be the professor's choice, with a very few exceptions mandated by the university. (For example, blind grading most obviously.)
However, the professor should be up-front about the requirement at the beginning of the class, before the student is locked into taking it.
Real lawyers write in C++
If you know the language, a solid text editor is the best way to go. For professional programmers, if you take the time to really learn a great editor the code can flow effortlessly, almost as if your brain is wired directly to the output. Think "delete this block" and your fingers automatically do the keystroke to delete a block.
If you DON'T know the language, having autocomplete make suggestions can help as you guess your way through it.
I do turn on syntax highlighting mostly because it provides an obvious cue if I miss a quote or something - half the screen turns red, which looks obviously very different than how it should look after each statement is written. I don't pay any attention to the details of the syntax colors - there is just a difference in what the screen as a whole looks like when there is a syntax error.
Are taught to write their code away from a computer. It leads to better code. If you can't code away from the machine, you can't code on the machine.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Computer science isn't the same as being a code monkey. A good CS student doesn't actually have to be a good programmer. A good programmer needn't know the basics in CS (but it would be useful). Many skilled programmers doesn't even know the specifics of common algorithms and datatypes but know when and how to use them - and that's fine.
That would be interesting. Mr. Miyagi would suggest that you'd learn better by being forced to go look it up repeatedly. There is some research that suggests you do learn best when things are difficult, but not impossibly difficult.
I was just discussing with the always insightful Angel'o'sphere the possibility that the proliferation of IDEs with autocompletion is at least partially responsible for some of the poor interfaces in libraries and languages. Java apparently has at least three Date classes, all in different places!
I teach at a community college, and all of my exams in programming class have been on paper, except one. Before this exam, I showed students on the overhead that I could see their desktops on my computer. I required them all to leave the IDE maximized (I use the VPL plugin in Moodle). One student did extensive browsing and copying from the net anyway, and I witnessed it. He dropped shortly thereafter, and I returned to paper-only exams forever.
The trick is to condition your students to writing on paper. If you don't, most will fail because going from hours of staring at a computer screen to writing on paper is very unsettling. So I give students a 5-10 minute written quiz every class meeting (twice weekly). It seems to work, and although almost every student fails some quizzes, the exam grades are pretty good, on average, compared to semesters when I didn't give daily quizzes. (Quizzes are weighted 10%, exams 50% (2 during term, 1 final), projects 40%.) Of course, this quadrupled the grading I normally do (50 students), but I think it is very rewarding for myself and the students.