How can software metrics help novice programmers

Abstract

Many computing education studies have reported poor learning outcomes in programming courses for novices. Yet methods for measuring students ’ abil-ity to generate computer programs remains an open research problem. In this paper we review some lim-itations of existing approaches for assessing student programs. We then propose a set of valid and reli-able metrics for the direct measurement of novices’ program code. Distributions of each metric are given for student populations. The metrics can be utilised for both diagnostic and formative assessment. Ex-amples of formative assessments are given and a new diagnostic metric is presented for Perkins ’ “stoppers” and “movers ” learning styles. This metric captures the multi-dimensional distance of a student’s program from a target solution. The metric can be used by in-structors to triage a large set of submissions and to tailor formative feedback to individuals. 1