Iterative Improvement of Practice Exercises By Students and Staff

Abstract

Practice is an important part of mastering any discipline. As a result, many courses provide students with example problems. However, the processes by which these exercises are created and presented to students can make it difficult to create, review, and edit them. This thesis describes an exercise bank framework that facilitates the authorship of new practice questions and the iterative development of existing ones. The exercise bank uses conceptual models that treat exercises not as seldom-changing pieces of course material but as collections of data that are continually in need of review and revision. Operations on these exercises cause them to transition between different states over the course of their development. This thesis discusses the design and implementation of two exercise bank systems for the course 6.031: Elements of Software Construction. These exercise banks proved useful to both staff and students in generating and understanding course material.