is still a quite new platform with limited adoption
amongst teachers. it will be interesting to hear user
stories from teachers trying out the tool in the future.
5 CONCLUSIONS
I have presented the MATLAB Grader Test Genera-
tor, a free and open-source tool for simplifying and
speeding-up the somewhat laborious process of con-
figuring the autograding environment in MATLAB
Grader. The tool consists of a graphical app and a
script, both of which have their merits as presented
above. With some basic programming skills, teach-
ers can customize both the app and the script to their
liking, e.g., for adding autogenerated feedback infor-
mation to students. Whereas the tool successfully cir-
cumvents current limitations in the MATLAB Grader
platform, future updates in MATLAB Grader might
break functionality. Additionally, there might be a
technical threshold preventing some teachers from
delving into using and customizing the tool. Hence,
MathWorks should instead improve the MATLAB
Grader platform, offering both a well-documented
API and a more extensive variety of options for con-
figuring assessment tests, including autogeneration of
tests on the basis of a solution script and learner tem-
plate script provided by the teacher.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I wish to thank Sivert Løken, a graduate of the bach-
elor of automation engineering programme at NTNU
in Ålesund, for his code development in this project.
In addition, I wish to thank my colleague Ottar L.
Osen for his useful input during the development
phase and the write-up of this paper. Finally, I am
thankful for the financial support from NTNU Ex-
cited,
5
a Norwegian university centre for excellent IT
education.
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