Reimagining Online Coding Assessment Throughout the Pandemic: The Role of Auto-Grading and Enquiry Features

Traditional coding subjects require students to practice coding inside computer labs with pre-established environments to ensure conformity in the running of codes. During the pandemic, our Structured Query Language (SQL) coding lessons moved online, and students had to set up the coding environment at home. However, the setup process took considerable time, which took away from the time available for learning to code. Additionally, the setup process ran with discrepancies on different operating systems, resulting in different setup problems among students. Furthermore, the assignment submission process was laborious, and it took time for teachers to return the graded assignments, which meant that students could not learn from the teacher’s feedback in time. This posed problems for both students and teachers. Therefore, we have developed an online coding platform called Codatus to free students from the need to set up the coding environment while learning to code. Codatus features online submission of assignments, auto-grading, and an online enquiry mechanism to facilitate coding learning. With the resumption of face-to-face classes post-pandemic, Codatus has enabled students to continue learning to code after class, and it has helped students with their coding academically.