SIGCSE 2024

A key element in both mastery learning and competency-based education involves providing students with multiple opportunities to practice with rapid feedback, a feature provided by autograders. PrairieLearn is an open-source assessment authoring system that empowers the development of exceptionally rich interactive questions.

Questions are formulated as problem generators capable of producing multiple variants of a question. This allows question authors to utilize the same question generator across different assignments and semesters, reducing the workload in the long run and facilitating the implementation of second-chance exams. In addition, this framework empowers students to generate multiple instances of a question, providing them with enhanced practice opportunities.

Currently, PrairieLearn is actively adopted in over 800 courses across 20 universities. In this affiliated event, instructors from these courses will showcase the innovative online assessments they’ve created using PrairieLearn, and they are eager to share these resources with the broader instructor community. Presenters will also be happy to discuss their experience authoring these assessments.

Organizers

• Prof. Mariana Silva, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, mfsilva@illinois.edu, https://mfsilva.web.illinois.edu/
• Prof. Craig Zilles, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, zilles@illinois.edu, https://zilles.cs.illinois.edu
• Prof. Armando Fox, UC Berkeley, fox@berkeley.edu, www.cs.berkeley.edu/~fox
• Prof. Firas Moosvi, University of British Columbia, firas.moosvi@ubc.ca , https://www.cs.ubc.ca/people/firas-moosvi
• Prof. Dan Garcia, UC Berkeley, ddgarcia@berkeley.edu , www.cs.berkeley.edu/~ddgarcia

Presenters

• Prof. Gary Dahl, University of Wisconsin-Madison, dahl@cs.wisc.edu, https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~dahl/
• David Smith, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, dhsmith2@illinois.edu, https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-smith-1b9499102/
• Prof. Karina Mochetti, University of British Columbia, mochetti@cs.ubc.ca, https://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mochetti/
• Prof. David Cooper, West Chester University, dcooper@wcupa.edu , https://www.cs.wcupa.edu/~dcooper/
• Prof. Zachary Kurmas, Grand Valley State University, kurmasz@gvsu.edu , https://www.gvsu.edu/computing/kurmas-zachary-54.htm
• Prof. Ramon Lawrence, University of British Columbia, ramon.lawrence@ubc.ca, https://cmps.ok.ubc.ca/about/contact/ramon-lawrence/
• Prof. Joseph Hollingsworth, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology hollings@rose-hulman.edu, https://drholly77.github.io/Details/
• Prof. Geoffrey Herman, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, glherman@illinois.edu, https://cs.illinois.edu/about/people/faculty/glherman
• Prof. Jeff Erickson, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, jeffe@illinois.edu, https://cs.illinois.edu/about/people/faculty/jeffe
• Prof. Armando Fox, UC Berkeley, fox@berkeley.edu, www.cs.berkeley.edu/~fox

Tentative Agenda

After a brief (~10 minute) overview of PrairieLearn, the subsequent ~80 minutes will be dedicated to showcasing a diverse range of assessments designed for specific skills in both lower- and upper-division computing courses. All these assessments will be available to participants, providing them with the option to “follow along” and actively engage with the live assessments on their own laptops during the event.

Who should attend

This event is open to any instructor (K-12, higher education, professional/continuing education) interested in mastery learning and competency-based education. It is designed for those who wish to learn how they can use an open-source authoring platform to generate very rich assessments and discover the full potential of such a system. Current PrairieLearn users are also encouraged to participate, not only to gain insights into how others are using the platform, but also to share their experiences and assessment code. This will be a great opportunity for instructors from different backgrounds and experiences to come together, learn from one another, and foster a collaborative exchange of knowledge.

Time and Location