Skip to main content

Abstract

Code review is a common part of a programmer’s job and is considered a best practice when developing software projects. Recently, this technique has also found its place in educational activities. In addition to developing programming skills, it has been shown to bring other benefits to students, such as an increase in motivation, improvement of learning outcomes, development of soft skills, etc.

We have been using code review in our courses for several years. So far, however, we have been using a review tool that was not developed primarily for code review. In this paper, we describe a new version of our tool that has similar basic functionality to professional tools but is simpler and more suitable for use in education. Our first experiences from its pilot testing with students are also presented.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Fagan, M.: Design and code inspections to reduce errors in program development. In: Broy, M., Denert, E. (eds.) Software Pioneers, pp. 575–607. Springer, Heidelberg (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-59412-0_35

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Boehm, B.W., et al.: Software Engineering Economics. Prentice-Hall Englewood Cliffs, Hoboken, vol. 197 (1981)

    Google Scholar 

  3. Uwano, H., Nakamura, M., Monden, A., Matsumoto, K.I.: Analyzing individual performance of source code review using reviewers’ eye movement. In: Proceedings of the 2006 Symposium on Eye Tracking Research & Applications, pp. 133–140. ACM (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Wiegers, K.E.: Peer Reviews in Software: A Practical Guide. Addison-Wesley, Boston (2002)

    Google Scholar 

  5. Sadowski, C., et al.: Modern code review: a case study at google. In: Proceedings of the 40th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering in Practice, pp. 181–190. ACM (2018)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Fagan, M.E.: Advances in software inspections. In: Pioneers and Their Contributions to Software Engineering, p. 335 (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  7. Höst, M., Johansson, C.: Evaluation of code review methods through interviews and experimentation. J. Syst. Softw. 52(2), 113–120 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Beller, M., et al.: Modern code reviews in open-source projects: which problems do they fix? In: Proceedings of the 11th Working Conference on Mining Software Repositories, pp. 202–211. ACM (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  9. Allen, H., Cury, A., Gaston, T., Graf, C., Wakley, H., Willis, M.: What does better peer review look like? Underlying principles and recommendations for better practice. Learned Publishing 32(2), 163–175 (2019)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Bacchelli, A., Bird, C.: Expectations, outcomes, and challenges of modern code review. In: Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Software Engineering, pp. 712–721. IEEE Press (2013)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Hundhausen, C., Agrawal, A., Fairbrother, D., Trevisan, M.: Integrating pedagogical code reviews into a CS 1 course: an empirical study. In: ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, vol. 41, no. 1, pp. 291–295 (2009)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Hundhausen, C.D., Agrawal, A., Agarwal, P.: Talking about code: integrating pedagogical code reviews into early computing courses. ACM Trans. Comput. Educ. (TOCE) 13(3), 1–28 (2013)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Indriasari, T.D., Luxton-Reilly, A., Denny, P.: A review of peer code review in higher education. ACM Trans. Comput. Educ. (TOCE) 20(3), 1–25 (2020)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Li, X., Prasad, C.: Effectively teaching coding standards in programming. In: Proceedings of the 6th Conference on Information Technology Education, pp. 239–244. ACM (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Grissom, S., Hundhausen, C., Conrad, P.: Alternatives to lecture: experience peer instruction and pedagogical code reviews. In: Proceedings of the 45th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pp. 275–276 (2014)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Wang, Y., Li, H., Feng, Y., Jiang, Y., Liu, Y.: Assessment of programming language learning based on peer code review model: implementation and experience report. Comput. Educ. 59(2), 412–422 (2012)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Trytten, D.A.: A design for team peer code review. In: ACM SIGCSE Bulletin. ACM. pp. 455–459 (2005)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Kubincová, Z., Homola, M.: code review in computer science courses: take one. In: Xie, H., Popescu, E., Hancke, G., Fernández Manjón, B. (eds.) ICWL 2017. LNCS, vol. 10473, pp. 125–135. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66733-1_14

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  19. Almeida, F.: Framework for software code reviews and inspections in a classroom environment. Int. J. Mod. Educ. Comput. Sci. 11(10), 31 (2018)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Hundhausen, C., Agrawal, A., Ryan, K.: The design of an online environment to support pedagogical code reviews. In Proceedings of the 41st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, pp. 182–186 (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Tang, M.: Caesar: a social code review tool for programming education. PhD thesis. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2011)

    Google Scholar 

  22. Combéfis, S.: Automated code assessment for education: review, classification and perspectives on techniques and tools. Software 1(1), 3–30 (2022)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Indriasari, T.D., Luxton-Reilly, A., Denny, P.: Improving student peer code review using gamification. In: Australasian Computing Education Conference, pp. 80–87 (2021)

    Google Scholar 

  24. Mulder, R.A., Pearce, J.M., Baik, C.: Peer review in higher education: student perceptions before and after participation. Act. Learn. High. Educ. 15(2), 157–171 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Kubincová, Z., Homola, M., Bejdová, V.: Motivational effect of peer review in blog-based activities. In: Wang, J.-F., Lau, R. (eds.) ICWL 2013. LNCS, vol. 8167, pp. 194–203. Springer, Heidelberg (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41175-5_20

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  26. Lundstrom, K., Baker, W.: To give is better than to receive: the benefits of peer review to the reviewer’s own writing. J. Second. Lang. Writ. 18(1), 30–43 (2009)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Gielen, S., Tops, L., Dochy, F., et al.: A comparative study of peer and teacher feedback and of various peer feedback forms in a secondary school writing curriculum. Br. Edu. Res. J. 36(1), 143–62 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Slovak national projects VEGA 1/0621/22 and APVV-20-0353.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zuzana Kubincová .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this paper

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this paper

Kubincová, Z., Kl’uka, J., Homola, M., Marušák, A. (2023). Educational Code-Review Tool: A First Glimpse. In: Temperini, M., et al. Methodologies and Intelligent Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning, 12th International Conference. MIS4TEL 2022. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 580. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20617-7_15

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics