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uAssign: Scalable Interactive Activities for Teaching the Unix Terminal

Published: 22 February 2019 Publication History

Abstract

We describe uAssign, an assignment system for teaching and assessing command line terminal skills. uAssign allows instructors to create auto-graded terminal assignments that require students to perform a high-level action that can be completed in many ways. Assignments can be randomized so that students can't re-use old solutions. uAssign is implemented via an in-browser terminal emulator that uses WebSockets to connect to a Docker container. Performance testing and its use in a large-enrollment lecture course show that it is efficient enough to handle a large number of concurrent users. A survey of students shows significant improvement in terminal skill confidence after using uAssign and that students have a high level of satisfaction with uAssign assignments.

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      cover image ACM Conferences
      SIGCSE '19: Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
      February 2019
      1364 pages
      ISBN:9781450358903
      DOI:10.1145/3287324
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      Published: 22 February 2019

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      Author Tags

      1. assessment
      2. auto-grading
      3. command-line
      4. scalable
      5. terminal
      6. unix

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      Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

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      Cited By

      View all
      • (2024)The Shell Tutor: An Intelligent Tutoring System For The UNIX Command Shell And GitProceedings of the 2024 on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3649217.3653631(548-554)Online publication date: 3-Jul-2024
      • (2023)TAnnotator: Towards Annotating Programming E-textbooks with Facts and ExamplesSmart Learning Environments10.1186/s40561-023-00228-y10:1Online publication date: 25-Jan-2023
      • (2022)Stop Reinventing the Wheel! Promoting Community Software in Computing EducationProceedings of the 2022 Working Group Reports on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3571785.3574129(261-292)Online publication date: 27-Dec-2022
      • (2021)TermAdventure: Interactively Teaching UNIX Command Line, Text Adventure StyleProceedings of the 26th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 110.1145/3430665.3456387(108-114)Online publication date: 26-Jun-2021
      • (2021)Toolset for Collecting Shell Commands and Its Application in Hands-on Cybersecurity Training2021 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE49875.2021.9637052(1-9)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2021
      • (2020)Teaching Cybersecurity to Computer Science Students Utilizing Terminal Sessions Recording Software as a Pedagogical Tool2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9274268(1-8)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2020
      • (2020) DynamiQue – A Technical Intervention To Augment Static Textbook with Dynamic Q&A Interactive Learning Environments10.1080/10494820.2020.174401630:9(1693-1707)Online publication date: 3-Apr-2020
      • (2019)Revitalizing the Linux programming course with GoJournal of Computing Sciences in Colleges10.5555/3381613.338162035:5(61-69)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2019

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