Experiences from Teaching Automated Testing with CrowdSorcerer

Abstract

Software testing is an important process when ensuring a program's quality. However, testing has not traditionally been a very substantial part of computer science education. Some attempts to integrate it into the curriculum has been made but best practices still prove to be an open question.

This thesis discusses multiple attempts of teaching software testing during the years. It also introduces CrowdSorcerer, a system for gathering programming assignments with tests from students. It has been used in introductory programming courses in University of Helsinki.

To study if the students benefit from creating assignments with CrowdSorcerer, we analysed the number of assignments and tests they created and if they correlate with their performance in a testing-related question in the course exam. We also gathered feedback from the students on their experiences from using CrowdSorcerer.

Looking at the results, it seems that more research on how to teach testing would be beneficial. Improving CrowdSorcerer would also be a good idea.