The CourseMaster CBA System: improvements over Ceilidh

While teaching in all its forms can sometimes be fun, for most people marking student work is tedious, boring and in general hard work. A courseware system is presented that not only provides on-line support for courses, but importantly can automatically assess student work. CourseMaster can mark several types of coursework in a non-trivial manner. That is, criteria can be set against which the work is thoroughly assessed. Specifically, the system is particularly effective at marking computer programs in several languages including Java and C++. It can also mark diagrams and assist in the marking of essays. In addition to marking, the system also supports the provision of lecture notes and web pages and links. It can be used to collect any on-line work and enforce deadlines. Finally, it provides a suite of web- based tools that allow the easy management of courses. CourseMaster has been used "live" at Nottingham with great success for three years and is based on the earlier Ceilidh system which was developed and used over the preceding ten years.