Anomaly Detection in Student Activity in Solving Unique Programming Exercises: Motivated Students against Suspicious Ones

This article presents a dataset containing messages from the Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) system, which records the results from the automatic verification of students’ solutions to unique programming exercises of 11 various types. These results are automatically generated by the system, which a...

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Main Authors: Liliya A. Demidova, Peter N. Sovietov, Elena G. Andrianova, Anna A. Demidova
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2023-08-01
Series:Data
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5729/8/8/129
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author Liliya A. Demidova
Peter N. Sovietov
Elena G. Andrianova
Anna A. Demidova
author_facet Liliya A. Demidova
Peter N. Sovietov
Elena G. Andrianova
Anna A. Demidova
author_sort Liliya A. Demidova
collection DOAJ
description This article presents a dataset containing messages from the Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) system, which records the results from the automatic verification of students’ solutions to unique programming exercises of 11 various types. These results are automatically generated by the system, which automates a massive Python programming course at MIREA—Russian Technological University (RTU MIREA). The DTA system is trained to distinguish between approaches to solve programming exercises, as well as to identify correct and incorrect solutions, using intelligent algorithms responsible for analyzing the source code in the DTA system using vector representations of programs based on Markov chains, calculating pairwise Jensen–Shannon distances for programs and using a hierarchical clustering algorithm to detect high-level approaches used by students in solving unique programming exercises. In the process of learning, each student must correctly solve 11 unique exercises in order to receive admission to the intermediate certification in the form of a test. In addition, a motivated student may try to find additional approaches to solve exercises they have already solved. At the same time, not all students are able or willing to solve the 11 unique exercises proposed to them; some will resort to outside help in solving all or part of the exercises. Since all information about the interactions of the students with the DTA system is recorded, it is possible to identify different types of students. First of all, the students can be classified into 2 classes: those who failed to solve 11 exercises and those who received admission to the intermediate certification in the form of a test, having solved the 11 unique exercises correctly. However, it is possible to identify classes of typical, motivated and suspicious students among the latter group based on the proposed dataset. The proposed dataset can be used to develop regression models that will predict outbursts of student activity when interacting with the DTA system, to solve clustering problems, to identify groups of students with a similar behavior model in the learning process and to develop intelligent data classifiers that predict the students’ behavior model and draw appropriate conclusions, not only at the end of the learning process but also during the course of it in order to motivate all students, even those who are classified as suspicious, to visualize the results of the learning process using various tools.
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spelling doaj.art-51b17990258f49f3b8b68554c3c616412023-11-19T00:47:01ZengMDPI AGData2306-57292023-08-018812910.3390/data8080129Anomaly Detection in Student Activity in Solving Unique Programming Exercises: Motivated Students against Suspicious OnesLiliya A. Demidova0Peter N. Sovietov1Elena G. Andrianova2Anna A. Demidova3Institute of Information Technologies, Federal State Budget Educational Institution of Higher Education, MIREA—Russian Technological University, 78, Vernadsky Avenue, 119454 Moscow, RussiaInstitute of Information Technologies, Federal State Budget Educational Institution of Higher Education, MIREA—Russian Technological University, 78, Vernadsky Avenue, 119454 Moscow, RussiaInstitute of Information Technologies, Federal State Budget Educational Institution of Higher Education, MIREA—Russian Technological University, 78, Vernadsky Avenue, 119454 Moscow, RussiaInstitute of Information Technologies, Federal State Budget Educational Institution of Higher Education, MIREA—Russian Technological University, 78, Vernadsky Avenue, 119454 Moscow, RussiaThis article presents a dataset containing messages from the Digital Teaching Assistant (DTA) system, which records the results from the automatic verification of students’ solutions to unique programming exercises of 11 various types. These results are automatically generated by the system, which automates a massive Python programming course at MIREA—Russian Technological University (RTU MIREA). The DTA system is trained to distinguish between approaches to solve programming exercises, as well as to identify correct and incorrect solutions, using intelligent algorithms responsible for analyzing the source code in the DTA system using vector representations of programs based on Markov chains, calculating pairwise Jensen–Shannon distances for programs and using a hierarchical clustering algorithm to detect high-level approaches used by students in solving unique programming exercises. In the process of learning, each student must correctly solve 11 unique exercises in order to receive admission to the intermediate certification in the form of a test. In addition, a motivated student may try to find additional approaches to solve exercises they have already solved. At the same time, not all students are able or willing to solve the 11 unique exercises proposed to them; some will resort to outside help in solving all or part of the exercises. Since all information about the interactions of the students with the DTA system is recorded, it is possible to identify different types of students. First of all, the students can be classified into 2 classes: those who failed to solve 11 exercises and those who received admission to the intermediate certification in the form of a test, having solved the 11 unique exercises correctly. However, it is possible to identify classes of typical, motivated and suspicious students among the latter group based on the proposed dataset. The proposed dataset can be used to develop regression models that will predict outbursts of student activity when interacting with the DTA system, to solve clustering problems, to identify groups of students with a similar behavior model in the learning process and to develop intelligent data classifiers that predict the students’ behavior model and draw appropriate conclusions, not only at the end of the learning process but also during the course of it in order to motivate all students, even those who are classified as suspicious, to visualize the results of the learning process using various tools.https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5729/8/8/129unique programming exercisestasksPythonDigital Teaching Assistantanomalies detectiontypical students
spellingShingle Liliya A. Demidova
Peter N. Sovietov
Elena G. Andrianova
Anna A. Demidova
Anomaly Detection in Student Activity in Solving Unique Programming Exercises: Motivated Students against Suspicious Ones
Data
unique programming exercises
tasks
Python
Digital Teaching Assistant
anomalies detection
typical students
title Anomaly Detection in Student Activity in Solving Unique Programming Exercises: Motivated Students against Suspicious Ones
title_full Anomaly Detection in Student Activity in Solving Unique Programming Exercises: Motivated Students against Suspicious Ones
title_fullStr Anomaly Detection in Student Activity in Solving Unique Programming Exercises: Motivated Students against Suspicious Ones
title_full_unstemmed Anomaly Detection in Student Activity in Solving Unique Programming Exercises: Motivated Students against Suspicious Ones
title_short Anomaly Detection in Student Activity in Solving Unique Programming Exercises: Motivated Students against Suspicious Ones
title_sort anomaly detection in student activity in solving unique programming exercises motivated students against suspicious ones
topic unique programming exercises
tasks
Python
Digital Teaching Assistant
anomalies detection
typical students
url https://www.mdpi.com/2306-5729/8/8/129
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AT elenagandrianova anomalydetectioninstudentactivityinsolvinguniqueprogrammingexercisesmotivatedstudentsagainstsuspiciousones
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