References from Educational Institutions
The predecessors of the ByTheMark service, the Trakla and Trakla2 systems, have been successfully used in numerous educational institutions, including Helsinki Polytechnic Stadia, University of Helsinki, Indiana University East (US), University of Kuopio, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Tampere University of Technology, University of Turku, Helsinki University of Technology, and Åbo Akademi. In addition to our new customers, most of these have chosen to use By The Mark Service, instead of maintaining a server of their own, including Turku Vocational Institute, Rhode Island College (USA), Tampere University of Technology, Åbo Akademi, and University of Turku.
Research Findings
Numerous academic studies indicate that our service aids learning.
A technically immaculate system with an intuitive user interface is not by itself enough to fulfill the needs of our customers and their students. Any system that aims to assist students to achieve good learning results must be pedagogically sound as well. The pedagogical credibility of the ByTheMark service is considerable. The Trakla2 system, which provides the backbone of our service, has been comprehensively researched, and studies have shown it to be an effective learning aid. The following scientific publications provide further detail:
- Analyzing engagement taxonomy in collaborative algorithm visualization. Niko Myller, Mikko Laakso, and Ari Korhonen (2007) In: Proceedings of the 12th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education. ACM. pp. 251–255.
- On the use of resubmissions in automatic assessment systems. Ville Karavirta, Ari Korhonen, and Lauri Malmi (2006) Computer Science Education, 16 (3), September. pp. 229–240.
- Observations on student misconceptions – A case study of the Build-Heap Algorithm. Otto Seppälä, Lauri Malmi, and Ari Korhonen (2006) Computer Science Education, 16 (3), September. pp. 241–255.
- Multi-Perspective Study of Novice Learners Adopting the Visual Algorithm Simulation Exercise System TRAKLA2. Mikko–Jussi Laakso, Tapio Salakoski, Linda Grandell, Xuemei Qiu, Ari Korhonen, and Lauri Malmi (2005) Informatics in Education, 4 (1), pp. 49–68.
- The Feasibility of Automatic Assessment and Feedback. Mikko–Jussi Laakso, Tapio Salakoski, and Ari Korhonen (2005) In: Proceedings of Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (CELDA 2005). IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology and Japanese Society of Information and Systems in Education. Porto, Portugal, pp. 113–122. December.
The studies indicate that students take very well to the service and prefer this kind of exercises on the web to closed lab assignments in the classroom. Due to the meaningful exercises, students are better committed to courses and course objectives than before. The results reveal that the best learning results are achieved by combining automatically assessed exercises similar to those in ByTheMark service with traditional class room sessions.
A more comprehensive list of studies (more than 50 publications) conducted on Trakla and Trakla2 can be found at the Trakla2 research site.