Studying the Impact of Auto-Graders Giving Immediate Feedback in Programming Assignments

Immediate feedback from auto-graders positively impacts students' grades and self-efficacy in introductory programming courses. However, recent research has observed that students are not likely to develop testing skills since they over-rely on the feedback from the auto-grader. Therefore, in this paper, we designed and conducted an empirical investigation to study the impact of using immediate feedback on students' ability to write correct programs and test them. The results indicate that while students use immediate feedback from an auto-grader, it does not dissuade them from attaining independent testing skills. Moreover, the feedback helps students, especially underrepresented groups (e.g., women), learn more effectively and gain confidence.