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About Subato

Subato has been under continuous development since 2017. From 2017-2023, the first version of the system was in use, built with the Scala programming language and the Lift framework. The system was built through several undergraduate student projects and the efforts of Prof. Dr. Sven Eric Panitz.

As of April 2022, ~175,000 solutions have been submitted by ~1,100 students on 370 assignments, with 95% of these solutions automatically being reviewed and provided with feedback. The system has been used by 4 instructors in 11 modules of 7 computer science courses for several years and is expected to be used in other computer science related courses in the future.

Since August 2021, the development of the platform has been funded as part of the iLEARN@HSRM project. One of the goals is the expansion of the platform to other departments of the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences in order to be able to teach basic knowledge from computer science through formative assessments in other domains.

The current version is being developed since 2022 under the lead of Björn Fischer. It is based on state-of-the-art technologies (Spring and Angular) and is the foundation for our research on addressing misconceptions in programming education.

So far, test-based methods have been used to generate the feedback. We are currently researching new approaches to automatically generate adaptive feedback to address misconceptions in programming education, which we plan to integrate into the system.

Goals​

The primary goal of the system is to increase the quality of teaching at RheinMain University of Applied Sciences. In the long term, learning outcomes should be increased and the high dropout rate should be reduced. This is achieved by:

  • Minimization of time spent by teachers in organizing, conducting and assessing in practical courses.
  • Automatic generation of individual high-quality feedback that supports students during the completion of programming tasks.

Features​

The main features of Subato are:

  • Organization: The system enables the design of exercises consisting of multiple tasks. Lecturers can store public and hidden test cases (unit tests) for the tasks, which are used for automated feedback and semi-automated assessment.
  • Feedback: Students can submit their solutions, whereby the provided test cases are executed. The test results are displayed to the students as feedback. In addition, students can view the public test cases and test their solution on their own.
  • Evaluation: Lecturers can view, annotate and evaluate the solutions. In this process, they can use the test results to free up more time for individual student support.
  • Attendance tracking: In some courses taught in the computer science programs at RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, attendance is mandatory for students and can be tracked by the system.

About the name​

Subato was originally meant to be called Subito. It was meant to express that you get direct feedback. The name was also supposed to include submitto Web or something like that. But there are already different pieces of software called subito. When we were on holiday in Italy, we liked to listen to Radio Subasio and so Subito simply became Subato. The URL subato.org was also still free. But Subato is not just a made-up word that came about by chance; it also has a meaning in Latin
-- Prof. Dr. Sven Eric Panitz