Computer architecture simulation on the server-side for online evaluation purposes

Abstract

Due to the global COVID19 pandemic, in the last few months there has been a dramatic change in the educational context where lecturers around the world has forced to solve academic problems that immediately before this crisis were completely unthinkable. The online assessment has been the main issue that has generated the most stressful situations (and not only for students, but also for teachers). In this work, we present an exam prototype for Computer Fundamentals modules in high educational levels. This tool essentially consists of variations and combinations of questions mounted on a Web server, and which, being supported by a set of simulators that implements hardware simulators, is able to generate a huge number of different examination proposals on the server–side. On one hand, this prototype simplifies the task of monitoring by the teacher, since the possibility for two students to have similar exams is null, in practise; on the other hand, it significantly reduces the student’s stress, since this tool let them to have a countless number of exam samples previously, that they can practice with. In the 2019/20 academic year, where this tool has been used for the first time, has derived in a clear increase in the percentage of students who have passed the course and a very high degree of satisfaction of students and teachers. They are some of the indicators that remark the advantages of this prototype.