Research Field: Software Engineering

Apollon is an online modeling editor written in React. It offers an easy to use and lightweight experience to learn UML and other notations in an interactive environment. It runs as standalone version on https://apollon.ase.in.tum.de offering a collaborative modeling experience without accounts. It is also integrated into Artemis to enable modeling exercises. Students create models, tutors assess those models and provide feedback which students can then see in order to improve their modeling skills.

Programming exercises in Artemis can be realized with Bitbucket/Bamboo, Gitlab/Jenkins, GitlabCI or LocalVCS/CI. This allows flexibility for Artemis admins. LocalVCS/CI provides an easy setup for developers and for universities to try out Artemis. However, not all functionality for programming exercises is available on all combinations of version control and continuous integration subsystems In this thesis, the missing features should be implemented. In addition, the concept of build agents and dockerized builds should be realized within LocalCI.

Artemis supports any programming language for programming exercises. Currently, it includes templates for many popular languages, however templates for a couple of languages is still missing. In this thesis, new templates for programming exercises will be developed and tested with the Bitbucket/Bamboo and Gitlab/Jenkins and LocalVCS/CI. In addition, static code analysis should be integrated into more programming exercise templates. Artemis is open source and available on https://github.com/ls1intum/Artemis

Artemis is an interactive learning platform used across multiple universities. One of its key features is support for exercise assessment through its web client. However, the web client’s usability on portable devices, such as iPads, is suboptimal. This limitation poses a challenge for tutors in providing prompt feedback to students, ultimately hindering their learning process. To address this issue, the development of Themis, a dedicated iPad app, was initiated, and a prototype focusing on the assessment of programming exercises was developed.

With the high prevalence of mobile devices among students, a significant need exists to adapt and optimize the web-based Unified Modeling Language (UML) modeling tool, Apollon, for mobile devices. Artemis, a learning platform integrating Apollon, has multiple related iOS apps also seeking an Apollon integration. This thesis aims to bridge this usability gap, making UML modeling more efficient and user-friendly within the Artemis app ecosystem. The objectives include developing a Swift package for Apollon, integrating it into Themis for efficient feedback and grading, and incorporating it into Artemis for iOS to allow students to model from their mobile devices.

Artemis has made significant strides in facilitating interactive learning experiences for students. However, its user experience (UX) remains in need of refinement. It exhibits minor inconsistencies, logical inaccuracies, and layout issues in several views. Since instructors have access to more extensive and complex features, these problems occur more frequently here as well. This bachelor’s thesis aims to address this issue by identifying and eliminating disparities and implementing key UX improvements, ultimately leading to a more effective and enjoyable educational environment.

Research suggests that learning paths might positively impact students’ academic success. Artemis also recently introduced learning paths, however, they are rarely used due to the creation process being time-consuming and having poor usability. In this thesis, we will add improvements to the creation and import processes of competencies, which are the basis for learning paths. To achieve this, we will conduct user interviews with instructors, identifying the changes providing the largest benefit and implementing those.

The number of computer science students is rising significantly each semester. To meet the demand for prompt and effective feedback, particularly in programming tasks, it is essential to enhance Athena, a platform for (semi-)automated text and programming assessments, to facilitate a higher volume of (semi-)automated feedback. This thesis aims to develop and integrate two new modules into Athena, evaluating them based on resource consumption, including computational capacity and memory usage, and the relevance of their feedback to specific programming tasks.

This thesis contributes to the enhancement of the Team Allocator for Software Engineering courses, an open-source tool for forming student teams. The focus is on optimizing data import and export functionalities, refining the matching algorithm, improving the user interface and experience, and implementing a serverside component to enable synchronous multi-user collaboration. The methodology employed is agile development with 2-3 week product increments, allowing for regular testing and release cycles. The main contribution of this work lies in providing significant upgrades to the TEASE project, enhancing its usability and efficiency in project-based educational settings.

Abstract TBA

This thesis proposal addresses communication challenges in Artemis. The aim is to enhance Artemis by introducing a refined communication module. The identified problems include duplication in communication sections, ab- sence of document-sharing, and limitations in threaded conversations. Moti- vated by the need for a robust communication platform, this thesis proposal suggests improvements guided by Nielsen’s Heuristics. Key objectives involve a unified messaging system, enhanced message thread functionality, collabo- rative document sharing, and improved UI design.

Getting an overview of different REST calls and the respective endpoints of large software systems is a tedious and error-prone task, as there are many endpoints, and the generation of URIs is often profoundly nested. Faulty endpoints may lead to decreased usability of a system. Manually analyzing the client- and server-sided authorization steps is equally tedious, as it happens in many places. Faulty authorization may have severe consequences. This thesis describes the development of a GitHub action analyzing client-sided REST calls and the respective server-sided REST endpoints, the used URLs, and the client- and server-sided authorization.

The rapid evolution of information and communication technologies led to widespread adoption of E-learning systems, particularly during the pandemic when traditional in-person education was not possible. This shift underlined the importance of diverse learning rhythms and paces among students, a challenge particularly in larger classes. To address this, Artemis, an open-source interactive learning platform, introduced learning paths tailored to individual learner goals and capacities. However, despite the functionality of learning paths, Artemis currently lacks an intuitive user interface, hindering the adoption and usability of the feature.