PlutoGrader.jl: a tool to write and automatically grade exams as Pluto notebooks.
12-01, 16:45–17:15 (Europe/Amsterdam), Ernst-Curie

This talk introduces PlutoGrader.jl, a library that allows teachers to write programming exercises as pluto notebooks, automatically strip the solution to get a text-sheet to give to students and automatically (totally or partially, depending on the teacher need) grade students solutions. The talk will demonstrate the key features of PlutoGrader.jl, example usage and its design principles, focusing on how Pluto reactivity and features allowed to enhance PlutoGrader.jl functionalities and user-friendliness.


PlutoGrader.jl is inspired by nbgrader and its mission is to make grading of exercises as painless as possible for teachers. PlutoGrader.jl philosophy is based on the following workflow

  • write exercise sheets as Pluto notebook, including model solutions and tests to grade the exercise
  • automatically strip the model solution, getting a version ready to be distributed to the students.
  • Thanks to Pluto reactivity, students get immediate feedback on their solution while working on it
  • Once the students submit their solution, PlutoGrader.jl will automatically grade the exercises, but teachers will be able to adjust the grading and give additional feedback. Feedback and grades are persistently stored in the notebook, allowing teachers to redistributed the graded assignment with feedback back to students.

The talk will showcase the above mentioned workflow, highlighting the features and usage of PlutoGrader.jl. Leveraged new features of Pluto.jl which made the library possible, such as cells metadata, will also be discussed. Finally, the talk will also give an overview of future directions and goals of PlutoGrader.jl

Luca Ferranti is a PhD student in computer science, passionate about open-science, open-source and open education. His research interests lie in fuzzy logic, computer algebra and scientific computing. He has been using Julia, both professionally and for hobbies, for a few years and is always enthusiast about Julia and Julia community. He is also the main organizer of the Julia Users Helsinki meetups and member of the Nordic association of Research Software Engineers.