Providing Automated Feedback on Software Design for Novice Designers

Abstract: In this paper we describe the design and implementation of a pedagogical feedback agent, designed to provide on-demand feedback on software design. The implemented feedback agent was integrated with an online UML editor, and novice designers can design UML class diagrams within this environment and request formative feedback from the feedback agent. Tool evaluations were conducted with the purpose of improving the system and as way to observe how users respond to the provided feedback. Results from this research are encouraging and most of the evaluation participants found the automated feedback on design to be helpful.