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Codio Basics: Student Support

Jason Carroll Updated by Jason Carroll

What is Codio? 

Codio serves as an invaluable tool for streamlining grading tasks in computer science courses. It seamlessly integrates into Canvas LMS course pages, providing students with a user-friendly platform for interactive coding assignments that facilitators can easily grade. With Codio, instructors can efficiently provide feedback and access student performance data within the Canvas LMS environment.

Codio offers automated and manual grading, while still allowing instructors the flexibility to provide manual feedback and scoring based on predefined rubrics. Additionally, the platform supports the inclusion of ungraded demo exercises, enabling comprehensive evaluation.

Codio Basics: Dashboards 

The dashboard is the main page students and instructors use to navigate Codio. You can view the dashboard by navigating to any assignment page in the Canvas course.

Teacher view

When you visit the page, in the main pane, the assignment overview will appear, containing a full list of assignments

Clicking an assignment name will open the student list

Student View in Canvas

In Canvas LMS, you can utilize Student View to see your course exactly as your students do. This is invaluable for ensuring that course materials, activities, quizzes, and other content are displayed correctly. It provides first hand insight into the student experience, making it particularly useful for reviewing Codio assignments from their perspective.

To see the page from a test student's perspective, simply click on the Student View button in the upper right of the Canvas page.

Student Coding Errors vs System Error

90-second triage 

  1. Re-run the tests
  1. Restart the workspace/kernel (Codio menu → Restart) and re-run tests.
  1. Cross-check another student (if the same assignment).

Likely a Student Coding Error (send to CF after basic guidance)

You see one or more of:

  • Tests/Autograder shows “expected X, got Y” or “error in…” with a line/file from the student’s code.
  • Syntax/compile errors (e.g., “SyntaxError”, “NameError: variable not defined,” “TypeError: …”).
  • Runtime tracebacks referencing the student’s files (e.g., funcs.py, main.py) and a specific line number.
  • Re-running tests produce the same failure with no timeout language.
  • Only this student is affected; others pass or you can pass with Test Student.

Likely a System/Platform Error

You see one or more of:

  • Workspace won’t open / VM won’t start,or failed to load.
  • Kernel won’t start / keeps dying across multiple assignments or students.
  • 401/404/permission or linking errors (student can’t launch from Canvas; multiple reports).
  • Autograder queue/timeouts (“grader timeout”)
  • “LTI Integration Error”,”Error: Course or assignment not found.”
  • Multiple students report the same error in the same timeframe, and/or your Test Student reproduces it.

Complete/Incomplete

How Students Mark Complete

In every Codio unit, regardless of whether an exercise or assignment is autograded or manually graded, students are required to mark the assignment as 'Completed' after finishing. They can do this by selecting “Mark as Completed” from the Education menu in Codio. This step is crucial for tracking their progress through the material.

Once the student marks the assignment as Completed, a checkbox will appear on the left side of the main Codio window in the Codio Teacher view :

Marking an assignment as Incomplete

In some situations you may need to reverse a submitted assignment back to Incomplete status. This may be necessary if a student reports they saved their work but discovered it was processed as a submission, or if they simply report they never marked the assignment as complete but it still shows as submitted. 

You can mark an assignment as incomplete in the Codio teacher view by navigating to the assignment in Overview, clicking the three-dots icon in the Actions column, and clicking ‘Mark as incomplete’. After this step, the student can go back into the Codio, complete the work, and mark it as completed from the top tab in the Codio window.

Note: Some courses allow the student to mark their own assignment as “Uncomplete” so they may work on the assignment and resubmit.

How to Check Grades and Date of Submission

To see when a student marks an assignment as complete:1. Navigate to the assignment in Overview mode, then click the Assessment name.

  1. Locate the student name, then click the icon in the Grade column to open the dialogue box. 
  2. The completed date/time will appear in the upper left area of the grade dialog box.

Manually Graded vs Autograded

Manually Graded exercises

Manually graded exercises are scored by a facilitator, not the autograder—when the task requires facilitator review (e.g., open-ended code, explanations, etc). Students still mark the unit as Completed in Codio so it shows up for grading, but the facilitator opens the submission in Teacher view → Grading, applies a rubric (and any overall comments), and submits the grade, which then syncs back to Canvas like an autograded score. If a student needs to revise, staff can flip Completed → Incomplete to reopen access, then regrade.

Manually graded assignments will include a note above the Codio window:

In the following screenshot, note the icon in the Grade column. This indicates a student submission is ready for manual grading:

Autograded exercises

In certain courses, student code exercises are auto-graded by Codio’s autograders, which automatically provide feedback and assign a score based on points or percentage. These scores are then transferred to Canvas.

NOTE: It's important for students to mark their units as 'Completed' in Codio for their grades to be recorded in the Canvas course.

In the following example, the student follows instructions to write/modify code in the cells of a Jupyter Notebook embedded in Codio; They click Education > Mark as Completed.  The student’s response is autograded in Codio:

Notice that one student submitted an autograded assignment. The grade automatically appears in the Grade column:

Resetting a Student Assignment

Resetting a student assignment in Codio may be required to enhance the learning experience and ensure students fully understand the course material. This is especially useful if something has to be changed on the back end, not by the facilitator, or if a student makes a mistake in an assignment.

WARNING: This action will erase any progress the student has made so far. Before opting to reset, it's advisable to explore alternative methods for addressing the issue that necessitated the reset. 

To reset an assignment for a particular student, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to your course, select the Overview tab in the vertical navigation column, and then choose the specific assignment.
  2. Locate the student in question and click on the three dots located to the right of their name (Actions column).
  3. Select the Reset option.
  4. A prompt will appear for a confirmation code. Enter this code, then click 'Yes' to finalize the reset.

Using the Codio Test Student Account in Canvas Student View

The eCornell Canvas LMS setup includes an integration with Codio. When accessing a Canvas page containing a Codio assignment and entering Student View, Canvas automatically switches to a Codio test student account. This integration aims to provide instructors with a seamless experience for testing and interacting with Codio assignments within the Canvas environment. It offers a realistic perspective of what students encounter when accessing Codio assignments through Canvas. This feature is particularly beneficial for identifying any potential issues or challenges students may face, such as navigation difficulties, content clarity, or technical glitches.

Tip: You can reset the 'Test Student' user in Codio using the 'Reset Student' process (see above). You can also use the Canvas native 'Reset Student' button; however, note that this will redirect you to the course Home page.

How did we do?

eC Facilitator Guide to Codio

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