Development of a software on distance education applications for compilation and plagiarism detection of C programming language assignments

In this study, a module for compilation and plagiarism detection of C programming language assignments on Moodle distance education software for Çukurova University Department of Computer Engineering was developed. Rapid improvement of information technology has caused the distance learning types to vary and it has enabled the internet based distance learning to be popular.This study uses Moodle, which has an utmost position to meet the information needs of students in distance learning programs and on virtual class which provides the participants with the information sources converted onto electronic format. In this study we have developed a software for Modle system that compiles and runs C programming assignments that are loaded to the Moodle system of our department. To compile and run C programming assignments, GCC compiler was employed. In this study, a module was included into the Moodle system to increase effectiveness of grading programming assignments, since programming assignments are important in Computer Engineering education. In addition to including online C compiler, we have developed a new plagiarism detection algorithm for determining similarities between the programming assignments that are submitted by the students. Our source code plagiarism algorithm is in fact a hybrid algorithm which employs Greedy String Tiling algorithm similar to JPlag source code plagiarism software and computes word similarity, source line similarity, and comment line similarity similar to CodeMatch plagiarism detection software. The experimental analysis made over the real programming assignments of our Computer Engineering Department showed that our hybrid system is successful in detecting source code similarities for C programming language assignments.