CODECHUM: AN ONLINE LEARNING AND MONITORING PLATFORM FOR C PROGRAMMING Jemar Jude A. Maranga, Leilla Keith J. Matugas, Jorge Frederick W. Lim and Cherry Lyn C. Sta. Romana Cebu Institute of Technology- University, Philippines ABSTRACT Teaching an introductory programming course to an average of 40 students while monitoring their performance can be a challenge for instructors. Preparing coding exercises with test cases and checking students’ programs can prove to be time consuming at times. Moreover, programming has been known to be quite difficult for students to learn. To address these concerns, a web-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for C Programming called CodeChum was developed. CodeChum provides instructors with an easier way of creating programming exercises, an automated way of checking student codes and a dashboard for monitoring students’ performance. CodeChum allows students to apply their skills using problem stories attached to learning outcomes, test their solutions, get instant feedback and monitor their current status through a leaderboard system. CodeChum was tested within a span of two months on 120 undergraduate students taking up introductory programming courses and 6 programming instructors from Cebu Institute of Technology- University. A usability and feedback survey for students and instructors was conducted getting inputs of their experience while using the IDE. Results of the survey show that the system was well received both by students and instructors. Moreover, with the continued use of CodeChum, data can be gathered that can be used towards learning analytics. KEYWORDS Online Monitoring and Learning Software, Web-based Tool for Teacher Support, Student Assessment 1. INTRODUCTION In this fast paced world of emerging technologies, it has become an undeniable fact that the Information Technology industry is already rapidly growing and does not intend to stop. Because of this, a lot of jobs in relation to the field have started to emerge and the demand for people with the necessary skill set in both hardware and software engineering is becoming significantly high. In fact, startups and big companies alike are looking for creative, innovative developers and software engineers to design and refine computer programs. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is an expected growth of more than 17% with regards to the demand for software engineers by 2022 – an increase far faster than average, giving a median salary of $102,280.00 (Lopaze, 2018). In the Philippines alone, IT related programs have emerged as one of the top 10 degree programs students took with 398,765 students enrolled, making it the fourth most popular career path for incoming college students in the Philippines (Enriquez, 2018). However, although the demand both by recruiters and aspiring professionals seem to be high, the problem with incompetent graduates still arise. A study done last 2017 showed that over 50% of college students under Information Technology courses in the Philippines deemed incompetent and lacked programming skills that could pass for international standards (Suarez, 2017). Another survey showed that an extensive amount of data on perceived difficulties were related to programming concepts and program construction (Ala-Mutka, et.al, 2005). With this in mind, a solution that could help programming instructors monitor a student’s performance, an easier way to create programming exercises, automate checking for outcome based problems and monitor the student's performance relative to his/her peers through a web-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) called CodeChum was developed. CodeChum would also allow students to better understand the applications of each problem relative to its learning outcome through producing problem stories that would stress the practical applications of the said outcome. In general, CodeChum aims to International Conference Educational Technologies 2019 109